I had an old friend, a suckler and sheep farmer, tell me over the weekend that he’s “at the stage” he’s “going getting into the cows”.

I was a bit surprised that the farmer, a man closer to retirement than your average entrant, was embarking on a career in dairying.

However, it didn’t go too long before he clarified that it’ll be goodbye to his ewes and sucklers to make way for his dairy neighbours to come renting his land. And that he’d be taking it easy. Getting into the cows indeed.