Blogs

This year is turning out to be a bit of a weather rollercoaster here in Dorset. The decent amount of rain we had a few weeks ago did us the world of good, but has quickly gone and we are again desperate for rain and struggling for grazing grass.

Being food producers, farmers know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone somewhere has worked hard to provide such generosity.

As we approach the middle of July, our preparations for harvest in the north east of Scotland get into gear, with sheds to muck and wash, combines to be serviced and guttering to clean and repair.

The progress made through the shearing season across the UK has shown us there are a huge number of very capable and talented shearers here on home soil, which is something we ought to be proud of.

Be careful what you wish for. After weeks of dry weather and wishing we could have just a bit of rain after first cut, the weather broke with a vengeance and we seemed to be instantly transported into autumn.

Since I wrote my last article back in April things have changed considerably.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to my MP asking why he chose to vote down the Agriculture Bill when, in the constituency that he represents, the largest sector of employment is agriculture. Do you know what he said?

How the fodder stores have changed in three weeks. Throughout the first half of the year there have been significant concerns about tonnages of crops grown from grass all the way through to arable crops, largely as a result of difficult weather conditions.

New writer Kate farms alongside her husband Jim on one of two family farms near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire.

I write this on the day the twins have gone back to school. It is school, but not as we knew it, with three hours once-a-week for five weeks and they have had some useful teaching of maths, which is a relief from struggling through online worksheets.