It is a beautiful, crisp, December morning. we have had our first covering of frost, leaving puddles of water iced upon the roads, and you can hear the grass snapping as our two kittens Dreamer and Smokey prance around the garden.
Despite having to amend my website and update it due to losing all of my data 4 weeks ago, despite the fact that our single farm payment hasn't been made, nor our ESA payment, due to the fact that the cartology unit in Llandrindod shut down for up dates 3 weeks before last Christmas and still hasn't opened again yet, despite the fact that my MP Roger Williams will again phone me today so I can complain bitterly about the last two problems, I just wanted to share with you the beautiful view outside my office window........................................................

Yes............... it really is worth it........................

Off for the Nuffield Interviews Again........

I am so very excited again.

Mid November I posted off my application form for a Nuffield Farming Scholarship Award, and yesterday I had my letter explaining I had been selected to attend an interview in London between January 21st - 23rd, my subject is still the one most passionate to my heart which is 'To Investigate the Future Potential and Economic Viability of the Untraditional SME'.
An SME is a Small, Medium Enterprise which has fewer than 250 employees..... I think that would cover most farms!!! Untraditional? - well in the good old days we would have been called family farms however this is now the term under which we are all classed whether we like it or not. All paperwork which comes from the Welsh Assembly government asks us to clarify which category we fall into... and I'm afraid this is it.

I am still of the opinion that farmers have to take their business by the scruff of the neck and break it down into logical and radical thinking... however this can only be done with support and backing from many agencies, as this is not how many farmers have been encouraged to work in the past. You may think that farmers deserve all they get but what has happened to the farming industry over the past decades is that the government have felt that their enterprise is deserving of public monies to encourage and increase food production but also to play a major role in protecting, sustaining and developing the ecological and environmental areas which we all associate with our beautiful British countryside. All of a sudden these cash incentives have been drastically reduced. Farmers, who are hands on people working and tending their animals, were suddenly prone to ever increasing amounts of paperwork dropping through their mail box, which had to be filled out, very often having to employ a representative to do this, as the forms were so complicated, and often when filled out would be input incorrectly at eh public offices they were returned to, making even more problems that the poor farmer must sort out. Also an ever increasing amount of licenses and therefore training which had to take place and be paid for, no choice about this legislation dictates.........The farmer who still tends his animals is now forced to be an administrator, secretary, marketing genius and accountant, which is fair enough but all this needs encouragement, quite cajoling and time for generations of good farmers to be able to take up this new challenge in order for their business to succeed.
In the meantime they have seen their product reduced to a pricing point which is under their cost of production.....How many business men would be able to continue to trade if the steel they made their swing frames out of cost more than the swing retailed at when complete? not many and certainly not for long, however the sheep farmer has been doing this for nearly 30 years. Market prices have not increased in this time, how many of you would be able to live today on the wage you were paid 30 years ago? not many assume.
Yet the brave farmer has carried on, unrelentless in his task, for that is what it is it is a lifestyle, which is hard and unrelenting, a 365 days a year job and I hate to say it but 24 / 7. It is all he knows and in the main he is good at it. He tends his ancient hedges, he ploughs his fields he sits with his flock at night, yes he has to make money as do all business' but they may need help to do this.
Lets not forget the plight of the dairy farmer who very recently have begun to see the price of their product.- milk.... rise to reduce the deficit between cost and profit, but this came too late for may dairy farmers who opted out of the industry leaving Britain short of this essential commodity. there is no longer enough milk produced in this country to supply our own demand..........I think that is a very sad state of affairs, and I want to study what other countries are doing to ensure this declining trend in British farming does not continue....................

Anouther From Farm to Food Success Story

Today I was invited (or did i invite myself?) to offer a Cawl workshop for Class 5 at Treffonnen School in Llandrindod Wells. Having already proved a successful format when I had visited Crossgates School, I was much more at ease delivering this session.

The class split into 5 groups each to deal with one vegetable, either carrots, parsnip, swedes, leeks or potato, they then added these to the stew pot, which contained pre boiled shoulder of lamb and we went on to discuss, well a little of everything really. They quizzed me on profits, animal welfare, cookery, abattoirs. It was a really good question and answer session. it just goes to prove that my statement at the beginning of the workshop "I believe that it is your generation who will save British Farming" could be true, i really hope it is with a passion.

They created and ate their Cawl, sampled my fresh Bara Brith- demanded the recipe and looked at some of our pictures fro the website.

I promised I would add this and their pictures to my blog this evening so here we are - good as promised, I can't wait until I am invited back again, or even better till they visit me on our farm and see where their food really comes from.

thanks Class 5 and Mrs Baynham

We are down with TB and on restrictions!

Yes it has happened. After years of being TB free our test last week showed one bullock as a reactor, and we are now under restrictions.

Let me explain........

The vet came out on Wednesday and pricks every cow, calf, bull on our farm with a little bit of TB, then two days later they come out again and we get every animal back in and the vet measures the lump which inevitably appears on each beast. there is a size by which the vet suggests that the beast has 'reacted' to the TB which suggests the beast is infected with TB and therefore you must abide by laws and legislation laid down to protect the rest of your herd and industry.

This means that the one beast which is showing as a reactor must be slaughtered. In Wales we have an auctioneer who comes out then to agree a compensation value for your beast which is paid to us by the Welsh Assembly Government. Apparently the vet has told me that actually TB infected cattle can go into the food chain, but the ministry representative says she has not been able to retrieve a carcass for anyone yet, so it appears these beasts are not condemned to protect human health, in the food chain, but to reduce the risk of spreading the infection amongst other bovines or wildlife.

We must then re-test again in 60 days. Meanwhile we are restricted to only taking cattle to be direct to an abattoir. So if we wanted to sell any of our bullocks fat at a market, or any breeding heifers or cows we would not be able to. Luckily we are in the position where most of our cattle do go directly to the abattoir so they can be processed in the butchery, but can you now start to understand how this disease is crippling the farming industry, when farmers who rely on taking aft animals to markets or store cattle have only the option of fattening and selling directly to an abattoir, so their market negotiations, and full options are halted and they have no option than to take the price which is offered to them.

The beast which proved to be a reactor is one of four that we bought in from a local farmer, the other three have already gone through the butchers shop, so fingers crossed we will hopefully have a good result when we test again in 60 days, as the bullock has not been mixed with any of our original herd and therefore should not have proved a threat.

It concerned me that the bullock we bought in had had a pre-movement TB test when we purchased him, along with his butties (brothers),and this proved negative, however the vet explained that the TB test is only 70% accurate. So 70 % of reactors don't in fact have TB and 70% of beats testing negative could have TB. 1000's of cattle every year are slaughtered on this basis, 100's of farming families are affected.

We have several badger sets on our farm, we are convinced that our badgers are not infected with TB. As badgers are territorial they must keep new badgers from moving in, badgers who potentially carry the same strain of TB which cattle contract. As we buy new feeding troughs we are buying very tall ones which cattle can feed at but badgers can not reach. There are many photographs of badgers eating side by side from troughs with cattle and touching noses in fattening sheds, these are all ways in which the TB virus can be spread.

As a farmer who passionately has the welfare of my cattle and family business and national industry at heart, I have only one avenue of thought....... that a carefully planned culling of infected Badgers in high TB areas must take place. Cries of "no no" to killing badgers must be swept aside, after all the Britain has for a long time now sen nothing wrong with the widespread culling of infected cattle, with little success of slowing down or eradicating the disease, further steps must be taken and soon!

British Food Fortnight

Making Cawl with class 6 at our local school was one of the highlights of British Food Fortnight for me. The whole afternoon was enjoyed tremendously by all the 27 children, who all contributed towards making the Cawl. Then we talked about where the cuts of lamb came from, which bits could be used in cooking, we discussed how farmers could kill their lambs? was their blood? what were the bones like? Then they all ate the Cawl - and most came back for seconds! I had baked a Bara Brith at home which they all tasted, some plain and some with yummy welsh butter, they all wanted more but had to be content with writing down the recipe.........

Wooly Costs Add To Price Of Lamb

(ref Monday June 25th blog)


Why is lamb so expensive? our Innocent customers sometimes ask. Well during the summer holidays I have received the wool cheque for £272.78. As you can see from the prior blog, shearing has cost us much more than this.


The British Wool Marketing Board, whom are the only organisation which we are allowed to sell our wool to, who set the price after they have received it! (Not called a monopoly??????), had a shake up last year so that they could market the wool and obtain better prices. (This policy has yet to produce results) It is important to remember that Britain only produces 1% of the total world wool output.(source sheep information sheep http://www.vegsoc.org/)

The accompanying flyer states:

2007 Wool Cheque: why is it low?

Why the 2006 auction prices were poor

• An outbreak of anthrax in Wales meant that greasy wool exports to China were banned, as no Export Health Certification was allowable.


• Deliveries to China only started again in January 2007


• Weakness of the US$ against £ makes exports very expensive and uncompetitive. Over 70% of British Wool is exported.


• Comparative New Zealand Wool sold into Europe at 10% lower price.

How it affects Producers

• Because of the fall in price, the Boards Advance payment in 2006 was far too high - over 85% of the final value


• the board had to borrow funds to pay producers


• the 2007 advance payment is set at a considerably lower level, although the Balance Payment next year will be very much higher

Prospects

• The Board starts the 2007 season in it's best ever position, with no stock and, therefore, prices should improve.


• The Board is working with other wool producer organisations and the textile industry to increase promotion of wool to improve demand and achieve better prices.


• The Board is continually reducing costs, but a 10% reduction in the clip this year meant the p/kg cost is higher.


• the board continues to invest in shearing training - over 5000 put through courses in the last 4 years.

Remember

• By a combination of external factors, this years situation is poor, but with your support the Board will continue to offer an efficient and professional service, year after year.


• The Board is your organisation, working for the benefit of all producers.

The British Wool Marketing Board can be viewed at http://www.britishwool.org.uk/ and it states:

The BWMB is a farmer run organisation, the BWMB was established in 1950 to operate a central marketing system for UK fleece wool, with the aim of achieving the best possible net return for producers. It is the only organisation in the world that collects, grades, sells and promotes fleece wool and the only remaining agricultural commodity board in the UK. Receiving no financial support, although operating commercially, the BWMB is a non-profit making organisation, returning to producers the market price for their wool, less its own costs. Its objectives are to:-
Provide a secure market outlook for producers.
Stimulate demand by technical research, product development and promotion.
Improve the quality of the clip.
Provide an efficient marketing service from collection to auction.

Wool is one of our most natural fibres, used for 1000's of years to clothe and keep dwellings warm. It has been used in the alternative centre for technology as a natural insulator in buildings.

I was involved in a conversation on the Farmers Market in Merthry Tydfil whilst discussing the price of wool and how much it costs us to shear, and discussing the pros and cons of the new bred of sheep which are evolving which do not require shearing. The general comment was that clothes are so cheap now days, that people tend to go for a cheap item, which, when damaged, just gets thrown away (our throw away society) and not mended.,Whereas a wool cardigan will last for years, is better suited to our skin as a natural fibre, but is more expensive.

Although I know it is not possible for society to revert to the 'good old days' however I do question whether the majority of people think the evolution of modern day society has been to the greater good of everyone

I was amazed to see, when I looked at the BWMB site that there is not one woman on the committee. Perhaps a female pint of view may shed a little more light on marketing, the fashion world, the environmental benefits of using more wool in this country instead of shipping to china

Ready For A Holiday!

It has happened I have just run out of steam! Often people ask me how do you do all you do, where do you get the time? Well I think I must run on an overdraft policy, then all of a sudden I reach my limit and I have to start building credit up again- sound familiar?
It's just a shame it has run out just two and a half weeks before the summer holiday, which we are waiting with baited breath to see if we will be able to get the harvest in before we depart, as so far we have been able to get nothing! Usually by now we would have all the silage in, two full pits and possibly 100 big round bales, and looking forward to doing some hay at our leisure sometime in August- we'll just have to wait and see.
My daughter Hannah is off to the high school in September so she is having a weeks induction there this week, I believe it is the only school which does this and past pupils have found it invaluable in settling them in, and enabling them to enjoy the summer holiday without 'worrying' about what high school will be like at the end of them.
I am hoping to have a lot of the six weeks summer off with the children, to this end I am trying to get things as sorted a possible in the office, although we have just had trading standards requesting our breeding records, movement records and animal health and medicine records for inspection, so that will need to be sorted out today, Crossgates Market tomorrow, my Dad and Serena arriving tomorrow or Thursday, Cub and Scout activities tonight at Shaky bridge with a picnic to provide before 6pm, I really can't run out of steam- can I?

Shearing in the Worst June Ever!

We have just finished our second lot of shearing. Usually we have one great big day and all 1200 ewes would be strutting up and down showing off to each other, discussing how they hadn't really put too much weight on over the winter, and how so and so looks to have lost a little weight and really Mrs Ba could do with losing a few pounds! Well not today. Today they shivered and shook throwing their eyes up to the heavens asking "why..... Why Now"?
We have had to do it in two lots so far, and still have another lot to go where our sheep are on tack at Llangunllo. Last Monday we shut in 450 ewes and lambs in order to keep them dry ready to shear, and today we did 470 which again had to be shut in from yesterday lunch time in order to ensure them dry ready to shear. As we only have room to shut 470 ewes and their lambs in we had to split them into two batches, so that meant two separate days, we finish off on Wednesday morning when we can say, 'well shearing's finished for another year'
Today must be one of the most awful days we have ever sheared. The wind was driving the rain in through the slats in the sheep shed, and even the shearers, who usually find shearing quite a warm job, were seen to be wearing their woolly hats. I'd cooked a nice Welsh Black Stew for Lunch, not the traditional quiche and salad, and after going back out the men had decided not to turn the ewes out (Oh they do have hearts sometimes!) but to keep them in until the weather improves a little.
We had four men shearing today, then there was Wyn, Len & James moving the ewes in, sorting ewes from lambs and pushing them up into the picking chambers. Philip, Andy, Colin and later Rob (a late arriver) were wrapping fleeces. A total of 11 personnel to do this task. The shearers charge us 65p per fleece sheared and double for tups (male sheep) Wyn and Andy are on the payroll, and believe it or not even the farmers Len, Philip and Colin would like to make some money for their days work. I think the Wool Board are paying 50p per fleece this year so mathematics now
450 ewes @ 65p = £292.50
20 tups @ £1.30 = £30.00
2 x 6 hours wages @ £14 per hour (incl on costs) = £168.00
3 x 6 hours wages .... now what shall we pay the farmers same as the others? yes £14 = £252

Total cost of shearing today = £742.50
(plus I cooked lunch for everybody!!!!!!)

Total income from shearing......
470 fleeces at 50p per fleece £235.00

as you can see shearing has cost us 507.50 today that's from 7am - 1pm, we did the same last Monday, so far shearing has cost us around £1000 ... loss
So when people ask why is lamb so expensive- what can I tell them?

'The nation has forgotten why farming matters'

Despite being a country of green rolling fields and fertile farmland, a survey released today by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) reveals that British adults have lost touch with farming and its valuable contribution to the food they eat. The survey of over 1,000 GB adults reveals that many don’t know that simple foods such as bacon, porridge, bread and sausages originate from British farms and one in three adults have never visited one.

The findings come ahead of Open Farm Sunday on 10 June, when hundreds of farmers up and down the country will be holding open days to help educate the public about the link between food and farming.

The majority of land in the UK is dominated by farmland, which produces 60 per cent[1] of all the food consumed in this country. Yet the survey shows that 35 per cent did not know that porridge comes from a British farm, 23 per cent of people did not realise that bread originates from a farm and 22 per cent did not believe that sausages and bacon originate there. The knowledge was even lower with younger adults, with 29 per cent of 16-24 year olds failing to recognise that bread originates on a farm, 34 per cent that sausages and bacon come from a farm and a massive 47 per cent did not know farmers are responsible for producing porridge.

The survey also showed a clear divide between rural and urban regions with large cities such as London and Birmingham showing less recognition of the foods produced than the more agricultural South West and East of England.

The findings indicate that the awareness of farming’s contribution to the food cycle is in danger of being forgotten because younger adults and those with children have little idea of what goes on in a modern farm and can’t pass this knowledge on to their children when educating them about food provenance and choice.

There are 195,000 farms in England, 37,000 in Wales and 51,000 in Scotland, yet 29 adults (and 42 per cent adults aged 16-24 years old) have never been on a working farm and for those that have, the experience is a distant memory as 31 per cent haven’t been on one within the last four years.

The trend is apparent with both city dwellers and rural inhabitants. The Scots top the list of those who haven’t visited a working farm, followed by 36 per cent Londoners and 32 per cent Mancunians. People living in the South West and East Anglia are most likely to be familiar with farm activities as 85 per cent and 81 per cent say that they have been on a farm. However, the large agricultural communities of the West Country, Somerset and North Yorkshire appear to have the closest farming connection. Forty-seven per cent South Westerners and 30 per cent of Tyne Tees’ residents say that they have visited a farm within the past year.

Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union (NFU), who will today (Friday 8 June) hold an Open Farm Sunday event at his farm said: “As champions of British farming, the NFU welcomes opportunities to educate the public on why farming matters.
More than half the food consumed in the UK is produced on British farms, yet the public, and especially young people, are unable to make this connection.”

Open Farm Sunday is organised by LEAF, a national charity that helps farmers to care for the environment and the wildlife that it sustains. The campaign aims to educate the public on the work farmers do to care for the land and to encourage us all to appreciate the countryside around us. When asked whether they thought farmers play an important role in helping to protect and preserve the British countryside, 73 per cent of people asked agreed that it was. Amongst 16-24 year olds, this figure was slightly lower but more than six in 10 still agreed. Even though the majority agreed farmers should protect and preserve the countryside there was relatively low awareness of the work farmers actually do.

When asked to name (from a list of options) which activities British farmers are doing to help the environment, 31 per cent did not know. Forty per cent recognised that farmers are reducing the use of non essential chemicals, and that they are encouraging wildlife and replanting hedgerows (both 35 per cent) and are sowing wild flowers (19 per cent). However, they do not associate carbon reduction activities with farming.
Caroline Drummond, Chief Executive of Linking Environment And Farming said: “Open Farm Sunday is a great opportunity for consumers, young and old to visit a local farm and find out why farming matters so much in the 21st Century. Farmers will be on hand to explain to visitors just what they do to protect the land and the wildlife and of course to produce safe, wholesome and affordable food for us all.”
[1] DEFRA 2006

Open farm Sunday

The end of a long, but rewarding day!

Open farm Sunday - A Huge Sucess.....

After all the efforts of the past few weeks the day arrived. I think we were all fairly pooped before it started, but we were running on adrenalin!

At 11.00am the first began to arrive and they carried on throughout the day, 80 in all ,with varied ages from 3 - 95 and from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, to Leeds, they came from all over.

What I thought was a real shame was that not many locals came. It wasn't for the fact that it hadn't been advertised well enough, oh no!, I'm sure the media in our area were absolutely sick of the sound of my name. It was on Radio Maldwyn, in the County Times on the Powys Intranet, on the school newsletter, the church newsletter, e-mailed to all the local schools, on posters from Aberwystwyth to Stourbridge and from Merthry Tydfil to Wrexham...oh yes people would have certainly known where to find us.

Still a wonderful day out, and that was the consensus of everyone. the tractor and trailer rides were real winners, the second most favourite thing was our Welsh Black Bull.

My daughter Hannah and her friends Sasha and Sarah made £110 for the Brooke Foundations Horses in Need appeal, so our guests could sit under our gazebo in our garden and nibble scones with butter and jam and grab a cup of tea before being spirited away on a tractor with Philip to give them the guided tour.

Well Done and thanks to everyone who helped us organise the event, and thanks to LEAF without whom this national event just wouldn't happen, and it needs to.

Only 7 farms in Wales opened to the public - come on everyone open your eyes we need the general public behind us, we need them to know what we are doing and why we do it, tell them how good we are at our jobs at looking after the country side at, knowing our stock and protecting the environment don't give up fight back, most people will support us, they want to but you have to make contact - give it a go....

PGI Status of Welsh lamb -Good or Bad?

Yet again I hit a bureaucratic brick wall - yes my life is full of them.
For those of you who don't know what PGI is it stands for 'protected geographical indication' and Welsh Lamb has been granted this status after lots of hard work from Hybrid Cig Cymru.
Wonderful, Brilliant, Amazing, Great, yes I thought all these things. Apart from the fact that i was actually born and raised in Staffordshire I am very proud to call myself Welsh, i have a very strong sense of culture and think everything in Wales is fantastic and am happy to be associated with this beautiful country which is steeped in folklore dance and history. I am even more proud of our Welsh Blacks , the traditional breed of Welsh Cattle, and our Welsh Sheep which are born on our Welsh farm and feed on our Welsh Fields, are tended by our Welsh Shepherd, Wyn, who's first language is Welsh, and by Philip, Len & Colin, who are fourth or fifth generation Welsh Citizens. However I am gutted that I have received a letter from trading Standards stating that I am not allowed to sell my produce as 'Welsh lamb' or Welsh Beef'!
The reason why this atrocity has occurred? - I take my stock to Williams of Weobley to Slaughter and they of course are in Herefordshire and not wonderful Wales, therefore my lamb or beef can not be called Welsh!!!!

"Ah Ah" I hear some of you shout "but that abattoir can get PGI status, because the Welsh Assembly allowed for the fact that some Welsh farmers, on the borders (such as you are), would have to use an English Abattoir, especially with the decline of abattoirs in general over the past few years, so you can call your produce Welsh!"

But you forget that the Welsh Assembly funded Hybu Cig Cymru to ensure that Welsh abattoirs conformed with all of the red tape in order to proclaim them fit for PGI Status, this costs between £500 - £600 per abattoir (So I am told by Trading Standards), however the Welsh Assembly will not allow them to sue that funding to pay for the inspections in ENGLISH Abattoirs, only Welsh ones, so although they state that farmers on the borders will not be discriminated against with this ruling they have in fact done just that's Weobley are, understandably, saying, well it won't benefit us to have this inspection, so why should we pay for it?
Yes in fact the only people who would benefit is ourselves and any other Welsh farmer who takes his stock to Weobley. Ever conscious, as are we, of reducing Carbon Foot printing, the necessity for animal welfare the reduction of bottom line costs to support our end of year profits we have chosen Williams of Weobley to ahve the honour of our business . So in truth, to pay for the inspection and the subsequent PGI status that the abaotir owuld be granted, would in fact, only benefit Welsh Farmers, which is exactly what the PGI status was meant to do.

My 9 year old son, James, commented this morning over breakfast, (as you do when you are talking about abattoirs, killing and PGI status at 7.30 am in the morning) "So Mum if you're in the British army and you go over to France and get killed (he's very much into World War Two presently) does that make you French?"
Through the eyes of a child -a future politician perhaps?
I have consequently made my appointment to see our MP Roger Williams in his Llandrindod Wells office on Friday June 29th at 3.30pm will it do any good? - watch this space!

In the mean time I will alter my labels on my 'Welsh Lamb' to read 'Born & Bred in Wales Lamb' ( I have checked with trading Standards), and my Welsh Black Beef? well I'm sorry Hybu Cig Cymru, but it will stay as Welsh Black Beef. That is after all what it is. It;'s Welsh Black and it's Beef the same as if you had Hereford Beef or Aberdeen Angus Beef, I think that's good enough defence for the Welsh Borders......

Good News for the Local Out of School Club

I have just returned from a couple of days camping with the local Llandrindod Wells 1st Cub and Scout Troup. It was a fantastic few days to celebrate the centenary of scouting. However I stray from the point.......

On my return I have had a letter from the Awards for All Awards sponsored by the Lottery Fund, to tell me that I have successfully applied for £4900 for the club. Hooray.... this is wonderful news. Over the past few weeks I have been frantically applying for all sorts of grants for the school child care club and the school so they can begin or continue with projects, which without grant aid they would never be able to consider. Two weeks ago we had news from Powys County Council that we had been awarded £2000 in capital revenue funding for the child care club, and also, sadly, because another local play scheme closed it;s doors for the last time we were given all their cash funds in accordance with the Charity Commissions ruling, a boost of £6000. Prior to that we received a sustainability grant of over £1000 from Powys County Council to keep us going in order that we could put a rescue plan into place. In the intrim we have had several fundraising activities. My mum has organised a monthly quiz night for the past four months, a couple of table tops sales, organised by the staff,

All this must seem wonderful to read, however as with most grants the stipulations on how to spend the money are very rigorous, and it takes a lot of control when you have all this money to make sure it does what it is supposed to do. As a committee who have struggled financially over the past two years to stay afloat and keep the child care side of things going, we are looking to investing in some publicity so that our service users will increase.

The school have just received a letter to tell them they have received £10,000 to create a wildlife path and chambers on the back field which would be accessible to tall the community out of school hours. I have also applied for a peoples millions grant to create a sensory garden within this scheme, again for use of the community outside of school hours, and I am currently working with the school children so that they can plan and apply for a grant which would enhance their play ground.

There is lots of money out there for different community organisations, however to say it is easy to get is not so. I can spend up to a week costing and researching Key words for grants, different policies etc which will spark the judges, and sadly not all organisations especially schools have the resources or people available to spend this amount of time in order to obtain monies, very often for items which i believe should be part of the normal school budget.
However once again Crossgates school, as with many other schools in Powys have had there budgets cut, reminding us once again that we are the poor cousin to England. How can Welsh Assembly politicians say that one of their prime objectives is education? Our deputy Head left Crossgates School last yer and went to become a head of a primary school in Telford. She had half the number of children there, yet her budget was the same????? recently she has disbanded her PTA as there were only 3 members and she said she had enough money to pay for trips etc out of her ordinary school budget. Wow how fantastic, at Crossgates we have to contribute £1.20 per week to the bus in order to take our children to the local swimming pool for swimming lessons which is part of the National Curriculum. As a PTA the committee works a huge amount of hours throughout the year raising money for Maths Books and Maths Resources, again part of the national curriculum, we give each class money for Christmas craft so they can create the wonderful things which adorn the school at Christmas, believe you me Glitter dosen''t come cheap when it is needed by 160 children!
So tell me Welsh Assembly government where is the equality in the education system between England and Wales. Our children are being discriminated against, they do not have the same resources or financial backing as their English counterparts,. yet they grow up to compete, supposedly on an even playing field to vie for University places, jobs and careers, shape up Mr Carwyn Jones and give our children a future..........

Warm Weather changes Meat Sales

The weekend just gone was what we would class one of our busy weekends. We have Wrexham and Llandrindod Markets on the Friday, and Stourbridge and Aberystwyth on the Saturday. I am suffering from a very bad back and hip presently, an ongoing problem from having severed my coxys four years ago, and had acupuncture and a hip brace on the Thursday, unsure of how I would feel on Friday it was arranged that Colin would accompany me and carry heavy boxes etc and I would do all the talking (I'm good at that!)
Colin unfortunately twisted his ankle whilst catching the ewes to tail, so off we went to Wrexham at 6am on Friday looking like we had returned from a bout in the ring. Colin hobbling, me bent over and limping.
Wrexham had all been altered, apparently to improve sales (we were down on last month), and it was terribly windy. the stalls in Wrexham are not at all suited to the windy spot in which we always find ourselves there and at one point the whole of the top blew off which I instinctively caught hold of in case ti should blow down upon a customer sitting the other side of the stall in a wheelchair. Of course this did my back no good, and within an hour it was hurting beyond belief which pain killers did nothing to relieve. OK accidents happen, but when i went in to report the incident to the person in charge of the market, he, after inspecting the stall and me explaining what had happened said, "well it was all ok when we set it up at 5.100am this morning, and I can't do anything about it now!" I politely reminded him that whatever had happened at 5.00am this morning I was reporting a serious health & safety issue to him and he had a responsibility to do something about it now. So he found a huge ball of string and tied the top half of the stall to the bottom half of the stall and said that would hold it.
Beware all you marketeers.... of men in disguise. A suit doesn't always mean brains!!!!

Fox Cubs on the Ross

Yesterday, after I had collected Jess from the local child care club, we were driving backdown the road to our house, past a piece of our neighbours ground which we call The Ross. he has recently fenced it off and planted a very young hedge, it is probably entered into an enviromental scheme.
Jess pointed to the gorse bush and said "look mum two rabbitts, no two cats, no I think it's two little foxes!"
She was right two small fox cubs, the size of cats were playing by the gorse bush, no sign of a larger adult. I pulled the car in by the road put the window down and turned off the engine. the two didn't even acknowledge our presence they carried on scampering and play fighting, jumping over each other.
Jess was thrilled to bits,"I've never seen two fox clubs playing before she said" and I had to admit that I never had either.
During Lambing time I had seen a big wirey fox several times in broad daylight hanging around the bushes or crossing the road so he was obviously something to do with them. There has also been an explosion of rabbit population in that area and so they have obviously had plenty of rabbit pie to dine on, and that's why we didn't loose many lambs this year.
As we moved on Jessie said "it's very strange mum, you wouldn't think that a fox and a rabbit would make very good next door neighbours"
Too right Jessie that's the law of nature.....................

A Blaze of a Week

A blaze in many ways!
So much to do. We are renovating house for which we have a tenant, the work is coming along brilliantly, however the tenant is due to move in next Saturday!, the house was never going to be ready. So influx of family (what would we do without them) to paint clear up etc, yesterdays glorious day was given over to painting the upstairs bedrooms.
Today as it is James' birthday (9) I have a reprieve, Philip however has a life sentence, so he's off there again until party time ( I think he'd rather paint!)
The other type of Blaze is such as when you set the muck heap on fire!!!!!!!!!
Yes I did. I went to burn some of my rubbish last Saturday, about half an hour later I looked out of the window and as i saw smoke still blowing down the filed I thought 'oh that fire is still burning well', after further investigation I discovered that a spark had gone onto the very very dry straw in the muck heap and was merrily burning away!
The children and I evacuated the tiddlings from the shed, not quite ready to be grilled yet! and then I phoned Philip up at Aberwystwyth Farmers market to see what I should do? (at this stage I was cringing thinking I may well have to phone the fire brigade and tell them I had set a muck heap on fire!) Philip told me to take a shovel and go and beat it out. So after telling the children to keep an eye on me, and if anything should happen to phone 999 straight away I went to beat out the fire, which of course wouldn't be beaten! Every breath of wind flamed a new flame, and still it smouldered. Luckily at lunch time Colin arrived (always trust a farmer to arrive when there should be food!) and after his experienced inspection and shovelling several fork loads of dry straw and muck away from the fence around the fold to the shed, he declared it would smoulder itself out, if not dial 999........ thanks Colin!

Rules, Rules, and Regulations!

Last Thursday, off Philip went to see if he could get some grass keep at an auction in Llangunlau. He succeeded. We intend to take our hogs to summer there, which gives us more ground to graze, and also hopefully more grass therefore for the Hoggs to grow before they go to the Tup in the autumn, ready to lamb for their first time next spring. Good job Philip thought to phone the ministry to check on movement rules, it appears we have to have a different licence to an ordinary movement licence, as the farmer has let several different Fields to different farmers technically they can't all move their stock onto the fields together as there should be movement restrictions within a certain period, but this can be got around, we also needed to update our movement licence as we sold some ground last year where we used to transport stock there by trailer, which we don't need any more, so what we thought was a good move means filling in more paperwork, you really wouldn't credit it.
So Colin & Wyn have been busy tailing the Hoggs today ready for their move. They have to be tailed because we know there is a lot of grass on the new grazing ground, and as with anything good, if you have too much of it it is likely to go straight through you!! and if you have a long woolly tail there it gets all over it and then the flys will lay maggots on it in the hot weather, attracted by your eau de muck, next you have a Hogg with a maggot infestation which is really nasty, so this should hold them at bay until we dip them.

Change to Tax Relief Rules

News from the Farmers Weekly tells us that Gordan Brown is planning to implement Tax relief changes which will effect the current Agricultural buildings Allowance and will come into effect in 2011.
How does ABA work?
On a £1m investment, relief on 4% of the cost means that £40,000 can be set against income for tax purposes in the first year, and in the 24 subsequent years, thereby reducing the amount chargeable to income or corporation tax. The Budget proposals are to phase this out over the next four years so that ABA's will operate at 4% this coming tax year, 3% in 2008/9, 2% in 2009/10 and 1% in 2010/11 After April 2011 it will end. (Source Farmers Weekly 13th April 2007)
I will be contacting my MP, as we all should within the industry, stand up for yourselves and don't let them get a way with it. This is our livelihood and our futures. Many of us have invested in new buildings over the past years, mindful of our budgets and that the tax relief will be taken into account?, how many of us will sink even deeper if this is allowed to go ahead?

Help in the Butchers shop

Thursday saw a busy day when all the ewes decided to get their lambing over and done with due to the hot weather! So I ended up in the the butchers shop helping Philip to pack and weigh up our produce for Friday in Llandrindod and Saturday in Knighton. it made a change to see so much of Philip, what with lambing etc I feel like a single mum and I'm sure a lot of other farmers wives will agree with me! Still it's nice to see our product all ready to go to market and I know you all enjoy it.........

Vogan Has A Fractured Leg

A visit to the vets today to check Vogan's leg. Along came everyone, (except Hannah who was at the stables of course!) James, Jessie and I got ready to leave- and then Jess remembered that Cocoa, the guinea pig, needed her claws trimming , so she went into a shoe box, Saffy - not one to miss an outing, jumped in the back seat, and Vogan travelled in an old wine box in the back seat.
What a motley crew we were when we arrived. the vet Mr Mitchel was very accommodating and he said Vogan's leg was quite swollen with a lot of fluid on the 'knee' joint. he thought it had probably fractured. As he had been like it for a week, and had in fact improved was eating, playing with the others etc he said we could either just leave it or we could bandage it.
So we have decided to leave it loose and as it heals he should start to put some weight on to it.
It's been a glorious day, Hannah is just going down to give a lambs a last feed - yes she does come home occasionally!

Badger Gets a Lamb

Sad news.
Colin phoned last night to tell Philip that a Badger had killed a lamb on our little steep fields. You can tell it's a badger because the tail had been bitten off, the stomache ripped open and the liver taken out, the the carcass of the lamb had been left. If it had been a fox the whole carcass would have been taken probably to feed young at this time of year. We have several sets of Badgers on the farm.
Touch wood we have never tested positive for TB and we think it is because our sets of badgers don't carry the virus, and badgers being territorial keep incoming badgers away. So we tend to leave them alone as much as possible. this is awful though, and so much more because only recently we have been seeing badgers shuffling along at night and we think oh look at them aren't they lovely and now this!
Well this is farming and the country like!

Easter Weekend is Over

Well it's Tuesday morning, and a little colder than it has been. the children have all gone off their seperate ways and I can have a day in the office catching up.
We had a brilliant weekend with my Dad & Serena thanks to them both. I managed to catch up with my brother James and his wife Tina and my nephews Simon & Luke who I think I would have walked past in the street, it's been that long since I saw them both.
Back home one of my tiddlings had died, which is really sad, but the good news is that the other three are doing really well, taking a whole bottle now every time they are fed. Goran is still limping around with his left back left held up and if it hasn't done any better by Wednesday I think we'll have to take him to the vet as I think it could be a dislocation possibly not just an ache or joint ill.
Heather from Wiggly Wigglers e-mailed me to tell our customers that we are mentioned on her podcast No 78 so if you want to listen just click the link on this bog. I can really recommend the pod cats they are very informative and fun. People from all over the world listen to them. It is Heather who inspired me to add a blog to the website, and soon we have videos for you too and at some stage in the future I would like to do a podcast also.

Glorious Easter Weather

What a fantastic day it is. The sun is shinning, I have just been down the filed to take off Maggie's stable rug, she is really losing a lot of hair now the weather is warmer, I have loosed my tiddling lambs into the fold so that they can lie in the sun a little like their peers out on the fields, luckily with their own mums. I have put the guinnea pigs cage out on the lawn so they can get used to the sounds of the outside in anticipation that during summer they will eat so much grass I won't have to mow the lawn. I'm sitting here in the office looking at the fantastic view and thinking oh how I wish it wasn't year end. Never mind after Myrthry Tydfil market tomorrow I'm off up to Derbyshire with James & Jess to stay with my dad and Serena for the weekend. Hannah has pony club and nothing, no nothing comes between her and her horses!

Open Farm Sunday

Philip & I went to Blakemere Farm, in Hereford yesterday to meet with LEAF and other farmers who are going to open up their farms to the general public on Sunday June 10th. It was a really cold day, and we can usually guarantee it's will be a lot warmer in Hereford than with us as it is up and over the forestry onto the warmer side of the mountains, never mind, it was a lovely afternoon in the company of like minded farmers, and it was lovely to see my friend Heather Gorringe again from Wiggly Wrigglers. and to meet two other Nuffield Scholars over here resourcing their topics.

The Tiddling Lambs have Arrived!

Yes it's happened, they have arrived. As usual this time of year there are by now several lambs who have no mums, are a little slow, and need a little more TLC so they are installed behind several large straw bales in the shed opposite Maggie's stable. The idea is that as the children are home they can look after them and feed them, and to be honest they do very well. But Hannah is up at Underhill Stables everyday for 9 hours!, James is Footballing this week with Cardiff City, and Jess can't quite control them all together. So this morning i was up in my dressing gown at 6.30 giving them their first feed. Now at 9.00am I'm going down to do a small intermediate feed fro the two who have a little congestion on their lungs. their names by the way are.... Vogan, Feather, Twinkle Toes and Bunny not named by me !!!!!!!!

Open Farm Sunday

1st of April, and I got away with no practical jokes being played upon me. Lambing is well under way, Wyn has just started to lamb 250 at Caergynant, and at Nantleach we are about 1/3 of the way through our 500, Colin is already starting to miss breakfast and having lunch as his first meal of the day!
The children have all just broken up for the Easter holidays, and have shown their real first interest in attending the lambing sheds. (Yes child labour is still allowed in the farming industry), so their little legs can cover some of the many miles it takes up and down the sheds in one day to keep checking that everything is OK with all the ewes.

"Welly Wednesday"

‘Welly Wednesday’ was a brilliant success. As it was National Science Week, I invited the nursery reception class at our local primary school, Crossgates, to visit us and spend some time in the lambing sheds. Mrs Roach, the class teacher, was so engrossed in everything that she kept forgetting to take photographs!

They all enjoyed dipping their wellies in the disinfectant point, I never imagined it would take as long to dip wellies!, I also didn’t know it would take so long for 25 of them to take a bucket of water to the ewes and lambs who were penned up individually waiting to go back outside, but they all had great fun, and more importantly they were learning during a real situation, which I believe is very beneficial to many children The highlight of the visit was when Farmer Len went into one of the pens and ‘pulled’ a lamb. Then after he had penned the ewe and lamb up in a small pen the class (and Mrs Roach) watched as the ewe licked the lamb, ‘talking’ to it quietly, then watched as the lamb began to try to struggle to it’s feet, then when it did to make it’s way up the side of the ewe under its tummy to find where to suck her milk.

The children also came face to face with Brynsaga Madog the 4th, one of our Welsh Black Bulls. Again Farmer Len made their day by entering the bull’s pen (something no one should do at home!) and turning him around so they could see his face, all of the children took at least four paces backwards, he must have seemed huge to them. (The children were aged between 4 – 5 years)

We finished off the afternoon with a walk through our oak wood, which is where the single lambs and their mums are turned out after 24 hours in the lambing sheds after they are born. It was a lovely day with the sun shinning, and it was a pleasure to have them with us.

Sapphy continues to grow. Unfortunately she is as big as the bin in the kitchen now so when she jumps up to it falls over, so for now the bin lives in the porch which is a pin when I am trailing around with soggy teabags thinking where to put them! On Saturday when I was on lambing duty all day with Philip she spent the entire day wandering up and down the sheep sheds, never very far away from me, and looking in every bucket, bag or crevice to see what she could find. She loves hay, and in the shed in the wood the ewes have a great roll of hay in front of all the pens, which they can eat all day. She was rolling and diving into it, then setting the ewes, as they came forward to see what on earth it was in their dinner! She has started to find all of the rabbit and badger runs as we walk the children up to the school bus in the morning and very often as I am calling her and looking back I turn around and there she is somehow in front of me, with her head cocked on one side as if to say, “well here I am where are you”?

Lambing is very slow at the moment. Last night there was the flurry of snow which was well forecast, and yesterday Philip had done a trail of the fields to bring in any ewes and lambs not looking as if they were strong enough to survive a very cold night. So Maggie had company in her stable last night. Unfortunately this morning there were two casualties, both whom we think had something physically wrong with them inside and would have died no matter what, but Philip always takes it so personally and it starts the day with quite a downer, you’d think with the 1500 lambs plus which we have, that two wouldn’t matter, but you’d be wrong. Farmers have a very strong connection with their stock and hate to loose any. Very often at Nantleach there will be a lamb in a box in front of the rayburn warming nicely, unfortunately not many of them make it, but I always like to think they were comfortable in their last hours.

My daughter Hannah and her friend Sarah, passed their Pony Club C test yesterday at Underhill Riding Stables. They were very chuffed especially as they were quite young to take it and they have worked very hard in doing so. My son James, and his friends Kathryn and Daniel all passed their Karate gradings on Saturday at Llandrindod Wells Sports Centre so James is now a green belt, half way to a black belt so he tells me. Well done to all of them.

I’ve a lot of office work to catch up with this week, I really don’t know where it all comes from, and where all of my time goes to but it does so that’s all for now and we’ll catch up again soon

The end of another busy week!

The end of another busy week! We have just hosted a visit from Coleg Powys 3rd year agricultural students, who are studying a project on farm diversification. This is the second year we have done this; it’s really nice to have the chance to give something back to the industry. Our tours are taking a little longer now as we get deeper into projects and the marketing of them, and the evolving of the business, perhaps next year we will invite them to stay over for lunch.

We started of at Caergynant, our new farm, which without our farm diversification we wouldn’t have been in a position to buy. We showed the lambs, which were born early January, then February, a first for us, showing the way the business constantly evolves. This ensures Lamb all year around to sell on the market stalls.

We then progressed to Nantleach and the calving sheds, where all of our heifers (1st time calvers) have all calved. Amazingly, all having female calves of their own! We discussed how the Welsh Black breed has improved over the recent years, how quite they are, how easily they calve, and that if we can’t sell the pedigree females at a good price for breeding, we have the option of putting them through the processing unit to maximise their potential profit.

We then went into the butchers unit for a talk on how we diversified in the foot and mouth year, and how we add value to our produce by selling direct to the end consumer. We showed them a lamb carcass that would have fetched maximum £45 out the livestock market, but cut up and packed ready to sell it showed a retail price of £100. Obviously this is not all profit as there are killing costs, transport costs, staff costs and running costs of the butchers unit. One student very wisely commented that it was the difference of it being our choice as to how much we got paid for our product, rather than going to the livestock market, and having no choice but to take the price which was being offered to all farmers on that day.

We then came to my pride and joy, my new office – wow were they impressed. No biscuit tin on the kitchen table for me – oh no! Seriously it is nice when someone can appreciate how much the business is changing and evolving, and how much effort that takes in all areas and departments, and how much co-ordinating and organising it takes.

I have just finished a course which has been run in Wales for the first time with financial aid from the Welsh assembly Government, the Open farm accreditation Course from CEVAS, this means I will hold a qualification which says I have studied in order to hold educational visits to the farm, such as we have been doing with Coleg Powys for the past two years. Next Wednesday, as part of National Science Week, we are hosting a visit from Crossgates County Primary School for the Nursery reception Class to the Lambing sheds. I hope that the ewes all behave themselves and produce some nice lambs for us all to watch being born during their visit!

Two weeks ago we had a nice little bundle delivered to our house. No not a baby, but a Welsh Fox Hound Puppy whom we are puppy walking for the local foot hunt. She is now 15 weeks old, with great long legs and equally long floppy ears, and a lovely feathery head. Her name is Sapphire, Sapphy for short, and lots of other unmentionable names in between times!!!. It has given us the incentive to walk up to where the school bus picks the girls up in the morning, a ½ mile round walk up the road and back, I think we will all feel the benefit of this in a couple of weeks. The first day the pup was tired out, and slept the rest of the morning, but today she has been on go all day, emptying the bin, chewing the slippers, barking at the cows, setting the lambs and ewes and trying to get anything she can reach to eat! It’s quite a nice way to have a puppy. The children love it when they are small, but when a dog is full sized they get fed up with it etc, this way we can have a pup every couple of years and give it back when they are grown up ready to work, and see them at weekends and have them back on the farm for their summer holiday when the hunting season is over.

Our main batch of lambs is due to start on the 10th – tomorrow so far it looks like a good start, very few ewes have lost their lambs prematurely. One ewe had to have a caesarean in the week, (I’ll let you know how much that costs when the vets bill comes). It’s lovely over the next few weeks in the lambing shed, but very hard work for the men, who get more and more tired as the weeks go on. We could be looking at six weeks of long days and nights. But we also have to remember that a lot of very sad things take place we loose lambs and ewes, some lambs may be born with no back passage, some ewes are prolapsed, where the entire womb will drop out behind them. It’s not always fun being a farmer, and we deal with all of things on a daily basis. Some ewes or lambs may have to be put down. A job no farmer likes doing, but does for the well being of the animal. I’ll let you know more next week of what is happening in the lambing sheds

Well that’s me signing off for now, oh and keep your eyes peeled there will be a Blog attached to this site by next week and I hope we’ll have lots of comments off you all, which will be really nice to post on the site as we get comments at farmers markets which will be nice to share with everyone, and discuss topics of interest.

Take Care

Rachael

Nuffield Interviews - the journey down

Here I am, the day after 'the interview', and what an experience.

My interview was in London at 4.04pm. So of course because we're in the middle of no where,(well Powys really!), I decided to drive to Hereford Railway station, as it would have taken about 8 hours from Lladnrindod, and I wouldn't have got home until about Thursday!(only joking). So I left home about 8.30 had a leisueley drive to Hereford I had already pre purchased a 24 hour parking ticket (the wonders of modern science), and I walked, as sedatley as my high heals would allow, remebering as a farmer wellies are our usual mode of footwear, to come across a ticket barrier which had not been at the station last year when I had used the service. Apparently I had to post my ticket into the slot and it would let me through. So I had to carefully balance my briefcase, bottle of water, bag of grapes (well I am on a healthy eating plan) and ferret throguh my hand bag, which was full of tangerines and bannanas, I know I know!, when I did find it they were all stapled together and would n't fit into the hole, whereby a nice porter came to over-ride the terminal and let me through, at the same time informing me that my train was over the bridge and I had just 3 minutes to catch it- yes I ran.

Quite an unexciting journey after that. Lulled into a false sense of security, by the large lady who had fell asleep opposite and was snoring gently, I read my three weeks of Farmers Weekly, just to be on the safe side. I got off at Newport and waited for my Paddington connection. I mentally tried to make out the anoucements in Welsh before the English ones, and did a lot better than I thought I would, then got onto the train, which was on time. Walking down the train I decided to sit at a gorup of seats with tables, more room I thought for my bag of grapes bottle of water and todays papers, which I was quietly reading. The Lady opposite me got out her papers on the table, and as I peered around my farmers weekly (I do so love that publication) I thought I recognised nuffiled papers, intriguing I thought to myslef, I checked in my briefcase - yes the binding on my report was the same colour as I could see sticking out of hers. When she finished her call ( which incidently had given me no more clues as to her name, location, destination, occupation or date of birth) I asked "are you going to the Nuffield Foundation?"

Well we got on like a house on fire, Heather and I, we chatted all the rest of the journey discussed farming issues, saved the world from global warming and boosted are rural ecconomies thus enabling all farmers to survive without subsidies - see all it takes is two ladies!
At Paddington we shared a cab to Burford Square. The cabbie was amazing! when we asked to go to Burford Square he said "Do you want to go to my Hotel" well Heather and I looked at each other, and I replied "we've only been in London 5 minutes but it's the best offer we've had yet" Apparently there is a Hotel in Burford Squaer called 'My Hotel? and he thought thats where we were going. So we had a spot of lunch in a bistro type place around the corner which had huge screens on the wall showing us round the clock news, and then on to the Nuffield Institute.

More later