When is it going to get warmer? Last month I was hailing the arrival of May but we don’t seem to have had any ‘May’ weather, we just seem to have had March winds and April showers. I don’t think we have ever been so late turning out the cattle to summer grazing. It is not a nice sight to see the cows and their little calves running for shelter out of the wind and rain. In March we thought we would have feed to spare and we would not need to make as much silage and hay this year. But all that has changed! Last summer, like most others we made a lot of winter feed but there is an old saying ‘a lot got, a lot wanted’. How true!

Mary and I had a day away to visit North Sheep near Cockermouth. Lots of other farmers were visiting from all 4 corners of the British Isles. On view were many sheep breeds, markets from Scotland to Wales, feed businesses, all kinds of digital equipment. In fact anything to do with sheep. We attended a seminar considering the future of the sheep industry. They did not make me feel any better, just gave reasons why lambs were £25 ahead less than last year. These included the strong pound, influx of New Zealand lamb due to the drought over there, the ban on exports to Russia, the recession in France and Italy etc,etc.not to mention my usual groan about the supermarkets. All things completely out of our control. It was heartening to see so many young people there, or is it as you get older every on looks young!

By the time you read this I hope we have made the first cut of silage, later than usual because of the aforementioned weather. This also applies to the fruit. Despite losing some early strawberries due to frost, there is plenty of flower on the later ones, so prospects seem good. As I look out now I see blue sky and sunshine. Let’s hope it heralds a spell of better, more seasonal weather.