Farm diary November 25 2009

I am told that stock was lost in some areas, which is not surprising given the deluge of rain in such a short space of time. Despite the heavy rain and high winds in Sussex, the leaves are very reluctant to fall, and when the sun does briefly appear, there are still some lovely colours to be seen.

The fields are very wet on the clay, with standing water everywhere. The sheep are huddling under the trees and hedgerows, anywhere where there might be a bit of shelter.

Yet the calves at Tillington are still grazing quite happily, running in for some hard food and mouthful of hay to mix in with the green soup, grazed outside.

The Biogas plant is only three degrees from full operating temperature, and we are tweaking the boiler to see if we can get more heat into the system.

We flared the gas for sevenhours one day last week, which is very good, and we now have the solid feeders working, with muck, maize and grass silage going into the system.

These are small quantities at the moment, but quite nice to use up any waste around the clamps.

The slurry separators are running for several hours every day, with muck to cart away to the maize fields (when conditions allow).

We hope to spread the muck and winter plough the fields at Tillington in December to prevent run-off (a bit late for that I hear you say!).

n It must be mid-November because the shops are full of Christmas lights and decorations; in fact they have been lit up since the beginning of the month in some areas.

It certainly works, because Christmas shopping is happening in a big way (I'm told) in places like Guildford at the weekend. I had my first postcard last week '“ from the Royal Mail! Is this because they are unlikely to deliver any of the others I might receive, and they wanted me not to be without Christmas cheer?

Our post-lady is very nice with a good sense of humour, shouting 'Cattle Passports', with the right blend of surprise and excitement when they (occasionally) arrive.

It was last Christmas that Gordon Ramsey captured my imagination with a recipe for 'leftover Christmas pudding souffls'.

He has fallen from grace a bit since then I know (especially in Australia!), but at the time I decided to have a go and it worked!

Since then I have developed quite an interest, and when time allows I make a complete mess of Lorayne's kitchen, leaving twice as much work than if she had cooked the meal herself.

I began with souffls; therefore I needed to carry on with that level of cuisine.

This weekend I had a brace of pheasants, with the idea of pan-frying the breasts in butter and served with a beetroot and tomato puree (that's baby food if you are north of Watford).

Imagine my surprise (total rage) when the pheasants hanging nicely outside for the past week, disappeared; a few feathers was all that was left.

My 12 month old English Bull Terrier had also fancied these birds, but without the fuss and nonsense!

When I discovered the few remains at the bottom of the garden, Gordon Ramsey would have been pushed to make a half decent curry with what was left. We had poached egg on toast for supper (cooked by Lorayne). At least they were fresh eggs from our few chickens in the garden.

n MrTony Cooper, Chief Executive of the Rural Payments Agency is in serious trouble, following a security debacle which led to thousands of farmers' personal details going 'missing'.

This is not the first time that government has 'lost' personal details, and as we face savage cuts in public spending (whoever wins the election in May), it is a worrying trend.

If DEFRA is anything to go by, the cuts are potentially huge; with every department asked to 'look at 50 per centby value of their programmes to show how they can be made more efficient', according to DEFRA Permanent Secretary Dame Helen Ghosh.

On the other hand MPs are told that potential cuts in public spending will have 'minimal effect' on DEFRA's delivery of services to farmers.

In the meantime plans to 'share' the cost of combating animal disease with farmers across England goes on, despite the absence of proposals in the Queen's speech last week.

This is being moved on with undue haste, and there are real fears that Ministers have made up their minds on this matter, and will ride roughshod over the newly formed 'working group', tasked to report on the best way of implementing 'cost-sharing'.

Most farmers believe that this is a blatant move to hive cost away from DEFRA on to farmers themselves, with government doing very little at airports and ports to police incoming disease threats, and the tin hat being that the last Foot and Mouth outbreak (2007) came from a badly maintained government laboratory.

It matters not what colour the next government, this cost (and others) will be transferred, and the effort must be to make sure we have a real say in how disease prevention and protection is conducted.

Furthermore, we should also have a say in what the costs are, because the NFU has already earmarked savings within DEFRA that are at least equal to the sum at present being asked for from the industry.

Some tough negotiations lay ahead on this matter, and government needs to look at its inactivity over bovine TB before going any further.

The Europeans are quite rightly claiming that this disease is out of control and that government must play its part in bringing it under control and eradicating it.

As we get nearer to 'purdah', the period of paralysis in government as civil servants, uncertain of the result of the next election, and everything grinds to a halt.

Extreme vigilance will be necessary, as individuals with agendas will be very active, making sure that certain ducks are in a row; taking the opportunity to prepare for the surge of action, confusion and total chaos that follows an election, as people are sacked, promoted, departments changed, savage cuts to budgets, and an element of 'pay-back'!