At the time of writing storm Christoph has passed and left devastation in its wake, writes Hugh Bessent.

We had in excess of three inches of rain in just over one day here - a lot of rain, even for us.

As usual the A470 into Machynlleth was closed to all traffic causing chaos on the B road around Llanwrin which was also flooded.

Other parts of Montgomeryshire were also under water and I ask when will our governments and their agencies be proactive and do something about flooding?

It is no good to keep building and concreting over land in flood plains, not cleaning rubbish and debris from water courses, and also allowing beavers to make home in low lying areas.

I know that farming members in the Severn Valley have been disappointed with NRW’s response to water and flood management as I’m told that meetings between the agency and farmers are woefully few and far between.

One was held last week and before that they had not had one for 18 months.

One could question the management of water in the Clywedog, a dam built to do exactly that, manage the water all the way down the Severn Valley.

However, rain or no rain, we have been busy on the farm.

Last week we started scanning the cows and heifers to check on conception rates.

Next week we will scan another group of cows and heifers, this being a regular job for the next month or so.

We had some good news last week from our milk producer, South Caernarfon Creameries, in that they will be spending £14m on expanding production capacity to meet customer demand.

It shows that farmers co-operating in their own processing facilities works well and creates many jobs in rural areas.

Assured British Foods, commonly known as the ‘Red Tractor’, are currently conducting a review of protocols and I would urge all farm assured farmers to complete the online consultation at redtractor.citizenspace.com.This runs until the first week of March.