Life on a farm is never quiet. A bit of dry weather and outdoor jobs get done at last - gardening for Eluned. We have never seen the barometer so high, reading 1044mb on Sunday, and so we had a few settled days. Only trouble was, I had to go to Cardiff for the two-day NFU Cymru Welsh Council, leaving sons Dafydd and Trystan to see to the cows.

On Monday we were addressed by the First Minister of Wales, The Right Honourable Mark Drakeford AM, who spoke about the challenges of Brexit, and then took a few questions at the end. What was clear was that he has not given up on bringing in NVZ type regulations. Other issues covered included various aspects of trade, especially the need to get a deal with Europe after the transition period which ends in December.

Global warming and aspects of carbon capture were considered at length with agriculture possibly featuring as a major player in being able to sequestrate even more carbon in grassland. It is hoped that scientists will shortly be able to come up with an accurate method of calculating the amount of carbon ‘locked’ in productive grassland. This could help the farming industry become carbon neutral by 2040 if not even sooner.

Back on the farm, we TB tested last week and were lucky to pass as this was the second test in six months due to outbreaks locally making us contiguous. What a stressful time for affected farmers, with so little help from the authorities in controlling this awful disease in wildlife. Bovine TB was unheard of in this area only a few years ago, but now it seems here to stay. The local vets are TB testing every day of the week except Wednesdays (as it takes two visits three days apart) when they enjoy something a bit different. Our vet came to pregnancy scan our cows for the second time. So far so good – we have enough cows in calf with dairy heifers expected for early September.

By the time this goes to press we will be at the end of January, and spring will be on its way we hope. Our snowdrops are out now as are some of the daffodils. Even the honeybees have been out and about from their hives. If the air temperature is above 10oC they soon come out to forage. Let’s hope we soon hit ‘T200’ so that the first lot of fertiliser can go out on the fields. As of January 22 we are at 172 which is a little ahead of usual. We can but hope that this nice spell lasts for a few more days.