I had planned for a winter of mass drain jetting, but with all the ditches having next to no water in them, that delightful job has been postponed.

The gun has been put away for another year, so I thought I ought to do some “real” management.

When all seems lost and an addled brain is only getting more confused, the only way back to complete clarity is through the machinations of a spreadsheet.

I now have spreadsheets telling me my harvesting costs – which, for the record, are disappointingly high – and whether it will make more sense in future to hire a shiny combine rather than owning a decidedly less shiny one. Or whether I should skip the hassle and employ a contractor to rush about and let them go grey.

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The next spreadsheet concerns rubber. Well, tractor flotation, to be precise. The pressure exerted by the Challenger on the land has been calculated, and this dictates the size of tyre required to keep within the same parameters for a smaller tractor.

The colour of tractor is fairly irrelevant, with the only criteria being a roof hatch, a service manager with a sense of humour and reliability (in that order).

With all this information, I thought the next step would be some internet-based research of models and makes; pros and cons. Having tried to clarify my thoughts earlier, this only served to muddy the waters further.

There is such a vast amount of information and, more dangerously, opinion out there that all my research has brought me back to the point from which I started.

With the current warm and dry weather I am like a cat on a hot tin roof. I am excited about the onset of spring drilling and being busy again, but realistically it is going to be another six weeks before I get started.

Combined with the fact we are sure to pay for this current weather, what are the odds on me being busy drain jetting when I want to be drilling? 

Will Howe farms 384ha of medium to heavy land at Ewerby Thorpe Farm, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire. He mainly grows spring crops and also manages a further 200ha on contract.