Farming News

Hoping for better times ahead

A bit like the first Star Wars movie - A New Hope - we all entered the year 2021! I think everyone was looking forward to the new year and hopefully a light at the end of a dark 2020 virus-shaped tunnel. Despite lockdown three (worst trilogy ever!) the vaccine has arrived and is being administered with haste. Let’s hope by the time this magazine arrives at your door the lines on the BBC graphs are all heading downhill fast and we can get back to the new normal, whatever that may look like.

The pandemic has affected us all, but once again I would like to personally say a massive thank you to all the NHS staff and key workers. You have all been a shining beacon of hope with your shoulders to the wheel for such a long period of time. I would also like to give a shout out to all the local businesses and their teams of staff who have sacrificed so much this year. It seems ironic that the only winners have again been the big boys. Local businesses, shops, pubs, restaurants are on their knees whilst the likes of Amazon has cashed in, shipping the profits to whichever tax haven is fashionable this week. I dearly hope that once the dust settles, we all have a time for reflection and realise the value around us and in our communities. Our small towns and their thriving small businesses are the beating heart of our community and going forward they will need us!

On the farm we have endured a very wet autumn again with springs rising all over the place, even in the middle of our lane. But Christmas came and we had some relief with a lovely cold snap at the start of the new year. It makes our job so much easier and I would happily have cold dry weather until March if I could. The grass stops, the ground has time to dry out and gets a rest, and the hard frosts help kill off the ticks in the rough grazing which can plague the animals through spring and summer. The snow can stay away though! As usual the great unwashed descended onto Dartmoor the minute they could see a snowcapped North Hessary Tor. Snow is great fun if you are playing in it, I give you that, but the collateral damage to gates, fences and our pregnant animals is not - plus litter, dogs worrying animals, parking and traffic Armageddon, not to mention 4x4s popping up like mushrooms everywhere there is a road closed sign! I’d better stop there... But when there is snow on the ground, please try and have some consideration for the animals and us farming folk who find the invasion quite hard to deal with during an already stressful situation.

The ewes will start lambing in March and usually we would be shouting from the roof tops about our Greenwell Lambing Live event, but once again due to the restrictions we have decided to cancel our 2021 event. We worked so hard last year to get the event ready and even had two days of visits only to cancel the event halfway through due to last spring’s lockdown. But Lambing Live will rise again for 2022, hopefully! We will endeavour to share as much of this special time of year on the farm with you on our social media and let’s hope lambing this year goes well. It is always a very special time of year on the farm with so much new life everywhere. Let us hope by then we can, like the lambs, have a spring in our step and move forward to a brighter spring and summer!

Stay safe and buy local!

Mat Cole, Greenwell Farm

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