Our early potatoes have been hit hard several times with frost and it will probably be the latest we start harvest for many years, even with irrigation and fleece. However, that’s only part of the problem.

The maincrop, planted into perfect seed-beds, has suffered from an initial drop in soil temperature rather than a rise, and is only emerging now.

See also: What exactly is vigour and how can it help you choose the right OSR variety?

Even for those farmers lucky to have avoided the frost, there is the worry that earlies will all be sold and nothing will be ready to replace them, leaving a gap on the local market. 

One advantage of the cold spell has been disease levels in wheat and oats. T2 sprays this week will be the first application of fungicide to either crop, and are still exceptionally clean.

However, recent showers and warmer blinks of sun have produced ideal conditions for disease, so we will apply a good T2 to keep that flag leaf happy in coming days. 

Last applications of liquid N are now complete and I’m sure the neighbours have enjoyed the discovery of a lazy boom section on the sprayer meaning a slight overlap at one end and a miss at the other – liquid is certainly unforgiving in accuracy.

In some ways, the wheat and oats have enjoyed the cool conditions, holding very high yield potential which is promising.

Awns are out on winter barley so it won’t be long until we see its potential, but I think we will need perfect grain filling conditions to hit the farm average 

On the farm shop side, the tearoom has been open three weeks for outdoor dining which has been a nightmare for staff to manage given the unpredictable weather. 

However the government’s over-generous furlough scheme has spoilt a percentage of employees and they seem to think it should be accepted they can sit at home and collect money while the rest are keen to get back to work and feel productive and have a purpose.

I worry this will only add fuel to the councillors and MLA’s pushing for a universal basic income.

As an employer who can’t get people to apply for jobs, (and it’s the same across the board with masses of job vacancies advertised), it’s clear that those worth employing retained their job or continued to work, and those without work don’t want to work.

There will always be some caught in the situation and I feel for them.

But unfortunately too many don’t want to work and seem to think it is an entitlement that hard-working tax payers should provide them with a basic income…