April 2007 Archives

So, that's that then. Another Young Farmers convention has come and gone.

I'm back in the office today and flagging a bit, to be honest. Definitely need an early night tonight.

Lots of memories from the weekend. My highlights included watching Buxton's play in the drama, hearing all the upbeat talk about the future of farming at the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Forum and having such a laugh at the fancy dress party.

Don't forget you be able to watch a seven-minute video of the weekend's highlights soon. The link to it will be on Field Day tomorrow.

The drama at the convention is always a hotly contested competition and this year three teams were battling it out on Sunday afternoon - Buxton, Bedwas and Pelynt.

My favourite was Buxton who were performing a play called The Seven Year Hitch. It was about inheritance tax.

Now I know this might not sound a particularly funny subject, but it was hilarious. It involved a dead farmer in a freezer at one point.

The actors in the Seven Year Hitch were from Derbyshire. Apparently they had never played at such a low altitude as Torquay before!

I promised you a couple more T-shirts so here goes. We spotted these two corkers on Sunday morning.

'Military uniform' was the fancy dress theme in the Riviera Centre for Saturday night.

Everywhere you looked, there were people in army camouflage gear. It felt like I'd inadvertently walked onto an army training base.

We had a beer and a good chat last night with a couple of the guys from Cornwall - and they bet us £20 the photo we took of them wouldn't end up getting used on FWi.

So here it is.

Please send the money (cash only please, gents) to me c/o Farmers Weekly. Alternatively, you could put it behind the bar for me at Blackpool next year...

This is Chesney on stage. Sadly, he declined my offer to take a turn on the keyboard ("but, Ches, I've got Grade 2 piano!")

Tonight's entertainment is about to start in Torquay, featuring Radio 1's Chappers & Dave and Chesney Hawkes, best known for his smash hit 'The One and Only'.

This is me backstage (OK, it was in the hotel but backstage sounds better) with Chesney. And no, if you're wondering, I'm not 4' 2", he was standing three steps higher up than me!

I've throw a few shapes on the dancefloor in my time. Not very well and often under the influence, admittedly, but I was well impressed with the Disco Dancing Competition this afternoon.

They were all brilliant, but the eventual winner was Rhosybol YFC.

Of course, I'd have been up there like a shot showing them how it was done if it wasn't for my old war wound!

What I said earlier about Torquay being quiet, forget that!

Young Farmers are out in force and the town is buzzing.

The beach is a popular spot for a stroll or a kickaround with a ball and we caught up this afternoon with the 40 people who made the journey here from Kent.

Obviously Zoe Fisher needed to cool down in a hurry!

Young Farmers are famous for their T-shirts.

Every year there is a vast array of them on display at the convention, all with slogans on the back. Some are clever, most are funny, a few are downright offensive.

Field Day can, of course, bring you the full unedited version of proceedings here, so we'll be publishing one or two of the T-shirt photos that are deemed too offensive to make it either into Farmers Weekly magazine or onto other (less judiciously edited!) areas of FWi.

Here's one to kick off with.

8 am and it's like a ghost town here.

The sun's out but very few Young Farmers are yet. Guess most are still sleeping off their hangovers or preparing for the day's activities.

A wave of excitement went round last night when we discovered a journalist from The Sunday Times style magazine will be here to cover the event. Young Farmers style - now there's a thought.

Congratulations, incidentally, to everyone who walked or cycled or drove tractors to Torquay for charity.

I met up with a saddle-sore but very happy contingent from Essex yesterday evening who you may have read about on Field Day before.

Well, here we are then. In Torquay for one of my favourite weekends of the year: the National Federation of Young Farmers' annual convention.

It all got underway this afternoon and if you're wondering what on earth I'm doing writing a blog post at 10pm well, don't worry, this will only be a quick one while I'm wolfing something to eat and putting my dancing shoes on and then it's out to see the sights of Torquay.

There are nearly 4000 young farmers from across England and Wales in the Devon town. I spotted the first lot in the Fleet services on the M3: the pink shirts of Suffolk Young Farmers.

The countdown's now on.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading west - driving to Torquay for the National Federation of Young Farmers three-day annual convention.

I've written about Adam Eckersley's adventures in the Antarctic before.

The Myerscough College mechanisation instructor is now back from his six-month secondment with the British Antarctic Survey, full of stories about this once-in-a-lifetime trip.

So few people vote in local elections these days that council chiefs in Sussex have recorded a song in a bid to woo residents to the polls.

Electors in Wealden will go to the polls on May 3 humming a new tune, thanks to its singing Returning Officer and his band made up of local government executives.

Hardly a week goes by these days without some cause for concern rearing its head.

This year we've had Farmhouse Breakfast Week (21-27 January) and Obesity Awareness Week (11-17 March). Soon we'll have Compost Awareness Week (6-12 May)

Right now, however, we're in the middle of National Fly-tipping Awareness Week (23-29 April).

When it comes to unusual jobs, the countryside has its share of strange occupations.

Many of these jobs have been consigned to the history books.

But I believe most people would still be able to tell a rat catcher from a wheelwright.

Even so, I had never heard of an ankle beater. Until tonight.

Ever thought you'd be able to enhance the beauty of the countryside by doing nothing more than drinking beer?

Well, now it's possible - thanks to the Hook Norton brewery in Oxfordshire.

Brewery bosses are donating 5p from every pint sold of their Cotswold Lion beer to a charity that conserves the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

I had a rude awakening this morning when my 14 month daughter decided it was time to get up before sunrise. Not ideal on a Saturday.

We tried all the usual tricks to get her back to sleep, but to no avail. As a last resort, I took her for a drive in the car and soon she was in the land of nod.

There's something to be said for an early morning drive in the East Anglian countryside. The two of us were all alone except for a pair of hot air balloons floating gently over the Stour Valley.

I realise hot air balloons can cause problems when they land in fields of crops or livestock.

Summer is here - it's official.

How do I know? Because the first BBC reporters of the year have been spotted scrambling around the countryside marvelling at the hawthorn bursting into flower.

The next few months are likely to be warmer than normal, according to the latest seasonal forecasts.

Bacon is bad for you, I am reliably informed by an esteemed group of American scientists.

It gets worse. Not content with trying to ruin our appetite for a bacon butty, researchers from Columbia University Medical Centre in New York believe all sorts of cured meat are bad.

Their reasoning behind this claim is revealed in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Cured meats - including bacon, sausage, luncheon meats and hams - contain nitrites added as a preservative, anti-microbial and colour fixative. And nitrites may cause lung damage.

There's a story doing the rounds that would have immediately raised my suspicions had it come to light on 1st April.

Changes to tax rules threaten the future of public toilets in rural Wales, according to a news article on the BBC website today.

Community councils apparently can't afford to maintain public loos following the end of a rate rebate scheme designed to help the rural economy after the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis.

One small rural council, which has an annual budget of £750, has been landed with a bill of £604. Another council can no longer to employ a toilet cleaner.

Supermarkets often get a bad press over the way they treat farmers - and sometimes for the way they treat shoppers too.

The retail giants' reputation for playing hard and fast with the food we eat is frequently well-deserved. But not always, it seems.

I've just discovered a Farm to Fork project run by The Co-operative Group - Britain's biggest farmer and community-based retailer.

The project makes it possible for school children to experience a real farm at work, so they can see where their food comes from and how it is produced.

Flattering though it might be to be mentioned in the same breath as Bono, Nick Hornby and Wayne Rooney's fiancée Coleen McLoughlin, it goes without saying that any comparison is thoroughly undeserved.

Together, however, these people might make interesting guests at a dinner party. And in the unlikely event that such a meal is ever hosted, may I suggest that lamb from Romney Marsh forms an integral part of the menu.

Novelist Nick Hornby did it at Time Out. Wayne Rooney's fiancée Coleen McLoughlin did it at Closer. U2 frontman Bono did it at The Independent.

Yes, because we're always up for something different, and because I've persuaded the boss to let me have a holiday, we're having a guest editor on Field Day for a fortnight.

As of tomorrow, it'll be my old mate, the rural guru and Rural Focus editor, Johann Tasker, who'll be in the hotseat. I'm sure you'll make him welcome and send him lots of comments.

Hope you like his blog posts, too. But not as much as mine obviously!

Was only thinking the other day there doesn't seem to be many blogs about fishing - then, hey presto, someone tells me about a fly fishing blog.

Urbanflyfisher.com, which has been shortlisted in the sports category of the Ask.com/Metro Best of British Blog Awards 2007, is well worth a look if fly fisning's you thing...

Auctions are brilliant.

You can sometimes pick up a real bargain (if you avoid getting carried away with the bidding!) and they're a great chance to catch up on all the local news and views.

Agriculture students get around a bit. And not just when they're on sports tours or pub crawling!

A group of 18 from Cheshire's Reaseheath College have just been on a week-long study trip to Canada.

After we'd been talking about Land Rovers so much on Field Day - whether they're fantastic or overrated - we decided to put it to a vote. This, we figured, would settle it once and for all.

More than 1500 of you voted on FWi on the subject, making it one of the biggest responses ever to a 'Question of the Week'.

And guess what? It ended up neck-and-neck. Exactly 50% of you think they're great; exactly 50% think they're overrated.

You can read the original piece that sparked the debate, and also a riposte by a Landie fan. And if you feel strongly on the subject, you can post your comment on the forums.

Meanwhile, with the vote split 50:50, the debate rumbles on...

Farmers seem quite happy to take their clothes off if it's in a good cause.

We've received loads of charity calendars of people in various states of undress and now news reaches me that a group of blokes will be performing a strip in aid of Cumbria's Brampton Cottage Hospital.

What are you like at cooking? Bit of a novice who wants to know more? Or maybe you're already an expert? Maybe you could be the next Gordon Ramsay or Nigella Lawson?

Well if you've got a question on food or cookery, Field Day is giving you the chance to have it answered by one-time Masterchef contestant Philippa Vine.

The Severn Bore is a spectacular sight to see - a naturally occurring tidal wave which averages 16km per hour and has been known to reach nearly 3m high.

OK, so we always knew Bryan Ferry would be singing at the 'Countryside Rocks' concert in aid of the Countryside Alliance.

The Roxy Music's singer's son, Otis, is a big name in hunting circles ever since he disrupted Parliament with a pro-hunting demo in 2004.

A farmer near where I live in Surrey once let an artist paint a huge tree on his land bright red.

The 50ft oak, which had been dead for about four years, took artist Christian Hayes and two of his pals three days to transform.

People said it was a statement. That it worked on a number of levels. That it was modern art at its very best. I couldn't make my mind up whether it was fantasic or pretentious claptrap.

It was certainly striking to look at, visible as it was from Junction 8 of the M25 near Reigate. The farmer Richard Kent told me at the time he was expecting it to stay its new hue for about six months.

But now a farmer in Scotland has gone one step further - and painted his sheep red.

Visitors to the country shows this summer will get a chance to see a human cannonball.

Dave 'The Bullet' Smith will be travelling from America to perform at the Royal Bath & West, the Royal Cornwall, the Three Counties Show and the Royal Norfolk Show.

When fired from the 35-foot long, 10,000 lb cannon, he emerges from a cloud of smoke to fly through the air at up to 50mph, landing in a net nearly 200 feet away.

We've been inundated with photos after mentioning we'd put some of your favourite pictures of your kids on Field Day. This one is nine-month-old Finlay Low from Ellon in Aberdeenshire, helping out with the lambing.

Seeing as we've been on the subject of Land Rovers a lot recently, you might like to know there was an interesting article in The Sunday Times yesterday, about an 1800-mile race between a Land Rover Discovery and a train.
You can also watch a video of the race here.

One swallow doesn't make a summer, so the saying goes, but the arrival of these migratory birds is traditionally seen as a harbinger of warmer days ahead.

Field Day reader Rob Gates contacted me this morning saying he's just seen one at Blackgang on the Isle of Wight.

Maybe this, he wonders, is the first recorded sighting in Britain this year? Let me know if you've already seen a swallow - or, if you do so over the next week or so, whereabouts...