Over the past couple of months, I’ve been accepting any type of silver lining there could possibly be as a result of the appalling weather.

At one point it was the fact that it mainly seemed to rain during the night, meaning that it was at least dry overhead during the day whilst we were paddling around in knee-high mud.

Another positive was being able to identify countless areas in which we’ve obviously got broken or blocked field drains and record them on What3words.

See also: How manure can increase soil oxygen and nitrogen use efficiency

About the author

Billy Lewis

Billy Lewis farms 140ha in North Herefordshire in partnership with his parents. They keep Hereford cattle, sheep and grow combinable crops. He also contract farms an additional 110ha. Cropping includes wheat, oats and spring beans.

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This was in the hope that at some point before the autumn I might find a bit of time to have a dig about. Drainage is a subject that has been nudged to the forefront of most farmers’ minds recently – certainly mine, anyway.  

The silver lining I’m currently enjoying is the larger-than-normal amount of farmyard manure I’ve got at my disposal this year, due to the disappointingly long housing period the cattle and us are having to endure.

Every year I aim to transform all of our muck into compost. The trusty old Morawetz turner has got its work cut out this summer.

As well as a much-improved product to spread back onto the land, the whole process also stacks up economically.

I’m able to reduce the volume of material we have to spread by about 50% through the composting process, which helps reduce transport costs.

We do a compost for straw swap with a farm that I contract manage. Lugging vast quantities of farmyard manure over there would be rather monotonous. Delivering compost, however, is a much more rewarding activity.

This spring, I have added woodchip and cider apple cleanings to the farmyard manure, resulting in a beautiful end product. The worms will be singing my praises.

My final silver lining for now is the fact that we will have ample time to spread a good quantity of it onto land ahead of planting summer cover crops (where we should have had spring beans).

This can be done at our own leisure during what is a slightly quieter time of the year, helping to reduce the harvest time workload a little bit.