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02/1/06
So the Russian government falls out with and neighbour (and members of the EU) and gas supplies are threatened across Europe. Is this how globalisation is supposed to work?
What is the ‘critical mass’ of farming businesses in this country before the infrastructure of agronomists, mechanics, academics, instructors and craftsmen begins to disintegrate? DEFRA is beginning to make the odd statement that seems to recognise that self sufficiency has strategic and political benefits. We are below 70% self sufficient at the moment, and some sections of the Government would not mind if it dropped lower. But who is this Knight riding into our rescue? Peter Mandleson, with his EU Trade hat on is starting to defend the Agricultural policy and the need for slow and manageable change. Not the mindless and dogma driven ‘initiatives’ of focus group politics. Unexpected, but very welcome statements from Mr M.
The papers have been full of statements that Mr Prescott has authorised the use of satellite surveillance techniques to judge if home owners have improved their properties without telling the local taxing authorities. DEFRA has been using satellite pictures to monitor our farming for quite a while. They can compare their images with the digital maps that we had to ‘mark up’ of our farms and monitor any changes. At least our urban cousins are now in our ‘brave world’.
Rothamsted use satellite images to monitor likely sites for Bumble bee nests and encourage farmers to undertake bee friendly farming. We took part in a pilot project last year, and it was a success.
So ‘natural’ sunbathing in your back garden is now out as your most private views will be shared by government agencies checking up on your patios!
Derek and I chased two lads on motor cycles around the farm today; a bit silly as we did not know what we could do to them or their machines if we caught them. I think we managed to show them that we did not appreciate their visits and followed them back to the traveller’s camp where they seem to live. No doubt we will be visited again; it is so frustrating to be monitored by the authorities all of the time to make sure that we are not breaking any laws whilst other sections of our community seem to be immune from any control.
Back to school tomorrow. It has been a long and interesting holiday; it will do wonders for my sanity to get back to a normal routine.
04/1/06
The first load of Solstice wheat was moved off the farm today. Payment should be in a few weeks time; well before the RPA bothers to make a payment of our ‘entitlements’ from the EU. Our ‘cash flow’ is tight at the moment but we should be able to get through the next couple of months without adding too seriously to the rising National borrowings that seem to be a feature of modern life. I know that my children have been lumbered with ‘student loans’ that I find terrifying and they have to manage as they start earning. Two colleagues at school started their careers with debts of £20,000. That cannot be a good start to a working life.
We are replacing our crawler tractor with a nice second-hand model. We have had 15 years of good service from the old Track Marshall 155; but it is due for an expensive overhaul and it seemed to be a good idea to modernise a little. The dealers have assured us that we will get a good 10 years work out of this tractor. That will take me through to near my retirement age! Quite an interesting thought in one who feels reinvigorated by the recent mountain air.
The insurance company has not been to carry out the structural survey of the roof yet, so we have to wait to get the explosion damage repaired. I am getting a bit frustrated by the delays and am thinking of hiring a platform lift so that we can complete the work.
Interesting stories are still coming out about the extent of the damage caused by the Buncefield Bang. Many of my friends are noting that their patio doors will not open; Redbourn church has had to cancel a concert to celebrate the £100,000 (I have been told) refurbishment of the organ as the pipes and mechanism are filled with dust and need stripping down again; and aircraft are apparently filing up with fuel out of the UK as supplies of aviation fuel are restricted. The ‘knock on’ effect of these full tanks is, apparently, that the wings ice up quicker on the underside and airport staff are having to de-ice more often. And the local politicians who so recently advocated a housing development of 500 homes next to the oil depot have gone very quiet!
So have the unelected health authority representatives who have been desperate to take most of Hemel Hempstead’s hospital away from the town. I wonder how many of them got national awards in the recent Honours lists?
31/1/06
All of your guilty groceries are accusing you on the supermarket conveyor belt, as the check out operator informs you, and the rest of the store, that your card has been rejected. It must be one of the more embarrassing moments of daily life as you rapidly calculate the amount of cash in your pockets and which goods are destined for a return journey to the shelves.
It happened to me today. I know that my overdraft has been lurching closer to its limits over recent weeks. I have cut down on the newspapers I buy, the petrol in the car and the ‘must have’ book promotions from Amazon. But today was the day that the banks computers caught up with me. Just short of the ‘wire’ as my teaching salary will put things right at the end of the week. The Inland Revenue owes me a couple of thousand pounds of over paid income tax; the RPA is delaying the payment of my EU ‘entitlements’ for several more weeks (despite my UK competitors in Scotland, Wales and Ireland having received theirs from their grateful regional governments; nothing to do with the percentage of their populations that are still connected to Agriculture?).
We have not been able to move any grain as the power supply has been very variable since the explosion. So it has been a good month.
Sorry that I have not written much this month but it has all been rather depressing. I have been keeping my head down trying to wait for more daylight and the joys of spring sowing. My friends have had to put up with a very moody farmer, and I thank them for their kindness and support.
It will be fun to get the ‘new’ tractor working as we try to produce a seedbed for our spring beans. I have ‘over wintered’ stubbles as one of our ELS options; probably a silly idea with our heavy land and the regulations governing when we can work the soil, but I will give it a go. I am committed to the scheme for 5 years so Andrew may have his work cut out advising us on how to control some of our grass weeds. Are you reading this!
I have given a couple of talks about the state of UK agriculture to school examination classes. Great fun countering and challenging some of the outdated bias that many geography textbooks seem to exhibit. I suppose it is not the school’s fault if their textbooks are old, as the government is forcing them into expensive IT projects and away from the printed page. Libraries have become ‘Independent Learning Centres’, whatever they are supposed to be.
School has been providing me with an income but even there we are undergoing radical reorganisation, (sorry, modernistion) for no apparent reason. Coaching and Independent Learning programmes carried out in vertical tutoring groups structured into a college structure. So now you know.
A few jumbled pictures of the past month. I will try to be a little more informative next month.
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If you have Broadband, or are prepared to wait a long time, do visit this website . Watch the video of the song; it gives me a lot of pleasure and reminds me with that joyeous sadness of when the kids were young and tractors were benign monsters. Give it a try, it helped keep me above the waves this January.
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or visit individual fields on the farm.