March 2007 Archives

The Myerscough students have done it.

Fifty agriculture and mechanisation students spread 2500 tonnes of manure in their annual Muckathon.

The hunting, shooting and fishing fraternity were out in force yesterday for a big sale of sporting equipment in Cambridgeshire.

Nearly 700 lots went under the hammer at the Cheffins auction, including pictures, taxidermy, hunting attire, fishing tackle, guns and shooting accessories.

Working with other members of your family can be a blessing and a curse.

It's something that farmers, perhaps more than in any other business, are used to. When it's going well, it can go brilliantly; when it's going badly, it can go terribly.

Ireland's star bowler in the World Cup cricket, Boyd Rankin, is certainly glad his 'day job' is on the family farm.

I've been deluged with correspondence about Land Rovers.

Some said that Charlie Flindt's criticisms of this iconic farm vehicle were justified. That it was about time that someone stuck their head above parapet and spoke the unspeakable.

Others said he was wrong. That he was talking tosh. And one or two said some even ruder things that I won't repeat in polite company!

You see some funny things at farm sales.

One Field Day reader, Tessa Gates, was at an auction on the Isle of Wight yesterday and came across this guy. Apparently, the cat goes everywhere with him.

Wonder if he lets it off the lead...

Birds fall into three categories as far as most farmers are concerned.

The excitement is palpable. Or maybe not.

We brought you news a while back about the webcam a cheesemaker had set up to allow punters to watch a block of cheese ripen in real time.

It's not the only webcam we've mentioned on Field Day - there was also the bizarre story of the hencam set up by a poultry producer.

The cheese site has now had more than 400,000 hits, according to the media, who predict that viewing will reach a "frenzy" tomorrow when the 20kg cheese is subjected to its first quality check.

Mildly (or possibly, maturely!) interesting, maybe. But a frenzy? Come off it...

Shire Horses are magnificent animals. Gentle Giants, they're called.

I once spent a day delivering beer on a Shire Horse-drawn dray with the guys from the Young & Co Brewery in London.

Pity the poor Australians - they really have got a problem with cane toads.

Our story about the problems these warty creatures are causing them has caught Field Day readers imagination. Another contacted me this morning informing me one the size of a small dog has now been caught.

Toadzilla, it's been christened. You can read the full story and see a photo here.

England footballing legend - and one-time Republic of Ireland manager - Jack Charlton has been helping the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.

Awards are funny things, aren't they.

I've always been slightly cynical of them in the past - but that's because I've never won anything (other than the under-12s dancing competition in Lower Halstow village hall in 1978).

Here, have a laugh at this guy. He's a friend of mine and likes to think he's a bit of a machinery buff. Good to see he can still get a JCB Groundhog well and truly stuck in the mud, though! This is a bit of great YouTube video footage.

It was always going to be a controversial one.

Criticising Land Rovers is, for some people, like buying apples from France or insulting a family member. You just don't do it.

There again, a lot of people hate the things - so I suppose it's fair game.

I was transfixed yesterday by the sight of two hares boxing. The so-called mad March hares.

It's a beautiful sight: They're fascinating, mythical creatures and I'm told it's not, in fact, the males that fight - it tends to be females fending off unwanted advances from amorous males.

Seeing as it's nearly the end of March, I figured I'd seen the last of the 2007 nearly naked charity calendars. Wrong.

Another one has arrived - this time from a farm shop in Scotland. It features the staff at Milton Haugh Farm Shop at Carmyllie in Angus baring all - or nearly all. Pictured is the star of May/June.

"We decided to send them out so that people, who don't even know we exist, can see our smiling faces," said Lesley Gray, aka Mrs November/December.

We can, thank you. And a bit more, too...

We all get wound up by inconsiderate parking (most of us have probably been guilty of it at one time or another, too).

Farmers get particularly frustrated by people leaving their car in what looks like a disused lane or gateway but actually is in regular use.

There are various solutions. Ignoring it and moaning later. A stroppy note left under the windscreen wiper. Finding the person responsible and exchanging words.

But there's a more effective solution altogether. Snails.

A woman has written to Country Life this week explaining how, aggrieved at a neighbour's inconsiderate parking, she gathered up a pan of slugs from the garden and put them on the offending car. By the next morning it was, she says, totally covered with slimy trails.

Touche!

Let it never be said country people aren't multi-faceted.

Take Yorkshireman Hugh Crabtree. By day he's the boss of Farmex, a company specialising in high-tech ventilation equipment for piggeries. By night, he's a fantastic fiddle player who's about to embark on national tour.

I've often bemoaned the failure of our farming industry to promote itself properly.

Other countries have long since grasped what we seemingly still fail to - that celebrity sells. The Americans have even used David Beckham in a milk promotion drive.

News now reaches me that the Swiss have signed up a load of celebs for their latest agricultural campaign - among them Formula 1 star Michael Schumacher, who's retired there to run a horse stud farm.

You're never too young to start reading Farmers Weekly or using our website.

We often get sent pictures of youngsters catching up with the latest farming news and views - and this is the latest "aaaaahhh" picture.

Essex Young Farmers are getting on their bikes in a bid to raise cash for good causes - literally.

A team of 20 will be cycling the 280 miles from the East Anglian county to Torquay for the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs convention at the end of April.

I've been lucky enough to judge a few food competitions over the years.

They're great fun and the chance to try some great new food, even if by the end of the day you're a little weary of whatever it is you're judging (it's not like wine tasting, you can't spit it out).

Something else, it seems, that polarises opinions. Land Rovers.

People either love 'em or loathe 'em - and one guy who very definitely falls in the latter category is Hampshire farmer and motoring buff Charlie Flindt.

Here's a sneak preview of an article he's written for this Friday's Farmers Weekly. It's very much a personal opinion so maybe you'll think he's talking complete and utter hogwash? Post a comment and let me know.

One of the nicest meals I've ever had was pheasant with a cobnut stuffing.

And I'm not the only one with a taste for game, as new stats show sales of meats such as venison, pheasant and grouse soared 46% between 2004 and 2006.

One of Field Day's more mature and musically-minded (his words, not mine) readers tells me there was once a song called The Auctioneer which sounded in part a bit like some of the guys on the audio clip I mentioned yesterday.

You can read the lyrics here or even listen to a short clip of the song which was sung by Leroy Van Dyke.

It was released in 1956 when the guy who alerted me to it - one John Snuggs from London - was just six. He tells me he recalls listening to it on the wireless (again, his word not mine!) sitting round the Aga.

Maybe there's an opportunity for some of the leading lights in the world of livestock auctioneering to release a single now?

Actually, maybe not...

There's nothing like the sound of an auctioneer in full flow.

Livestock auctioneers, particularly, are well known for their verbal dexterity.

This website features audio clips of some of America's finest in action. My favourite is the splendidly named Bruce Brock of Battle Creek in Iowa.

Some sound like they're on helium. Or drunk. Or both.

If you're interested in news and views from British cattle sales, check out the Taking Stock blog

Talking of cane toads, get an eyeful of this photo which came from a Field Day reader in Australia. Truly terryfying.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not big on shopping.

A day being dragged round the shops with my other half is my idea of purgatory - but one of the few places where I actually enjoy it is the Country Living Fairs in London.

Think you've got a problem in the garden or the vegetable patch with slugs? Spare a thought for the good citizens of Darwin in Australia who are currently battling an invading horde of cane toads.

Artists are a funny lot.

Couldn't help wonder if I misheard Front Row last night on R4 when one said he was using sheep crap in his new exhibition.

Field Day readers were among those taking part in a recent star count, organised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the British Astronomical Association.

The results are now in and the suspicions have been confirmed: light pollution is now blotting out the stars across much of the countryside.

Aching legs today from all the walking at Crufts yesterday.

My money for Best in Show was on that gorgeous flatcoated retriever which won the gundog group. Or maybe the Bloodhound which had taken the top spot in the Hound group - it looked as if it had a brilliant personality.

Can it really be 25 years since the Falklands War?

I was a mere babe-in-arms at the time (well, a teenager actually) but there are a few things I remember vividly about it. The sailor Simon Weston who got so badly burnt. The ship that sank, The Sir Galahad. The place name, Goose Green.

And Max Hastings, of course. He was the journalist who was the first Briton to enter Port Stanley and he's since edited papers including the Daily Telegraph.

Ever wondered what farming's like in a Third World country? In Africa, perhaps?

Well here's a great chance to find out because one of my pals - Andrew Shirley - is going to The Gambia next week looking at a project helping 600 farmers called Gambia is Good, which is backed by the English fruit growing company, Haygrove.

Andrew is happy to take questions from people about farming (and anything else, for that matter) in The Gambia and he'll answer them while he's out there via the posting on the Food for Thought blog

Send him as many questions as you'd like!

Isn't Shaun the Sheep fab.

I was in fits of laughter during this morning's episode, Mower Mouth.

For other addicts, here's some insider info and pictures from those clever guys at Aardman, who make this fab tv series.

Talk to old boys on farms - you know the sort, the ones who've worked on the land for 50 years or so - and one of the things they'll tell you has changed most about the countryside is that the lapwings have gone.

This black-and-white bird has all but disappeared from big areas the country and much work is underway now to try and boost its numbers.

I've never seen a Will o' the wisp.

There are various explanations for these mysterious lights, occasionally seen in marshy areas.

I wish I could take better photographs.

I know what I want them to be like - trouble is, they never quite turn out how I envisage they will.

If you're a keen photographer, however, you might be interested to know that the Campaign to Protect Rural England is running a landscape photography competition, with £20,000 of prize money.

One of my favourite country pictures at the moment is below. Sadly, I didn't take it. It came from Kerry King who lives on a farm at Hythe in Kent.

Mention the words 'agricultural student' to most people and what will they think of?

A healthy disdain for high fashion, perhaps, or a penchant for the odd glass or seven of beer. Raising money for charity wouldn't necessarily be the first thing that springs to mind.

At the risk of being a bore here, I'm back on one of my hobby-horses: rural services.

The topic's in the news again this week after NFU Countryside released the results of a big survey of 4000 people living in rural areas.

Never ceases to amaze me, the varied things farmers get up to.

Take Sophia Lolley. She's a sheep farmer in Wales who's had a lot of success on the livestock showing circuit but is also signed to a New York disco pop record company.

So, Liz Hurley has tied the knot.

Her wedding to Indian businessman Arun Nayar this weekend followed months of speculation in the media.

Never can make my mind up about the French.

My default position is that I'm not too keen on them (Agincourt, and all that) but there's a lot to admire about them, too. Their sense of national pride; their appreciation of their farmers, their understanding that, unless there's a very good reason to the contrary, lunch should be two hours long and involve wine.

Some of my pals are at the SIA and SIMA events in Paris right now, so if you're interested in getting a flavour of the action at France's biggest agricultural show, you can do at the Food For Thought blog and the Taking Stock blog

Fans of Wallace and Gromit - and kids everywhere - will be pleased to know there's a new tv series starting on Monday featuring one of its stars, Shaun the Sheep.

Shaun will be known to many as the silent star of A Close Shave, the award-winning Wallace and Gromit short film from Aardman.

Field Day got hold of a few episodes of the new series which is on CBBC from Monday afternoon. Our reviewer - a five-year-old lad from Sussex - informs me we can look forward to, among other things, our woolly friends attending keep-fit classes and visiting a pizza house dressed as scarecrows.

Much talk on The Archers about the SIMA Show in France which opens tomorrow.

When you read a review of a book that describes it as "so red bloodied, so gloriously politically incorrect and so unfashionable informative that it slices through the genre like a meat cleaver", you just know you've got to get hold of a copy.

Just heard that it's World Book Day today.

A couple of novels rooted in the countryside have made it into the WBD Top 10 "Books You Can't Live Without" survey.

Wuthering Heights and To Kill a Mockingbird - both of which I found quite dark and, at times, quite troubling - are in fifth and seventh place respectively.

I can't wait until Crufts next week.

I'm hoping to go but if I can't make it I'll certainly be glued to the telly. It's unmissable.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was last year when presenter Ben Fogle was in a room full of Golden Retrievers and two of them - eer, how shall I put this delicately - started taking a rather passionate interest in one another.