Blogs

There is no doubt that beating the Covid-19 pandemic will require a sustained, collective effort unknown in this country since the end of the second world war.

We certainly are living in strange and scary times. At the beginning of the month, I had a decent amount of bookings in the diary for the bed and breakfast.

With all of the wild weather, March appeared to enter like a pride of ferocious roaring lions, but as I write it appears to be changing into something that resembles a lamb. Let’s hope it stays that way for a while.

During turbulent times farmers are always grounded, with our feet firmly on the earth and rational thinking caps on.

Block calving 430 cows means a lot of calves have to be attended to all at once, and to ensure full attention a strict colostrum protocol has been adopted on one Welsh farm. Debbie James has the story.

This month, Roger Evans tells us about the current craze to emblazon tractors with the owner’s name, and why, in days gone by, he preferred to retain a certain amount of anonymity when it came to driving on the public highway.

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, or so the saying goes. Let’s hope the stormy weather early in the month leads us into a more positive and helpful scenario soon.

As I write, several local towns are again cut off by road due to flooding, many for the fourth time in as many weeks. As soon as we enjoy a dry day, there is a two-day deluge and the water rises again to dangerous levels, leaving homes and businesses flooded and roads impassable.

Rosemary and her husband Joe farm a closed herd of 100 pedigree Friesian type cows, 60 youngstock and breed bulls for sale. She has served on the MDC Council, Veterinary Products Committee, the RSPCA Council and was WFU dairy chairwoman.

Are you okay? It is sometimes a difficult question to answer, difficult to answer honestly. As farmers we can be stubborn. You cannot live a life where you feed and check livestock every single day through the monotony of winter without being.