BY JAMIE FOSTER Red Rag to a Bull by Jamie Blackett is a delightful read. It tells of the rural life experienced by Blackett when he leaves the army and comes home to take over the family estate in the lowlands of Scotland. Every aspect of rural life is covered from the frustrations of rodding the drains to the joys of raising cattle on his … Continue reading Red Rag to a Bull
BY JIM WEBSTER I have been musing recently on the impact of arbitrary government diktats. Admittedly they have been part of my life as a farmer for longer than I care to remember. Agriculture has always been a field where Westminster felt it unwise to rely upon the ignorant and unlettered peasantry and preferred to organise things themselves. From a safe distance. And during office … Continue reading Here Today Gone Tomorrow
BY JIM WEBSTER Whilst people are trapped by the virus, agriculture continues to march to the beat of a different drum. Almost certainly having had the virus means that here we’re mentally in a different place to a lot of people but I went into town yesterday and had to go into one establishment to deal with a couple of issues. I’m somebody who hasn’t … Continue reading A World Apart
BY JIM WEBSTER It must be admitted that we were ready for this rain. As it was we’d neatly ricocheted from one extreme to another. This winter was ridiculously wet. We never had flooding as such up here in Cumbria, but there was standing water where the water table was now higher than ground level. So if we were ever going to get any spring … Continue reading Glorious Rain
BY JIM WEBSTER Everybody talks about getting back to normal but what is normal going to be? Already people are commenting that food prices are rising. I’ve been the one doing the shopping and I’ve noticed that there are no longer the ‘two for one’ offers and special discounts. A friend of mine who shopped at Booths because it was quieter decided that it was … Continue reading The New Normal?
BY JIM WEBSTER There are no lingering doubts now. This virus has turned the world upside down. The late, great, Douglas Adams wrote, “The History of every major Galactic Civilisation tends to pass through three distinct and recognisable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why, and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterised by the question ‘How … Continue reading Self-Sufficient Kingdom
BY JIM WEBSTER Now things are starting to unravel at speed. Looking at livestock, which is what I know best, sheep prices have tanked. In simple terms because like us the French and the rest of our customers are locked down, they’re not dining out and the amount of lamb they’re eating has dropped. Beef is the same. Butchers are struggling to shift the better … Continue reading From the Farming Front Line
BY JIM WEBSTER One of the tales my father always told was of back when he was in his teens and farm workers would work for a ‘term’ (summer or winter) and then after the term was up, he’d either sign on again with the chap he was working for or go on to the next fair. Apparently one of the tales going round at … Continue reading Smoke in a Barrow
BY JIM WEBSTER I’ve been trying to get my head round what is happening with the beef and lamb trade at the moment. As far as I can make out ‘cock-up’ is more likely than conspiracy. With the sheep trade it’s obvious that the buyers just stopped buying yesterday. It wasn’t just that prices plummeted, they weren’t even interested in buying at low prices. Given … Continue reading View From the Farm
BY JIM WEBSTER Whatever humanity is up to, the seasons continue to roll forward. The contractor arrived to put on the nitrogen. He made far less mark than I thought he would, the last few days have dried out our higher land nicely. Sal supervised him from a safe distance. Mind you that is as close as I got to him because the foot-trimmer was … Continue reading Splendid Isolation
BY QUENTIN PIGG How can one reconcile the two seemingly opposing ideologies of deindustrialisation and a want for endless housing? The answer: when the former is merely a means to bring about the latter. It’s no secret that climate change activism often acts as a front for hard-line socialism; indeed, the Extinction Rebellion protests held in London were marred by blood red demands to ‘bring … Continue reading Farmers, New Enemy of Loons
BY QUENTIN PIGG ‘The world is waking up to an environmental crisis’, a disembodied voice warns with the kind of damming cynicism that only a guttural Scottish accent can truly deliver. The viewer is then assaulted with flashes of bush-fires spliced with frenzied jerky-cam closeups of caged swines. In case this bombardment of the senses has left us in any doubt as to the utter … Continue reading Love Meat
BY BEN EVERITT Don’t believe the doom-mongers. Our farmers and our environment can thrive after Brexit. Have a beer with a farmer. Like everyone else, farmers have got concerns about a no-deal Brexit. But after a pint or two you’ll learn just how much the EU has screwed agricultural economics. A clean break can’t come soon enough. The system is now so complex that the … Continue reading Fear Not, Farmers
BY JAMIE FOSTER BBC Countryfile has upset a boatload of viewers by its biased piece on Brexit and how it will affect farmers: Adam Henson was interviewing a family of beef farmers who said Brexit had cast a shadow over the industry. They said that halving the tariffs in place to protect EU beef from imports would make it unsustainable to produce UK beef. The … Continue reading Biased Countryfile Fails Again
BY DAVID EYLES Right. That’s it. I’ve had enough. What follows may well turn into a Jonathan Pie-type expletive-riddled rant. I make no apologies to those sensitive flowers who might read this article and feel a little faint. That’s tough. Go and read Winnie The Pooh if you are feeling a little peaky. The thing that has triggered me, the thing that has finally caused … Continue reading Signals of Contempt
BY BEN EAGLE It is looking increasingly likely that Britain will be crashing out of the EU without a deal. Whilst I don’t condone the recent words of Donald Tusk condemning leading Brexiteers, as somebody trying to look to the future in farming I cannot pretend that part of me wanted to thank him for saying it. Brexit has unleashed uncertainty in all sectors but … Continue reading Sheep Farming & No Deal
BY NIGEL BEAN & PAUL READ There was an article in The Guardian recently titled “Can Britain’s butchers survive the vegan boom?”. The headline was a little misleading, but they very often are. It did raise some interesting points though, one of which is the noticeable decline in butchers’ shops in recent times – something many people will have noticed. In the article some put … Continue reading Farms, Food & Fanatics
BY BEN EAGLE It was with a sigh of relief that I learned that Michael Gove was not moving to the Department for Exiting the European Union last week. Quite understandably most people were probably focused on the destination rather than the starting line. However, my eyes, as usual, were pointing towards Defra. The last thing that food, farming and the environment needs at this … Continue reading We Need Stability at DEFRA
BY DAVID EYLES In his book Feral [1], George Monbiot outlines his ideas for the environmental transformation of the British uplands – from open sheep grazed pastures to wooded hillsides. He argues that this will considerably enhance biodiversity. Furthermore, that the release of large predators such as Lynx, Wolves and Wild Boar, will amount to a restoration of keystone species that will bring about an enormous ecological improvement … Continue reading The Ecology of Our Uplands
BY BEN EAGLE It has been a funny old year. A few months ago the Beast from the East gripped the country with snow and icy weather unlike any I have seen in my lifetime, rivalling the winters of old described by older generations. Jumping ahead to today, in the current weather context we haven’t seen any rain here in Essex for 53 days. Further, … Continue reading Keep Calm and Carry On
