Staff cuts including some in its senior leadership team will see AHDB reduce its operational costs by £7.8 million.

The shortage of HGV and delivery drivers, estimated to be as many as 100,000 is becoming a major concern.

Thank you Jeremy Clarkson and team for making us smile. A brilliant series – educational, emotional and I’m sure opened the eyes of many viewers to the never boring, extreme multi-tasking and financially unstable world of farming.

We have been keeping busy by topping, striving to mix and match cutting and grazing, hay making, preparing for silage and, as ever, fencing.

Just over 12 months ago former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson lost his wife of 40 years to suicide.

Amy Gouldthorpe, 21, lives on her family’s mixed farm in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. She is studying an agriculture with animal science degree at Harper Adams University.

Pit your skills against a professional livestock judge and be in with the chance of winning £250 plus a £250 ram voucher.

Sheep farmers are being urged to incorporate new actives into worming programmes as part of an initiative to support crucial productivity metrics and help slow the rate of anthelmintic resistance.

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and we celebrated by spending the day worming and weighing the last lot of lambs and tagging the final few calves before heading out for a much anticipated meal at a local pub for the first time in months, where someone else did the dishes.

This time of year is the calm before the inevitable storm of harvest; everything is sown, cows are outside, grass is cut and spraying up to date.