In your field

As I type, November is all but over and we have been very grateful for the kind autumn. Grass growth has meant one herd was still grazing into the third week of the month. That said, feeding of winter diet was close to 100 per cent.

I was incredibly lucky recently to be asked to attend the British Farming Awards as the ’plus one’ of my good friend Sheena Horner who was being recognised as the Farmers Guardian Farming Hero for 2021 (she had invited her husband first but he unfortunately couldn’t make it).

October started and ended dry and I cannot remember a kinder autumn than the one we are currently having. I am sure at some point the weather will turn for the worst and test us, but for now long may it continue.

With the clocks changing, the dry weather came to an abrupt end on the last day of October. What we were not prepared for, however, was the absolute deluge of rainfall which fell out of the sky on that morning.

The weather the last two weeks has been just what we needed. With being half down on of our normal shed space, we needed to sell a group of calves before we could bring the cows in.

As I sit down to write this we are in the middle of some seriously wet weather.

Rachel and husband Stephen and family farm 66ha (163 acres) mainly tenanted at Baildon, West Yorkshire. They milk 85 pedigree Holstein and Jerseys, selling milk to Meadow Foods. They also have an on farm vending machine. Their son, Ben, works full-time on farm and daughters Felicity and Zoe also work in the agricultural sector. Rachel is a director of the local farmers’ market.

September finally saw the return of sunshine and warmer days which allowed us to finish the cereal harvest with some of the driest combining we had all season, which was a relief.

With the continued good weather, it has been easy to forget that the clocks will soon be changing, and winter will be upon us.

The first Saturday in October saw us attend our final farmers’ market in Huntly.