FARMING NEWS
It’s all about teamwork Even with the backdrop of a worldwide pandemic, the seasonal wheels on the farm still turn and during April and May spring is truly in the air! The days are pulling out and there is new life everywhere with lambing well on its way and calving due to start in April. Let’s hope the weather behaves as it can make such a difference to this season with so much fragile new life on the farm. But as always with us farming types, we are never happy as we need it dry and warm, but with just enough moisture about to get the grass growing. Although as we all know, living on this wet rock called Dartmoor, moisture isn’t usually a problem! It’s fantastic that the schools are now back. It has been lovely to have the boys around, but home schooling has been a challenge to put it mildly! Gemma has been amazing and coped with the boys really well, with a bit of daddy maths when needed, but we did a massive ‘whoop whoop’ when they returned in March. I think we all appreciate the hard work of our essential workers a bit more given the last 12 months, but to teachers and their teams I would like to say: “I am very happy to see you back and I have so much respect for the efforts you put in for our children - and I am sorry the boys may have a broader vocabulary than when they were last in the classroom!” We had a bit of drama on Dartmoor back in February with a wild fire on the moor near Peter Tavy which made national news. It could be seen for miles with the wind making it quite dangerous. But fires are common on moorlands across the country; as the old moorland vegetation dies off and dries out quickly it burns very easily. Generally, farmers work together to make sure there are fire-breaks and smaller controlled burns which help to protect against larger wild fires like this one. We also have a working relationship with the fire brigade where
the farmers go out and fight wild fires with the brigade; we are trained, and have specialist water pumps and a beater which goes on our quad bikes and helps put out fires, plus we know the ground. It works really well, but given the pressure the emergency services are currently under, farmers haven’t been able to do any controlled burns in 2020 or 2021. Let’s hope there aren’t any more fires and that next year during the swaling (burning) season during winter we can get out and burn some fire-breaks to protect our moorland. For the last eight years, Graham my brother in-law, has been working with me on the farm. He came to the farm from a background of plant hire as well as being a very active young farmer where he grew up in Kent. Finding himself fed up with his current job when I was in need of help, he jumped into the farm team as a temporary stopgap for both of us. Eight years later he has become my right-hand man but is now moving on reluctantly, having secured a position as a depot manager for a national plant hire depot, which is what he did originally. He will be sorely missed and I will struggle to replace him. It is a sad reflection that farming isn’t profitable enough to compete with other industries and all too often our best team members get poached. But I would just like to say thank you to Graham for his valuable contribution to the team at Greenwell and good luck! Mat Cole, Greenwell Farm
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