Blogs

After a truly fantastic September that felt more like May, the seasons have definitely changed here in Dorset.

This month’s column takes the the form of an open letter to MP Lucy Frazer, who represents south east Cambridgeshire.

A useful discipline to maximise the probability of your farm business surviving the next 10 years is to make some safe, though unpalatable, assumptions, then plan accordingly.

Autumn is always busy for a sheep farm and with the onset of some very heavy rain and strong winds the season has definitely arrived in a hurry.

The first weekend in October saw us at the farmers’ market in Huntly town square, despite continuous heavy rain the customers turned up in their usual good numbers and good spirits to provide us with a good day’s trading.

At this time of great change, we can look to the future of farming and our countryside with hope.

Sales season is in full swing and it is great to be experiencing some of the best trading conditions that I can remember.

Over the past few months that I have been writing in this section, I have mentioned several times what lovely regular customers we have and I am sure most farms which sell direct to consumers will say the same.

Unfortunately, due to the current situation, we had to cancel all our on-farm courses this year but, as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade or even better, make cider.

The recent dry weather has been a godsend. Combines have been flat out here in the North West over the last two weeks. Grass silage harvesting has been equally as busy and we noticed the drills are coming out.