Stocken Farm Diary Part 3
From Lacey Green History
JANUARY 1997
EXTRA LAND
We thought we were well up with the work in the autumn, but when we got the opportunity to rent some extra land, part of Culverton Farm, we were hard pushed to get things done before the winter set in. Part of our contract is to control the rabbits. There are hundreds of them and it has cost us hundreds as we have had to hire a company to do it, it not being our line. It is true that they must have eaten everything that grew there, there are just so many. There are also great flocks of pigeons on the crops. There are probably no more than usual about, but after bumper crops of beech mast and acorns the previous year there was much less than last year and so the crops are taking the brunt of it. A good blanket of snow would have helped, but all we have are frost and icy winds.
ICED WATER
We are certainly very aware of the cold at the farm. The penetrating wind has even frozen water inside the barns and the cattle, particularly those giving milk, must have plenty of water. To spend all day getting pipes thawed, only to know that next morning you will be back to square one can be pretty discouraging. At least the animals are all inside and not out in the fields, that would be even worse.
SPOOKY or WHAT?
This house has quite a reputation for being cold, but we thought it was going a bit too far when the sitting room blew open one night. A mirror fell off the wall. The frame broke but not the glass I’m glad to say. We put this down to the wind. However, when the grandfather clock struck eleven on Christmas Day in the evening and it wasn’t even wound up we did have to wonder. I guess there is a scientific explanation, but just in case, I always say “welcome”. I hate the thought of some lonely little ghost trying to make themselves at home and being ignored and after three hundred years there just well could be.
OXFORD FARMING CONFERENCE
This year was the fifty first for the Oxford Farming Conference. There were many big issues under discussion. Tuesday morning’s programme for example – “Feeding the world to 2020”, “ Living with the Asian tiger”, “ America going for the Market”. In the afternoon, Brussels Bulletin, Brussels we admire you – but we need the world too, A farmer’s view of the Common Agricultural Policy, Life with the Euro- Opportunity or Nightmare. In the evening the main debate – Should Decisions on Food Safety be taken only on the basis of Good Science. The following Day- Eastern European Promise- expansion or bust? Build on your strengths, Small farm to big business, Concentrating on what counts, Land ownership and Tenure the future, The Wiseman way, The Government view.
INTERVIEWED
After all that, John was interviewed for BBC 4 on the early farming programme in what must qualify for the shortest interview on record. “Had you already read about the proposed selective cattle cull?” John answered “Yes”. At least you would think there wasn’t much there that could be taken out of context. Not so, the enthusiastic comment made by a woman, who shall for obvious reasons remain nameless, “I recognised your husband in bed this morning”. Well, “good for her”, that’s all I can say.
MARCH 1997
A PARSNIP 41 INCHES LONG
All systems go as spring hits the farm. It’s a bit difficult to write right now because I have the TV on to see the Grand National. Seems strange watching it on a Monday, following Saturday’s postponement. It’s difficult to write anyway, because the over-riding factor is one again the weather. Drought this time, and I do feel a different subject would be in order. However the weather, it has to be. The extra land we have taken on has been planted and is desperate for rain, preferably a nice warm rain to get the crops growing. Elsewhere, the crops planted earlier are going back, in fact some look as if they are even dying. John brought in from the vegetable garden a parsnip that is 41” long. It is rather skinny so I suppose it just went down searching for water. Pity the field crops can’t go down like that, though I doubt the tops would be very good.
GRASS
The cows are out from their winter quarters enjoying the spring sunshine, in fact it’s more like high summer. A question that has come up several times is “are we growing crops in the grass fields?” The answer is a definite “yes”. At least we are trying to, if only it would rain. The grass is for the cows to graze and to grow taller to cut and cart for silage and some to be made into hay. For that we need dry weather but the grass hasn’t grown tall enough to cut yet.
NO WAY ROLF
Perhaps you have been watching Rolf Harris in the veterinary programme taken with Hampden Vets. One episode was concerning a cow who had a twisted fourth stomach. She had to be rolled over to relieve the condition. This is not that rare and we had a similar case about then. John was asked if we were willing to take part in the programme. John said “No way”, he was more concerned with getting the cow treated not waiting while a film crew was fetched and set up. Even then it was too late because the cow died. It very often is successful, unfortunately this time it wasn’t.
JUST CAN’T WIN
The paperwork in the office gets more and more, it is quite depressing. At least there are four of us to share it out. Some farmers are not so lucky, but we still find there is too much of it. It’s just not what farming should be about. That’s more like things like manure carting. We took a lot down to Woodway to make a big heap to be used there later. It does look a big heap and some didn’t think it looked attractive. The self-same people who don’t like us using artificial fertilisers, some of them. Just can’t win, it seems! How would they suggest we dispose of it? We certainly would be unpopular if we spread it straight from fresh because it really does “hum” then. We delivered a trailer- load to a gardener, nicely rotted so it didn’t smell and she rang us up complaining that it would be no good because it didn’t smell. I tell you there are times when I think we are just not meant to win anyway, but we do keep trying.
RAIN DANCE ANYONE?
If anyone knows a reliable rain dance please get dancing. A good rain before June would be ideal. I don’t want to be blamed for wishing a wet summer on us, so just enough to get things going please.
JULY 1997
A CLOSED HERD
For years we have bred our own dairy cows (a closed herd) so as not to “buy in trouble”. Then BSE came along believed to have come through the feed. Being home bred, we have all the breeding records so in theory the animals are pedigree.
B.S.E. REGS
Great lengths have been taken to get BSE eradicated quickly. Contaminated food was taken off the market and all animals over 30 months old who might have eaten and a great many who wouldn’t have, are not allowed into the human food chain. That left some far-reaching possibilities such as the mother-to-calf link.
SELECTIVE CULL
In a further attempt to speed up the process, if it did develop in an older animal all animals born within that year would be sent for immediate slaughter. They are picking up about one in 200 by this route – it is another way of speeding things up, bearing in mind that these animals would not be for human consumption, anyway, being over 30 months old. This was the selective cull agreed by John Major in Florence.
PEDIGREE
Compensation is paid for the animals killed and apart from actually bringing yourself to see your animals go, getting a valuation done is the difficult thing. Over the last year the price to the farmers has dropped by at least 15%. It’s pretty disheartening to keep an animal for another 12 months, only to find it is worth less. We have compensated for it a bit by registering them as pedigree. This won’t mean they are worth more for our dairy herd or that we will get more if we sell them at the local market, but it may mean that they are worth more in compensation if we get a case of BSE and volunteer to kill the cohorts (those born in same year).
WEIRD WORLD
Weird world, isn’t it? But our cows have generations of home breeding in there; they mean a lot to us. Long hours are put in working with them and if we are told “get rid of them” we have primed them to show how much we think they are worth. We always knew we had a good commercial herd, now we have given it a pedigree status to confirm how much we think of them, even if we have done it for purely commercial reasons. We don’t take on extra paperwork lightly!
ONGOING HARVEST
Time this lands on you doormat hopefully harvesting will be finished.
OCTOBER 1997
COHORTS MUST GO
Following on from my last article, when I mentioned that we were registering our cattle as pedigree in case we decided to enter some of them in a voluntary slaughter policy to hasten the eradication of BSE, we had to arrange for forty to go. Cohorts, born the same year as one that had it. We were advised to wash and clip them because they would look nicer. It seemed the whole thing was getting out of hand, but in for a penny, in for a pound!
FIRST SIGNS
I have said before that the herdsmen are the first to detect any strange behaviour in an animal that might be developing it. One that was being watched certainly didn’t take to being washed and clipped. I heard the commotion from the house, as she broke free, dashed down the yard and jumped, pushing open a five barred gate, proceeded round the corner and up the drive, followed by about twenty others.
CRISIS AVERTED
The men quickly blocked gates and Richard dashed ahead to turn her back, but it was just as if she couldn’t see him. At the last minute he jumped the hedge to get out of her way. Then in panic she jumped too. At least she was in a field, not heading up the village. The other animals were turned back and the ministry vet called in to look at the one that had bolted. She thought it probably was the early stages of BSE and the cow was sent off for slaughter and testing, which proved it to be positive.
QUITE SICKENING
We subsequently sent forty cows away and very sad it was, for they were all home bred and in their prime, most carrying their fourth calf. Quite, quite sickening.
UNCANNY
Maxine was standing at her door. “Stand by for me to make a run for it”, I said, as I manned the drive gate when all the commotion was going on. “Things are getting out of hand here”. “Next thing we shall have the bull in the garden again”. No sooner said than done. There was John driving the bull out of the orchard. It seemed uncanny.
WELCOME to CHARLOTTE
Whether it was all this excitement or just very clever of her, being early, but that night Maxine gave birth to a lovely daughter, Charlotte, which was wonderful news for all of us.
A LODGER
Now the harvest is all home. In fact, most of next year’s crops are planted. Unfortunately, Guy broke his pelvis pulling down a large straw bale onto him when un-roping a trailer. This was not only unfortunate for him but meant that we have had a contractor living with us, as his stand in. Nobody else seems interested in having a lodger and we were obviously on the spot. Not that he has been difficult, but they have been very busy with the cows. There have been up to three calves born a day and the milking has been difficult because there is a new milking parlour being built while the old one is still in use. Not an easy situation to work in.
GOOD LUCK OMEN
There is still too much paperwork, but it is not true that we are training the cows to help in the office. It is true that a cow got in there. A few hours earlier she had been down with milk fever. It’s amazing what a shot of calcium will do. Anyone who thought they saw a cow there was not imagining things, there she certainly was. She didn’t like it any more than we did. She came out and went up onto an 18” wall and platform of shrubs. She pinned herself behind the lilac and the japonica. We thought it would be safer if she turned rather than backed down over the wall, so the herdsmen talked to her while I tried to clear away the shrubs. Whether they tickled her or she was just feeling relaxed, I don’t know but she lifted her tale and I did wish I wasn’t standing behind her. I should be due the most amazing amount of good luck!!!
NEW PARLOUR for CHRISTMAS
It is mid-October now and will I suppose be mid-November before this is published. It seems rather early to be saying “Happy Christmas”, but that will be coming up all too soon. By then the new milking parlour should be up and running. More calves should be born. No turkeys now, and although we miss seeing the people, we don’t miss the work they made. Guy should be back in one piece and we should be without our lodger. The cattle should be in and bedded down for the winter. Will it be a hard one? Who knows? There are masses of lovely holly berries about. Is this a sign? Maybe it’s just a symbol to depict a seasonal Christmas of good cheer for man, beasts and birds. Happy Christmas!
JANUARY 1998
PROBLEMS
As 1997 drew to a close, the position as far as the farm was concerned could be summed up fairly briefly. The new milking parlour, which should have been finished months ago, was still not complete. And the corn merchants who had contracts to take last summer’s grain were wriggling hard not to collect, as they couldn’t find a market for it. Isn’t there something wrong somewhere? What became of feeding the hungry? And meantime we have a difficult time keeping the grain dry and clean. Birds must be kept out of the barns. So okay, what next? Want us to stop birds flying over the fields? And what about the bats? They roost in the barns and they are a protected species. I asked an official on an environment stand at an agricultural show how it was suggested this should be resolved. He said they hoped no one would ask.
THE “GOOD LIFE” ?
Life is getting a long way from nature, isn’t it? Time was when most people kept a pig. The pig ate the scraps and then the people ate the pig. A call to the local slaughterer and none of these seventy mile journeys to an abattoir for the beasts. We are getting so far away from the “good life”. Home produced meat, eggs and milk, home grown vegetables and fruit, homemade cakes and pies. All the old houses had to have a sizeable garden – now many are just a pocket-handkerchief and people just don’t have time to work in a garden anyway.
TOO CURVY BANANAS
I don’t think we are richer for it. I love our fresh vegetables, and yes, I am prepared to deal with slugs and caterpillars. I find it reassuring that they are alive on the vegetables. Maybe things are too clean, too sterile, tasteless and flavourless. If you don’t grow them you must buy, but I find it aggravating that little apples are no longer sold – they are just right for small children and don’t you resent someone in Brussels dictating how long, wide or curvy your banana has to be. What have we come to that the public can’t make up their own minds anymore?
CONGRATULATIONS
We had quite a successful year in the Chiltern Hills Agricultural competitions, winning firsts for our oil seed rape and hay crops with a sprinkling of seconds and thirds. Philip and Sandra Baker waltzed home with first prize for their garden. This is no mean achievement even without two young children. Children, farming and gardening are not an easy combination, so congratulations to them.
REPRIEVE DIET
The bull was booked to go for slaughter. We had been treating him for a lame foot, so that he was able to travel. It seemed a pity but he has got so heavy that you have to consider the cows. Trying to get him into the cattle crush to hold him while his foot was treated was a joke. He was tempted in with some nuts then he just flexed his muscles and burst free. Then his foot got better so he had a reprieve. It doesn’t alter the fact that he is too heavy and on a diet, so the reprieve may be short lived.
GALES
I thought I had managed to write this without mentioning the weather when the gales struck. Perhaps it is so I don’t get withdrawal symptoms that it gave me something I felt I must mention.
PAIN IN THE BUTT
It has also been exceptionally mild and the crops are dangerously advanced. We have had a flock of sheep going round the farm eating back the grass and a pain in the neck they have been. A pain in the butt might have been more appropriate. They even got in the tennis courts on the sports field. Not being able to contact the man who owned them, John said I’d have to go to help, as I had a key. Wearing a long skirt, I was hemming it at the time and not wanting to keep them waiting, I went in it, needle and all. I got caught in a bramble and went full sprawl in the mud. He was already well ahead. “Get up, what do you think you’re doing?” he eventually called back. “I’m deciding if I’m supporting the landowner, the sheep owner or the Sports Club”, I replied as I sat there. I might have had three proverbial hats on but I certainly hadn’t enough layers on anywhere else! Once again, farmer’s wife bites the dust. What do footballers see in the mud? Whatever it is, it probably wasn’t from the angle I was getting it.
APRIL 1998
DOWN 40%
If you’ve been listening to reports about farming, you will know that farm incomes are down say 40%. If you have not been listening I don’t suppose you want to know that anyway.
SAMARITANS & LIQUIDATORS BUSY
Put another way, it has put extra work in the way of the Samaritans, doctors and liquidators. Any farmers that have been thinking of giving up, have, if they are wise, got out while the going was good. I can only suggest that in order to understand, you imagine a cut in your income of 40% and all your expenses staying the same. This is not big business, where you sit around the boardroom table and, with a stroke of a pen make “x” number redundant. We sit around the breakfast table and try to work out the most cost effective way of carrying on.
THE GREEN POUND
One of the main problems is the farming monetary system. Long before the Euro came on the scene, agriculture has been subject to the “green pound” and this we cannot change. If you have been listening to farming reports, you will have heard the demand over and over again for a “level playing field” with Europe. This we have not got. The London marches have brought out an amazing number of people. Many genuine farmers, who for everyone that goes has to leave someone at home to care for the farm.
COPY THE FRENCH PROTESTS
Farmers are fairly thin on the ground and don’t carry much political weight. Now in France, say, where there are many more farmers, they have much more interesting ways of showing their displeasure. We could learn a thing or two from them. They filled the Champs Elysee with sheep, blocked the roads with cauliflowers, spread manure on the gendarmerie- much more exciting than our peaceful march. The Welsh farmers did throw a load of beef burgers back into the sea by way of protest. A lot of beef comes in via Ireland. It could be from anywhere because it is sold as Irish once it’s in Ireland. The beef export market is closed so understandably they don’t want more brought in. The beef producers are having a terrible time and Welsh beef, reared on the hills, is superb. Our standards are so high and beef being sneaked in has no guarantee of home produced quality. I’m surprised it was only the burgers that got thrown in.
LAND NEAR TERRICK
Changing the subject somewhat, twenty-six or seven years ago some fields were sold to us by what is now the Home of the Rest for Horses. Then the air force compulsory purchased one of them to build houses. Having got used to the extra land, we looked around to replace it and for a year nothing came on the market, meanwhile prices had doubled. Eventually we bought a farm at Terrick with a big Elizabethan House and barn which we had to sell, the land we mortgaged linked with an endowment policy. It had cost us an enormous amount more than we had to spend.
FARM TOUR AUSTRALIA
It turned out to be superb land, once we understood it, and has yielded excellent crops. This year the mortgage has matured, twenty-five years gone, and the policy was in profit. Having long since realised that money put into the farm is just gone. We “blew” it on a trip to Australia (visiting farms, of course). And if we think we have problems, we just don’t know we are born, compared with theirs. Not that it improves things here, but it all makes for a wider understanding.
SMALL WORLD
One of the farmers on whose land we stayed had ancestors that came from Aylesbury. One of the local Agricultural Training Board tutors has the same name. He is interested in local history – maybe he should be looking at Australian history too. Small world, isn’t it!
JULY 1998
MACHINE NOISES
Living where we do, all the machines going in and out go right past the farmhouse. Because of the building nearby they can be heard before they can be seen, and as each has a distinctive sound, you know what you are going to see before it gets to you. The most noticeable of all is the combine harvester, and usually by the time it has got to the house, whoever is around is lined up at the window to wave it on its way. There is something about the combine that captures the imagination – it’s so big to start with, even without the header which is so wide has to be towed separately when on the road.
COMBINE ON ITS WAY
Mid-July and the roar of the combine going through the yard sent grandchildren hurrying out of its way, to stare in wonder as It went off up the drive. It went to start on winter barley, to be followed by oilseed rape, wheat, linseed and maize. The weather is a bit too showery, but the further outlook is much the same, so we will have to dry the grain and bale the straw whenever we can snatch a bit of dry weather.
PIPE DREAM
Both the combine and baler broke down even though they had been overhauled before the season began; of course they only break down when they are being used, and they are a few years old now. John did a rough calculation with a view to updating our combine, and thought it would cost the equivalent of 1,140 tonnes of wheat to trade ours in. That is the value of the crop, not the profit which is very low at present. The land here, not being the best, will, if we are lucky produce 3 tonnes per acre, so it’s a bit daunting. It seems a no-win situation, grain prices are very down and we need better weather to get better yields. If we wait another year a new combine could well cost more, but each year that goes by our machine is worth less to trade in and meanwhile we are paying for repairs. A new combine is a very tempting thought, there are so many refinements on them now. They will even draw a plan of just how much each part of a field has yielded, and the cutter bar will adjust itself to the contours of the land, but at the moment it’s likely to remain a pipe dream.
SET ASIDE INCREASE
Since the land surveys were done 6 years ago, only those fields that had had an arable crop grown on them in 1986-90 were approved for growing arable crops now, which is very restrictive. To add to this, “set-aside” was introduced, where 5% of the land was to be left uncultivated, however, this year it is 10% of arable land, so we have to cover our costs on 90%. It is like Shylock and his pound of flesh, we will try to work out the 10% as near as possible, but it is very difficult. All the fields are different sizes and shapes, so we might resort to taking just parts of the fields – and it’s no good thinking “they” won’t check up on it, because they will.
DO SOMETHING USEFUL !!!
Why can’t all those people who are checking up on all the restrictions imposed on us, be employed in getting any surpluses to those who are starving, or in bringing prices down in the shops? Then they would be doing something really useful, and the farmers could be farmers not pen-pushers!
OCTOBER 1998
NOT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
I had no sooner sent in my last offering than news broke of sows being shot because it was the cheapest way of getting out of pig farming; “Never mind”, I thought, “I’ll write about it next time”. Then I thought, “No I won’t, it will be too dreary”, but since then the pig market has completely collapsed. Big producers are literally losing thousands of pounds, many thousands, every month. Smaller producers must be glad that that is just what they are losing x amount per pig makes you glad to be small, but it does not keep a roof over your head, there’s the rub. What makes it even more galling is that in this country we have banned sow stalls and the tethering of animals, and yet much meat is imported from countries that do not observe these niceties – what is needed is that level playing field. It would be nice also if our own countrymen who pressed for these regulations, supported our industries when we supply what they have asked for.
WAKE UP PIG PRODUCERS
British farmers are not very good at making their voices heard, it is not in their nature. They abide by the rule book, produce a good product and think that will suffice - well, you would think that it should, wouldn’t you? Suddenly they have woken up to the fact that it won’t, and that they need to shout from the rooftops that their product is superbly produced, and that the consumer has been given what it asked for. That every animal can be traced as farmers stand by them with confidence, so why not buy British? 1. We comply with all your requests confident that our quality cannot be bettered
2. Is it the cost? There are three possible reasons on that score as far as I can see
(a) The strong pound - every industry seems to be blaming that, so perhaps there is something in it.
(b) Dumped imports from countries that are not abiding by the exacting standards demanded here.
(c) Supermarket mark-ups. One pig-producing friend was getting only 30p per lb. for his pigs, others as low as 20p, so how much do you pay for pork?
WAKE UP CALF PRODUCERS
But it’s just not pigs, there are problems all round. Should we sell out surplus calves as usual? Its temping to take them to market s and pop them into someone else’s transport, (which has been known to be happening), as it saves paying the commission of selling and halves the cost of transport, for we don’t want to bring spare calves home. Of course, if too many get the same idea it just becomes a pantomime, but if the price doesn’t cover the costs, what do you do?
COFFIN LED MARCH
Up to 10,000 farmers went to Blackpool at the beginning of the Labour Party Conference, the procession being led by a coffin carried to the Minister of Agriculture. I assume that it implied the death of the industry, not a personal hint to the Minister.
MIDLAND BANK TRAINING
n a personal note, we produce milk, a small amount of beef and over half the farm is in arable. Midland Bank use our farm for teaching their trainee managers about farm costings. This is because most of them know nothing about farming and as most famers are borrowed up to the hilt, they need to get the picture, and it helps us because we get twenty or thirty assessments of our business. This year they said they would be prepared to lend to us even though we expect to make a loss this year, but they would hold the part of the farm we own against borrowing. In other words they could always take the farm if we defaulted. We are not happy about the way things are going, and are still looking for ways to cut the costs still further.
SHEEP TO RSPCA
Some friends are selling up, and some have mortgaged their pensions. I have heard of a flock of sheep being left with the RSPCA – do you think they would like a couple of hundred of cows, not to mention a bull? We could throw in a stick of Blackpool rock, it’s only been half eaten by young Charlotte, what’s not stuck on the settee that is.
JANUARY 1999
SERIOUS RESOLUTIONS
1999. Another new year. Time for resolutions. I made just one easy one so that it wouldn’t be too hard to keep. Taking stock of life, as I do try to do all the time, I realised a long time ago that there were things I just had to do, then things I ought to do and after that came things I would like to do. Sometimes things fall into more than one category, but when nothing in the “like to do” list is being done then life wants seriously sorting out. It is very easy in business to just keep working because there is always something that wants doing. It is impossible to have everything done, but my three ‘things’ still apply.
MAY BE LEFT UNDONE
Some things have to be done - the cows must be milked, fed, bedded up, and cleaned out. Then there are the “ought to do” things, such as maintenance of buildings, fences, and servicing machinery. There are also things which make the farm comfortable, smart, attractive, such as up-dated machines, concreted yards and trees in the hedges, a good environment for humans, as well as wildlife. These things cost and are the first to be dropped when times are tight. Over the years we have planted dozens of trees, but will we plant any this year? We may, but we are thinking long and hard about it first.
WHY USE SINK NUMBER 4 ?
When it comes to the farm encroaching on the house, I have long since stopped trying to get, and keep it, perfect. On rare occasions, such as a wedding here, we have got near it but only after something like a military campaign and I certainly couldn’t keep it up – men, dogs and wellington boots just guarantee a mess. From the back door by the office there is an outside toilet, boot room inside with sink, inside toilet before hall and kitchen. The sink in the kitchen is the fourth place to which they can come to wash their hands, and I make this as difficult as possible, in the hope they will use one of the other places first. What a hope!
STILL LIFE 9.45 a.m.
Take last Thursday; 9:30 a.m. and the kitchen is pristine. By 9.45 two sessions of making coffee and I have a ‘still-life’ of an open mug cupboard, electric kettle, milk jug, biscuit crumbs, spilt coffee, sugar and sweeteners, wet spoons and a pair of John’s glasses with the daily paper. As the glasses are lying amongst this scene (glasses could make a whole article of their own) I say to John’s departing back, just as a little hint “Do you need your glasses?” “No” he replies “I’ve got another pair in the office” There is another ‘still-life’ scene in there, I guess.
SCENE CHANGE 10.15 a.m.
By 10 a.m. all is straight again, just in time for two buckets of milk to be brought in to be warmed up for the calves, and as I stand over it, finger poised to test for that perfect blood temperature – Well I’m not going to stick my elbow in it – the phone rings and the milk gets too hot, I just knew it, it’s impossible to win and John will ask “What were you thinking of?” Why does a phone always ring when it is least convenient?
ROSE BOWL TROPHY in MEMORY of DICK WEST
It was a difficult autumn, one way and another, the autumn cultivations were never finished, Phil was off for seven weeks, although he did manage to win first prize for the best farm staff garden again. This particularly pleased us as John had given the Association a rose bowl for this class in memory of his father.
RICHARD OFF WORK
Richard, after endless trouble with his back eventually had it operated on, which meant eight weeks off work for him – a frustrating time. John has had to do things he had been glad to hand over to Richard, not least the nightly round of the cows. For his sake we hope to have him back to full health again soon, and for John to have a bit more of that precious “like to” time again.
28 FOR LUNCH
We had a big party here for Christmas which was lovely, and as everyone did lots to help it wasn’t too much work. It was quite a squeeze around the table with twenty eight sitting down to lunch!
THE SECRET RESOLUTION
And what was that New Year resolution? I’m not saying, it’s hard enough to keep them anyway, but so far, so good.
APRIL 1999
FARM AGENDA
Over and above everyday decisions, several major items have been high on the farm agenda. Put simply, it amounted to getting the farm back into profit, so….
1. How to maximise income from the grain and milk.
2. How to minimise expenses.
So what’s new? You might well ask, for it sounds a familiar story, but never has it been so difficult, and it is not quite as simple as it sounds.
REDUNDANT
After much heart-searching and much advice, it was decided that someone had to be made redundant as we had to run a tighter ship. But we know, and work, with our staff. It was a very painful procedure and we could only go by the book and hope that in the end it would all work out well. Most of the men live in the farm houses and that complicated matters. As the position was being made redundant at least we were able to let “whoever” stay in his house rather than be uprooted. It has all been most uncomfortable and now of course we have to manage with one man fewer, but we can’t pay wages out from nothing. It was the most difficult decision we ever made - and over the years there have been many, but before it never involved the men the way this has.
FARM ASSURED
As for maximising our income from the grain and milk, it’s more a question of maintaining what we have. We have always done things to the best standard we could, but now at considerable cost we need to become registered as Dairy Farm Assured and Cereal Farms Assured. To get the relevant certification, all that we do has to be recorded by us and inspected. However much we hate the paperwork, if it will help sell our produce then we have to do it. The next move may well be that those not certified – sorry I should say registered – just won’t be able to sell their produce. I wonder why I keep writing “certified” perhaps my pen knows what I’m thinking – maybe it is them or us – well, we don’t intend it to be us, if that’s the case. I do think, more and more frequently, that somebody needs certifying, that “body” being bureaucratic rather that a person. If the bowler hat fits – wear it.
ROBERT WILLIAM
It has just started to rain – an April shower – and we do need it, everywhere is very dry, so for that we are glad. We are delighted to have another grandchild, Robert William, a son for Maxine and Richard. With our families around us we are so lucky – we don’t ask for more - but a little less pressure would be nice.
JULY 1999
OLD AGE PENSION
I had this letter saying “you are approaching retirement. How do you want to receive your pension? Or do you want to postpone it?” What a laugh! I replied, “Start sending it as soon as possible.”
WAITING MY CHANCE
I had been waiting for this day. Some years ago I had gone to Risborough Post Office on pension’s day and what happened? After twenty minutes I was further away from the counter than when I went in. It’s like a club, the pensioners all know each other and join their friends in front. Not only did I feel left out, I nearly was out of the door, backwards.
BANK PLEASE
Resisting my desire to join them, I arranged for it to be sent to the bank, and since then it’s been so hectic I haven’t had time to see if they have started paying it. I said I’d put the first payment towards the President’s day at the Sports Club and as I’ve not checked it I had to borrow from the farm account – I didn’t want to run into overdraft if they hadn’t actually paid it, but when I’ve done this I really must check it out.
PRESIDENT’S DAY
As I said it’s been so hectic, as the previous Hallmark was going to press, we were completing the refurbishment of the Sports Clubhouse. It was planned to be finished by the 1st of May, but on President’s Day 13th June we were still hanging curtains and getting the new chairs and tables in situ. We were blessed with the most glorious day and my friends rallied yet again to get me out of the mess I had got myself into – why don’t I learn my lesson! I was thankful that a new Sports Club Committee had been voted in and I could resign my Chairmanship and go back to pestering them as President.
BATEMAN FAMILY
Dr. Alistair Bateman (who now owns the ground) came with his family and I completely blotted my copybook by not recognising him at first, but fortunately he gently reminded me and spared my blushes. A week later we had the pleasure of meeting Lady Bateman, Paddy and Robert, and it was good to remember when our children were young and we were working with them for the St. John’s Association, with such high hopes for the school. They were interested to hear how well it is doing, and it was an opportunity to tell Lady Bateman that all she did for both Lacey Green and Speen schools had enabled them to go from strength to strength. For those who are new to the village, it was her generosity thirty to forty years ago that set them up to become what they now are, and she also bought the Sports Ground to lease to Lacey Green and Loosley Row on a peppercorn rent. She also helped people privately; she never talked about what she did, but if we “old-timers” didn’t tell you, you would never know.
FARM WALK, 100 + PEOPLE
The Wednesday after the Sports Club day the Buckinghamshire Grassland and Bucks Farmer’s Club annual farm walk and pig roast was held here, with over 100 people. The pig was roasted professionally so we only had to do the rest, as Richard is on the Committee we provided plates and cutlery. I do hate paper plates, so over the years I have acquired a large “harlequin” collection of china plates from charity shops for such events.
FARM TOUR in NOVA SCOTIA
Immediately after that John and I hopped on a flight to Nova Scotia, hired a car and had six days free, but even then we looked round the farms. John was so curious, we stopped to watch some people silage making; they wondered what we were up to, came over and before we knew it we were in the cowshed. Well, I guess it was very interesting. So was whale watching, which we did on the last morning, the fin-back whale we saw was estimated at 50 feet long, and they can grow to 70 feet. It came along both sides and went under the boat. We were glad it didn’t try to surface from beneath us! We got home just in time for Richard to have a break before harvest.
GARDEN CONSERVATION AREA
Having been away our garden was overgrown and John, heaven knows why, had entered it for the “Best Farm Garden” competition. There are usually about four entries and we usually come fourth. John’s vegetable garden is superb and makes up for the conservation areas of stinging nettles in the flower garden. All our grandchildren are adept at finding dock leaves to counteract the stings of the nettles – there is much to be said for these old fashioned remedies and the belief that the remedy can be found near the source of the problem, ie. The “conservation” area of our garden.
KEEP OUT
They have been busy on the farm fitting doors to keep the birds out of the barns. Too bad that they have been encouraging owl nesting boxes in barns, have put a protection order on bats and that after their thousands of miles back in the spring the swallows, swifts and house martins won’t be able to get in. Have we gone completely mad? Should we try to stop birds flying over our crops too? Where will it end? I asked at the conservation stand at the Royal Agricultural Show how we could reconcile these things. They said they were hoping no-one would ask.
STILL CLOUD-CUCKOOLAND
Today, just as we have leased in extra milk quota at 6p per litre, our adviser has told us that the best return for milk of any producer he knows is just 5p per litre. So we could lease out our quota and make more than producing milk for it – so where will it end? Things can’t continue in this cloud - cuckoo land.
BIG ESTATES LET OUT THEIR LAND
We have just heard that Dashwood Estate has put up its farms for renting, several farms totalling 2000 acres. Strangely enough at the turn of the century when farming was really bad, Dashwoods rented out their farms then and John’s grandfather took one of them. When he died they took it back in hand and wouldn’t let John’s uncle carry on there. Now, as times get hard and only the family farmer is likely to continue, the big estates are getting out again. They are able to calculate in a less personal way, which the small farmer is reluctant to do; he is more likely to carry on until he is working so hard he is unable to see the wood for the trees. There isn’t much money to spare for big barn doors, but without them the time may not be far off when you cannot sell your grain without them. Another “no win” situation really.
OCTOBER 1999
SICKEST JOKE YET
Autumn 1999. We are in the worst farming recession for decades. As I write the Labour Party conference is next week and a protest has been planned; today like a sprat to catch a mackerel, a £500 million aid package has been announced. Am I cynical or what? Boosting the package is £380 million compensation from the EU, half of which is paid by the commission in lieu of the green (agricultural) pound rate freeze of previous years. The £150 million balance is not money to be paid out, but a deferment of charges which were to have been imposed in order to pay the cost of new regulations. The hill farmer’s support will be retained, which leaves £1 million for marketing support, which spread over the number of animals is a sick joke – better to take them down to Bournemouth and turn them loose. If you were a lamb producer, what would you think about the thousands being imported from Spain, just another insult added to injury?
INTERESTING POSSIBILITIES
There are interesting lights on the horizon, which may be keeping the Agriculture Minister from his sleep. One is the new Welsh Assembly and the other the new Scottish Parliament, both of which are threatening to go it alone for the farmers, if Westminster does not wake up.
NEW CROP IDEAS
Two other things of current interest are organic crops, and genetically modified crops. Truly organic crops should be excellent to eat but can look pretty awful, and most people have become used to their produce looking perfect. Genetically modified crops could, for example be bred to resist diseases in order that fungicides would not be needed, which seems to me sound technology, and I do not think it should be written off untried.
MY THOUGHTS
I believe farming is at a watershed, or turning point; it will be hard to weather all this and the sad thing is that small farmers will be the first to go. I envisage that we will be left with big farms. Well regulated, commercial and highly mechanised. I deplore stockpiling surpluses, and I hope that attention will be paid to distributing them. It’s a small world now, a very small world; this country can produce more than we need, others cannot produce enough, is equating it beyond the wit of mankind?
BEST LARGE FARM
This year in the Chiltern Hills Agricultural Association we have won first prize for the Best Large Farm. It is encouraging to know you are good at what you do, but where will we be in the future? Will we be a small “big farm”, or will we be one of the last family farms hanging in there? I hope Stocken Farm will keep going without losing its heart. Only time will tell.
JANUARY 2000
NOW LESS THAN 20 YEARS AGO
I have started this article several times now, as I feel it is important to paint a true picture, but each time it turns into such a depressing tale, and I’m sure that’s not what you want to read. I got quite absorbed dipping into Farmers Weekly magazines of twenty years ago – like turning out the attic or an old cupboard. It was very interesting but rather appalling to find out how much less our products fetch now - and that just about sums it up in one sentence. So far, a number of people we know have sold up or given up, their land being absorbed by other farms where the policy has been to enlarge in the hope of spreading overheads further.
OXFORD FARMING CONFERENCE
Every January there is a two day National Farming Conference held at Oxford, where top international speakers take the platform. The speaker at the pre-conference dinner was the Chief Scientific adviser, the topics on day one headed “Global Policies” and on day two “Business Perspectives”. Farming has become such a serious business – now it is very professional and one must try to keep up.
PUBLIC DEMAND
With today’s communications we should be able to know what the public wants, it is no longer any good saying that this is what we produce, so that is what you will get! Habits are changing and we must make sure that our products meet the requirements, bearing in mind that all the world is just an air-flight away. Look at it from your side of the fence- do you cook as you did twenty years ago? Or how your mother or grandmother did? Do you think all the TV cookery programmes are aimed at “hobby” cooking, assuming that people didn’t learn to cook “at Mother’s knee”, so have to be taught how to crack an egg, and also how to use those foreign ingredients we have come to like when eating out, or on foreign holidays. The farmers must produce what is wanted.
MILK
On this farm we produce milk, some beef, and cereal crops. The milk required by the public is much less rich, skimmed and semi-skimmed being the order of the day, so we no longer have to try to get creamy milk.
COOKING OIL
The oilseed crops have come into their own for cooking oil, hence the yellow oil seed rape and blue linseed.
MEAT = SHAMEFUL IMPORTS
The beef wanted is lean, as is pork, bacon and lamb, so the animals are bred to that end. It does seem a great shame that just as the pig industry has succeeded in producing exactly what the public wants, under conditions the most humane in Europe, that imports coming from countries where sow stalls and tethered cows are still the order of the day, are allowed to come in, be re-packaged here and so labelled as “UK Produce” and sold cheaper than the genuine UK article. Pity the UK pig farmer – if you can still find one!
APRIL 2000
RIDICULOUS SCREW TURNING
Farming is in a straight-jacket; a few years ago all the fields and their acreages, according to the Ordnance Survey maps, had to be registered. It was an enormous job, and it fixed the land and what it could be used for. It was like a modern Domesday Book and it made it difficult to rotate the crops properly. This year a couple more ideas were dreamed up to torment us and one caused such an uproar that it has been delayed so there’s just a chance that it will not be implemented. This is it - All fields must be cropped to two metres of the boundary. Now on our fields we have literally miles of hedges. Some of them are very old. We leave a verge and some also have footpaths beside them. The boundary is the middle of hedge where the quicks were planted. In order to cultivate to two metres from the centre and leave a footpath the hedge is going to have to be cut back really hard. This won’t hurt the hedge, in fact it will thicken it up, but the verge and path will be very tight. We also have several ponds and some of our friends have made new ponds in fields, simply for the pleasure of the wildlife they bring. So, does one fill them in, in order to cultivate back to this two metre line? Farmers are making no profit now, if they are going to be penalised for a bit of conservation, what is this world coming to? – and how tight can the screw be turned?
200 TREES
We are very aware that very few people are in the privileged position of being able to enhance the countryside by planting hardwood trees – they just do not have the room. We do what we can and over the years have planted something like two hundred trees around the farm. We have been doing it for a long time and some of them are quite sizeable now, but they do need room and they do not count as a crop.
UNANSWERABLE
Why do we need to cultivate every scrap of land to two metres from the centre of a hedge? Especially when every year we are told there is a surplus of this or that and to set so much land aside and not use it.
SOME HELP LINE !!!
All this has to be monitored and it is certainly the world of ‘Big Brother is Watching You’. It must make a terrific lot of ‘jobs for the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ of course. The wrong number was put on a form. The Ministry helpline, on which there are 50 phone lines, said they would ring us back - they didn’t - they just sent a bill for £50 – what a helpline!
HEARTACHE
The other torment is the ridiculous advice to diversify. There is nothing agricultural that is profitable, so to invest sideways would be crazy. That does leave a few things – caravan parks, holiday cottages, leisure pursuits such as banger racing, clay pigeon shooting, or golf courses. Not here of course, we are in an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’, not to mention the ‘Green Belt’. In any case, would you want any of those on your doorstep? We have the audacity to think that you would rather have us as we are. B & B? Yes possible, in fact lots of farmhouses already do B & B which is keeping their farming going. Several friends have sold up and bought elsewhere to do only that. But that is not diversifying, it is giving up. Small traditional farmers are still being forced out. A farmer in Devon advertised for herdsman some years ago and had difficulty in finding one. Recently when that men left, 20 men came after the position without the farmer even advertising. All those 20 were farmers who had thrown in the towel and were looking for work for themselves. It speaks for itself and if you can imagine it, there is a lot of heartache in these few lines.
BE EFFICIENT THEN SQUEEZE
Meanwhile the remaining farms get bigger and input costs are being pared to the bone. When you think there is nothing left to squeeze you still have to cut back yet again. Things are not always done the best way and the luxury of conservation has long gone, it’s just not part of this drive for efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.
JULY 2000
ST. SWITHIN’S
Village Day fell on St. Swithin’s Day this year, so not only were we watching the weather on behalf of the village but also with a view to knowing the weather for the next forty days. Forty days of rain could mean disaster with the harvest just coming to ripening, whilst forty days of dry weather could make things easier in every way. And where weather is concerned we are simply in the hands of the Almighty. When it started to drizzle early that day I feared that rain might set in, but it managed to stop and give us a dry, albeit cold, day.
FULL MOON
Do we believe these old sayings? If it doesn’t suit us we say it is absolute nonsense. If it does, we keep our fingers crossed, touch wood and have every belief in it. Not that it makes any difference I’m sure, but not to tempt providence so to speak! More to the point, it was a full moon and that without doubt can mark a change in the weather. This year we certainly did need it, the preceding month having been so grey and gloomy, so here’s hoping.
DOG FOOD FOR CATS
Talking of old sayings, another one is that black cats are lucky. If that is true we should be overwhelmed with good luck. About three years ago I wrote about the farm cats and what a grand job they were doing in keeping down the vermin and of their ongoing feud with the dogs. Since then they had multiplied to, John says “twenty three”, although I thought it was twenty five, but when there are so many it’s a job to count. John supplements the rodent diet with two tins of dog food every night between them, and when it gets to mid-evening they start following him as if he were the Pied Piper of Hamlin.
KITTENS
This spring another generation of kittens was born. They seem to rear one kitten to a good size then dump it on our doorstep. We found homes for about ten and decided that some action was necessary. The RSPCA lent us a cat trap, then two by two they have taken them and operated on them. So far sixteen have been caught, which in itself is quite an achievement with these feral cats. That leaves at least seven that have not been caught, but now we keep catching the same ones, so the odds of catching one in seven are much longer. Most of these cats are black or black with white markings, and of an evening they block our path en-masse. Having been fed they are not so wary and some are getting very cheeky and will come into the house if we are not paying attention. I have been asked why we don’t have a house cat. Well, I don’t see how it would be right to have one indoors and not the others and I’m certainly not having that lot indoors.
MY DOG MEGAN
About six weeks ago my dog died. I have to say she was getting old and had not been ill. She just fell asleep. It was such a shock as we had no warning. She had been like my shadow, always there, often pre-judging my movements and then getting there before me. I have to agree with everyone who says “It was a good way to go”, but I do miss her.
CATS AT BAY
Also six weeks ago our daughter’s collie had nine puppies. They are quite delightful and I have my eye on one, the excuse being that it will be in memory of Megan. Not that I need that excuse, but we do need another collie to keep Kate, the farm collie, company for she too misses Meg and needs help keeping the cats at bay if nothing else. I wouldn’t forget Meg anyway. Just to prove my point a cat has just dashed past me with Kate in hot pursuit, in the back door and out the front. A warm day with the doors open and walking in our hall is as bad as trying to cross Lacey Green Main Road, it’s just cats instead of cars.
OCTOBER 2000
SELLING GRAIN
I have often thought that our weather here is not as extreme as elsewhere – it is as if the worst or the best of it has gone before it gets to us. All I can say is that other places must have had a bad time this year, well we all know they have, having seen the flooding on TV and in the papers. We got the harvest home, catching the days here and there as they were suitable, but we have had to dry a lot of grain. The price is half what it was five years ago even if a home can be found for it, but it is not easy to find a buyer.
SELLING UP
People are selling up all over, especially the milk producers, because it is even worse for them. A year ago dairy farms were losing money. Then we were getting 18.4p per litre. Now we get 15.7p (9p per pint), which is cheaper than bottled water. There is talk of a rise in the milk price of 2p a litre but that is only for liquid milk, not for that going for processing for butter and cheese. That does not count but it accounts for about 50% of milk produced.
GETTING THIN ON THE GROUND
I do not know of any farmer that is not depressed and wondering what on earth to do; it is not so much a question of “Do I get out?” as “When do I get out?” and if we keep trying do our assets devalue even more so that in the end they are not worth selling even if a buyer can be found. Twenty to thirty years ago we were making profits and being self-employed we were wisely advised to buy pension policies. These are beginning to mature and are coming in very useful, but for the next generation they have not had a chance yet. They will come out of this hopefully as extremely good farmers, albeit running very tight ships, but what a hard school in which to learn. We are very lucky that Richard and Maxine are in this with us, but very few farmers’ children are following in their footsteps and you cannot blame them, such a hard commitment with no foreseeable sign of any return can hardly appeal. The farmers left are getting very thin on the ground.
PLAYGROUND FOR LONDON
About 15 years ago John went to a meeting where the speaker predicted that the Chilterns would become simply the playground for London – he was known to be provocative so we did not take it too seriously at the time, but now we recall what he said and we wonder.
SUPERMARKET OWNERS
This year it has been predicted that given twenty years all the land will be owned by the supermarkets and the farmers will simply manage it for them. It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds – already some crops are grown like that, peas for freezing for example are planted, sprayed and harvested on the days specified by the factory and have been for years. Would working for them be such a big step?
LIFE GOING ON
Meanwhile life goes on. We are trying to sell enough grain so that the cattle can come in from the mud into the yards. One barn is full of calves. We desperately need to plant next year’s seed corn but it has been too wet to get on the land and it is getting very late. The grain from this year that has not gone must be kept dry, which like everything else is easier said than done and if you think this has not been very cheerful I’m afraid you are quite right. That just could not be done I simply have not got a good enough imagination.
JANUARY 2001
| Stocken Farm Diary Part 3 | |
|---|---|
| Construction Era | |
| Type of Property | House, Farm, Cottage, Land, Pond |
| Use of Property | Residential, Business, Charity, Shop |
| Locations | Lacey Green |