It sounds as though most farmers in the UK have now had a taste of what a Canadian winter feels like. I can just imagine the collective cursing of British livestock farmers across the country on wintery mornings, as the nation’s fleet of scraper tractors strongly objected to starting.

Snow has an amazing ability to hinder progress around the farm. Our JCB telehandler does around 700 hours a year and at least 100 of those is spent pushing snow around. However, snowfall here is the backbone of crop production, providing much-needed irrigation in a semi-desert climate. Fingers crossed that 2011 returns to a more typical weather pattern and we pump water onto the crops, rather than pumping it off the fields as we did in 2010.

I have to admit to cringing with embarrassment as news of Heathrow grinding to a snowy halt spread across the world. It was around this time last year I boarded an aircraft in Calgary. In heavy snow and with zero visibility it taxied away from the terminal and then parked alongside the runway while engineers doused the wings and tail with a cocktail of de-icer.

I found this process fascinating and had my nose glued to the window. However, most passengers were Canadian and seemed indifferent to the procedure. Shortly afterwards the snowplough trundled down the runaway and moments later we were airborne. It seems that the UK airport authorities have a lot to learn.

Finally, I shall leave you with a winter tip: if you decide to wash a vehicle in sub-zero temperatires then be sure to park it somewhere warm for a while afterwards to dry off. I washed my pick-up earlier this week and parked it outside the workshop. Later on when I came to enter the truck, I discovered to my surprise that the doors had frozen shut. And they stayed that way until the following day.

Farmer Focus Arable: Seth Pascoe