In her third and final look at the world of agriculture, following her visits to dairy and sheep farms and her spotlight on the farming calendar, Mail reporter Jemma Crowston investigates some of the main issues farmers face every day.

The weather

"Our work is very much dictated by the weather particularly during lambing season and summer time," explained Craig Langton, who runs his family's Manor Farm at Burton Overy with his wife Nicola.

Regardless of the weather, however, some jobs simply have to be done. Snow, heavy rain and storms just makes things a lot, lot harder for farming families.

Nicola, who I met when I was invited to spend a morning on their sheep farm, said: "One winter I had to keep putting my hands in buckets of hot water to stop them from being numb all the time.

"Because we're up so early when the air is even more fresh it can be tough but we work through it. We've been quite fortunate that we've not really had any major illnesses and we carry on working if we've just got a cold anyway."

The couple also said the changing weather can have an effect on the harvest of their arable crops. If the beginning of a year is too dry or too wet it can delay the schedule for a harvest which usually takes place in August.

This year the family farm did their harvesting as late as possible because of the effects of the dry weather during the previous months.

Craig said: "We have to keep tracking forecasts daily. We check online all the time but from speaking to other farmers they're in the same position.

"We have to find other jobs to do at times when the weather is really bad. So that's when I'll catch up on my charcoal burning work."

A few miles down the road, at Duncan Barbour's dairy farm, Kingarth, which I had visited even earlier that morning, before dawn, his son Peter said the right weather is the key to their farm running smoothly.

He said: "In the summer we have to collect a heap of grass ready to produce the food mix for the cows but if the weather is poor then the quality of the grass won't be as good either which means they won't perform as well."

Land development

I wanted to find out how farmers feel about the ever-decreasing 'greenbelt' and the increase in land developments – namely new housing estates.

"This is a difficult topic," said Craig Langton, "because there is a need for new villages but it's a debate over feeding people or providing places to live.

"A lot of villagers think they've paid a premium for their house and the surroundings and don't want that to change.