*DF P78-79 'My son and I often use the boiler suits to our advantage'

This month, Roger Evans delves into the world of politics, talking specifically about trade deals with countries around the world and the impact these could have on our industry. He also discusses the changes in farmers work clothing preferences.

It is not really within my remit to talk about politics, but I will. I have seemed to develop an interest in politics over recent years.

I have got most of my predictions wrong; I was wrong about the Trump election, I was wrong about Brexit and I was wrong about the last General Election. No matter, heres one thing I think Im right about: when a political party is in power for three consecutive terms of office they get so arrogant and so sure of themselves they make a mess of things and head for a period of opposition.

History proves that to be true. It happened to the Labour party and it is happening now to the Conservatives.

I just cant do with Government Ministers telling me these trade deals around the world are a good thing. When they say that this food is produced to the same standards as our food, I just dont believe them and neither should you.

No-one seems to know when this cheap food will start turning up. I was talking to an auctioneer recently and he didnt know.

There are a lot of sheep around here and the auctions have surely had a good time with record prices and record commissions. Auctions are good employers; they have lots of part-time support staff. All those jobs could disappear if there is a slump in sheep prices and I predict there will be a slump.

I believe the Government has let farming down and that we will pay the price for this sacrifice.

It will probably take 10 years to see the damage to the environment and a decent part of the population will probably disappear, but will it be too late then? I suspect it will be for some.

I predict there will be more money to be made in green projects than proper food production, but Im doubtful if that money will be enough to keep small livestock family farms going.

A friend sent me a chatty email, a post-Christmas catch up. He tells me that the only Christmas present he wanted was what he called a brown slop, like his father used to wear. Around here we used to call them smocks. You dont see them very often these days; they are the sort of overall Ronnie Barker wears in Open All Hours.

My father-in-law used to wear one, but his men never did. It was a sort of badge of office which told the world you were the farmer.

Farmers sons never wore one as long as their father was alive or unless he was incapacitated by old age and confined to the house.

Some 50 years ago, most of the farms around here would employ five or six men. There would be a shepherd, a cattle man and a tractor driver, then two or three others who could turn their hands to anything. But the farmer would prowl about all day making sure they were all busy.

The boiler suit soon superseded the smock. It was warmer, kept you cleaner and the biggest change of all is that farmers, as a rule, get down and dirty with their men. So wandering about in a brown smock is rarely appropriate.

My son and I often use the boiler suits to our advantage. Should a stranger arrive on the yard, he no longer knows who the farmer is. There is no brown smock to guide him, instead there might be four or five men all wearing boiler suits.

The only difference is that those who work here have better boiler suits than those who employ them. They seem to get an endless supply from the local tractor dealers, but thats another story.

So the stranger says good morning, then remarks on the weather and asks is Mr Evans about?

Both my son and I automatically point at the other. So which is it, asks the visitor. Depends on what you want, I usually say. The visitor is on the back foot and he knows it.

If hes selling something, theres a visible relaxing of the whole group, but if its officialdom come a-calling, he soon finds himself talking to just one Mr Evans.

But heres the strange thing: people who trade sheep and cattle mostly wear a grey smock. If you should see a smock which isnt brown or grey, its probably worn by someone with an identity crisis or a free spirit. Mostly men want to dress the same as all the other men. Ladies all want to be different.