Cranberries, ducks and rice were my wife’s comments when I told her that the land down by the Thames had flooded for the fifth time since December. Along with many other farmers and landowners, I responded to the NFU request to email the head of the Environment Agency with our experiences of flooding.

The reply was their funding is only to protect people and property from flooding and not to fund any work that would only improve land drainage. They will, of course, be happy to help us process the endless paper work that would enable us to clear the streams and ditches that cross our land. My response was until they invest money in removing the silt from the Thames, it would be a pointless exercise as the build up of silt is the cause of the problem.

Dredging the Thames would not only give our streams and ditches an outfall, but would also alleviate flooding in the towns. It seems to me spending millions on fancy flood defences makes it look like they are doing something. Dredging just isn’t sexy.

Just lately I seem to have morphed into Victor Meldrew of grumpy old man fame. I put it down to the frustration of dealing with the challenging weather over the past 12 months. My heart goes out to those struggling with livestock after the latest onslaught of snow. We only had a thin covering which melted quite quickly, but another dose of cold easterlies has played havoc with the struggling crops in particular the oilseed rape.

Everything has had a low dose of nitrogen and sulphur, the spring beans have been drilled and received a pre-emergence herbicide. We made a start on drilling the spring oats during the Easter weekend. Now we are just waiting for some sunshine.

Simon Beddows manages 1,000ha of arable land at Dunsden Green, south Oxfordshire. Cropping is cereals, oilseed rape, beans and forage maize

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