AGRICULTURE is locked into a lengthy campaign – and it is going to be a costly one.

It's been a war of attrition for almost every sector this year and it is all down to one enemy – the weather. At the moment, it is not one that the industry is winning, but there is one thing, if anything, that farmers are good at: It's being stoic in the face of adversity.

And there's a lot to be stoic about – sprouting grain, mud bath silage and dairy cows inside for weeks, if not months. It is not a recipe for good year-end accounts – the costs associated with such salvage jobs will be horrendous.

While it might be all too easy to point the finger at anaerobic bio-digester plants gobbling up huge tonnages of good grain and – for those in the west at least – potential straw output, it must have come as some relief to those who supply such plants that they have not had to endure the wait for better weather.

But while the bills and the mental fragility that goes with it pile up, it is at least heartening to see that prices have not yet delivered a double whammy effect in that they (apart from maybe potatoes) have held up fairly well. But there are further costs yet to come – listeriosis down to mucky silage; lower milk and beef yields as a result of same; reduced fertility; rejections for grain at point of sale ... and the list goes on and on, never mind the extra fuel and machinery bills.

It is going to be a year of hardship and we must be approaching the point of ScotGov being asked to consider emergency funding. But there is more than just money that can be asked for and there are several areas where a relaxation or derogation of the rules can be applied for, especially with some of the 'greening' rules, like NVZ slurry spreading deadlines and EFA datelines (as alluded to in our Arable Matters column on page 18). Now that would be a practical help.

Given the fragility of the industry at this time, it is all the more important this year to support the rural charity, RSABI, which is next Friday holding an invitational fundraising lunch in Fife, complete with BBC Countryfile's Adam Henson.

It looks like this charity could have an uncalled for busy year ahead – and not for the best reasons.