In your field

The ongoing saga of footpath signs continues.

It has been a spring to forget for many, with the cold May dragging out winter for what seemed an unbelievable length.

It is the season for maggots, each female green bottle fly can lay 250 eggs in the fleece and they can hatch out after only 12 hours.

June is here and looking like being ‘flaming June’. May’s monsoon conditions provided challenges.

I am writing this on Thursday evening after a day away from the farm spent doing a social media photography course organised by our local machinery ring.

Amy Wilkinson works on her family’s tenanted farm in Lancashire. Working mainly with her dad, Amy farms 285ha of arable crops and 550 beef cross cattle which are all reared through to finishing. You can follow her on Instagram @amygingewilkinson

Mentioning the lack of rain in my last column had the same effect as getting the barbecue out: the rain arrived duly arrived, but unfortunately in rather a deluge.

If I were to go by this year’s weather, April showers would become a myth and be replaced with wet and windy May, or something slightly more catchy.

Finally, the rain has come. We’ve had over a 100mm in a fortnight and the fertiliser we spread last month has kicked in and the grass has responded.

At last, the countryside around us in Aberdeenshire is starting to turn green, with the odd splash of yellow but still lots of brown.