Farming News

Changing with the times

As a small business we endeavour to mind our own business and get on with our seasonal routines. It has felt good that our prices for beef, lamb and all farm produce have risen to a more sustainable level. The trouble of course is that costs have also been exploding as fuel and energy have risen. I suppose it just illustrates how we are all tied to world events and it would seem that the cost-of-living crisis we are experiencing has very little to do with anything in this country. However, we are all affected and sadly businesses will suffer and fail because of it. As a Dartmoor Farmers director, I met with Morrisons to finalise details for the lambs going into stores this season. I was expecting a catchup with the lamb buyer and his boss, then sign off some details and off we would go. But it was made very clear that most customers in stores are downgrading their purchases from finest to own brand, lamb to chicken or steak to burgers. Everyone is watching their budget. Our lamb is a regional offer in their finest range and although we are secure and they love the product, they pointed out that as a result, sales could suffer for this coming lamb season. As a group of over 100 farmers working very hard to promote Dartmoor, the small family farms which are so important in delivering our iconic landscape and rich tapestry of thriving habitats for wildlife, it made me feel pretty vulnerable. But we have spent 15 years helping to build a sustainable future for farmers on Dartmoor by working together, and championing local, sustainable beef and lamb. This has to be a better way than just relying on the global market and getting involved in a race to the bottom on price. So please look for Dartmoor lamb in a Morrisons near you! On the back of the success of Lambing Live we are running a Great Gather event in partnership with The Dartmoor Hill Farm project. We are going to take members of the public with us when we round up our sheep on the common for shearing. We are expecting lots of people, and we will walk into the heart of the moor; whilst the sheep are being rounded up around us on the common, I will give a blow-by-blow account of what is happening. I will also take the opportunity to talk about farming on Dartmoor, the living history surrounding us and the symbiotic relationship between farmers on Dartmoor and the iconic landscape. It is however a real shame that when you read this the event

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will already have happened. I will let you know how we get on! Tom, our eldest, will be starting big school this September, moving up from the small village school in Meavy to the much larger Tavistock College. Meavy has done a fantastic job of nurturing a happy, little boy into a very capable, young person who is looking forward to the next chapter. It was a funny coincidence that I looked back at my old articles and realised I wrote my first links article back in the summer of 2015 when Tom first started at Meavy. Time has flown as both seem to have passed by in the blink of an eye!

I have briefly introduced Dave in previous articles and I now have another new recruit to the dream team at Greenwell. Charles has grown up on a nearby farm similar to ours, and was keen to do an apprenticeship on a farm whilst studying at college. He has done really well since he started and has already become a valued member of our team. He is on a steep learning curve and Dave and I are giving him plenty of on-the-job learning and plenty of stick, obviously! The fact that I have my very own Chas and Dave as entertainment will be lost on the youngsters but it made me chuckle, and they will both be getting ‘Rabbit Rabbit’ T-shirts for Christmas!

Mat Cole, Greenwell Farm

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