I recall watching a reality TV show about 20 years ago called The Apprentice, but it appears we’re all dealing with the consequences now as that show transitioned from entertainment to real life.

With the host of that show now toying with global oil prices, we’re all feeling the pinch.

The pendulum of public opinion was busy for the duration of last week’s protests, initial sympathy and broad support may have wavered when it moved to ports and the refinery in Whitegate and fuel pumps went out of action.

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The ‘send in the army’ threat changed the mood again and proved a major trip up for Government. In a way it confirmed a “them and us” divide. I’m sure we’ll hear enough of it in the run-in to the by-elections that are due to take place next month in two constituencies that were focal points over the past week, Dublin central and Galway west.

Consumers of large volumes of fuel are under major pressure now but this cost-of-living crisis has been brewing for some time.

For well over a year, if not a few more, it’s felt like €50 is the new €20. I was chatting to a farmer recently who said he recalled doing building work back in 2019 and being concerned that concrete was moving to €90/m³ at the time. It’s beyond €140/m³ in most instances now and it’s only one of many examples of where costs have gone.

Trying to adapt to those changes in input costs of all sorts isn’t easy. I’m dealing with a short-term inconvenience as a consequence of adapting to said cost increases at the moment.

A decision was made to plant arable silage as a way to get a reseed done along with bulking up silage stocks. Those few acres were ploughed last week, but the prevailing weather conditions mean they would have been handy over the weekend, but that’s the benefit of hindsight.

The home farm would be dry enough for the most part and the cows spent the weekend in the driest fields, but ground around the sheltered ditches was chopped up – that’s where they went for get some respite from the driving wind.

Location-wise the field that was ploughed would have been the best place for them from a shelter perspective. All will get back on track again, hopefully.

It’s grin and bear it for the rest of the week now though, as the rain continues and hopefully the weather will improve after that.

A quick check of the data from the nearest weather station on Sherkin Island shows that they recorded 1,098mm of rain from the start of September to last Monday. That’s more than the 1,092mm that fell for the entire year in 2024.

There hasn’t been a stir on the calving front with two weeks and given how the weather has been, that’s not the worst thing in the world.

Those left to calve along with the ones with the youngest calves remain indoors. Some which were out had to be rehoused a week ago, as ground conditions were deteriorating and I had to reassess my plans of keeping all calves out.

It’s awkward more than anything, but it’s the first year where I’ve had so little slurry or fertiliser out with a good bit of ground having got nothing yet, as it was too wet. Over half the block at the village and none of the outside ground have got slurry so far and May is around the corner.

While I know there are parts of the country where that work wouldn’t normally be happening anyway, in these parts it’s late, but we have no control over it.