My Farming Week: The beef industry remains in a sea of uncertainty

As I write, the wind is howling a gale outside and the rain is pelting off the roof and windows of the house. I came in from the farmyard early, having finished my jobs, because there was no point in wading through the floods in the yard any longer.

And as for the fields, well, all I saw were pools of water gathering in any hollow. Ah well! It is that time of year after all.

Now, on inspection, I must say that the recently sown winter crops are looking very good. To date, these have not been subjected to any extremes of weather conditions or temperatures -- a factor which is of considerable benefit.

The results of soil samples taken in these fields are now available and this will probably mark my last discussion with Ned, my-soon-to-be ex-Teagasc advisor.

I will be very sorry to lose Ned, since I have always valued his advice and he was always at the other end of a phone whenever the need arose. And, certainly, in recent weeks -- in our efforts to clear up the SFP issue -- we have been in very regular contact by phone.

However, the recent 'rationalisation' (for want of a better word) of Teagasc has meant that I am now to be allotted a different advisor. The extraordinary thing is that Cyril, my new advisor, was my first Teagasc advisor -- or ACOT, as it was then. This was back in the years before I left Dowth at the northern end of Co Meath to move here to the southern end of the county.

I'm delighted to find myself working with Cyril again, but distance may prove to be something of a disadvantage.