Farming Diary

FARMING Rosemary’s DIARY

On Christmas Eve, just as daylight was beginning to fade away and all work commitments completed for the run up to Christmas, I had a brief opportunity to look around the garden and was pleasantly surprised to see the bulbs making an early appearance, ready to give us that very welcome sign of spring on its way.

On Christmas morning, another lovely surprise, our resident cock pheasant came for food for the first time this winter and he’s been coming both morning and evening since – wonderful to see him again. January has seen a large amount of small birds coming each day for food. Boxing Day morning the sheep were put into the grass field at the side of the farmhouse. On this particular field I believe it’s the first time in living memory and possible over 100 years sheep have grazed it, I stand to be corrected. I don’t think I can ever remember such mild wet weather. It’s Christmas Eve and it’s still raining on Sunday 2 January. 3 January, much better weather and mild as well. 9 January - lovely sunny morning after a slight frost. I do believe the daylight hours are just beginning to lengthen as the saying goes ‘as the day lengthens the cold strengthens’. Then there was February fill dyke and it will be interesting to see if we get that much rain after the all the wet in November and December – which did bring the water table up but it has dropped considerably recently. The field crops are moving forward and are growing well due to the mild weather we had before Christmas but will need sufficient rain to keep them growing all summer. With only one week left in January it’s pleasing to see the daylight lengthening and some settled weather at last, which is helping plant life wake up from its winter dormancy period. We hope to see our sugar beet contractors this week lift the last of the 21/22 season’s crop and delivered to Whissington Sugar Beet factory shortly. As a grower we look for high yield, good sugar content with as little admix as possible (soil etc). villagetribune 33

FARMING Rosemary’s

DIARY Small glimmers of hope ...

The farming industry is beginning to see small glimmers in the transition from the traditional to the more environmental ways, which can be, and needs to be, sustainable. We need the public to pick up British produce instead of something imported which I have found customers have been very supportive of. In our farm shop we strive to sell produce from our farm, or as local as possible, but the last year has been very difficult

because of several problems experienced, leaving the EU a year ago and, of course, the Covid pandemic, which brought its own disruptive problems. The one area the latest DEFRA documents don’t address is the questionable free trade deals being done by the government, after undertaking the promise that we would not import foods produced to standards lower than apply in the UK, but as one of the very respected writers in one of the farming journals says in his column 'those deals suggest otherwise' and that farming, the countryside, and ultimately, the consumers, will suffer. I am concerned that the apparent centralising of power by the city council has become more noticeable over recent years, in particular, taking away the power of parish councils that are elected to be the voice of their community and are now more frequently over-ruled. It appears to have become

unbalanced and I feel that the rural parishes need to be listened to and valued more. This is an observation of the system and not a criticism of our local ward councillors. The rural community needs to take back control, enabling it to offer high quality jobs which agriculture and horticulture are already doing, but with the large development of houses which have already been built over the last 30-40 years, and still much larger residential developments in the planning stages that lack the basic infrastructure required by the developer to fulfil, our villages are fast losing their identity. Roads, sewers, schools, provision for outdoor leisure facilities and, above all, a safe environment for us all to live and work in, would provide the necessary ladder for young people to achieve in the world without leaving the villages. We have seen the benefits to the environment with less road traffic due to Covid - I realise it’s not for everyone,

but surely this could be a starting point? The countryside has always been, and needs to remain, a living and working environment, being brought up to 21st century business growth, supporting the younger generation and enabling them to utilise their entrepreneurial skills. As I finish these notes, it’s a beautiful sunny morning. What a wonderful uplift to the day. All the more reason to keep our living and working countryside a place we all can enjoy.

The rural community needs to take back control, enabling it to offer high quality jobs which agriculture and horticulture are already doing, but with the large development of houses which have already been built over the last 30-40 years, and still much larger residential developments in the planning stages that lack the basic infrastructure required by the developer to fulfil, our villages are fast losing their identity.