David's Digest

To be honest it isn't quite so hot today. But travelling across East Anglia yesterday was very uncomfortable and looking over hedges made me feel even worse. At least it did until I read Phil Clarkes blog that indicated wheat prices had risen £10 in a week. The view over those hedges was clearly the reason.

Hardly a field was ripening evenly. Most had scorched patches all over them and some whole crops were looking very sad indeed. This morning we've had about five drops of rain here in this part of Norfolk and I suspect moisture has been just as scarce elsewhere. Harvest must begin soon but it will not be an enjoyable experience despite the higher prices. For yields are likely to be well down.

I am almost embarrassed to mention that in this immediate area our grain crops are, of course, suffering but not nearly as much as those I saw 60 miles west yesterday. Whether its because we've had a bit more rain, or that our heavier land has retained winter moisture better I can't say. But our yields will be down as well, although hopefully by not quite as much as some.

My thoughts turn to the fact that we've probably sold too much forward at prices well below those available now, confirming the gamble that is farming - this time for traditional weather reasons rather than because of currency fluctuations. It also crosses my mind that, climate change notwithstanding, the law of averages suggests the deficit in rainfall will be corrected sometime and that sods law dictates that it will be in August when we are trying to harvest the shrivelled grain.

There, I've confirmed it. I'm a miserable git whose glass is always half empty. But at least I will have satisfied some of my critics who have been making such allegations for years.

Here in Norfollk (as in many other area's) some specialist potato growers rent land for a season on which to grow potatoes. Most try to get hold of fields where irrigation is available but if the land and location are good enough they will sometimes take the risk of having no water nearby in the hope that the summer weather is wet enough to provide for a profitable crop.

Needless to say that latter policy has come a bit unstuck this year and unirrigated spuds are suffering. And according to our agronomist at least one grower in east Norfolk has become so concerned about the state of one of his 30 acre rented potato fields that he has been carting water to it in tanker lorries and watering the crop that way.

Apparently he's taken dozens of loads and has been doing it for several days at huge expense that I hesitate to quote because it might be exaggerated. I hope for his sake that he saves his crop. Because he's saddled himself with horrendous outgoings that will have to be paid whether or not he gets an economic yield. But I suppose that's the kind of risk you have to take in the dryest summer for a hundred years. 

According to todays Daily Mail a certain Dr Catherine Douglas of Newcastle University has been spending taxpayers money to see if pigs have emotions and could show optimism and pessimism. She has been teaching them to respond to different noises, then rewarding them with enriched environments, which include apples to indicate optimism and an empty plastic bag when they are pessimistic.

Apparently she's done similar experiments with cows in the past and claims to have discovered that they like to have names

She claims her work "answers important questions about animal welfare".

Sorry Catherine. I believe I am as anxious to ensure farm animals are kept in the best possible conditions as you are. But you are going over the top to suggest they have the emotions you attribute to them.

Your pigs and cows are just responding to the food you are giving them. Their emotions are controlled by their desire for food and any optimism they exhibit is associated with seeing the bucket (or in your case the apple) that you are about to feed it with. Even the fact that you give it the food in an enriched environment is secondary to its desire to eat.

That is not to say pigs are unintelligent or cannot be trained. Clearly they can. But you have fallen into the trap of attributing human emotions to animals and that is unworthy of your university education and the taxpayers money that has been wasted on it at a time of national financial stringency.