Farm Diary - Jan 13

EVERYONE likes a bit of snow, and who would deny the children some fun and time off school?

But this has got very boring now, and I can't wait for it to disappear.

On the Monday morning it was quite a shock to discover such a huge amount of snow on the ground, and driving to Tillington in the early morning was quite interesting, as it was difficult in the dark to establish the true position of the road, and as trees and branches had either snapped or were leaning heavily, it meant driving off the road to go around the obstacles.

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Thank goodness for Land Rover, and I took our 1959 petrol example out on the road, and with limited visibility due to the snow, and of course no heater and very little in the way of lights, it was quite an adventure.

Having got to Tillington I was able to swap it for Gwenan's modern Land Rover, which is rather better equipped, and I have been driving that ever since.

By Monday night there were umpteen cars in ditches and hedgerows, and all of them were 4WD vehicles!

The lesson is, whilst you have more traction, you do not have more grip; that is to say, you may have more go, but stopping and cornering are still difficult.

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Most 4WD cars these days are pretty useless on snow, and wide, low-profile tyres, are not what you need. I watched a low powered, very ordinary little car with narrow tyres scamper up a hill at Plaistow, whilst a large German 4WD machine on wide tyres could not even move.

n There have not been any vacuum operated milk tankers available from Dairy Crest, but they have been sending 'liners' in to collect the milk from those of us who have the capability of pumping the milk into these tankers. They normally move milk up the motorways, and their drivers are not used to narrow lanes and farms.

We have been escorting them to the farm and towing them in, pumping the milk into them and towing them out again, escorting them back to the main road.

This takes a lot of time and all the lads have been working all hours, milking cows, thawing out water pipes and tanks, salting and gritting the yards.

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We have helped a few people to clear long drives with our tele-handlers, and we lent a generator set to a friend of ours who had no electricity. By and large though, we have been tied up with our own work load, which takes so long to get through.

Thousands of litres of milk have been thrown away on farms, and not all farmers will be adequately insured against this loss. Letting milk go down the drain is the most depressing thing to do, especially when such effort is required to get it in the tank during bad weather conditions.

Devon and Cornwall have been particularly bad, but a lot of milk in East and West Sussex has also been thrown away in the last few days.

The calf robot at Tillington has frozen most nights, as well as water troughs. We are very exposed on the side of the hill, and the wind chill is considerable.

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All the calves are well, and seem to be healthier in this colder dryer weather. Back at home the milk is down a little, despite the cows eating more than ever, but again the cold weather is keeping the mastitis infections low.

No problems with machinery throughout all this cold weather, and with modern batteries either having a full charge or completely dead, we don't find ourselves in the position of having a good battery in fine weather, refusing to start a tractor as soon as it turns cold.

I was intrigued to hear of Hilary Benn's speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, where Defra announced its new strategy for agriculture for the next 20 years, which finally recognises the importance of farming.

It may be short on detail, and we might have lost a lot of confidence in Defra and the Secretary of State, but this is an important document and the first major food strategy since the 1947 Agricultural act 63 years ago.

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But Nick Herbert completely stole the show with his announcement that the Conservatives will put an Ombudsman in place, to oversee the supermarket code of practice.

This was a welcome surprise for me, having discussed it with the Conservative party many times, and it gives hope that future investment and innovation throughout the supply chain has a better chance of taking place, benefiting consumers as well as small businesses and farmers.

No strategy, however well thought out will work without a profitable industry, and getting the supply chain to work properly is paramount to the future of agriculture in Europe, as well as this country. But suddenly, I have more hope!

There is talk of future research and development, there are changing attitudes on GM, after being obsessed with climate change, followed by panic when Gordon Brown mentioned how important food security was, Defra is now closer to the role it should fulfill; working with productive agriculture in a meaningful way, rather than displaying little interest and seemingly being hell bent on legislating as many farmers out of production as possible.

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n There is a long way to go. Many farmers have cut down stock numbers due to lack of profitability, few young people are choosing to follow parents into the family farm, and many more are struggling to raise money for slurry storage in order to comply with new legislation coming into force in 2011. Food is now on the agenda of all leading political parties, and productive agriculture is central to their aspirations.

They are beginning to see that although supermarkets have done a wonderful job of transforming the way people shop, catering for their every demand, and providing great service; left to their own devices and hugely competitive nature, they are, if left unbridled, in danger of reversing much of what has been achieved.

Between them, the two major parties have now come forward with two very important announcements that should give every farmer some good cheer for this New Year, and something to sustain us whilst we cope with this rather boring weather.

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