There's only one answer to that really – we have been in it for the past 10 years.
We have been keeping the country going, our very low prices were keeping the cost of living down.
The shops weren't reducing their profit margin, just paying the producer less than the cost of production for the product.
Only after being hit in the pocket time and time again, even the farmers were reducing their production – now there's a shortage and not just in this country but around the world.
So now a truer price has to be paid in our market place.
This is being reflected in the price of commodities increasing and every one along the production line adding their 20%, 30% profit margin on to it.
Not so with the milk price now as we have had about 2p a litre knocked off our price in the past two to three months and were looking at another penny going on 1 April for producing more milk last spring than we did in the autumn.
The gaffers are blaming the world market for the price coming down – funny it never goes up at the same world price speed.
I feel better already for getting that off my chest – pity I can't get rid of the remnants of this snotty cough, cold headaches etc.
The weather hasn't helped us at all – the land was very wet before the snow and is even wetter now.
There's no chance of us getting any farmyard manure shifted whether it be solid or liquid.
It has certainly tested our resolve when it's dark, snowing and blowing or rain beating down and we still have to turn out to feed stock, milk the cows, feed smaller calves with the warm milk just taken from the cows at milking, and even then wash down the milking parlour so at least then we can start clean either next morning or evening which ever comes next.
Lambing is going very slow now.
I came to the conclusion where I thought my old tup would have got all his ewes in lamb before he kicked the bucket, he got the first three or four ewes in lamb but the rest of them don't seem to be in lamb at all.
As I put all the best show ewes to him (as I thought it maybe his last season) bar one I was hoping he would stamp his mark on his offspring as in previous years, his lambs have been tall upstanding young sheep.
I was really hoping for a few good gimmer lambs (females) to bring in as replacements to the flock but he's only got a handful so we just have to make do.