From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
February Newsletter
January has been a rather wet month
here at Bottom Farm, as we have been trying to get on with the normal winter jobs of hedge and tree maintenance. The lack of dry cold weather has allowed for very little of this to be done to date. On one occasion Father and Martin set off, tools and thermos flasks at the ready for a day’s work, only to return at lunch time doing drowned rat impressions. It is frustrating, and as usual much of what a farmer does is weather dependant.
The up side of the wet weather has allowed us time inside to finish the expansion work for Farrington Oils. The electricians have wired the presses in their new positions; oil is again flowing, and being bottled as quickly as we can make it ready for our customers. We are now officially an international brand, as Mellow Yellow is being exported to Ireland. Admittedly not in a big way at the moment, but never the less, I feel a trip over there to promote its virtues, and enjoy some Irish hospitality may be in order.
During January farming has again been in the news, or at least chickens have, as both Hugh Fernley-Whitingstall and Jamie Oliver had programmes on Channel 4 looking at the different systems involved in both egg and chicken meat production. These were the usual hard hitting, sensationalised type of programmes that tend to hit our television screens these days. However, I felt they were on the whole fair and balanced, recognising many of the complex issues resulting in the different systems involved in egg and poultry production.
The programmes explored attitudes from groups as diverse as consumers, farmers, welfare bodies, food processors and supermarkets. Whilst free-range systems of production were shown as the ultimate favoured methods, the higher welfare systems of barn production were also rightly shown to be the way forward for the majority of egg and chicken we eat in Britain. These higher welfare systems have a lower density of birds, natural daylight, perches, toys to play with, things to peck at; all of which allow the birds to show their natural traits in a system that can still satisfy our nation’s insatiable appetite for 800 million chickens per year. The cost at just a bit more than a pint of beer for a whole chicken, is a little more than the cheapest one could buy, but is it really that much?
Free-range is fine when you see it on the television, normally filmed in mid June, with trees in full leaf, and the pasture full of green grass. But in mid January on our Northamptonshire clay soil the image is not so pretty. Our small flock of 10 chickens of different shapes and sizes, and 7 Indian Runner ducks will soon dispel that image. Banished to the confines of the chicken run for winter, they are not the best of house mates. Ducks like mud, and chickens on the whole don’t.
We moved the ducks onto the vegetable patch, complete with plastic ‘pond’ to play in, not that this was needed recently. Within a couple of days the veg patch has been turned into a scene from the battle fields of Flanders, and I felt more drastic measures were needed. Thus in true Fernley-Whitingstall style, we had some friends round, 7 ducks are now 4, the veg patch is still a disaster for now, but lunch tasted fantastic. If I have my way, free-range duck production days in Hargrave are numbered, and more delicious lunches are in the offing.
