BY JIM WEBSTER The world is changing but nobody important wants to notice Funny how some things never change. Sixty years ago, I was busy with a fork and wheelbarrow cleaning out a heifer shippon. I was no more than eight at the time. This morning, there I was, with fork and wheelbarrow, mucking out heifers again. Admittedly my younger self would have appreciated the developments … Continue reading The World is Changing
BY JIM WEBSTER Dear Editor, As a rural, white farmer based on the Cumbrian shores, I read with interest your article on alleged racism in the Countryside. To recap, Wildlife and Countryside Link provided parliament with evidence to show that the British countryside is a “racist colonial” white space. They are the “largest environment and wildlife coalition in England, bringing together 82 organisations to use … Continue reading Attacks on the Countryside by Myopic Townies
BY JIM WEBSTER The problem with environmental schemes is that it can often be difficult to work out whether they are worth entering. Indeed, with some it will probably cost you more to take part because of the income you lose is larger than the money you’ll get back from the government. But every so often there is a scheme which throws into high relief … Continue reading How Much Should We Pay the Peasantry?
BY JIM WEBSTER T Rex used to sing ‘Life’s a Gas’ and perhaps they were right. I was chatting to somebody who has been involved in agriculture (on the engineering, patching machinery up, side) pretty much all his life. He was commenting about the problems they’d had with a pickup which just didn’t seem to be processing fuel. At regular intervals it would cut out, … Continue reading Lynx, Easystart and Methane
BY JIM WEBSTER Another supermarket caught up in a scandal. But it says a lot for the reputation Booths has built up that everybody seems to agree they were being cheated by their suppliers. Still it might be interesting to see who else those suppliers were supplying. Now the National Food Crime Unit is investigating just how it happened that Booths were supplied with products … Continue reading Buying British Beef
BY JIM WEBSTER There is a shortage of salad vegetables in the UK at the moment. Given it is now early March I suspect my Grandmother would not have been particularly surprised by this. But a modern, environmentally conscious, and wealthy population expect to get everything, all the time. The problem is that the consumer expects it to be cheap. And this is why we … Continue reading Salad at this Time of Year?
BY JIM WEBSTER Our esteemed editor turned up here. He wasn’t eaten by the dog, outran the bull and generally fitted in pretty well. He even likes Gregg’s sausage rolls with Brown Sauce. But then you listen to his life story, throw away lines about banking, rugby played under strange stars, and you ask yourself how somebody ends up a countryman (or countrywoman, or for … Continue reading What Makes a Countryman or Countrywoman?
BY JIM WEBSTER Our broadband is less than sparkling. We have a maximum speed of 4 mbps because our farm in remote Cumbria is at the end of a long piece of copper. This copper is not getting any younger. For much of the last year we have been working with the BT Escalation team because they seem to be the only ones with the … Continue reading A Farmer’s Rural Broadband Nightmare
BY JIM WEBSTER It was back in the 1990s, and I knew several farmers who decided to give up their agricultural tenancies and get out of the industry. At the time they were somewhat nervous as to how they were going to make a living. After all, this wasn’t retirement. I’m not sure if any of them got out of the industry with enough to … Continue reading What Will Be Your Next Job?
BY JIM WEBSTER There is a saying: ‘To deny is to confirm’ The minute a body puts out press releases saying that it has never considered a policy change, everybody assumes that policy is about to be changed and they’re just waiting for a good day to bury bad news before they inform us. The problem is that, thanks to the Ukrainian War, an awful … Continue reading Few Noticed The World Has Changed
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN The magnificence of this country is that one never knows what pot of joy or genius one might find down a country lane or hidden away in some random-looking terrace. I suppose that those less appreciative of laissez-faire society would argue the flip side; that British tolerance and enduring liberties facilitate the opposite too. To be fair, ammo dumps are seldom but … Continue reading Webster
BY JIM WEBSTER Friday was a busy day, we sorted a lot of heifers out, moved them about, and had the vet check that those who’d been running with the bull were in calf. Then on Sunday morning I found two different groups had tested the limits of their current boundaries and found them significantly more permeable than I had previously thought. Certainly, the previous … Continue reading Rural Vehicle Emissions Negligible
BY JIM WEBSTER One of the joys of farming is that there often isn’t a right way to do it. Two farmers will do the same thing in entirely different ways and both of them seem to work well enough. Some things work on one farm, with its soil types and climates, but don’t work too well on another farm. I know hill sheep farmers … Continue reading Ignore the Potty Eco Chuggers
BY JIM WEBSTER I’ve worked with sheep, but I’d never call myself a shepherd. I’ve not got that level of expertise. But one of the things about shepherds is that they tend not to be centre stage. Historically they were always looked down upon. Even more so than the rest of us involved in agriculture, shepherds were shunned. (Even now ‘peasant’ is an insult in … Continue reading Shepherds Forgotten Again
BY JIM WEBSTER Sri Lanka has been the victim of a government organised experiment. In April 2021, the government imposed a nationwide ban on the importation and use of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and ordered the country’s two million farmers to go organic. It may well be that this wasn’t so much ideological as a desperate attempt to keep money in the country. It backfired. … Continue reading Let’s Not Be Sri Lanka
BY JIM WEBSTER It all started innocently enough. Suddenly I could not download my emails. Now you might wonder why I should want to. Simple, rubbish broadband. If I use a client like Outlook I can still read my emails when I have no broadband, (like now, when we have a power cut so of course the router doesn’t work.) Not only that but if … Continue reading The Joys of Rubbish Rural Broadband
BY JIM WEBSTER Apparently it was Machiavelli who said (almost certainly in Italian): “Never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis.” Churchill followed him by saying: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Obviously their wise advice is being followed. So, the government has unveiled a new food strategy ‘and told farmers to produce more fruit and vegetables in the wake of record … Continue reading Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
BY JIM WEBSTER The thing about farming is that yields fluctuate. You can plant the same acreage in two successive years. Sow the same variety, put on the same sprays and inputs, and see what happens. One year, because the rain came at the wrong time, the sun just scorched what was left. Next year everything fell just right. So, one year you didn’t even … Continue reading Windfalls, No Cider
BY JIM WEBSTER Don’t you know there is a war on? What does it take to get people to take things seriously? Do we need Chief Warden Hodges from Dad’s Army storming round Brussels shouting ‘Put that Light Out’? There is a problem with people. They will continue to believe things even when they’re obviously not true. As an example of this, YouGov do a … Continue reading The EU Has Lost its Marbles
BY JIM WEBSTER During first lockdown, behind the scenes, major retailers performed logistical miracles. As a farmer I’m not somebody who is prone to praise them, but in spite of ridiculous levels of panic buying (there are people out there who won’t need to buy toilet paper for another couple of years) the retailers managed to keep the show on the road. During lockdown I … Continue reading Too Little Wheat, Too Much Makeup
