Wow… I can’t believe that March is upon us. Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis did their best around the country with some areas more affected than others. I do hope none of our readers suffered unduly. The road to school was littered with trees but having seen pictures of milking in flooded parlours, crops underwater, cattle trailers floating away etc. I feel very lucky.
Scanning has been and gone with 185% success rate. Preparations are well under way for lambing. The goats have started kidding with triplets to start us off. Monty thankfully has it all under control.
We decided in our wisdom to visit the “Dairy Tech” show at Stoneleigh Park this year. Oh what an adventure! I booked our accommodation and Fergus was meeting us at the show straight from Uni. Childcare and animals were all being taken care of and away we went. Upon checking into our B&B it soon became apparent that we were at different ends of the “thought” spectrum. An eco-house built of hay (in my opinion “ A rats paradise”)! A house of Vegetarians and Vegan sausages offered for breakfast. While I will always embrace other people’s thoughts and beliefs I find it very hard to empathise with them. Should they visit our house they would be horrified if I were to offer them a full English breakfast. While being given a guided tour of the “house of hay” we embarked upon a recycling discussion… The lady of the house was very indignant towards the previous generation blaming them for most of today’s environmental damage. I tried to reason with her but unfortunately it fell on deaf ears. She believes that 20+ years ago they may not have had a “green thing” they didn’t care for the environment… I beg to differ.
Milk bottles, beer bottles were returned, they were sent back to the manufacturer, washed and sterilised and then refilled. All shopping was packed in brown paper bags that were reused for hundreds of things including book covers for school books. We used to walk up stairs instead of taking the lift or escalator, we walked to the village shop, in fact, we walked everywhere. We washed baby nappies and dried them on the washing line instead of throwing them in the bin. Tumble dryers were so expensive they were never used. The children had hand-me-down clothes instead of the new branded clothes. We didn’t have a television in every room. We used to go out running instead of using a treadmill or rowing machine. The police used to ride bikes or horses.
Many of these things happened before my time and I’m ashamed to admit that all 4 of my children have used disposable nappies… Having gone back to work very quickly after each child I went for the easiest option. Excuses excuses…
As you can imagine by the end of the discussion we declined breakfast and went for a full English at the showground instead. Yum Yum. The lady didn’t make an appearance in the morning.
The show was fantastic. A lot of hard work and an enthusiastic team running it. It showcased the very best in dairy farming techniques but, unfortunately it comes with huge price tag. We viewed an electric scraper tractor with a price tag of £20,000 unfortunately the diesel equivalent was only £10,000 so it was a bit of a “no brainer”.
While our vet was at the farm for his routine bi-weekly visit we embarked upon our usual banter of “how much a vets call out costs?” That’s why I save all our ‘just’ jobs for a little add on to his call. I was unaware of the fact that we now only have two large animal vet practices in East Kent, one being a corporate practice and the other an independent practice. It will eventually lead to a shortage of large animal vets. It would seem to highlight the issue and the responsibility of ensuring that 24-hour cover is available. Vets will be stretched, as recruitment appears to be an issue. It is a huge problem for the industry and one that shouldn’t be ignored.
As this is being written Boris is having a cabinet reshuffle. It would be fair to say that I for one will not mourn the departure of Theresa Villiers. George Eustice her replacement seems to me to be a much better fit. We have for the first time in a while someone who at least appears to understand agriculture far better than any of his recent predecessors. I wish him all the best in what will undoubtedly be a different period ahead of us.
We also had the pleasure of attending the RABI Farmers breakfast at Elham Valley vineyards. A marvellous traditional English breakfast was served and over £500 raised in the process.
Our little bit of dynamite turned three at the end of February… How do we manage to have a three year old in the house? His sense of humour is definitely infectious and his adoration for his siblings is something to behold. The electric gaiter has provided hours of fun and mummy thinks it’s marvellous that he can even bring bales of shavings round to the horses. A three year old that works is marvellous.
