The notable hesitancy about drilling winter wheat which was evident around some parts of the country earlier in September now seems to have died away – and drillers around the country have been making good use of the recent clement spell to get some sowing done.

With the constant erosion of the number of products which we have in the tool box to ward off early pests and diseases, we’ve all been well warned of the dangers of putting all our eggs in one basket by putting all our crops in the ground too early.

Aphids and the spread of BYDV have probably been uppermost in many people’s minds - but I guess we’ve reached the stage where we’ve got to strike the balance which growers in Scotland inevitably face – and the old maxim of ‘better an early sown crop to worry about than no crop at all’ will generally win in the end.

Certainly much soul-searching, number crunching – and in all probability a deal of crystal ball gazing – has gone on by those planting this expensive-to-grow crop.

To date, most of the speculation has revolved around just how horrific fertiliser prices are likely to be for the coming crop – along with taking a stab at where the 2023 futures market is likely to go.

And of course, the continued lack of any hard and fast details on policy development has made factoring this element into what is already a difficult and complex – well I was going to say ‘calculation’, but I guess ‘guess’ would be closer to the truth – nigh on impossible.

But while the majority of us have been focusing our gaze on the much derided Scottish Agriculture Bill which is now out for consultation in a vain search for some hint on what the future might have in store for us, some pointers have once again been sneaked out elsewhere.

And I’ve found myself wondering if I’m the only one who is slightly surprised that there hasn’t been more of a fuss kicked up about ScotGov’s decision to chop £33 million off our ring-fenced agricultural budget?

Announced a couple of weeks now ago as part of the plan to address the cost of living crisis in Scotland, it was John Swinney who had the task of breaking the bad news of where some of the cuts were going to be made to fund the additional monies the administration has to find to cover the help it proposes to give to those hit by the crisis – and also to cover higher than expected public service pay settlements which have been demanded because of the rise in the level of inflation.

And while agriculture wasn’t in any way the only area to have its budget trimmed, Swinney, who said that ‘hard choices’ had to be made, warned that this might not be the last of the cuts:

“For avoidance of doubt, further savings will be required to balance the budget, particularly if inflation continues to rise, and to direct maximum support to those who need it most. Any further savings that are identified during the Emergency Budget Review will be over and above those detailed,” he told the Scottish Parliament.

But, whatever they’re used for, it seems more than a little ironic that funds are being diverted from agriculture at a time when our inflation rate is standing at nearly 30% – in order to shore up public sector pay when general inflation stands at only a third of that level.

When the announcement was made, NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy said that coming at a time when Scottish farmers and crofters were facing the unprecedented increases in costs we are all suffering – with fuel prices doubling, fertiliser up more than threefold and electricity prices through the roof – the announcement of such a cut to the industry’s budget was a further blow to a sector which already found itself devoid of confidence.

“Farmers and crofters want to play their part in tackling the nation’s cost of living crisis – but at a time when Scottish Government should be looking to prioritise home food production in order to secure an affordable, domestic food supply, the headline that there is a cut in agricultural support risks eroding confidence, reducing production further and raising the cost of food,” said Mr Kennedy.

“While there are indications that the £33 million removed from agricultural funding is largely a deferment of spend that wasn’t going to occur this year and that the money will be returned in the future, the question must be asked of Scottish Government why that funding has not already been invested in our food and farming sector at a time when producers are already scaling back on production and livelihoods are at risk,” he continued.

On the plus side it seems that there has been some sort of assurance that the announcement has no implications for support payments, which are due to start reaching our bank accounts sometime this month.

And it has been suggested that the whole thing is more an exercise in ‘smoke and mirrors’, using money which hasn’t already been allocated in the overall budget, making me suspect that it could be rural development cash.

But wherever these cuts are made, its less money going into the industry – and there’s no getting away from the fact that the headline that agriculture support is going to be cut will do little to boost confidence in a sector which is already facing that uphill battle against steeply rising costs.

And, continuing in the sleight of hand card trick vein, just as I was finishing off my last column, the Scottish Government used their annual ‘Programme for Government’ as the vehicle to reveal some of the less savoury details of how our future funding might be contained in the longer term.

This document made it clear that capping and/or tapering our base-level payments was an area which the administration was keen to explore as a method of ‘releasing additional funding’ in order to meet the goals of its agricultural vision, including the urgent actions required to reach net zero emissions.

And it also looks like the much discussed agriculture bill isn’t likely to be brought into effect over the next twelve months – with the promise surrounding that piece of legislation stretching no further than carrying out the consultation.

Other areas which the Scottish Government declared it would address included the rolling out of the National Test programme and the move towards shifting 50% of direct farming payments to climate action and funding for on-farm nature restoration and enhancement by 2025.

It does just make you wonder what they’re going to conjure up next…