We have mended the combine, drills, cultivators, trailers, gutters. The bull beef have been mucked out twice, injected, checked and double checked.

The men have all had their holidays and all the sheds are clean.

I have been to meetings about irrigation, sugar beet, selling grain and looking after hedgerows and now have enough NRoSO points to last a lifetime.

Yet still it rains or snows or drizzles or sleets while I look at unploughed land that would normally have been turned over well before now.

Before I slipped into complete despair the window cleaner turned up and it occurred to me that some people do have worse jobs. Up a ladder with a fresh north-easterly blowing in your ear with your hands in a bucket of water cannot be much fun.

Suitably consoled by having found someone worse off I went for a paddle around the farm, and though things haven’t changed much in the fields at least the puddles are no bigger.

Then the contractor rang to come and harvest the last of the sugar beet. We had put this off in the hope of a dry spell. But with the factory about to close and with rain not falling just then, the timing was as good as it was going to get. But it wasn’t going to tick many boxes on the Soil Management Plan.

I’ve been entertained by the bankers being quizzed about bonuses by MPs who consider it is “not wrong” to claim expenses on second homes they do not need.

I also learned that my spray operator has better qualifications to apply chemicals than a banker has to look after money.

Closer to home it is clear that those who set the rules for our business seldom have any relevant qualifications either.