Farm Diary

The birds are singing loudly each morning, with our resident magpies very busy building their nest. We have applied some fertilizer to some of our grass fields, and as the ground dries up we will start to apply some of the slurry water from our lagoons.

Unfortunately the large blue peacock will not see the spring of 2009, because the fox has taken him, leaving us with only the white peacock, who looks very second rate with half his tail gone since he was attacked. With my guns stolen, I was unable to offer any protection, which is a great shame after all this time.

We held our NFU Annual Conference last week, which was very well attended with plenty of discussion about the economic 'downturn', and agriculture's place in the global recession.

Agriculture is not affected in the same way as other sectors when recession hits, because as one of the speakers Professor Patrick Hall (Professor of public health Dublin) said; if you don't eat, you're dead!

That does not mean that agriculture is immune to the problems of economic recession; far from it, but food still sells every day and demand is there.

Agriculture in this country, unlike the economy, saw growth in 2008, and therefore a greater contribution to GDP. We are producing more food these days with less impact on the environment, but the task of doubling food production globally in the next 40 years is an enormous challenge.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette February 25