The recent spell of fine, dry weather has helped dry out the land to allow farmers to get on with spring tasks like ploughing, cultivations and sowing spring cereals.

Waterlogged soils had prevented many from ploughing during the winter months, so most have taken advantage of their chance to crack on with that task.

Most farmers try to plough their land when it is in good condition and avoid ploughing wet land to avoid damaging the soil structure through compaction. There's also the risk of creating a plough pan. That's where the smearing action of the ploughshares cutting through the wet soil forms an impervious layer about ten inches (250mm) below ground, particularly in heavy clay soils. Plough pans hinder drainage and create a barrier that roots find hard to penetrate. So it is always best to wait till the land dries before ploughing.

Ploughing was always reckoned to be one of the most important jobs on the farm. It is a new beginning for the land.

Soil passes over the ploughshare onto the mould boards which invert the soil, casting furrows to the right - and you plough conveniently-sized strips of land clockwise.

The first thing to be done before ploughing can commence is to "step out" the field and mark it with sticks so that the last furrows end up parallel to the first ones. Failure to do so can result in the last furrows creating an unwanted "sheugh" in the field.

Mind you, modern reversible ploughs, with their two sets of mould boards, overcome that problem. You merely start at one side of the field and plough your way across it. After ploughing its furrows to the right-hand side, when you get to the end, you lift the plough and hydraulically turn it upside down to use the other set of mould boards that turn the furrows to the left hand side. That allows you to plough back up the furrow you just created.

It's interesting to note that a furlong is 220 yards (201.17 metres) long and a chain is 22 yards (20.12 metres) wide. A strip of land that is a furlong long and a chain wide is 4840 square yards or an acre.

A furrow is a strip of land about 14 inches (350mm) wide that is turned upside down by the ploughshare. It is a matter of some considerable pride to ensure that furrows run as straight as an arrow shot from a bow.

The idea is to bury all the turf, trash and weed seeds and expose fresh soil that becomes the seedbed. Ploughing also mixes the soil and, when done in the right conditions, loosens and aerates it, helping to improve drainage.

The plough has to be kept at a constant depth and not allowed to bring up infertile subsoil. Most farmers aim to plough at a depth of about eight or ten inches (200 or 250mm) depending on the type of land and crops to be grown. All of the trash on the surface must be buried out of sight. Failure to do so allows weeds like couch grass, or quickens as we call them, to proliferate.

At one time the ploughman relied on his pair of heavy horses to pull together as a team. A wonderful bond of understanding was built up between the ploughman and his horses - usually Clydesdales. At the end of the day's toil, those horses had to be stabled, groomed and fed.

Next day's work got underway long before daybreak, with the ploughman caring for his horses before harnessing them up for another long, hard day.

Today's ploughmen may not have to work as hard physically, but they are still required to have just as much skill. Modern multi-furrow ploughs drawn by powerful tractors, while infinitely faster than horse-drawn ploughs, still need to be precisely set and steered in a straight line.

So the ploughmen of this century may not have the drudgery of my grandfather's generation, but their job is just as demanding.

There's an old saying that "you don't know your farm until you have ploughed it". It's amazing the variation in soil that can exist across a farm or in a single field. - wet patches of heavy clay in the hollows, or thin, gravelly stuff on the knowes. The more fertile parts of a field are rich in worms, while cold, wet clay areas may have very few.