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Mid-August and the often-talked-about ’mid-summer dip’ arrived.

Son Sam arrived home after shearing 10,000 sheep in the Scottish Highlands, and it is great to have him back.

Or to be more accurate, it wasn’t the shearing that was the biggest job – it was gathering them all first.

This month I have for you the story of how a ginger kid is starring in a supermarket advert.

From torrential rain to a heatwave within a matter of days. July threw the proverbial kitchen sink at us in terms of weather conditions.

All our sheep were finally shorn by the first week of July and the conversation soon moved onto the well-documented price we will receive for the wool.

What a blessing a warm July has been for us, allowing us to crack on with harvesting, cropping, drilling, cultivating, packing and whatever else needs doing to keep us in business.

I did not think it was possible to be more busy than we were before. July has been the most incredible month with second cut silage, our first ever hay crop and new calves arriving to be reared.

In my mind July is always a catchy month, with the majority of the last 10 or 15 years being very much a case of grabbing a bit of silage when you can.

Thank you Jeremy Clarkson and team for making us smile. A brilliant series – educational, emotional and I’m sure opened the eyes of many viewers to the never boring, extreme multi-tasking and financially unstable world of farming.