Light frosts have been the dominant feature for most mornings and the line drawn on our barograph has been travelling in a gentle waving motion, giving us days of sunshine interspersed with dull and sometimes wet weather.

This year, our Wiltshire Farmers’ Ball was held on Valentine’s Day, with the tickets sold out well before the night.

An evening enjoyed by everyone who attended, where we all sat down to a delicious meal and later danced to music played by a band.

The raffle raised about £1,500, to be split between the Royal Agriculture Benevolent Institute and Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

Our committee would like to thank all those who generously donated the prizes.

I worked at Roves Farm for two days during the half-term school holiday.

The theme on the tractor ride was about a gingerbread man. The tractor ride was very popular, even during wet days, with everyone dressing in wet weather clothes and enjoying the fun.

February 15 has passed, so Ian has been able to spray our fields of over-wintered stubble with a herbicide, to kill the weeds that have managed to survive the winter months.

There will be manure to spread before ploughing can begin, but at the moment the ground is far too wet.

Richard went with our agronomist to look at a field on the edge of the farm. This field has quite a steep gradient, tending to be wet at the bottom, with woodland on the further side.

It was decided the field would probably be left fallow, so become part of the five per cent of our arable acreage to be included in our Ecological Focus Area (part of the new Greening Criteria) under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) reform.

In these new rules, there are things farmers are allowed to do with fields described as fallow, other than leaving them in a non-cultivated state. As yet, we have not decided what will be the best option.

The barns housing our young stock and remaining dry cows were mucked out again. The groups of cattle were switched round; the 18-month-old heifers moved to a cubicle barn, so when they calve in early autumn they will be familiar with the system.

The new Angus bull has been left in the freshly bedded yard with a few remaining dry cows. The bedded area housing the young heifer calves in another barn has been increased, to give them more room as they grow.

At the end of the week, we drove to Chuggaton Farm, near Barnstaple, to visit our daughter, Adele, and her family. We managed to pick a fine day, although there was a short, wintry shower when we left. There had been a few breakdowns during the week at Chuggaton Farm.

One of the feeders in the milking parlour had broken and one of two refrigerated milk storage tanks did not keep the milk cold enough one night.

All that was needed was a new fuse, so the problem was quickly fixed. If the temperature of milk is above 4C when the tanker arrives, it may be rejected. Fortunately, this did not happen.

Bethany took us for a mini farm walk. We found Dominic feeding and bedding up the young heifer calves, moved on to see the older heifers with the new Aberdeen Angus bull and took a close look at the milking cows, especially Bethany’s pet, Pinky, who enjoys a cuddle.

We were then taken down a lane where the banks on either side were covered with stunning displays of snowdrops. What a beautiful sight.