It is now the middle of October and any dry days are a bonus, writes NFU Cymru Montgomeryshire Chairman Hugh Besent.

Our milking cows are housed at night and out grazing by day, weather permitting.

By now we have only about 30 cows left to calve. These cows are kept outside for hygiene and welfare reasons, but they usually also like to find a cosy corner under a tree or in a corner of a field to calve.

Being close to the autumn equinox, the tides in the estuary are at their extremes; with a new moon, we get the highest tides but conversely also the lowest.

We all hope that a high tide does not occur when a depression approaches from the south west. This can increase the water levels by several feet, battering already poorly maintained river defences and in turn can pose a flooding threat to low-lying properties.

The Prime Minister’s date for sorting Brexit has passed, with no agreement with the EU.

It seems as though marine fishing is the big stumbling block, as well as government subsidies to UK industry and manufacturing.

As is quite normal with EU negotiations, things go down to the wire, but let’s hope the politicians can get sorted sooner rather than later.

The Agriculture Bill is going through parliament and Welsh Conservative MPs declined to back an amendment that would have created a requirement on government to ensure that agricultural and food imports meet domestic standards, including a requirement that no trade agreements can be ratified unless a government minister confirms that imports will meet or exceed relevant domestic standards.

However, the bill is now back in the House of Lords, where we hope a new amendment can be tabled and that the government will be more forthcoming on this issue when the bill finally returns to the House of Commons.