Blogs

The ongoing saga of footpath signs continues.

It has been a spring to forget for many, with the cold May dragging out winter for what seemed an unbelievable length.

’A wet and windy April and May fills the barns with corn and hay’, is one we’ve all heard. And one we hope is true.

It is the season for maggots, each female green bottle fly can lay 250 eggs in the fleece and they can hatch out after only 12 hours.

June is here and looking like being ‘flaming June’. May’s monsoon conditions provided challenges.

Some of you may know I chair Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHECS), which has set standards for cattle disease control in the UK and Ireland for more than 20 years.

I am writing this on Thursday evening after a day away from the farm spent doing a social media photography course organised by our local machinery ring.

It is easy to farm when your plough is a smartphone, and you live a thousand miles from the cornfield.

Amy Wilkinson works on her family’s tenanted farm in Lancashire. Working mainly with her dad, Amy farms 285ha of arable crops and 550 beef cross cattle which are all reared through to finishing. You can follow her on Instagram @amygingewilkinson

Mentioning the lack of rain in my last column had the same effect as getting the barbecue out: the rain arrived duly arrived, but unfortunately in rather a deluge.