nufsaid

March 2010 - Posts

• Cut off

  For the past few weeks Chez Stocks has been internet-free thanks to British Telecom taking eons to change over my broadband account after my housemate (the one responsible for Lentil Gate, for those who followed on Twitter) moved out. I like to think... Posted Mar 29 2010, 06:55 PM by NufSaid Select Tags... SaveCancel Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, farming, internet, tax, broadband, hmrc, Government, online forms [Edit Tags]

• Flashy

  I’ve spent the last few days emailing what feels like every agricultural organisation in India in a bid to sort out the next stage of my Nuffield scholarship. I want to go to India to learn about some projects out there that are encouraging farmers... Posted Mar 29 2010, 06:23 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, New Media, Communication, Travel, internet, India, websites [Edit Tags]

• Changing Times

  So Rupert Murdoch has finally decided to make good his threat of charging to read his Times and Sunday Times websites. From June people will be have to pay £1 a day or £2 a week to access news across the sites, which currently attract about 20m readers... Posted Mar 27 2010, 10:31 AM by NufSaid Filed under: New Media, Communication, media, internet, rupert murdoch, times, newspapers [Edit Tags]

• Painting the friesians blue…

  I was looking through some old copies of FW yesterday and came across the interview I’d done with one of the chaps from the Royal Agricultural Society of England last year. I did the interview the day after it’d been announced that the Royal... Posted Mar 24 2010, 05:58 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, farming, cows, dairy, royal show, robots, Australia, easter show, farm show [Edit Tags]

• Bad(ger) hair day

  I love it when celebs get involved with farming issues. Sometimes I’m impressed that they’re having a go at trying to get people interested in food and the way its produced. I mean, just look at the great work of Nell McAndrew, or Cheggars... Posted Mar 24 2010, 09:19 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Celebrities, Welsh, Wales, badger cull, badgers, tb, Brian May, Queen [Edit Tags]

• Dairy inquest

  Another report into what went wrong with Dairy Farmers of Britain was released today, this time by a bunch of MPs from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. For those of you who can’t remember as far back as last year (and for my international... Posted Mar 23 2010, 06:47 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, farming, Politics, dairy, Food, Dairy Farmers of Britain, co-op, EFRA [Edit Tags]

• Saturday rant

  So the debate about the UK’s first super dairy rumbles on. Politicians have now signed an early day motion against the proposed £50m, 8000-head unit in Lincolnshire, while environmental and animal welfare groups like the RSPCA say they’re... Posted Mar 20 2010, 05:44 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, farming, Nocton, super dairy, dairy, Food [Edit Tags]

• At least it came with vegetables…

  Thought my Aussie chum might like to see the meal I was served at a lunch meeting yesterday: Yes, that is gravy on my salad. I had been joking when I suggested last week that I put gravy on all of my meals, but it seems the restaurant saw the northerner... Posted Mar 19 2010, 03:23 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Food, gravy, salad, Irish [Edit Tags]

• TTFN

  If there’s one thing I’ve loved about the last week, it’s been listening to our fellow scholars from around the world. It’s been great to get a feel of what the issues are for farmers globally, to hear about different crops and scales of production and... Posted Mar 15 2010, 01:41 PM by NufSaid Filed under: United States, Nuffield, Travel, Nuffield Scholarship, Welsh, Australians [Edit Tags]

• Catching up with the Amish

  Today I learnt I definitely wouldn’t want to live near a composting facility. Be thankful these photos come smell-free: The visit here was part of learning how mushrooms are produced – apparently Pennsylvania accounts for 35% of all the fungi... Posted Mar 12 2010, 11:09 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, United States, Nuffield, Travel, mushrooms, compost, Amish, GM [Edit Tags]

• Decorating tips

  Another interesting day, this time at the Pennsylvania farm centre for a conference. Most of the speakers talked about US farm policy and the States’ perspective on food production. It was good to see that despite what we might think in Europe,... Posted Mar 11 2010, 10:32 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Conference, farming, United States, Nuffield, Travel, Politics, Pennsylvania [Edit Tags]

• A super dairy

  After almost a week of meetings it was great to get out on-farm today. We drove into Pennsylvania to look at a high-tech, robotic milking system. It was an impressive setup – 2400 cattle milking more than 27m litres of milk a year. While hygiene... Posted Mar 10 2010, 10:02 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, United States, Travel, Pennsylvania, farm, apples, milk, Nocton, super dairy, dairy [Edit Tags]

• Too much information

  Far too many people have shared their toilet habits with me today. I’ve been having a chat with some of the scholars about the farming newspapers they read back home – I’ve brought a couple of issues of FW with me so we’ve been... Posted Mar 09 2010, 11:51 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Farmers Weekly, Agriculture, New Media, Communication, farming, media, internet [Edit Tags]

• Bear harvest

  We spotted this picture in an American farm magazine today: Bet you daren’t moan about pigeons and bunnies scoffing your crops now, eh? Read More... Posted Mar 09 2010, 11:02 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, farming, Weird, bear, harvest [Edit Tags]

• Adapt, innovate and overcome…

  I met Abraham Lincoln today. No, I haven’t gone mad (though an 8-hour tour of a battle site might have been enough to affect a lesser person), I really did. We spent the day at Gettysburg, the site of one of the key battles in the American civil... Posted Mar 09 2010, 09:32 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Agriculture, Communication, United States, Nuffield, Travel, Gettysburg, leadership, Abraham Lincoln [Edit Tags]

• Ad break

  Thank heavens for this: It’s hiding a multitude of sins – most of them alcomahol-based… Read More... Posted Mar 08 2010, 01:00 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Uncategorized [Edit Tags]

• ‘Lazy’ Sunday in Washington

  There were monuments Famous buildings (but no Josh or Toby) Steak Some average singing Some better than average singing And a very late night. I blame the Irish. Read More... Posted Mar 07 2010, 09:27 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Washington, Nuffield, Travel, Nuffield Scholarship, singing, steak [Edit Tags]

• Culture shock

  Much of the debate during the evenings in London centred around the single farm payment. A surprising number of the group have been arguing that they successfully farm without subsidy and that it should be scrapped. From a consumer side of things and... Posted Mar 07 2010, 12:42 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Uncategorized [Edit Tags]

• Sleb Watch II

  So I was only stood next to crazy crooner Lady Ga Ga at Heathrow airport. I know, impressive, hey? Well, it might have been had I actually noticed her – I just gawped at the paparrazzi trying to work out what kind of camers they had without thinking... Posted Mar 06 2010, 11:58 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Travel, Celebrities, Lady Ga Ga, Heathrow [Edit Tags]

• A spoon full of Sugar…

  There’s something quite surreal about being guided to a toilet by a baroness and then listening to her chat about WC fixtures and fittings while she stands watching you wash your hands. The very lovely Baroness Hazel Byford played host to the Nuffield... Posted Mar 04 2010, 11:45 AM by NufSaid Filed under: London, Nuffield, Politics, Nuffield Scholar, House of Lords, Alan Sugar [Edit Tags]

• Clubbing together

  Lesson one of the Nuffield Scholarship. If you stay in a hotel full of farmers, don’t expect a lie-in. I’m staying in Gob of the Wash’s London residence, the Farmers Club. Lucky old me is now a fully-fledged member of said establishment... Posted Mar 04 2010, 07:44 AM by NufSaid Filed under: Uncategorized [Edit Tags]

• Too many puns, not enough title space…

  I often think I ought to write down some of the things that happen to me at Farmers Weekly so that I can write a sitcom about them. There was the time I was chased across a field by hormonal goats, the time Tim Relf booked us into a tranvestites’... Posted Mar 02 2010, 11:14 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Farmers Weekly, pets, Weird, Miss Deputy Livestock Editor, guinea pig [Edit Tags]

• Packing it all in

  So tomorrow my Nuffield Adventure begins proper. I’m heading the whole mile and a half down the road from Chez Stocks to the Farmers Club, where I’ll meet the 20 or so other people from the UK who have been selected as Nuffield Scholars and... Posted Mar 02 2010, 11:14 PM by NufSaid Filed under: Farmers Weekly, Agriculture, Conference, London, pets, Weird, Miss Deputy Livestock Editor, guinea pig, America, United States, Washington, Nuffield, Travel, Farmers Club, Nuffield Scholarship [Edit Tags]