Farm Life

We have been keeping busy by topping, striving to mix and match cutting and grazing, hay making, preparing for silage and, as ever, fencing.

In drawing together the disparate strands of social inequality, diet-related ill-health and the farming systems that underpin the food system, Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy is a vast and challenging piece of work.

Just over 12 months ago former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson lost his wife of 40 years to suicide.

Amy Gouldthorpe, 21, lives on her family’s mixed farm in Northallerton, North Yorkshire. She is studying an agriculture with animal science degree at Harper Adams University.

Tree species, location, soil type and exposure to weather must be taken into account to ensure farmers are planting trees in the best place for long-term success while still recognising food production.

The ‘backbone of Britain’s rural communities’ will be broken if small farms are allowed to go bust, Prince Charles has warned.

Ministers are intending to amend Game Acts dating back to the 19th century to clamp down on hare coursing, the Countryside Alliance has said.

This time of year is the calm before the inevitable storm of harvest; everything is sown, cows are outside, grass is cut and spraying up to date.