The greatest pressure on pesticide use is in France

I hope that as you read this, we are cutting maize silage, as I have 200 acres ready for harvest.

The remainder is ten days to two weeks away, and with a bit of luck, we will have made that elusive cut of grass silage by then.

The cows are enjoying the autumn grass, but there is little milk production to be had from it I’m afraid, as September grass flatters to deceive.

The in-calf heifers are chomping away at an amazing rate, and are looking well, as the first ones come in to calve down.

The young heifers at Tillington are also enjoying the lush grass, but are running in and out and getting some supplementary feed to keep them going.

n I am always fascinated by nature, and consider myself lucky to work hand in hand with the great outdoors.

The bat activity around the house at night is incredible these days, and our conservatory is a brilliant place to watch the acrobatic antics of these creatures of the night, as they twist and turn, feeding on all the insects.

The roe deer are looking particularly well this autumn, and are enjoying the fresh grass very much. I see quite a few in the evenings, but they are quite a danger on the roads in the early mornings.

Leaning against my front gate the other day, chatting with Adrian our herd manager; there was a sudden explosion in the hedge, right next to where I was standing.

A little bird shot out of the bottom of the hedge and made his escape, and I peered in to see a Sparrowhawk recovering inside the thorns before flying off.

The Sparrowhawk, unlike other birds of prey, hunts just like a stealth fighter; at great speed, very low, and smashes into the hedge, where a songbird is usually caught and taken away.

It’s sudden, it’s brutal and it’s deadly. Nature showing its true colour, red; tooth and claw. Survival of the fittest, and if you are not hunting, chances are you are being hunted.

n I missed the European Dairy Event this year; the first time in years. I would have liked to have gone, for two reasons - because it has moved from Stonleigh Park to the NEC up the road in Birmingham, and because it would have been nice to just visit without the pressure of being NFU Dairy Board Chairman. I gather it was a great success, and that a good time was had by all.

The reason I could not attend the Dairy Event, was because I was giving a paper in Lyon, France, on pesticides. This was a very large three day conference, and is an annual event held around Europe. Sounds glamorous? Let me tell you a story.

I arrived in Gatwick in the evening only to find that my plane to Lyon was cancelled. It was flying earlier in the afternoon, as checks were carried out by the NFU office, because we knew that France had a huge strike on that day.

What we did not know, was that there was torrential rain and storms sweeping up through the country as well.

All Easyjet flights to France were cancelled from Gatwick, and as the possibility of flying to Geneva and other places all came up as not possible, I jumped back on the train heading for London.

The plan was to catch the last Eurostar, and bookings were made by loyal staff who were staying behind at NFU HQ to help me get to my destination.

No doubt I was not the only one thinking along these lines, and after glancing at a queue of at least 200 yards in length at Gatwick outside the Easyjet information office, I felt that I needed a seat booked on Eurostar beforehand.

It was done, and a room booked for the night in Paris, where I arrived after a trouble free journey; at midnight.

My hotel room was only 200 metres away, but the rain was unbelievable, and my little fold up brolly, kept for such emergencies in my briefcase, just about covered my head. Having arranged a taxi to pick me up at 4.30am I set the alarm for 4am, and hung my clothes up to dry.

At 4.30am, I travelled from the hotel near ‘Gare de Nord’ to Gare de Lyon, arriving there in good time, as I knew that the ticket office would be shut, and the automatic machines take some time to sort out.

I was told by the friendly man at Eurostar London, that I should jump on the train without a ticket rather than miss it, and as long as I was running towards the guard with payment in hand when he arrived to check tickets, I would not be arrested!

I finally persuaded the machine to give me a ticket and had a very pleasant trip through French countryside on the top deck of the TGV train. They are rather better than our trains I have to say, and it was a part of France not familiar to me, with the magnificent Alps in the distance as we approached Lyon.

I was first on at 9am, having quite forgotten to eat anything in my anxiety.

After the third speaker, we had an interesting discussion panel about the role of pesticides in modern farming, and the understanding and acceptability of such products by society as a whole; giving rise to a further discussion on the massive effect such products had on productivity and in feeding the population. I met some very interesting people, and it was a real eye opener for me to discover that the greatest pressure, as far as pesticide use is concerned, in the whole of Europe is in France.

I caught my flight home that night, arriving in Gatwick at 10.15pm, and the train to Billingshurst was not until 11.50pm, and of course it was late.

Back to reality, and another late night. I must say though, that train across France is worth looking at, especially if one does not like hanging around airports for hours on end, being searched and treated like a criminal before setting off on long treks down endless terminal corridors.

Gwyn Jones