Farm Life

With many farmers missing the regular trip to the hairdressers due to Covid-19 lockdown, a new scheme has been devised to solve the problem and raise money for charity at the same time.

Achieving a balance between productive farming and providing a habitat for our once common farmland birds is not for the faint hearted. Gaina Morgan meets Ian Gray to find out more about how he and his partner,

In early March, after watching the news, we casually suggested that if we ever had to go into isolation it could take us a while to notice any difference, such is the reality of many farmers’ lives at this time of year.

Farmers are the most trusted actors in the food supply chain, according to research by Reading University, with trust being fundamental to how consumers will behave during the pandemic.

The roads are so quiet and the air is only broken by birdsong and young lambs and their mothers calling to each other.

The last three weeks have seen a marked shift in how and where we buy our food. It is a pattern that will remain while we are in lockdown and I suspect there will be a few habits or behaviours that persist for the longer term. 

When the Government announced its unprecedented lockdown measures, restricting people’s movement and closing businesses, many farm diversifications were forced to shut their doors.

For several decades now the UK dairy sector has often been the dysfunctional arm of the UK farming family.

Farm groups across the board have appealed for countryside visitors to walk responsibly over the Easter weekend to avoid endangering rural communities.

Michelle Stephenson, 27, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is a full-time assistant land agent for Bell Ingram in Aberdeen and is a Next Generation representative for her local NFU branch.