As summer comes to a close and autumn knocks on the door again, work is beginning to slow down.

Harvest is almost finished. We have been really lucky to have such steady weather over the past two weeks, allowing grain to be brought in with ease and little if any need to use the new grain drier.

Such weather and work is all the harder to comprehend when just a few weeks previous, we were hit by a flash flood that quite literally decimated everything that stood in its path. In little over an hour and a half, the force of the rain had washed out entire roads, ripped through the steading and other buildings, tore down large sections of dykes and filled our workshop to waist deep in water and silt.

Some 117mm of rain fell in this short time, carrying away anything that lay in its tracks. We tried to redirect the worst of the floods, using bales and digging large trenches with our track digger, but still our road turned into a torrent of water, impassable until the rain finally eased.

Only then were we able to begin to assess the extent of the damage. I have never witnessed rain with such force before. The clear up began, two track diggers and two tractors and dumpers spent seven extremely long days fixing farm roads, as the difference in height in some parts was as much as 3ft with large boulders having being carried to the surface. The roads were the main priority to ensure access to other farms when our crops were ripening fast.

Our next priority was the workshop and salvaging anything that could be saved. We removed in excess of 36t of silt from the base of the workshop and had to hire two large skips to dispose of all electrical equipment, large and small.

We have also begun rebuilding field dykes which coupled with the ongoing clear up will continue over the coming weeks and months as we look to replace lost equipment and piece together the mess that was left behind. I have never witnessed weather as sudden or as fierce.

Nothing stands still for long in farming though and the seasons continue to move on. Second cut silage has been running alongside the harvest, yielding 4.5 bales per acre. The red clover has had a third cut and provided an even healthier crop of six bales per acre, so we are very pleased, as we now have a large store of feed for whatever winter may throw at us.

Having lost crucial days/weeks leading up to harvest, we are a little behind on where we like to be with our sheep work. We are looking to wean the last batches of lambs off their mothers and pull out any ewe lambs for breeding. Lambs retained for further finishing or breeding are being wormed as this is one of the prime times of year when worms flourish and thrive. They'll graze freshly cut silage fields before the winter.

Ewes have been sorted for breeding and any broken mouthed removed for finishing. The remainder are given a Footvax booster and protection against flies and ticks for grazing out the hill.

Bulls are on their second cycle with the cows, having been changed over every three weeks. The calves now all have access to creep feeders and are striding ahead in this better weather. We have started selling the 2020 summer-born Aberdeen Angus steers finished on grass, which have thrived gaining an average of 1.2-1.4kg per day.

Winter will be here before we know it, but we have a good stock of feeding stored as our silage pits are all full to bursting and ample additional silage bales. We have again under sown stubble turnips and have a good few crops of fodder beet growing too.

This summer has been a mixture of highs and lows, but thankfully mainly highs. We will continue to tidy up and salvage what we can after the flood, in the hope that we never witness such changeable and unpredictable weather again.