STORM clouds are brewing – and not just in meteorological terms. The Russian tanks currently rolling into parts of the Ukraine will have a tsunami effect throughout the world, not the least of which will be in determining many factors that affect everyone.

The biggest tragedy, though, will be for the loss of lives in what is essentially a land and power grab by President Putin's increasingly aggressive regime. The fear and trepidation that the military incursion will enact upon the innocent, will and should pervade us all.

All the more reason, then, to have full control of our food security? Not a bit of it. UK farmers have been sold down the river by false promises of a land of milk and honey beyond Brexit, spurious trade deals that favour only one side (and it isn't ours) and a lack of foresight in future-proofing our energy supply that endangers not only the economy, but the day-to-day lives of everyone.

For farming, it is a dire prospect that one of the victims of this Russian aggression will be the production of the fertiliser upon which it relies. Russia and its satellites remain key manufacturing bases for this fertiliser, given their closeness to adequate supplies of electricity and gas which are needed to produce it. The storage and supply of which, we have handed over to the oligarchs.

The postponement of the Nord2 gas supply stream into western Europe as a sanction against Russia, will also impact on the production of near-to-home supplies of fertiliser products. If you have not already placed and received your fertiliser orders for this year, then this is bad news. Forecasters are now predicting that straight nitrogen could hit £1000 per tonne ... this time last year, it was about £260.

That is but a monetary consideration, though, while an entire nation holds its breath to see what happens next from its sabre-rattling neighbour. As our own Robert Burns wrote in To a Mouse: 'I backward cast my e'e, on prospects drear! An' forward, tho' I cannot see, I guess an' fear.'

Fuel duties

THE physical storms that have hit us these past few weeks have also hit farming massively, from fallen trees, lost power and to livestock threatened by flood.

But it has also brought out the best in the farming fraternity, who have been clearing roads of snow and debris with their tractors, machines and chainsaws. Without it and its 'can do' attitude, many roads and lifeline communications would still be disabled by everything that the storms from Arwen to Franklin have thrown at us.

All the more worrying that this round the clock community service – the majority of it done for free – is in danger of being clobbered by tax by the same fuel rules that will affect fun runs of classic and vintage tractors. Ie, if they are travelling on roads for any distance they must run on white diesel, rather than agricultural red.

If this daft rule is enforced to its limit, then farming's goodwill will go with it.