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It has been a funny old month. At the last time of writing, early second cuts were being clamped while we still had a week or so left of growing.

This year is turning out to be a bit of a weather rollercoaster here in Dorset. The decent amount of rain we had a few weeks ago did us the world of good, but has quickly gone and we are again desperate for rain and struggling for grazing grass.

Being food producers, farmers know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone somewhere has worked hard to provide such generosity.

As we approach the middle of July, our preparations for harvest in the north east of Scotland get into gear, with sheds to muck and wash, combines to be serviced and guttering to clean and repair.

The progress made through the shearing season across the UK has shown us there are a huge number of very capable and talented shearers here on home soil, which is something we ought to be proud of.

Be careful what you wish for. After weeks of dry weather and wishing we could have just a bit of rain after first cut, the weather broke with a vengeance and we seemed to be instantly transported into autumn.

How the fodder stores have changed in three weeks. Throughout the first half of the year there have been significant concerns about tonnages of crops grown from grass all the way through to arable crops, largely as a result of difficult weather conditions.

New writer Kate farms alongside her husband Jim on one of two family farms near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.

The longest day, summer solstice is behind us. As we move into official summer, it is such a beautiful time of year to be up at silly o’ clock as the sun rises and there is very little noise in the countryside, except the vocal birds singing their dawn chorus. They seem to be even louder this year.

The year 1976 was a notable one. Steve Jobs launched Apple, the first Star Wars came out and I turned one during harvest that August.