Field Day

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

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!

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.

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.

Anyone interested in sustainable farming in Africa will have a chance to learn about it - on a farm in Herefordshire, of all places.

From Monday, visitors to Shortwood Farm at Pencombe will be able to see the 'African Farmyard' - complete with cow - to demonstrate the work that the agricultural charity Send a Cow does with rural families there.

Farming's fraught with dangers. We don't face quite the same hazards as our agricultural contemporaries elsewhere, though, as this incredible story demonstrates...

I know we've all been saying for a long time farmers should have more to do with the food chain - but this is taking it a bit. Poor guy almost became part of it - literally!

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.