Over the last month or so, several people have suggested to me that I should have more than enough help because I have my three sons at home. They seem to think that I have no work to do.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I am busier now than I have ever been in my forty years of farming.

When I was farming with my father, we were only very small scale, and we always had lots of spare time. Things have changed massively. We have grown the farm to try and make it provide a living for myself and my three sons.

This has meant buying more land and starting a calf rearing enterprise. It has changed the workload massively. There is always a string of jobs building up in front of us.

It used to be that I would try and get some land improvement done regularly. This would usually be some drainage repairs and reseeding. I would try and get a sizeable amount done each year.

However, over this last couple of years that has become nearly impossible. We have so many other jobs to get done and the last few summers have been extremely poor.

Summer 2024

This year has been no better. There have been no good spells of weather.

There have been not much more than a few good days at any one time. We have had to be sitting ready to snatch-and-grab when the chances came along.

After the first cut of silage went in, we were busy with slurry and fertiliser. Then we were trying to get paddocks baled. Then into the second cut and the same cycle again.

Immediately after the second cut we decided to plough and reseed a couple of fields. Again, it was a snatch-and-grab job.

The fields that we were reseeding were alongside the main road for everyone to watch us.

We bought these two fields a few years ago and had every intention of reseeding them before now, but time and weather did not allow us to get it done.

This year we jumped in straight after second cut silage. I am glad we did because there has been no chance since. When we were at it the weather was extremely poor. It was just about dry, but there were several times that a little drizzle started, and we thought we were going to be rained off.

We stuck at it and luckily got the seed in. It has done really well so far.

Cattle have become discontent and the feeding value in grass has dropped.

Third cut

We are now trying to get the third cut gathered up. We have about half of it in, but it has been more snatch-and-grab.

We got some baled last week and then got some farmyard manure on it before the rain came again.

We are now sitting waiting for the next couple of good days to have another go.

There is still the rest of the third cut to get and then more slurry and manure to get out.

The weather has got even worse and ground conditions have gone downhill.

There is still so much groundwork to get done, but very little prospect of getting at it.

Cattle are becoming very discontent and the value in the grass has gone downhill. Autumn is not far away. The summer, such as it was, is long gone.

We had so many things that we wanted to get done during the summer and they are going to have to wait another year.

It has been another snatch- and-grab year.

It was essential to be ready when you got a half chance and jump at it.

It takes a lot of the enjoyment out of farming, but it looks like these kinds of summers are going to be commonplace and we will have to get used to it.