In your field

With the Royal Family having links to the likes of Sandringham and Balmoral, King Charles has been a passionate advocate of sustainable farming.

The harvest moon will appear soon after sunset on September 9. The bright moonlight in the early evening was traditionally a great help during harvesting, hence the name.

Finally, a little more rain has arrived here in Cheshire. Regardless of soil type, the second half of the summer has challenged all our grazing.

Recently, Dad and I took a now very rare trip to Gisburn Auction Mart. As the business has grown over the years, we have headed down dealing with more direct contracts, so no longer get out to marts as much.

The recent rain has been very welcome here, as I am sure it has for most of the country.

The expression ‘the perfect storm’ seems to be a phrase used more and more recently. Unfortunately for farmers, it sums up what many of us are going through in 2022. Whichever way you look at the outlook, economic or weather-related, the picture does not appear to be hugely rosy.

Since I last wrote we have had 10mm of rain, all of which arrived this week. 

It will be no surprise that I am beginning with this constant topic of conversation, the weather, especially as the green green grass of home is a yellow, burnt crisp exposing the shallow soil.