Blogs

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.

Just recently, Dad wandered into our yard with a look on his face that meant he had some bad news.

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).

I start with a falswhood. Did you know that the carbon footprint of the Coca-Cola company is greater than that of the entire UK livestock industry? No?

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.

In October I stood in a room full of 800 farmers and rural businesses at Farmers Guardian’s British Farming Awards and watched Sheena Horner step onto the stage and accept the Farming Hero honour.

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.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are recognised as the two existential threats to our civilisation and the next few years will see a major transformation in how we use land so as to tackle these crises.

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