February 2007 Archives

I can think of a lot of things I'd spend £30,000 on if I had it right now.

A Lotus Elise, for example. A Contessa 32 sailing yacht. A swimming pool. A holiday of a lifetime (first class, obviously, and still with a lot of change).

But this is what someone paid for a bull at the massive Perth February bull sales. Actually, they paid the equivilant in guineas because this is how the stock is auctioned.

This event is a huge date in the pedigree livestock calendar. You can watch some of the action on this webcast

It's big and it's worth forty five quid.

Yes, if you're interested in horses, The Veterinary Care of the Horse is a great book.

I'm not a huge fan of them myself (most of my friends think I'm mad) so haven't got any use for this 700-plus page tome by Sue Devereux. I could use it a doorstop, I suppose, but it seems a waste.

Who says Young Farmers is just a chance to get drunk and meet a prospective partner?

Farming-themed funerals, now there's a thought.

Field Day has been contacted by a guy who uses his 1950 Leyland Beaver lorry to do funerals, creating a themed display relating to the deceased's interests or occupation.

Let's be honest - some things are just out and out peculiar.

Becoming fascinated by carrots, for example.

There was a guy on Radio 4 at the weekend who has, in his own, words a "passion" for carrots.

He's got an alarm clock made from them, he reckons you can make beautiful jewellery from them and even told listeners that this humble vegetable helped to win the Second World War.

You can listen again at Saturday Live's website. Or you can find out about the World Carrot Museum which this chap's busy setting up.

Why was it, I wonder, when his wife said his interest in carrots "helped take him off to do nice things", that I heard the words: Helps get him out the house!

Pulling off muddy and wet boots is a perennial problem when you spend a lot of time outdoors.

I spend a lot of time on my backside having toppled over, hopping from foot to foot struggling with a uncoperative hiking boot or welly.

I've had two bad theatre-related experiences recently.

First there was Comfort Me With Apples - a play about a Somerset farm - which I went to see after reading rave reviews of it. It was rubbish.

Then there was Richard III - an Arab Tragedy, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare which I saw last weekend. It was in Arabic and, frankly, by about halfway through I was wishing someone would let off a weapon of mass destruction.

So I'm in two minds whether to go and see the latest play tackling countryside issues - The Falling Sky, which will be touring Oxfordshire from March 6.

It tells the stories of five people, their lives set against the backdrop of issues such as village expansion, fox hunting, the realities of modern farming and the threatened closure of the village post office.

The latest fad taking the food world by storm is the exotic Australian fish, the barramudi.

It's not cheap (it can carry a price tag of £11/kg) but sales are shooting up.

Foodies rave about its "sweet buttery" taste. You don't need to go all the way to Oz to try it, though, as this carnivorous fish is now being raised by a firm called New Forest Barrumundi. Their website details stockists and provides some yummy recipe ideas.

Now I've heard it all.

Some bizarre events take place in the countryside - cheese-rolling springs to mind - but how about this one: The World Worm Charming Championship.

This unmissable spectacle take place on June 30 in Cheshire. Each competitor gets a 3x3m plot and has to "charm" as many worms as possible from the ground in a set time.

There are strict rules. Digging is obviously not permitted. Neither are drugs of any sort (for the purposes of chaming, water is regarded as a drug). Vibrations may be used. Similarly, music can be played to encourage the little blighters up.

If you're thinking of taking part, bear in mind the record was set in 1980 when 511 worms were raised by a Mr Tom Shufflebotham. That's a lot of worms!

My first reaction when I saw this was to think: I don't fancy the one second from right much.

But they're costumes, of course - worn by members of Ludlow Young Farmers Club who were taking part in the Shropshire Young Farmers annual Drama competition at Whitchurch Civic Centre.

Nesscliffe YFC were declared the winners, with Alberbury runners-up and Wem and Dorrington taking third and fourth place respectively.

The standard of acting of Young Farmers has always been fantastically high. It's a little-known fact that Connie Fisher who won the How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria tv competition honed her acting skills in Young Farmers.

I can't wait until the big drama final which takes place at the national Young Farmers annual convention running in Torquay between April 27 and 29.

Pancake Day – so I’m heading home now to flip a few.

Talk has been heavily pancake-orientated today. It's a contentious issue, what constitutes the best one.

Farmers with Jersey and Guernsey cows obviously reckon a pancake’s not a pancake unless it uses milk from their cows.

On the Black Sheep Blog, however, there are some alternative - OK, positively weird - suggestions for what should go into one.

There’s also a great source of recipes here.

It’s being billed as the biggest thing to happen in the falconry world since 1937.

That was, I’m reliably informed, when the British walked away with the Prize of Honour at the German International Hunting Exhibition in Berlin and a bronze falcon was presented to the British Falconers’ Club by General Herman Göring (who could forget that!)

The shop and post office, the school, the pub, the church and the village hall are traditionally seen as the heart of our villages.

Without them, the character of the place – and quality of life for the people who live there – drops.

There’s no subject like Agas to polarise opinion.

Anyone would think I said something sacrilegious or swore in church! All I did was dare suggest that they might be overrated.

The outrage goes on. I’ve had another call this morning from someone saying they disagreed. In the strongest possible terms. They weren’t from Tunbridge Wells but they might as well have been. They were that disgusted.

So here, just to add fuel to the fire, is the original article by a farmer friend of mine complaining about them. Naturally, in the interests of fairness, I’ve let an Aga fan have a right of reply.

The Outer Hebrides is no more than a place on the shipping forecast to most people...Gale Force 8 veering westerly.

I’ve never got closer to it than the island of Arran which was beautiful, great for seal watching and, contrary to what I'd been warned, not infested with midges (the wee beasties, as they’re known).

One of my less romantic friends has just told me he’s going fishing tonight to avoid having to do anything with his other half for Valentine’s Day.

It’s National Chip Week so, go on, treat yourself.

There are events across the country this week celebrating the humble chip - but perhaps the bizarrest is a bid to set a new world record for "the most portions of chips eaten simultaneously”.

This is happening tomorrow in London’s Leicester Square when the British Potato Council will try and orchestrate a syncronized scoff by 1000 people.

It's not the first time Field Day has followed record-breaking bids involving food. Wasn't that long ago we were at an attempt to make the world's biggest bowl of porridge.

A minefield, sandstorms and muggers – you take them all in your stride if you’re a farmer or agronomist.

At least, Rupert Gillingham from North Yorkshire and Sam Fenton from Humberside do. They encountered all three recently, tackling the 4500-mile Plymouth to Banjul Challenge.

Most of us have been sent on courses over the years.

Computing courses, business courses, spraying courses, chainsaw courses, ATV-driving courses, hedge-laying courses – the list is endless.

I couldn’t help smiling, though, when I was sent details of one earlier today – a ‘Mink Raft Workshop’.

If you’ve been to church today, you’re probably well aware of the dire state of some rural churches’ finances.

Some could soon be making a few extra quid, though, thanks to a brainwave by one farmer-cum-churchwarden in Somerset.

Yes, OK, I know it’s February - but I’ve got a boxload of them I want to get rid of.

Those nice people at Merlin Unwin books sent me a load of fabulous fishing calendars a while back so here's your chance to win one - they're full of lots of great images and quotes about fishing.

All you’ve got to do is send me a quirky fact about fish or fishing (just post it below) and if I use it on Field Day then you’ll win a calendar. They’re worth £12.99 apiece so it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Not every day you find yourself having a conversation about Ian Botham’s bottom.

The cricketer has been a long-time supporter of British meat, working with the English Beef and Lamb Executive alongside fellow cricketer Allan Lamb. Their nicknames – Beefy and Lamby – obviously have lots of potential for the meat marketing guys.

Nothing unusual, then, when I heard EBLEX was involving Beefy in a new campaign promoting its ‘Quality Standard Mark’. Then I saw this picture.

It’s part of a tv advert which goes out from next Thursday (Feb 15).

Obviously I inquired if it's actually the cricketer’s backside featured in the campaign. An insider at EBLEX told me: “It’s a secret, you’ll have to ask Mr Botham himself!”

I’m not a great reader of women’s mags.

If you’d asked me an hour ago what Pick Me Up is about, the only idea I could have come up with was a magazine about caffeine-containing drinks.

In fact, it contains real-life stories and puzzles and is aimed at “busy mums between 16 and 44”. I know this because I’ve just been contacted by a journalist from the mag with a query about farmers. In particular, if I knew any single ones.

If you weren’t digging out your car from under the snow, doing battle with public transport or struggling to get round the farm, maybe you caught BBC Breakfast news this morning?

There was a Sussex farming family on it called the Hooks who have started their own milk delivery round, selling the white stuff from their organic herd as unpasteurised ‘raw’ milk.

Life’s a beach – at least it is for the cows in the photo, sent to us by one Field Day user.

If you’re thinking it doesn’t look like the Norfolk, Cumbrian or Kent coast, you’re right, it was snapped by Sarah Bartlett in the Langkawi area of Malaysia.

Whatever next, skiing sheep?

Farm workers obviously have allies in high places.

The actor Martin Sheen – known to millions as President Bartlet in the tv drama The West Wing and for those with slightly longer memories as Captain Willard in the film Apocalypse Now – has backed a campaign supporting “exploited” mushroom pickers in Ireland.

The actor is a well-known political activist in America, where he’s been arrested dozens of times for protesting.

There have even been reports that he’s been approached by the Democrats to run for the Senate, which he declined claiming he wasn’t qualified.

“You’re mistaking celebrity for credibility,” he said, with an un-celebrity-like sense of self-awareness.

Mushroom pickers are yet to respond to this ‘presidential’ intervention…

So, the Today programme ended up broadcasting that bit on farming smells - you can hear it here.

After my 15 minutes (actually 15 seconds, more like) of fame on R4, I’m still waiting for the call from Hollywood.

In the meanwhile, it’s not only us in the countryside who are interested in the way our business smells. A blog by the editor of Contract Journal, the construction industry’s leading mag, is attempting to find out which smells get builders going.

The native American Indians had the right idea when it came to the buffalo they killed: they used every part of the carcass and wasted nothing.

I couldn’t help thinking of this – and also feeling a little squeamish – when I read this morning about a new use for bull’s semen.

It’s found its way (and, no, this isn’t an early April Fool's joke) into a new hair product used in a swanky London hairdresser’s.

Excitement – and a little panic – at this end.

We’ve just got back from Hampshire where we were recording with a reporter from the Today programme who had picked up on our ‘farming smells’ debate running on the Farmers Weekly’s forums and here on Field Day.

No sign of John Humphrys or James Naughtie, but we did get to meet the show’s science and environment correspondent, Tom Feilden. He was interested to hear why there’s no place quite like a farm for smells.

He was very kind and treated me (a radio virgin) gently, but even so it was a bit nerve-racking.

The piece is due to go out tomorrow morning. It might mean an early start if you want to catch it, though, as Today is on air between 7am and 9am on Saturdays.

I’m all for secondments in the workplace.

They’re a great opportunity to try new things, meet new people and broaden your horizons.

And I’ve heard of agricultural college staff embarking on some pretty weird and wonderful ones – but news has reached me of one that's really wacky.