Farm Diary December 9 2009

The odd frosty morning followed by beautiful sunshine for an hour or two, gives us a tantalizing glimpse of something rather more pleasant, before the heavens open yet again.

All we can do is carry on with the choice of overheating whilst wearing waterproof clothing, or multiple changes during the day. I am moving sheep more often now, as they muddy the fields, and need fresh clean grass.

They are doing a good job, but it would be so much easier for them (and me!) if it was a little less damp underfoot.

Lorayne and I have extra duties for the next few weeks as Gwenan our youngest daughter is in hospital, having an operation performed to sort out a 'slipped disc'.

She should be home soon, but it will take a long time before active farming (heavy lifting, carrying bags of food, and handling animals) is back on her daily routine. Thank goodness for the robot! This is a real blessing, as it feeds all the calves and weans the older ones without my doing anything other than keeping it topped up with milk powder (once a day) and generally checking the systems.

The calves train on to the robot very easily indeed and as they get multiple feeds of warm milk, they are growing strongly, weaning without a murmur as the cunning robot cuts them down on daily intake without them even noticing.

I confess to having an 'Egglu'; believe me, that is quite an 'outing' for a farmer An Egglu is a clever and very well designed mobile hen-house for 'good lifers'.

This year 'Omlette' the manufacturers have sold 16,000, and many of those are to be found in Hampstead, where having fresh eggs is the natural progression from growing a few organic carrots and beans in the garden.

This colourful 'tele-tubby' henhouse, is both ingenious and ridiculous. It is ingenious in that it prevents foxes eating our hens (even on Mondays!) and is easy to move, maintain, clean, and provides a perfect home for a handful of chickens.

The ridiculous part it that it costs about 100 per hen, and will therefore never pay for itself making it a pure and expensive hobby, which bears no relation to food production whatsoever, and seeing that its made from plastic, has the largest carbon-footprint per egg known to man.

Just when we have been asking for moderation over climate change, dishonesty over the issue appears in the news. Sir Paul McCartney, the legendary musician rocks up in Brussels to speak to MEP's about not eating meat on Mondays in order to save the planet. 'Macca' as he is affectionately known, joins the list of celebrities insisting on being taken seriously whilest jumping on the climate change bandwagon, carrying a great big axe on his shoulder.

For he is a committed vegetarian, and sees this agenda as a great opportunity to push his lentil eating philosophy down our throats. 'Don't let me down' he pleaded, as a comment from the audience suggested that Monday was a bad choice as one usually eats the left-overs from the Sunday roast. 'We can work that out,' he cried, and by comparison to our Health Minister, who thought that killing 30 per cent of all farm animals was the way to save the planet and cut on National Health expenditure, our ageing Beatle is a moderate.

My advice is 'Let it be', for he is out of his depth and simple slogans will only ensure that people who are trying to cope with recession and current uncertainties will disengage. With some of the fanatics now wanting the Copenhagen talks to fail, because they will only end up in a 'deal being done', too little and too late, we can see the breathtaking naivety of those who expect be taken seriously.

Of course (if we are very lucky) a deal will be done, how else does this matter progress? Strange to see how desperately intolerant some people can be, and how this single issue must ride roughshod over everything else.

As I have said before, it's not the planet that's in danger, it has experienced much worse, we are merely concerned with our own existence, and to put it in perspective, we have been here less than five minutes!

However, if we can ignore for a minute those who have lived carbon-spewing lives when they made their millions, now lecturing the rest of us, whilst pursuing some other barmy agenda, this issue is clearly not going to go away, and challenges all of us.

As farmers, we now produce food and (increasingly) energy, which of course are renewable, for example bio-mass, bio-methane, bio-diesel. We are also faced as an industry with the prospect of a growing global population, which will need feeding, and the challenge is to produce more and impact less.

In order to do this, we need smart solutions, new technology, research and development to assist the industry to emulate for example what the car industry is doing. Why is it that the car industry receives plaudits for its progress in cutting emissions, whilst agriculture, a fundamentally vital industry, and much more connected with the planet and life itself, is offered a suicide note by some?

Agriculture has a very good track record in being adaptable and in delivering what is needed, whether that be food to eat, then plentiful cheap food, and more recently environmental 'goods' and now, renewable energy. Our impact on the planet in the UK as farmers is diminishing, as we increase efficiency, and cut our emissions.

In the dairy industry we have an 'Environmental Roadmap' with farmers, processors and retailers working together to reduce carbon emissions between now and 2020.

We are well on the way to delivering on those targets, but it does take time, hard work and investment; investment which can only be carried out by profitable businesses and ultimately, the market will have to pay towards this goal. That of course will be the real test.