Recently in Farming abroad Category

Here's more video footage of the British army's only vet in Afghanistan, Captain Miles Malone.

He's been running clinics for local farmers in Helmand Province - latterly, working out of Patrol Base Shaheed after Operation Moshtarak, the largest helicopter assault since the war began in 2001, pushed the Taliban out of Nad Ali District.

The British Army has got in touch to tell me about an initiative that some of their guys are working on in Helmand in Afghanistan. They're helping the locals with animal care, improving livestock health and, as a result, the standard of living of the locals. It's another example of our fantastic service personnel doing a great job in difficult circumstances.

You can read the full story by clicking here.

Or click below for more pictures and a video.

A farmer who broke his neck in a cycling accident is about to embark on a 280-mile ride across Vietnam and Cambodia.

Jonathan Pellow, from Albaston on the Cornwall/Devon border, has been confined to a wheelchair since he "went over the handlebars" of his bike 13 years ago.

The 42-year-old, who is paralysed from the waist down with limited hand and arm function, leaves the west country next week with his fiancée, Sarah White.

The pair plan to ride from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to the finish line at Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia.

"Being in a wheelchair, keeping fit is really important - I've never been one to go to a gym, and cycling is a really enjoyable way to keep active," says Jonathan. "Sometimes you need a challenge like this to keep motivated.

"Sarah and I hope to raise £3,000 for Regain, the charity which helped me after my accident. They bought me my first hand-cycle, and they are the only charity which support tetraplegics so I wanted to raise some money for them."

The week-long trip will see the couple cover up to 50 miles a day in hot, humid conditions.

Jonathan has been training regularly since June, fitting in rides on his three-wheeled hand-powered bicycle, with his job running two holiday cottages at Todsworthy Farm which have been converted to cater especially for people with disabilities.

You can sponsor them here.

Now this is what I call an invite.

Gawd knows why I've been invited - but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I must remember to take some Ferrero Rocher.

Matthew Naylor has once again been making digs on his blog about the often whimsical content of Tim's blog.

In Tim's absence I thought I'd prove to ol' Gob of the Wash that Field Day can carry sensible content about rural life. And here it is.

It's not normal behaviour - deliberately putting yourself in front of a lot of very angry bulls in a confined space.

But the bull running festival has been happening again in Spain. I think it's bizarre and cruel, but it seems it be a massively popular event.

There's a great picture in today's Independent, plus some ITN footage of the event here and also some on The Metro's website. Be warned: you might some of the video footage a little distressing.

Look what arrived in the post this morning.

Haven't got a clue what the hell it's on about, but I'm sure some people find it a fascinating mag.

Still, it's always nice to to see a photo of a sheep strapped into some bizarre-looking mechanical contraption.

Harper Adams lecturer Richard Byrne, who's serving as a reservist in Afghanistan, has been sharing his experiences with Field Day readers. Here's his latest installment:

I joined the Royal Navy Reserves with the vague idea of sailing to various exotic ports around the globe.

Five years later I find myself in the middle of the Afghan desert, living in various not-so-glamorous locations.

I was mobilised from my civilian job as a senior lecturer at Harper Adams April last year, and had six months of pre-deployment training in the UK and Germany where I basically morphed from being a sailor into a soldier.

I'm now part of a MSST team (the military love abbreviations) - that's a Military Stabilisation Support Team. I work with a STABAD (Stabilisation Advisor) who is a civilian and live in a FOB (Forward Operating Base) where there is a galley (that's a cookhouse to non-naval types) and usually hot water.

I work out of Musa Qualah, in the north of Helmand, and live in part of an old Russian hotel, which at least is dry.

When I go on patrol, I stay in a PB (Patrol Base) which is usually based around a local compound and I live off ration packs, with hot water from solar showers or puffing billy boilers. This gives a real opportunity to see how the locals live and appreciate how well built and warm their mud-brick compounds are.

Living is pretty basic in the PBs - particularly the toilets, where daily duties involve burning the 'output'. It can be fun as well and I'm lucky to be based with the Ghurkas who produce fantastic curries out of ration packs.

My main role has been to look at the agriculture and opportunities to develop it, particularly as a way of drawing people away from growing opium poppy.

Lest you think Field Day is getting too touchy-feely with servings of rural poetry from Pam Ayres and Raymond Carver, here's some more boys toys.

Trucks. Lots of them and big ones at a sheep sale in New Zealand, courtesy of the BigLorryBlog.

Petty Officer Richard Byrne (second from left) is a senior lecturer at Harper Adams, but is currently serving in Helmand Province as a Royal Navy Reservist. He shares his experiences with Field Day readers.

October and November have been busy months for Helmand's farmers with the start of the 2008-2009 wheat programme.

This innovative project aims to provide support for farmers to move from poppy production to licit crop production.

The programme is a joint US-UK effort aiming to reach some 18,750 farmers in the Province who cultivate some 15,000 hectares of land.

This $4 million package aims to produce some 75,000 tonnes of wheat grain through the distribution of 1,875 tonnes of Roshan wheat seed and 5,600 tonnes of fertilizer.

Farmers will also receive advice from extension workers over the growing season.

The scheme, backed by the Helmand Governor Gulabuddin Mangal, has been greeted enthusiastically by farmers from all over the Province who have been making their way to the various distribution centres to collect their allocation over the last few weeks.

It is hoped that those taking part in the scheme will reap the benefit of the programme both financially and, by developing key skills, be able to continue growing wheat as a legitimate crop.

Additionally, the prospect of being able to move wheat surpluses to the north of the country where there is a dire need for flour is a positive move.

Those farmers that continue to grow poppy will face the Afghan Government's eradication team, backed up by the Afghan National Army, the Afghan National Police and ISAF forces.

As we move through November the weather is turning distinctly colder. Farmers are now busy finishing off the winter wheat planting and the last of the maize and cotton have been harvested.

Central Helmand is relatively mechanised with venerable old Massey Fergusons providing the mainstay. However, human power and donkeys still contribute a sizable portion of the farm power.

Petty Officer Richard Byrne, a senior lecturer at Harper Adams, is currently serving in Helmand Province as a Royal Navy Reservist. His first post on Field Day introduced us to some of the work he's doing in a the war-zone as a land use advisor.

Here, he writes about some of the problems associated with growing crops - and outlines some of the work underway to overcome these obstacles:

The Helmand River was subject to a huge damming and canalization project 40 years ago. The result was a well developed series of irrigation channels supplying water to fertile land capable of producing cereals, forage, soft fruit and cotton.

The last 30 years, however, have seen a dramatic reversal in the country's fortunes, a decline in land management and the emergence of poppy as a key crop.

Growing crops is not the main problem for many farmers. Apart from the security issues, the roads and tracks are often in a very poor state, and it is the state of the country's infrastructure which is one of the major hindrances to its economic development.

Guest blogger: Petty Officer Richard Byrne, Helmand Province

I've swapped the green landscape of rural north Shropshire for the dusty and arid landscape of southern Afghanistan.

Helmand is very different to my normal work environment at Harper Adams University College.

I'm out here on a six-month tour with 3 Commando Brigade as a mobilised Royal Navy Reservist. I work as as an agricultural land use advisor as part of the Civil Military Co-operation Group.

Our task is to assist the military and civil authorities in bringing about stabilisation and promoting conditions for reconstruction. I work on a variety of rural projects, many to do with looking at alternatives to growing poppy.

In some respects it's very much like the work I do at Harper - undertaking projects and providing advice - except when I do a farm visit here I have to wear body armor, helmet and carry a weapon.

It shouldn't be forgotten how difficult it is to operate in this country. Not only is it very hot - currently, as we go into autumn, it's still a little under 40 degrees centigrade its also an inherently dangerous place.

While many of the population are friendly towards us and value the work being done here, there are many who seek to disrupt and damage reconstruction efforts.

I've been surprised by the diversity of agriculture here. You see images on the television of barren, arid areas and much is like that, but where the land is irrigated around the Helmand River there is lush growth and some impressive production.

Young Farmers are an ingenious lot.

A group of 12 from Devon have just returned from Tanzania where they installed a water pump for the Livestock Training Institute near Arusha.

They had twinned up with the Bicton Overseas Agricultural Trust to ensure running water was provided for the diary unit at the college; this will be used to supply fresh water for the pasteurisation of the milk which will then be sold at the college farm shop.

There's been a lot in the news this week about the global seed vault that's been set up in the Arctic Circle. Well here are some photos of it.

Don't read this if you're of a sensitive disposition - it's a gory story from America about a farmer who ended up having to cut his arm off with a penknife. Makes me go cold, just thinking about it.

Funny what you notice on labels once you start looking at them.

After the bull on the wine bottle, now it's cow pee bath foam.

When farmer’s son Jonathan Webber isn’t busy running his own Exmoor-based business, he's a captain in the Territorial Army.

He’s been serving in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province and couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to show some of the nomadic farmers a copy of his favourite farming read.

There is “an unbelievable attitude of get on and make-do” among these farmers, he says.

They certainly cope with tough conditions: temperatures of 60 degrees centigrade in the summer, minus 10 in the winter, no shoes, hardly any machinery, sandstorms, stones everywhere plus landmines from the Russian occupation. “Afghan farmers have a pride equal to that of those in the UK.”

The French, for all their faults, get some things right.

One of my bugbears is people moving to the countryside and then complaining about the noise of tractors or slow farm machinery on the roads or the smell of manure.

The mayor of one French village is obviously similarly irked by this.