Farm Diary - Nov 18 2009

We lost a few trees on the farm, and pumped water for 48 hours continuously as it lashed down in torrents.

We had close to three inches of rain in total over four days, and we have ponds (temporarily) in many fields, sparkling concrete yards, and a lot of water in newly emptied lagoons. Gwenan lost electricity at Tillington, which up until now has not been a big deal, but with the robotic calf feeding system it rapidly becomes a problem.

With a dead robot and no feed for the calves we were quite worried and monitored the position, getting ready to feed manually once more, but after 5 hours the power came back on and the calves had not even noticed.

The plastic sheeting on our straw stack has been severely tested in the conditions and passed with flying colours. We have a little re-arranging on the silage clamps to do, where some of the heavy sheets have moved around; nothing to worry about but it shows the strength of the wind.

The sheep seem quite happy with life, and the clay is still firm enough for them, and grass like you would not believe.

If the conditions were dry, I could go out and cut a 5th time this year, quite extraordinary. Muck carting came to an abrupt end when Darren got the tractor and trailer stuck up to its axles at Tillington, he still had the load on, and if he tipped the trailer, it would have rolled on its side, so we had to dispatch a loading shovel to grab out as much dung as possible so that the trailer could be tipped, and the tractor and trailer then be towed out.

Normally we are very good at not getting stuck by not carting in the wet, but there was only one more load left, and we took a chance.

q I see that David Dimbleby has been knocked down by a bullock, and on reading the fine print I notice that it was a 'Dexter' bullock, only knee-high to a grass-hopper, but as Dimbleby found out, having a low centre of gravity makes for a powerful beast.

I gather it belonged to his wife, and he was involved in the loading of this animal into a trailer. It is very easy to get hurt by animals during loading or handling, and it is remarkable that more injuries of this nature do not happen on farm.

I have had my share of knocks and bumps over the years, with a couple of trips to the hospital for 'x-ray' and strapping, but on the whole have stayed out of trouble. I do remember telling a doctor at Guildford hospital that I had been kicked by a cow. 'How many times', he asked looking at the state I was in at the time.

q Fewer than half the people living in this country (according to a survey carried out by The Times newspaper) believe that Climate Change is caused by human activity.

I am not particularly surprised by that to be honest, but politicians are now running around like headless chickens, and cannot understand why we do not believe them over this matter. Leaving aside for a moment that they have made it difficult for us to believe very much they do say as things stand, they do have a very serious problem over many current issues that they want us to take seriously; more seriously than we take politicians themselves at any rate.

When politicians denigrate scientific work (when it doesn't fit the answer they need), and humiliate scientists, especially when those very scientists have been brought in to advise on important matters; little wonder that we are quite rightly suspicious of their motives, when they claim that the end is nigh.

Most people certainly feel that climate change is a golden opportunity for everyone with an axe to grind to set out his or her stall, and just about everything is cited to have some influence; good or bad.

No sooner does one camp declare another reason to change our living habits to assist in the battle against climate change, than other offers an alternative view, or scientists claim it to be untrue.

We are all under verbal bombardment every hour of every day, urged to do this or not do that, whilst taxes are put up and freedoms curtailed in order to save the planet. Scientists themselves are divided over this matter, but this is hushed up, and money for research seems to be directed towards those who are 'on-side'.

People find it strange that if climate change is such a threat, why politicians have been too cowardly to face up to choices that bring them head to head with some powerful single-issue groups.

Why is it that nuclear power and GMO's are seen as such evils, when they just might offer some interesting and useful answers. Many are questioning the building of so many wind generators which are, according to some of questionable value and dubious economic contribution, whilst certainly ruining the landscape in many areas.

Last week the Soil Association have suggested that genetically modified technology could play a role in the future.

This is a significant statement for the organic lobby, and shows a seismic shift in their position, which I welcome.

In the past, we as farmers fed the population by finding new areas of land to plough, we then developed techniques to increase the production from each acre of land, with huge production gains as the vast army of horses (which had to be fed) were replaced with tractors, and then the technical revolution of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Plant breeding also played a major part in this, and still does.

Comparatively recently I have had better clover varieties and high sugar grasses to sow, in order to cut down on chemical nitrogen I buy and increased palatability and energy levels in my swards.

Latest GM technology suggests that I might be able to cut drastically on chemical Nitrogen if trials in California live up to their early promise. Just imagine we could all be organic farmers one day, with plants that need no fertilizer, far less water and no pesticides.

But of course, the biggest gain over conventional organic farming is that productivity would be much higher, on far less land area, because there would be no need for farm yard manure; the Achilles heel of feeding the world in the traditional organic way being the need for vastly more land area to cope with lower yields and to graze the animals that produce the manures.

Maybe we can all get together with this common aim in mind?