The rain over the last week or so has transformed the crops, but the effect on the grass has been much more limited, probably because not enough fell and recovery after grazing is very slow. We have just finished the first-cut silage and while we have nitrogen out for an early July cut on land that we grazed, I am prepared to sacrifice the crop of silage if we run out of grass for grazing.

There is little more we can do with the crops at this stage – they have got their nitrogen and apart from the wheat, their final sprays. This year, for the first time, we used a high clearance sprayer on the oilseed rape to try and limit the damage done in every tramline as the crop gets taller.

High clearance sprayer.

I expect it to come fully into its own when it’s time to desiccate pre-harvest. The sprayer we hired from a neighbour was 24 metres wide, while our own sprayer is just 18 metres. I thought that this difference in boom width would make it impossible, but the modern technology, coupled with the GPS system, meant that the potential overlap was automatically avoided each time.

The autumn-sown oats are also heading out – this together with the beans is the crop I am most concerned about

The vivid yellow of a few weeks ago has gone, replaced by the dull green early pods. There seems to be lots of them, but it is a long time between now and mid-August when I would expect to harvest the crop.

The autumn-sown oats are also heading out – this together with the beans is the crop I am most concerned about if we get a prolonged hot spell.

The February-sown oats and wheat have been by far the most vulnerable all season

It was a disaster in 2018 for both crops when we had intense heat and lack of rain, whereas the winter wheat, winter barley and oilseed rape that year were all fine. The February-sown oats and wheat have been by far the most vulnerable all season, the rain has helped hugely but they are still not going to be breaking any records.

My main concern is around the dairy-bred steers. We are weighing them regularly and now, as they are coming near slaughter weight, the conformation and finish is below what I would like. At this stage, it seems that they are putting on about half the liveweight gain of the continual bulls and less if you make allowance for the difference in kill-out. I am unclear whether we can build an economical system around this type of stock. We will keep measuring for the moment.