Opinion: It’s great to see Young Farmers’ focus and passion
Charlie Flindt © Kathy Horniblow Two things dawned on me as I sat for two hours in a traffic jam on the M4 returning from another after-dinner speaking gig.
The first was that one should sometimes take note of overhead gantry signs saying, “M4 closed between J12 and J13.”
The second was that we’ve been semi-retired for over three years now.
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About the author
It’s astonishing how quickly the years have gone by, and memories of wrestling with spray cans, arguing with lorry drivers or swearing at clueless TV weather bunnies are fading.
“Yes, but what are you actually doing with yourself?” is a question I get asked a lot.
Hazel, who in semi-retirement has tripled the number of days she spends marshalling flatcoat retrievers on the hillsides of Hampshire, often fields the same question.
“But what is Charlie up to these days?” “Very much enjoying myself” is the short answer.
Farm office clearout
Clearing out the farm office was a good start to retirement, finding spare parts from machines long forgotten and huge piles of seed labels – faithfully kept for inspection purposes, of course – from the days of 50kg seed bags.
I assume it’s safe to bin some Claire labels from 2002.
Diaries from the 1980s of day-to-day activities couldn’t go to the bin without a re-read, and they yielded another book (Did we REALLY do that? – which you will have seen promoted on these pages).
Many of Dad’s old slides sit happily among its pages, having been given a polish.
I’m joining new bands, expanding my keyboard skills to cover everything from Lady Marmalade to Empty Rooms; completely different genres, but both benefiting from a farmer’s huge organ.
And if I’m hungry after a gig and pass a McDonald’s at 2am… well, you can guess the rest.
I am no longer compelled to leap out of bed at 6.10am for another long day in the tractor, so there’s no need to fret about the aftereffects of a Big Mac meal and a strawberry milkshake.
Speaking engagements
The speaking engagements have continued, much to my delight.
A chance to drive halfway across the country, make lots of new friends, flog some books, raise a bit of dosh for a suitable charity and tell my joke – the one that’s so out of date that no one gets it.
And it’s at these dinners that I get nicely reassured. The mood is always upbeat. The atmosphere is always positive.
Yes, farming news is relentlessly grim – for now – but there always seems to be a feeling of “we’re farmers; farming is what we do, come what may.”
Young Farmers
Best of all is the Young Farmers (you can spot them by their mullets) who are bold, loud, funny and determined. Nothing is going to get in their way.
Get a few beers in a few farmers, and we all roll our eyes at net zero, woo-woo farming, and the idea that agriculture can be “decarbonised”.
I may have been out of the loop for three years, but common sense is very much still out there in farming.
That made me smile as I sat in the M4 traffic queue, wondering if my retirement present was going to overheat.
It didn’t, of course, but I still treated myself to a stress-relieving Big Mac at Winchester services. And no one asked why I was grinning into my strawberry milkshake.