We may have begun the new year, but at present, it feels horribly like the old one. With ongoing strikes, discontent, rising prices, plus Covid and flu still around, it is hard to feel positive about the future sometimes.

All small businesses are struggling, and farming is no different. We still do not have a clear policy for agriculture from government, and have no idea whether they want us to produce food, grow trees everywhere, or rewild the entire country.

Confidence was severely dented after Liz Truss signed a trade deal with Australia and New Zealand, giving them free access to our markets over time, without putting in any clauses to ensure that the food that they export to us is legally bound to comply with equally high standards, both of production and welfare, that our farmers are required to meet.

Apparently, this was not a carefully thought-out policy; rumour has it that she just needed a good soundbite for a press conference! As an industry, we were even less impressed when George Eustace, a minister at Defra at the time, afterwards said that he did not think that it was a very good deal for UK farmers.

Surely the job of a minister is to scrutinise a trade deal and speak out before it is signed. I must confess to some serious eye-rolling when I heard another politician say, “Perhaps we can re-negotiate the terms with these countries,” and the cynic in me thought, 'well, good luck with that'.

So, we have only made one new year’s resolution at Wood Farm this year and that is to farm to the best of our ability despite politicians. This has led to us looking hard at the business to see where we can invest to become more self-sufficient and cut costs further, without compromising on quality.

The initial result from all this brainstorming is the arrival of two rather large but incredibly smart water storage tanks which will be used to collect rain from the barn roofs.

No doubt, other ideas will come as the year goes on, but hopefully this is a great start, and should prove invaluable if we have another drought this summer.

Who knows, we may yet learn from government the direction of travel required from agriculture to help this country to get back on its feet.