I feel that spring is just around the corner and with it the usual rush of jobs.

Trying to catch whatever weather window opens up to go spraying always brings challenges. Do I go for it and risk making large ruts, which I will have to bounce over for the rest of the year, or do I just sit tight and stay patient?

When should I spread the over-wintered dung on the spring barley ground so as not to make too much of a mess?

When do I make the first application of nitrogen to the grass? If I leave it too late we will have no straw left and the cows will have to go out on to fields resembling an Antiguan cricket field. What a farce that was.

The fertiliser spinner has been put through a test and passed, having had new discs and vanes fitted. It won’t be a very nice experience watching that machine going up and down the fields spinning out pound coins.

But there is a sense of reassurance in that it is doing what it is supposed to – spreading the material evenly and not in the hedge when covering headlands.

With that in mind I’d like to know whether local councils have had to put their salt and grit spreading machines through similar tests for assurance purposes. Having watched some go past the farm I do wonder.

The excess waste must be vast, as half the salt has ended up on the verges and it kills the grass. With the cost of salt doubling, I should have thought there are vast savings to be made.

On the other hand, with the grass on the verges now dead they won’t have to spend most of spring and summer cutting them.

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