I ran into our bank manager the other day. We compared notes on the state of crops and together wondered if those wheats and barleys drilled during the last few weeks will emerge or if the seeds will die in the soil. We had both seen patchy emergence across East Anglia - we have some on this farm - and were not optimistic. We also wondered how sugar beet factories would be able to keep processing if we don't soon get a rain. There are rumours that, having opened, some of them are having to close again for want of roots to slice.
Then we started talking about money. The banker had been travelling around a great many of his customers at their request to see whether he was able to increase their overdrafts. The price of grain has collapsed and most of them were holding off the market in the hope that they would rise a bit closer to break even levels. Meanwhile they needed an extra buffer at the bank to enable them to pay their bills.
He told me that in most cases he had been able to help, although, like me, he was far from sure that value's would increase as grain growers hoped. But in negotiating with farmers he had been reviewing their budgets for the coming year. He had not, he told me, seen a single one with a positive cash flow forecast at the end of the trading year next autumn. If that doesn't tell you something about the state of the industry I don't know what does.