Birthday is clouded by bad luck
During the brief spell of dry weather I spent my 40th birthday upside down in our £65,000 seed drill trying to get beans down the coulter pipes, while the next-door farmer was happily drilling away with his half-the-price machine. Modern day technology.
Later that same day two ewes went down with twin lamb, then when I arrived home my wife presented me with a Border Fine Arts ornament of a shepherd and his dog feeding stock. As I opened the box, lo and behold one of the sheep had snapped off and was laid in the bottom of the box. Roll on 41!
Sal and Jess got off to a flying start to the open sheepdog trial season, with a second and third respectively at Leyburn to top up their national points.
Lambing has got off to a terrible start. Every farmer you speak to has had a few problems, whether you can put it down to a touch of Schmallenberg or not I don’t know. When people say ‘bad start, good finish’ it still does not make you feel any better.
All these problems are incidental though when you read about Mr Challen and the loss of his daughter (Arable Focus writer). My thoughts go out to the Challen family at such a terrible time. We farmers in general have a habit of worrying about the incidental things in life when there are more serious things around.
James Read farms at Louth on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds in partnership with his father. They farm 400ha of mainly arable land and are the main contractors on 700ha. He runs 200 breeding sheep and a pack of working/trialling sheepdogs.