Blogs

As with most farms in spring, life has been pretty hectic in our part of Dorset.

It is great to be writing my first column this week, with it just being International Women’s Day and the global theme of Women in Leadership.

With the hotel, hospitality and tourist industries still in lockdown, you would think their purchasing power would be missed in the market with the knock-on effect being sharply felt at the farm gate with depressed prices.

We welcomed our son Arthur into the world on February 23. Isobel was an absolute hero and after a long labour and a bit of a scare he arrived surrounded by the midwives and doctors. We were home the next day and cannot thank the NHS enough.

A recently leaked memo revealed that Johnson was looking at implementing a sector-by-sector ‘carbon tax’ to encourage industries and organisations to reduce their emissions. 

A couple of weeks ago we lambed our Leicesters and were in a busy period of calving, the sun was shining and it really felt like spring. Lambs were starting to fill the fields further down the valley.

As spring approaches and the local amateur wildlife photographers start dusting off their cameras, the requests to come and photograph on the land start to come in.

A break in the weather has given us the opportunity to get out in the fields and try to get some jobs ticked off the list.

Our yearlings are lambing well, apart from the occasional large single. We designed the lambing shed so we did not have far to go to reach a bonding pen, which helps immensely with reluctant first time mums.

It is often said many lessons can be learned from history. Maybe modern life lures us into a false sense of security, or maybe man just has far to large an ego, but it seems like we have a tendency to ignore these lessons, usually to our detriment.