THE sun is shining here today and at long last grass growth is beginning to be seen – silage quality will be interesting, with first cut being a month later than usual. First cut silage should happen in the next two weeks.

I am used to working hard and to life being fairly full on but even by my own standards I look at the next month and wonder how I am going to get through it all – organising Wiltshire’s first County Show for 40 years is proving a challenge.

We have dis-budded the calves, a job I hate more than any other. This year I used a bit more anaesthetic, which paid dividends for us and the calves.

We have also survived our TB test with no|reactors and sold a home-bred Simmental bull. Calving has gone well and, with the help of twins, we have kept the margin of live calf to cow|numbers the same.

The decision to sell the fat bulls as stores was right – the price is currently sitting at 28p less per kilo than this time last year.

I have recently returned from my first trip out of the country in ten years. I went with the South West Livestock board to Spain for two days, part-funded by the Rural Development Programme for England. It was a fascinating trip. We saw a 600-cow beef suckler herd that is yarded all year round, as are their dairy herds. They were on full suckler cow premium, with milk and beef being the same farm gate price as it is here. Farm assurance as we know it is non-existent.

We, also visited a dairy farm with fantastic facilities – robotic milking, slurry removed electronically and even feed pushed back in by a|roving robot.

Despite these fantastic facilities cows were only achieving 2.3 lactations (ten or more are possible). There is enormous investment from the European Union – 75 per cent on buildings with the other 25 per cent on reduced borrowing rates to the farmer from the banks.

Since the trip I do struggle with the concept of commonality across Europe. If you withdrew payments from Spain their agricultural economy would collapse overnight.

However, it makes me realise that ours is a gold-plated product. There is one small problem. With the help of the levy boards and the supermarkets, what in effect has been achieved, is like moving Harrods to Walford, a shop packed with quality items, having to be sold at cut price in order to be affordable to the market available.

I feel more strongly than ever that the National Farmers’ Union is the only organisation that can “right the wrong” here. We have a new government to influence and must do all we can to get the levy boards “working” for the farmer.