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I am beginning to have sympathy for the endless stories of leaks that were part and parcel of the media coverage of Irish Water when it was the centre of public attention.
I sank our deep well pump in the midst of the driest summer I ever remember – 1984. The well, touch wood, has been incredibly satisfactory since then.
It was easy to notice that a hollow beneath a downpipe was filling up with water
We have replaced the submersible pump a few times in the intervening period and the cylinder with the expandable diaphragm, but not until recently have we had serious leaks underneath the laid concrete.
It was easy to notice that a hollow beneath a downpipe was filling up with water, even in dry weather, and that the light on the pump was coming on too often and staying on too long.
We identified roughly where the leak was coming from, hired a hydraulic jack-hammer and as we tore up the concrete a jet of water escaping through the hydrodare.
Out on the land we still have not an acre ploughed for winter barley
So far we’ve had to take up and destroy a few yards of concrete, but it’s where there are long stretches of concrete that we could really run into problems and heavy expense, however we can only take it as it comes.
Out on the land we still have not an acre ploughed for winter barley, though we have optimistically decided on what crops will be in what fields. In reality, the options are fairly limited given the range of crops we have developed over the years.
Commercial wheat will follow this year’s oats, with winter barley following winter wheat and acting as the lead-in for oilseed rape
We have a contract for seed wheat after the spring beans and the gluten-free oats will go in after the oilseed rape.
Commercial wheat will follow this year’s oats, with winter barley following winter wheat and acting as the lead-in for oilseed rape.
And so the cycle goes round, assuming we get the weather and the ground conditions to go with my ambitions.
While the prices are hugely back on last year, it was a remarkably consistent harvest
Meanwhile, I have received the first payments for this year’s harvest. While the prices are hugely back on last year, it was a remarkably consistent harvest, with no disasters like last year’s beans and oats, but neither had we any record-breaking yields.
Every crop pulled its weight and at the end of the day I don’t expect the end result for 2019 to be dramatically different from the year before.
On the cattle side, we’re still replacing some old slats and concrete which has delayed buying in, so we are just selling the remainder of the bulls as they become fit.
We have lots of silage, but it’s still hard to see where the value of the bought in cattle is going to be, as we move away from my long-standing bull enterprise.
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