What a difference a few dry days make at this time of the year. The fact that they were delayed for so long made them all the more appreciated.

For the first time since late last November we have cattle out night and day. Those near finishing are still in, and they clearly feel victimised as they see their younger comrades tuck into the spring grass.

The lateness of the turnout is best measured by the maturity of the sward, with the earliest species in the old swards just on the point of heading out.

I am always concerned at this time of the year that the grass will get ahead of us and get too strong to give maximum weight gain. We are only now getting the last of the silage ground fertilised.

Allowing for two units of nitrogen to be utilised per day means a slight reduction in application rate if we want to cut around the target date of 1 June – give or take – depending on weather conditions at cutting time.

Regardless of closing up-date, after the end of May, grass quality begins to deteriorate and animal performance will depend on increasing quantities of concentrate. We need to have the silage as digestible as possible, especially for those cattle we plan to finish early in 2024.

On the tillage side, it has been hectic. We had a crop inspection walk late last week and not surprisingly, after the cold wet weather, rhynchosporium was becoming visible on the winter barley and needed to be controlled.

Rust

We also had the beginning of rust on the winter wheat while, as I write, we are just finished the long-delayed sowing of the spring beans.

They were direct drilled with a machine I had never used before with a slit cut into the soil and the seed sown at about 5cm deep rather than the usual 10cm.

The original intention was to sow in early March, so the hope is that the shallow depth will allow for quicker emergence and at least partly compensate for the lateness.

We are following the sowing with a preemerge herbicide tank mixed with some glyphosate to clear up the vegetation that has grown up over the winter and has given the field an untidy, neglected look.

The theory is that the left over vegetation into which the beans have been sown will make it more difficult for the crows to find the beans and hopefully will do less damage than normal. Just across the ditch, the oilseed rape is a vivid yellow as it approaches full flower.