In your field

The year 1976 was a notable one. Steve Jobs launched Apple, the first Star Wars came out and I turned one during harvest that August.

With the Covid-19 virus still causing mayhem and hardship throughout the UK, it is at least encouraging to see things move forward and start to open up in England. Our Scottish leader is very popular, although she is taking a very cautious approach to leading Scotland out of lockdown.

I am writing this with a broken heart, having just had to have my young dog Kip put down. She was only two and a promising young bitch with the kindest, sweetest, nature of any dog I have known.

They say every day is a school day and inviting the general public into your farmyard on a daily basis is certainly an education.

It is getting dry. Locally, light land is practically burning up, heavy soils look to be about 10 days behind and last year’s bumper silage crops look like they will be needed.

It is hard to believe that only three months ago the country was battered by floods week after week, with news channels covering evacuating communities by boat whose homes were under water. All that after the wettest February on record.

The weather is fantastic and it would have been great if agricultural shows, events and festivals which usually occur had been able to take place. The irony of having fantastic weather on the Easter and May Bank Holidays, when people cannot or should not be going anywhere due to lockdown is a double blow.

Why are tractors not allowed on the German autobahn? Without speed limits, a trusty tractor just cannot hold its own against gangs of lean, mean BMWs or Audis. Gaggles of tractors bouncing out onto these roads would just be sitting ducks.

Now spring has nearly passed, our mid-term report card has seen some revisions, having looked very promising at the early stages with lambing and calving going very well and spring barley establishment looking very good. We now find ourselves wondering how things turned around and became difficult.

Shearing is in full swing and the second-hand race trailer I bought is proving ideal. Even the Dorsets and Texel rams run through it with only gentle encouragement and the load on the body shearing from it is massively reduced, compared to dragging from a pen trailer.