The cows have been out for three weeks now. Since the traditional turnout date round here is 5 May, I am sure I have removed all doubts my neighbours had about my sanity.

Until now, we have been blessed with warm, dry weather, but are now suffering a week’s heavy rain.

We have almost too much residual growth left over from the autumn and are anxious to get it off.

The reason there is so much grass is because, over the years, we had accumulated an enormous manure heap and it was pointed out that the regulations state it should not be in the same place for more than one year.

Comply

In order to comply, we covered the whole farm last autumn, earlier than I should have done. This was because the machinery involved nowadays is so heavy.

I was concerned about compaction and needed to get it on before it rained, so the cows had to come in earlier than I wanted.

Now they are out, straight after morning milking, brought in for a midday feed of silage and maize and out after milking for two hours.

At the moment, the farm is run by what I call a camel committee - four people over two generations and no one with a final say (a camel being an animal designed by a committee on a Friday afternoon after coming back from the pub for lunch).

But everyone is loath to push yields down to a level grass only will produce

I keep repeating to the staff and family the quote from a recent week’s Irish Farmers Journal “silage is the enemy of good grass management”.

But everyone is loath to push yields down to a level grass only will produce and there is a preference to get the cows in last thing at night rather than first thing in the morning.

I watched the BBC Panorama programme on the true cost of milk, a well-balanced programme considering the undercover material they had to work with.

At least they gave our side a fair crack of the whip for once.

Main issues

There were three main issues from the consumer point of view.

Firstly, the transportation of a down cow across a concrete yard and fitted with a hip clamp. They should have supported the cow properly when moving it, but in all walks of life, there are good and bad managers.

Secondly, cruelty - there is no place for this in farming.

Thirdly, the cow and calf separation and we were shown a herd where the calves ran with their mothers and the cows were milked once a day, which may have scope for a few smaller herds, but would be a nightmare in larger ones.

Russia

I see Russia has not only turned off the gas supply, but also closed exports of fertiliser till at least April. At this rate, the Russian military have no need to fire a shot, they will just starve us into submission.

At the moment, all eyes in the dairy industry are on the expected opening of the dairy processing facility on the island of Anglesey.