As this glorious late autumn/early winter continues, we might as well be in dairying (apart from the profitability). Ground conditions are excellent, grass is growing and, right or wrong, we are re-grazing paddocks by day and giving the more forward stores a silage meal mix in the sheds when we bring them in for the evening.

The more backward cattle are mopping up the remaining grass further away from the yard. As long as these conditions continue, we will continue to see how much silage we can save by grazing by day and housing by night.

We are leaving reasonable covers on the paddocks after grazing, so I hope we are not jeopardising spring growth and production. We are in uncharted territory to an extent, and the saving of silage in a relatively tight year for fodder is welcome.

Outside, the crops are a glorious verdant green, though the latest sown crop, the gluten free oats is slower to emerge than I expected given the mild conditions.

Following last year’s problems with the oilseed rape having been sown late and then having gotten waterlogged, we never got the crop in as early as this year.

Growth since the third week in August has been vigorous. With a complete dense cover, we have applied a growth regulator to prevent it growing too tall, and expect that the application will also have some disease preventative action.

The mild dry weather seems tailor-made to encourage the growth of aphids and the potential for serious barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), so not having sown a BYDV resistant variety, we have applied an aphicide.

We will keep our options open as to whether we should apply an unusual second application, and we will take advice as to whether the vigorously growing wheat is at risk.

Lack of water

Another indicator of the unusual dry autumn is the lack of water in some ditches that I have never seen without water at this time of the year.

It really hit me when I looked at a drain and outlet we had tidied up a few years ago. Over the last few years it had continuously gushed fresh clear water.

We had all been convinced that we had tapped into a spring that had caused the soft ground, but now the torrent has been reduced to the occasional drip coming from the pipe.

I had vaguely considered tapping it as a potential source of new water, but hesitated because of the cost of getting piping and electricity to a new pump down the fields.

Given the drying up of what I had considered a guaranteed supply, the idea has been abandoned.