July 2010 Archives

I have just returned from taking the dog for a walk along the river bank where we saw a sparrowhawk attack a collared dove.  This is the third time in one week that I have been within a few feet of a predatory bird doing its work.

Nature is red in tooth and claw, I've no problem with that.  The dove got away in any case and I doubt that the sparrowhawk will die from hunger. 

Maybe the RSPB need to come and do a bit more surveying in the Fens.

A chap called in today in a van selling the same type of trollies that we use for handling our cut flowers in the packhouse.

"How much do you want for them?" (that was me talking there, by the way)

"A score" (that's not me anymore, that's him replying to my question)

"That's a bit steep" (Now I'm replying to his answer)

The funny thing is, I didn't actually know how much "a score" was anyway.  I just said that it was too much.  I get a bit confused with all that  "monkey", "pony", "bag of sand" nonsense.

If, like me, you are not a Cockney, then you might find this handy guide quite, um, handy.

At the start of the week I managed to get away from work for a day for a LEAF Board meeting in Nottingham. 

I'm the new boy on the board and it is fairly intimidating, the trustees are an experienced and interesting bunch.  It's lucky that I'm not frightened of making a fool of myself and I am happy to be the boy who shouts when he thinks that the Emperor is naked, even if he isn't naked (No one was naked at the LEAF Board meeting, by the way.  I feel that I need to stress that point).

We assembled early to fit in a tour of the perfect example of a LEAF Marque farm, T Hammond & Sons

We were shown around by John Hammond, a great bloke whom I meet socially.  He is one of the great farming figures of my generation.  He does the work of ten men and has a staggering amount of energy, enthusiasm and vision.  His effort to embrace green technology and energy self-sufficiency in the face of changing government policy is awe-inspiring.

The Hammonds have established some successful new habitats on their farm and have preserved some fantastic existing ones. 

Today there was yet another report released claiming that farmland bird numbers have "declined steeply."  This is not a trend which I recognise on any of the farms that I visit.  Farmers spend a lot more time on their land than bird surveyors so inevitably see much more wildlife.

On our own farm I have seen several, large covies of English partridge and there is a greater range of small, nesting birds than I have seen for years (although maybe I am just paying more attention than I used to).  At John's on Monday we saw a buzzard at close quarters and watched as it hunted for something tasty and endangered to eat.

I have set myself an assignment.  I'm going to re-travel William Cobbett's Rural Rides. 

He took this journey in the 1820's visiting farms around the UK and commenting on the changes brought about by industrialisation, the Enclosures Act and the subsidisation of agriculture through the Corn Laws. 

This is all relevant stuff.  Mechanisation and rural depopulation have continued pretty well unchecked for the last two hundred years; if anything the pace of change is growing.  In my opinion the Common Agricultural Policy is just as damaging as the Corn Laws and for all the same reasons. 

The Enclosures Act brought an end to common land and forced land into private ownership.  This divided rural society into bosses and workers and created a barrier for new entrants.  It set in motion the move towards fewer, larger farms.  This is a close parallel to the consolidation of the industry driven by fewer merchants and supermarkets.

I agree with Cobbett's politics in so many areas.  His desire for a free market, more thriving rural businesses, light and honest governance and greater individual liberty and responsibility sits very comfortably with me. 

(Hopefully one of our more intelligent readers, Marathon Mike or Roger Shortbread perhaps, will pick up on the fact that I am now arguing for a free market but earlier suggested that we should ban soya imports).

It is a subject worthy of a brighter man than me but I can't find any evidence of anyone else having done anything similar.  The exciting thing about doing it now is that it is so easy to make the journey interactive with photos and videos.

I have made a start by going on Amazon to buy 8 books about Cobbett so that I can plan my route.  I will not be travelling by horse.

After the RSPB's comments earlier in the week, Phil and Heather Gorringe mounted a campaign on Twitter under the hash tag "wildfarmer" to demonstrate to the RSPB what UK farmers are doing to create bird habitats.  (Don't worry if you don't understand Twitter and hashtags and stuff, I'll put up a dog in a wig for you later).

Heather explained that the RSPB's comments about "intensive agriculture" do millions of pounds worth of damage to farmers' reputations.  It completely devalues the work that they do to champion good farming practice.

There are some well-informed farmers who would farm conscientiously whether the RSPB existed or not.  Phil Gorringe is a great example; they will carry on with habitat management however hostile the RSPB is towards them.

Unfortunately the majority of farmers will not behave in this way, they see such remarks and decide that the RSPB is an enemy rather than a friend.  Maybe this was the case with the last chief executive - he allowed his political views to interfere with his job far too much - it needn't be now.

I am firmly of the opinion that the "Big Society" concept could apply perfectly here.  It is time for pressure groups to put down their placards and to approach the matter slightly differently. 

Farmers are not people with unlimited time and money on their hands.  If they are offered practical help rather than more physical, financial and clerical demands, the outcomes will be improved dramatically.  If the RSPB were to send volunteers and fieldworkers out onto farms I think that they would be amazed how warmly their offer of help was received.

I am having a proper Sunday morning.  Pot of coffee, newspaper strewn across the kitchen table, dog having an eppy up underneath my chair.  I enjoy this opportunity so much that I actually get up early to do it (7.00am is a decent enough lie-in anyway).

I have been working seven days a week for most of the year and I am rather tired and ratty.  I am hopping chaotically between newspaper articles, writing up on here, eating things, swotting up on papers for the LEAF board meeting tomorrow and dealing with personal correspondance (That last bit sounds grand, there ain't that much of it, trust me).

I was ploughing yesterday and decided to keep going late into the evening to make sure that I didn't have to work today.  I was getting thoroughly fed up by the end of the day; even the dog was getting cabin fever.  The ground was very hard and dry and it was impossible to do a job which I was proud of.  We had subsoiled the field in the same direction that I was ploughing, I struggled to keep the furrows level and the plough breasts kept grabbing at the hard patches of land which made it difficult to keep straight.  I'm not a match-standard ploughman by any means but I do like to make a tidy hand of a task.

Worse still, I had too little to listen to.  The radio is of a lamentable standard on a Saturday.  I once loved Saturday morning radio; Home Truths and Loose Ends were particular favourites.  I have never been a big fan of local radio, I have grown out of Radio 1's weekend programming and listening to Dale Winton playing 60's music makes me so angry that I want to attack the controller of Radio 2 with a plank of wood.

There were only two cds in the tractor, one was an 80's combilation (Erasure, anyone?) the other was a compilation of the Greatest Country Music EVER! volume 28 variety.  I have no idea where it came from, no one on the farm admits to liking country music.  It must have blown into the cab from Norfolk on a windy day.

Nothing accentuates the isolation of a driving job more than only having one cd.  It's like Japanese water torture.  I had to go to the Netherlands a couple of years ago and something went wrong with that "clown's car" BMW that I had at the time.  I took Mum's car in a hurry and it only had a Will Young compact disc in it.  I don't know if you have listened to Dutch radio or perused the music that they sell in filling stations - it is mostly hairspray rock like Bon Jovi and it's wholly unlistentoable .  I don't know how I got through the 48 hours in that car without going insane.  I don't think that I could listen to another note from that Will Young album, when I got home I felt as though I had been in a relationship with him for two years

I mentioned before the Friends of the Earth campaign to reduce the amount of imported soya which we use as animal feed in the UK.

An MP, Robert Flello, has now introduced a private members bill to bring action.  Only six MPs get drawn in the ballot which allows them to introduce a bill, with these odds there could only have been a slim possibility that an agricultural topic would come up.

Where UK livestock farmers are using soya they are stimulating demand for a product produced on deforested land in South America.  Once this land has been brought into production it will be competing against us with other crops.  This is the second most important reason that it should remain as rainforest.

The UK is perfectly capable of producing its own animal feed, if more marginal land were returned to pasture we could cut our input use too.  You can read the RAC report here.

The second hearing for this bill is on 12th November (my Dad's birthday, have you posted your card yet?).  You can show your support for Flello's bill here

FWi published this article today suggesting that the RSPB blames intensive farming for the recent fall in the kestrel population.

I was initially indignant, not least because we have a lot of hawks around our farm.  By coincidence, I saw one on Sunday at closer quarters than ever before as it flew near my tractor while I cultivated some bulb land. 

The story centres around the BTO's Bird Breeding Survey which recorded a fall in the kestrel population of 36% between 2008 and 2009.  We had an extremely cold winter in 2008/2009 with heavy snow and frozen ground.  I should have thought that this was the most likely explanation.  If farming were to blame then we might have expected to see a decline in the previous year when set-a-side was reduced to 0%.

The RSPB advertises itself as 1 million voices for nature.  On this occasion, however, this was the voice and opinion of one man, Grahame Madge, the RSPB media officer.

I would make the same point to the Grahame Madge that I made to Georgina Downs.  We can accomplish far more if instead of slagging one another off at every opportunity we all work collaboratively on the issues.  The RSPB has done a good job of promoting farming champions and they should focus on this approach.  It is more likely to encourage other farmers to get involved and to bring real results than constantly whining to the press and the government.

The farming press, on the other hand, could try to avoid polarising the debate with inflamatory headlines.

<:OBJECT width="640" height="385">They have a campaign caled jointhemoovement which is encouraging a ban on animal feeds grown on deforested land in favour of home-grown feedstuff.

<:OBJECT width="640" height="385">I can't find anything to argue about in that.  It will push up the price of grain (and maybe meat too) but that seems like a good plan anyway 

It's good for bloggers' egos when they get a comment - think of it as like putting some manure around a rose bush (or planting a rose bush on a heap of maure if you think that's a better analogy).

I have grown to accept that most of you can't be bothered to leave a comment; you don't care about my feelings (even Matty S has abandoned me)

Anyway.  Guess what? 

Go on, guess.

I've only got a comment on here from Georgina Downs.  That's right, the pesticide campaigner, Georgina Downs.  I was very excited, she's like a celebrity to me.

I emailed a reply to her (there's a copy of it below).  I hope it sounds chummy because the antagonism between campaigners and farmers is doing nothing to advance sustainable agriculture.  Also, I have made too many enemies since I started writing this blog. Can you remember my run with Blatch?  I don't get a Christmas card from Poodle Pam either. 

I have noticed that many food/environmental/pesticide campaigners are very cynical about "the farming industry."  They obviously believe that conventional farming is a centrally-controlled, conspiratorial organisation.  I have always found the opposite to be true, most farmers that I know are independent and highly resistant to being told what to do by anyone.

I had a little jolly in the middle of the week and headed down to Mayfair for the Crown Estate's Annual Reception.  This is where they announce their annual results and present their Business Awards.  This year the Estate celebrated its 250th anniversary.  It was a classy but low-key affair.

I rent Vickers Farm from the Crown Estate (to be purely specific I rent it from Lincolnshire County Council who rent it from the Crown Estate) and they were the co-sponsors of my Nuffield Scholarship.  I have always found them to be ethical, forward-thinking and interested landlords.

The Crown Estate contributes a consistent but substantial sum to the public purse, almost a quarter of a billion pounds per year.  Although they are substantial landowners, the rural estate is by no means the most important part of the broad portfolio of property that they hold. The greatest revunue currently comes from commercial property held in London (they charge a lot more cash per square metre in Regents Street than they do in Moulton Marsh let me tell you). 

Perhaps the greatest potential for the future lies in the marine estate.  The Crown own the seabed around the coastline of Great Britain out to a distance of 12 miles.  If we are short of productive agricultural land in the future then this will be the next place to look for producing protein and biomass.  There are already enough off-shore wind turbines turbines built and in development to provide a quarter of the UK's power requirements by 2020.  These are all situated on the Crown Estate.

The scope of the Crown is so awe inspiring that you wonder why George III gave it to the nation in return for the Civil List; he must have been pretty broke (no wonder people thought he was mad).  I was deeply impressed by the Crown's quiet efficiency and gentle but absolute sense of purpose.

They serve bloomin' good canapes too.

IT IS RAINING.

For the first time in what feels like 17 years, it is actually raining.  It is banging against the office window and I can see puddles.  It is just in time.  My potato crops won't die.  Our delphiniums will flower.  Bulb lifting will be easier.  There is even thunder.

I am having an orgasm just looking at it

"Matthew?"

Yes, how can I help?

"What's the World's Largest Smoothie, mate?"

Funny you should ask that, reader.  I have just found out the answer.

The world's largest smoothie was made in Canada last week.  They used blueberries (we call them Bloobs, in the trade)

It was a little publicity drive by Dairy Farmers of Canada.  Good for them I say.  This is a fun way to promote your product when you have got a bit too much. 

I found this amusing little essay which was written by an Aberdeenshire schoolboy.

I initially wondered if it was by my friend, Aberdeenshire farmer Andrew Booth.  On consideration I realised that it showed far too much insight into livestock habits and husbandry for Boothy to have been the author.

I thought slavery had been abolished.  I have worked more hours this week than I have for a decade.  We are harvesting cut flowers, harvesting daffodil bulbs, doing cultivations for vegetables and drilling new crops.  We are also having to prepare for the building of the coldstore which starts this week.

Arable farmers bust a gut for three weeks of the year and then strut about like heroes returned from a war conclusively won.  We are working those hours for months at a time.  It is exhausting and doesn't make for good blog entries.

I spent a solid twelve hours on a tractor yesterday and have similar amount of ploughing to do today (my tractor is needed as part of the daffodil harvesting team all week so cultivations have to be done at night and on Sundays).  I'm not a fan of working Sundays; I have refused to leave the house without a coffee and danish pastry this morning.  This is to stop it feeling like a Tuesday.

It is not as miserable as I am making it sound.  There are worse places to be on a hot day than in an air conditioned tractor.  My dog has become a competent co-pilot too and is suprisingly good company.  He is learning, the hard way, not to put his head under the clutch pedal.  I might have to consider an Autopower gearbox next time.

I also saw my godson, Theo, yesterday. He is three so his opinions are pretty maleable.  I had fun persuading him that John Deeres are much better than the Claas tractors than his dad has.  He even had a John Deere hat on at one point.  Jules will be mortified.  Unfortunately that's the price he has to pay for going to Le Mans in his Aston Martin while I am stuck in Lincolnshire working.