Farm Focus

FARM FOCUS | ROSEMARY'S DIARY FARMING Rosemary’s DIARY

Rethink food, a plan for action – over the past two years, Covid 19, Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the global market turmoil have revealed the fragility of our food system. Many farmers are struggling to survive under unprecedented cost increases. At the same time we have experienced the threat and reality of empty shelves and supply chain disruptions.

Nature friendly farming means changing how we farm, but also what we farm. Farmers are being encouraged to be more diverse and capitalise on opportunities to grow crops that can fulfil demands for dietary changes. I picked this up recently, being a project supported by the European Foundation, which makes interesting reading and goes on suggesting what needs to be done to help save the environment. Farmers were instructed during the 1939 - 45 war years to produce more food for the nation, every acre was to be cultivated and sown in an effort to feed everyone which farmers HAD to do and they did so. After the war finished the big ask was for us to provide plenty of cheap food. The advent of the land of plenty was upon us, with no mention of how this may affect the environment, plentiful cheap food is what was called for. Successive governments have encouraged this for the last sixty years, it didn’t matter how it was produced as long as there was plenty and quite often produced below the cost of production, especially with the supermarkets, who left growers with lots of produce on farm by simply saying they didn’t want anymore, despite contracts being in hand - that’s why the vegetable and fruit market along with livestock farmers have diminished and won’t be coming back. Some of us have managed to carry on, in 42 villagetribune

many cases with sacrifices along the way. There are as we know many other industries that have had a big impact on the environment – what are they doing about it? The farming community have taken enormous strides in the last ten – twenty years to put in place a more sustainably friendly environment. Gone are the days when a farmer was judged for ploughing a straight furrow, hedges trimmed every year, with plenty of organic matter going back into the soil. A certain amount of pride was very important. You could have your tenancy terminated as this was deemed to be bad management. The incoming tenant could claim for dilapidations as it took time and money to put the land back into good condition. There were other issues where the landlord could get you off his land as well – the landlord had the last say. So much pleasure and pride did this hold amongst the farmers and the workers that the advent of ploughing matches was born, we even have one locally, the Deeping ploughing match – normally held the last Saturday in October, with around 100 contestants taking part. Originally heavy horses pulling the plough and then tractors being the main contender, but there are still a small entry of horse drawn ploughs taking part, coming from a wide area, I was amazed at how far they travel, but what a sight to behold. Hedge laying was another winter time job, also with competitions for the best laid hedge, thatching the corn stacks in the yard to keep them dry until they were thrashed during the winter and spring, the straw being used for bedding and eating for the cattle, oat straw for the horses, the chaff (ears of grain, outer covering) was also used for animal feed, with the grain going mainly for bread making to the local village mill and animal feed, the grain was weighed off into 18 stone sacks for storage in the barns. The thrashing team needed about six people, one taking the corn off, one looking after the chaff, two on the straw stack, two on the corn stack. The operator was cutting the sheaves of corn before feeding this into the thrashing drum – that was the minimum number, some had more helpers, there are other old competitions and crafts with very few food miles needed as all of these were supplied locally, cut from the wood, stone mined locally and so on, no need to worry about delivery. It is essential that our own food security is in place and all producers need to be encouraged financially to provide as much as possible to the already high standards we have adhered to for years.

Most of food imported doesn’t carry such rigorous, high safety standards. Flooding our market with substandard goods. These are some of the issues facing British Farmers today. All we ask is for is a level playing field in place. One week of December gone we seem to be on top of winter jobs but once the cattle come into the yards it’s surprising how that slows other jobs down, even though we are better organised this year. I think the main problem is the daylight hours are very limited – some jobs you still need daylight. All field work on the arable side was completed in good time this year, is ‘well up’ and I don’t expect the winter beans will be long before they show, just leaving sowing after the sugar beet is lifted, with some of this land being sown for spring cereals. With the run up to Christmas brings extra jobs and making sure there is plenty of food and straw for the cattle, repairing lights, replacing new bulbs etc, with numerous other small jobs in readiness for our customers to the farm shop, tea room and garden centre, endeavouring to supply our customers with that little bit extra to make Christmas as cheery as is possible. As always our loyal staff across all areas have risen to the challenge. With all the challenges that appear to threaten the festive season I am personally amazed at how people come into the shop in positive mind-set, it makes the job all worthwhile after a difficult year. On a lighter note, it is pleasing to see all the birds returning to the garden to feed, including our cock pheasant who now is a regular visitor, two or three times a day. I think this is the fourth winter he has been coming. The garden has its winter appearance with holly berries, yellow berberis, the different shades of green on the shrubs etc and the bulbs are already appearing, so not long now before the lighter days in January, with spring just around the corner. Here’s wishing you all a better new year with some normality returning to make our lives more pleasant than we have seen lately.