Over The Farm Gate

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DID YOU KNOW? Herds of British Friesians were first established in the 19th century

Changing climate brings countryside concerns, not least the decline in once-common livestock breeds, says Eryl Jones. Thank goodness for the heady products of Chateau Williams

As a true countryman, it’s within my remit to be a competent weather whinger, and this past spring provided plenty of material for a good moan. The late frosts kept soil temperatures well below what is conducive to good growth and everything was at least three weeks behind. But helped by a pretty even balance of sunshine and rain since the early season chill, most things in the garden and polytunnel thrived. We are making thorough pigs of ourselves on the bounty and there is still plenty of surplus to freeze or put on our honesty stall.

Vintage brews

It’s an occasion of mixed blessings when a particular friend of mine comes to call. He’s always grand company but he does fancy himself as a homemade wine buff and regards me as his prime guinea pig. No piece of vegetation – wild or cultivated – is safe from his fermentations. The latest offering from Chateau Williams was a 2020 elderberry, sharp of aroma and a bellicose puce in colour. It turned out to be a bumptious little vintage that travels rather well, especially through the alimentary canal. Should you not wish to quaff it with your filet mignon, the ubiquitous brew will provide fuel for your car and it brings the brasses up a treat.

In fact, despite my rather irreverent remarks, his wines are eminently drinkable and are all made from ingredients harvested from hedgerow or garden. It is not in the imagination that it tastes better if you’ve made, reared or grown it yourself.

Changing livestock

Fifty summers have passed since my student days at Aberystwyth: hair down to my shoulders, sideburns like JPR and apparel consisting of flared Levi’s and a de rigueur tie-dye grandad shirt. The British Friesian made up 90 per cent of the national dairy herd and the large white and landrace held sway in the pig sector. Border Leicester rams were much sought after, as well as the greyface. Shropshire saw huge sales of Kerry Hill and Clun Forest ewes, where fat lamb producers would gather from far and wide to replenish their flocks. Row upon row of woolly topknots and speckled ears – it was a spectacular sight. So what do these breeds all have in common? They are all now listed in one category or another by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. If I’d have stood up in the college common room back in the day and announced that 20 years into the new millennium there would be Eryl Jones was brought more longhorns in the country than British Friesians, up on a small Welsh farm a couple of men in white coats would have escorted and studied agriculture in Aberystwyth. He became farm manager on a large “No piece of vegetation is me from the building. Let’s hope these breeds aren’t consigned completely to history. Unlike my hair. estate and later farmed on his own account. Eryl does voluntary environmental work with safe from his fermentations” Finding the right culprit Only a simpleton or someone with a selfish selfinterest would be in denial about climate change Denbighshire Council – the evidence is there for all to see. I’m also in and has a passion for no doubt that fossil fuels are the biggest culprit. The human race the rural way of life. (and the planet) would be far better off if oil and coal had never existed. I also have a theory that climate change is not a modernday phenomenon but started when large-scale use of coal and oil began churning their noxious byproducts into the atmosphere. But a word in defence of farm livestock and their supposed role in the crisis. Turn back the clock 500 years and you’d find vast herds of bison roaming over North America and Europe. In their pomp, over one billion of them. The numbers of all the wild ruminants on the planet were far greater than today. It’s true that domestic herds and flocks are severalfold larger than five centuries ago, but the number of farmers has drastically decreased and back in the day, almost every family outside the big towns had a cow, a pig and a goat or two. In others words, I submit that the number of methane-burping mammals on the planet is far lower now than it was half a millennium ago.