From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
November Newsletter
Its is fair to say
I have been asked before why I always talk about the weather in my diary column - I stand guilty as charged. But the reality is that talking about the weather is a well known British pass time, and if you are a farmer, it has been known to become an obsession.
Many people like nothing better than to bemoan the fact that Britain is a rather wet and dull country, where the weather is concerned. Well for those that do, hopefully the last couple of months will have been a pleasant surprise. Here at Bottom Farm, we have had the driest September on record; at 10mm is less than a fifth of our average monthly rainfall. Not only this, but it had not rained since 9th August, and even now well into October we have had little more than a shower to soften the dust. The weather has been truly glorious, with bright sunny autumn days, clear blue skies and little wind. It has been a genuine Indian Summer.
At one point the local BBC radio station sought my thoughts on the lack of rain, and guess what? It rained the very next day for the first time in five weeks. So what does this mean for us in reality on the farm, besides aren’t farmers always complaining that it is either too wet or too dry or some other complaint about the conditions? Well in the end the weather tends to average out over a long enough period, and in Britain we are fortunate by comparison to have pretty predictable, and not too exciting weather extremes, which all helps make our green and pleasant land.
At the moment the crops are in need of a bit of a drink. The young rapeseed plants are suffering the most; we have written off 20% of the crop, replacing it by planting more wheat, not ideal, but I feel it is better than trying to persevere with a crop failure through the winter. Livestock farmers are suffering from lack of grass to feed their animals, and are having to call upon limited winter feed rations. Potato growers are also struggling as they try to lift their crop out of sun baked soils that appear more like concrete than soil.
So the weather does dictate what we do on the farm, but I think that makes farming what it is, and is why we love the challenge, even if it is not what we always hope for. Now as we go into November, with thoughts turning to bonfire night, and cold evenings wouldn’t it be great to have some proper crisp cold winter weather? Then no doubt the news reports will talk about ‘The Big Freeze’ with stories of schools closing, flu epidemics, heating allowances, and of course trains suffering from the wrong type of snow.
On another note, for those keen to know what foods are rich in copper, try calves liver, nuts (especially Brazil and Cashew) and seeds, fish and cereals. In fact I don’t think I mentioned the weather once last month.
