I have had my present Keenan diet feeder for around 15 years. It has been incredibly reliable, we do the minimal amount of servicing needed ourselves, especially keeping it greased and the driving chains at the proper tension.

The occasional link has needed replacement and this year we’re mixing hay with the diet, having made so much during the summer, so we replaced all the heavy-duty knives on the floor of the machine to get as fine a chop as quickly as we can.

I was sorry to see the long-established Keenan family exit the Irish farm machinery business but they have left an indelible mark.

One of the few potential problems that can arise with the paddle-type machine is jamming if a big lump of straw gets wedged in between the rotating paddle and the steel wall, it happens only very occasionally and this weekend was one of those occasions, the straw jammed the rotating paddles and everything shuddered to a potentially expensive halt.

When we looked at everything carefully we found that the only damage done was a broken shear bolt in the power take-off; it did precisely the job it was designed to do, an inexpensive bolt broke to prevent real damage.

After a bit of greasy work taking out the shaft and putting in a new bolt, we were back in business.

A lesson learned. If we had put in a convenient steel bolt that wouldn’t have broken so easily we could have been in real trouble.

Meanwhile, out on the land with the recent frost I was surprised to see the first of the season’s pigeons grazing the oilseed rape, the crop is so forward that I thought they would have difficulty in finding a landing place but in truth, grazing is what the crop needs to an extent so we will leave them alone for the moment and monitor them.

We used to have Italian tourists over to shoot pigeons but that trade seems to have dried up.

This week we started drawing the first load of cattle for the factory.

The increase in beef prices has persuaded us to feed a bit more heavily than usual, the increase in concentrates will also help to stretch out the silage, but this year bears out the maxim that no two years in the cattle business are the same!