Tell us about your best year in farming

If you cast your mind back over your whole agricultural career, what stands out as your best, happiest, most successful year?

Perhaps it was the year that the weather gods chose not to deliver any nasty surprises and you recorded the farm’s best ever yields. Or for livestock farmers, the year your flock or herd was disease-free and feed prices weren’t up in the clouds.

Perhaps it was the year that you finally took the plunge and invested in that new machine, saving you untold time and effort.

You might say it was the year you handed over the reins to the next generation and saw them breathe new life into the old family business.

Or maybe it was the year that your long-awaited diversification project finally (finally!) took off.

Whether it was decades ago, or as recently at 2012, we want to know which year really stands out for you, for all the right reasons. A selection of our favourite stories will be printed in the Farmlife section of Farmers Weekly in the new year.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

• Email rachel.jones@rbi.co.uk with about 300 words, starting with the phrase, “My best year was…”
• Make sure you include your full name, address and contact details should we need to follow up.
• Attach a photo of yourself (we’ll need a reasonably good quality headshot if we’re going to use your piece in the magazine)

Some suggestions so far…

Our forum users have been casting their minds back and debating their best years in the job – here are some of their suggestions to get you thinking:

“1995 definitely. Lovely spring, hot summer, hot harvest, biggest yields ever and sky-high grain prices to boot. 1995 was the exact opposite to 2012.” glasshouse

“1996 sticks in my mind. Good grain prices and a good harvest during a boom time for farming. I was only a student back then.” Brisel

“2011. Good yields and prices, everything went without any breakdowns. Harvest was done and crops in, pretty much without stopping.” bluetooth

“1995, just before BSE. l can remember being in Exeter Market when a barren cow went through the £1,000 marker, a great cheer went up. Cattle prices have now got back to those levels, but I wish fuel prices could go back to 1995.” boveyfarmer

“1984 always seems to stick with me – good yields and I seem to remember a graph in the early 90s showing 1984 as one of the most profitable years in a long while.” brucie

“The best year for us here was last year – lambs sold very well as well as store cattle and cull ewes.” Cymro

“1976. I began farming full-time instead of part-time, and I made hay without it being rained upon – a miracle on a Northumbrian hill farm.” old mcdonald