You only realise the rain chutes on the shed are blocked when it’s pouring rain. Not being in the Bord Bia Quality Assured (QA) scheme only matters when you send cattle to the factory.

These and a few other obvious home truths dawned on me this week.

Nobody needs me to tell them how bad the rain has been over the past few weeks. Every place is saturated and combined with the clocks going back and it being dark now at 5pm, farm morale is fairly low.

The only saving grace was the feed barriers and gates going on the new shed and it now being ready to house cattle. It was a joy to see the man who fitted them in action when he was drilling, welding, and generally being an engineer on the day he called.

I was inspired and if I’m good between now and then, Santy might bring me a welder. There are several jobs I could do with it around the yard. And as the saying goes, “there is pleasure in making a thing”.

The weather and the animals themselves will have the final say on that plan

There might also be some money to be saved in making that thing yourself.

I have the next four animals picked out for finishing now and they are on 2kg/day of a high-maize nut mixed with rolled barley. I’ll up it to 3-4kg in the coming weeks once they get the taste for it.

They’ll go to the mart before Christmas. It will be interesting to see how they weigh compared to the first six that went, who got no meal at all before slaughter. They graded mostly O= and 3= but more on that in the next dispatch.

On a better note, the weanlings are still out and will be for at least another two weeks, despite the biblical downpours. They are currently in what we call the “far-off cnoic” (pronounced “knock”) and while under-hoof might be soft out there, it is very sheltered and far-removed from the rest of the world.

As a result, they are the happiest animals in the place. Having said that, the store cattle are very content too in the shed. Perhaps it is only the farmer himself who has a face on him these days.

As sure as night follows day, the rain pours down and the Irish beef-processing structure hands out a lesson to another farmer

The weanlings have two more paddocks to go before they face into the fodder rape.

At the moment, I’m aiming to house the smallest half-dozen on straw in the new shed while the rest will hopefully remain out on the rape until New Year’s Day is in the rear-view mirror. But the weather and the animals themselves will have the final say on that plan.

So, the first winter routine has set in. The evenings are bet but the mornings will be bright for another while at least. As sure as night follows day, the rain pours down and the Irish beef-processing structure hands out a lesson to another farmer.

Thank goodness we’re only six weeks away from the shortest day, when thoughts can slowly turn to the new year and brighter days again.