Blogs

I have decided to allocate time in this opinion piece to bovine TB – specifically residual disease.

As I write, the misty weather seems to be echoing life. The path ahead is not clear and it is difficult to see anything on the horizon.

November, and we roll the dice again. The tups are back in with the ewes despite the serious question, will there be a viable market for lamb post-Brexit? I think I asked the same question last year, or maybe it was the year before? It is hard to keep track.

Temperatures have started to drop and grass growth is slowing fast, as we would expect at this time of year.

It is hard not to feel anxious as we head into a Covid-19 winter, especially with all the uncertainties that Brexit is bringing.

Being handed the baton by fellow Dorset farmer and longstanding Farmers Guardian contributor, Jon Stanley, is rather a daunting task, but, as this is my first article, I thought I would write a little bit about about my background and a general introduction to our farm.

What a difference a few days of sunshine can make. In the east, October was the second dullest of all time, and one of the rainiest too. But November has dawned, skies are blue and the fields are fit.

As the UK heads into a second lockdown I felt very lucky, if a little guilty, to be heading for Iceland.

This week, I want to talk about something which has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, even more so since I started farming in my own right and probably since I grew up on a farm where my desire to be like my father and uncle first started.

Not only do I trade on farmers’ markets, I am a director of the community interest company which runs our village market.