Farming Nick Green

A winter day in the life of a dairy farmer

AT this time of year about the only farm animals seen out in the fields are sheep. Dairy cows are tucked up nice and warm in their winter quarters 24/7. Other than the odd tractor and hedge trimmer managing the miles of hedgerow on Mendip the passerby doesn’t see much farming activity at this time of year. There might not be much happening in the fields but it is a very different story in the farmyard.

Typically, dairy cows are milked twice a day. Cows are creatures of habit and like their lives to follow a regular routine. Regardless of the time, as long as it is the same each day the cows will be awake and ready to be milked every morning.

They leave their living quarters and walk to the parlour. After a short wait in the collecting yard, they make their way into the milking parlour and are milked. In the meantime, someone is in the cow houses cleaning the cow beds off, cleaning the yards and putting fresh feed out for the cows.

It’s always a race to try and get the yard work done as quickly as possible so the cows don’t have to stand around waiting before returning to their houses and have something to eat and drink. Once milking is finished, the milking parlour is cleaned

With NICK GREEN

out and washed down and more often than not calves will need to be fed.

With the early morning routine finished it is time for breakfast and a cup of tea before the daytime work. This might be feeding and bedding up other cattle on the farm, checking cows’ feet to make sure they are all ok, servicing and repairing buildings and equipment and all the other things that need doing on the farm.

In no time it is time for afternoon milking, scraping out, feeding cows and calves and washing everything up again. You don’t see much action from the road but this goes on seven days a week to make sure everyone can have their daily dose of dairy products.

Roe deer

Nick Green is Farms Director for Alvis Bros Ltd based at Lye Cross Farm. He is responsible for the farming and estate business and is passionate about British food and farming. As well as the business, he is involved with a number of local and national farming charities.

Newly appointed Bobcat dealer for Somerset and Bristol. Telescopic handlers, Skid steers, Excavators 0.8-8.5t

In the driving seat for good causes

MORE than 100 tractors of all sizes and ages took to the roads for the annual charity run organised by Frome Young Farmers Club.

They gathered at the Frome Showground at West Woodlands for separate runs for vintage and modern machines, taking in surrounding villages including North Brewham, Upton Noble and Wanstrow as well as Bruton, Evercreech and Doulting.

The event raised more than £1,100 for the Farming Community Network, Hannah’s Wilberry Wonder Pony and the club itself.

Noah (seated), aged four, and sister Mya, aged eight, from Nunney, with one of the family’s rare County tractors Vintage and modern

The vintage tractors set off on an 18-mile route

Steve with nephew Jasper, aged two Louis Aylesbury, former club chairman and one of the organisers, briefs the drivers All smiles in the back of this JCB

Fatstock Society’s show and sale

A BRITISH Blue heifer weighing 532kg was crowned supreme champion at the Frome and District Christmas Fatstock Society show and sale at Frome Livestock Market.

Owned by Andrew Bishop, from Tewkesbury, the heifer sold at auction to Blackmore Vale Butchers at £4 per kilo.

The champion British breed award went to Lucy Gould, of Mells, with her Galloway heifer.

A total of £1,500 in donations on the day of the show went to the Frome Market NHS Health Hub, the Farming Community Network and Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

WESTFIELD

Westfield on song

Above and right: Lois and Matilda, from Westfield Brownies switched on the lights with the help of parish councillor Geoff Fuller

RESIDENTS from Westfield who gathered for the Christmas tree switch-on ceremony were entertained with music by Midsomer Norton and Radstock Silver Band, Westfield Voices and pupils from Westfield Primary School.

Getting ready for the big switch-on

Some of the Westfield Primary School children

CHEW STOKE

School nativity

CHILDRENfrom the reception class at Chew Stoke Church School performed their Christmas nativity play “Hey Ewe!” to parents and grandparents.

Hedgehog Class teacher, Vicki Hennessy, said: “I am so proud of how hard the children have all worked to learn their lines, songs and choreography. It is hard to believe they have only been in school for three months!”

GLASTONBURY

Storm Arwen couldn’t stop Frost Fayre

ORGANISERS of Glastonbury’s Frost Fayre were forced into a last-minute change of plan when storm Arwen hit the Mendips.

Due to resume after last year’s festivities were hit by the pandemic, the event was struck by an act of nature with traders unable to put up gazebos and stalls in the High Street. Some were able to trade from their vans, but other entertainment was able to go ahead as planned.

Glastonbury Border Morris dancing in the High Street

Edge Acrobatic Gymnasts after their performance in St John’s Church Mayor Jon Cousins with Unity Candle bearer Irena Zvonar and members of the 914 Squadron Glastonbury and Street Air Cadets

Busking in the High Street, despite the wind and cold

Two lives, two books, together

IT may have taken a few years longer than planned, but Gail Godwin, from Wanstrow, has now followed husband Mick in writing her autobiography.

Called Gabrielle My Life As I Remember It, the book traces her early childhood in India – her father was a senior police officer based in Calcutta – Kenya and Uganda through to boarding schools in the UK, the Swinging 60s in London and several years in Canada, working for an airline in Vancouver.

Back in the UK, Gail – Gabrielle is her real name – worked as a PA to Lord Henry Bath and in interior design and moved to Warminster and Beckhampton; she met Mick in a pub (later they realised they had met previously) and eventually they married in 2001.

Mick had been a Wiltshire farmer who later became a “Name” with Lloyds of London until facing near bankruptcy

Gail with her father, William, and baby sister Mandy, in Uganda Gail and Mick at home in Wanstrow

in the early 1990s. It was on his land near Warminster that a metal detectorist uncovered a Bronze Age golden torc, later declared Treasure Trove after a costly legal battle and now on display in Salisbury Museum.

Mick was first to write his book – Farms and Fortunes –which was intended for his grandchildren to read. It recounts his life from 1939 to 2009 as a farmer and a “Name” and his interests in world affairs, military aircraft and travel.

The book took him ten years to complete. Gail’s book took her 20 years and is written for her son Geoffrey who, as she says in the book: “Never seemed very interested in my past and fairly varied life.

“But I know from experience that as people mature and have families of their own, their interests change. In due course they often turn to wondering how their lives turned out as they have, wishing they’d asked certain questions when they were able, or listened more and interrupted less.”

Both books recount their move to a new house in Wanstrow in 2001 and their hand in its design. It includes a studio for Gail to pursue her love of painting.

Gail’s book is published by Jjnpublishing.com – Mick’s book is by Bright Pen

Shoe staff return to work

AGREEMENT has been reached between Clarks Shoes and the union representing around 100 workers at its Westway distribution centre in Street to end a two-month strike.

The deal with Community follows mediation with Acas. Staff at the warehouse claimed the shoemaker had been seeking to cut their wages by almost 15% to £9.50 an hour by using controversial fire and rehire tactics.

In a joint statement, the two sides said: “Community and Clarks announce that following a process of mediation with Acas, an agreement has been reached in respect of the industrial dispute at the Clarks Westway Distribution Centre.

“We are pleased that a resolution has been reached that works in everybody’s interests, protects Community members’ livelihoods, and recognises their loyalty to Clarks.

Following an indicative ballot of Community members it is confirmed that normal working has now resumed.

“Community and Clarks express their thanks to Acas for its support and look forward to close co-operation as we move on from the dispute and commit to positive industrial relations in

Hundreds of supporters joined strikers on a protest march which passed the original headquarters of C&J Clark

the future.”

Last March, the Hong Kong-based private equity firm LionRock Capital completed its takeover of the company in a £100m rescue deal.