Rachael's Blog

TB Test

2010-07-20T10:59:00.002Z

Hooray we have gone through this TB test and everything is Ok so now we need to get a move on and sell some cattle through the fat stock markets and through the pedigree sales. It is such a relief!.........

Some news to our customers although we do not normally sell our Welsh Black Beef now we are doing the Food Festival in Aberystwyth on the 18th of September and are butchering a whole beast for this weekend. So we will have Welsh Black Beef outside Oxfam in Llandrindod Wells on Friday 17th of September and In Aberystwyth on Saturday 18th September. we are also taking orders for Beef for customers to collect etc.

Phone 01597 851614 to order your beef, once it's gone it's gone we will be doing another beast hopefully at Christmas time.

Open Farm Sunday is almost here

2010-06-08T14:09:00.000Z

Looking forward to this years SMALL gathering of invited people to have a farm walk and afternoon tea afterwards.

Aftter two years plus of being illl and 12 months of building, I now ahve more energy and will power again and feel like being active and contributing to everything again.

Subsequently Philp and I have dug a huge allotment next to the house, and planted everything form potatoes to Butternut squash. We ahve had lots of fun doing it and luckily the weather has been nice enought to get on this year. I avhe also ahd a green house isntalled and that is full of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, chillies and some autumn plants.

My three geese whihc I ahve ahd for 5 weeks , fattening for Christmas have done very well, although one is ill today. My Hens are laying well after the introduction of 6 new point of lays which are in fact all now laying.

minton my tiddling lamb had his last feed of bottled milk yesterday and is now on his own, although he still tries it on a the fence for just one more bottle!

Hopefully we are going to pick up two horses on friday to trail for my daughter Hannah the week is full and life is wonderful....

March31st - Snow On The Hills

2010-03-31T09:17:00.002Z

A windy cold morning with snow on the hills overlooking us. One lamb died in the shed in the night, his belly was full but he had started to scour so don't really know what happened there.
Picked a big dead single lamb off the filed below, something had had his stomach out, and the crows had pecked out his eyes other than that he looked healthy. Philip picked up a small twin lamb off the field behind from the small stream, looked as if he had drowned - poor thing, well that's all the dead ones over here.
Kate accompanied Philip during the night and they had a calf and had to pull a couple of lambs, a big single and a pair of twins. feeding lots of lambs a supplement as a lot of our yearling ewes just haven't performed this year, they have little or no milk so the extra two pairs of hands is coming in handy.

Looking forward to WI this evening, I am taking a community dance session with them - just hope they enjoy it.
And my big son Tom comes home for the weekend on Friday so I am really looking forward to that, thinking of doing a big curry night on Saturday...... get cooking then Rachael

Lambing has Started

2010-03-30T09:15:00.002Z

Two students from Nottingham Vetinary University arrived on Sunday signalling the start of the main lambing. Kate and Poppy have settled in well and are very keen, both getting up at 3am the fist night to check the lambing sheds, and Poppy taking the shift last night. Both have had the experience of pulling lambs at the main lambing sheds and are keen to muck in - and out!"
Yesterday morning saw me eating my porridge as I was handed a lamb bought from of the fields who was 'sick'. Buster, our 6 month old jack Russel licked him to warm him up and stimulate him - I think! and Jess blow dried him with a hair dryer, whilst I spent nearly and hour getting 100ml of lamb milk down him. Hannah named him Bertie and off he went back to the lambing sheds where he continued to improve throughout the day and then died last night! that's lambing for you.....
I of course am stuck with feeding all of the people involved in lambing and the children who are off school for the Easter holidays I have just put 20 lamb chops in the slow cooker ready for lunch time and am about to make a batch of welsh cakes.
Ever imminent is the financial year end on the 31st of March. i wander how that will go down with the men when i ask them for a stock take this week!

A Proper Winter

2010-02-16T11:40:00.002Z

Whilst out in the garden on Sunday Philip Pleaching our hedge and me digging an old border over, Philip commented that we are having a 'proper' winter, with which I had to agree. Cold snaps, frost and snow. Not too much rain, and now warmer spring days to look forward to.

We already have about 200 lambs on the farm from our 2 early lambing bouts, and several calves.

Out Latest Tb test last week revealed we have 2 inconclusive so we are still under TB restrictions, and are to test again in 60 days.
Our Bull and 2 of the cattle slaughtered after the last TB test showed visible lesions on their lungs at the post mortem. we suspect that as we have complied with all the movement legislation, and our herd was TB clear at the beginning of the summer, that the summer out with the Badgers has reinfected the herd - what else can it be?

I'm Back!

2010-01-25T10:34:00.002Z

After a year or more of illness I'm now feeling good and back to work with avengence!

Lambing started this weekend, and calving got off to a good start with a little Bull calf, a bit before time being born, and looking good.

The weather which left us snowed in for three weeks has cleared leaving a milder climate in which we can work well for the time of year.

The men have been busy preparing pens in the sheds, and putting gates to right, as well as installing a new gated system at Nantleach, so the pesky ewes who get turned out with their lambs can't keep coming back down to the sheds to steal more sheep cake!

For those who don't know we are not butchering much meat now as Waitrose are buying all of our Welsh Black Cattle, and we will be doing only the third market every month at Aberystwyth.

Out Last TB test before Christmas gave us four inconclusive results, and when the four were tested again last week, it appears sadly that they are reading as having Tb although this test is only 70% accurate they will have to go to be killed. One of them is our prize bull which we paid £3000 for

Children are back to school today....

2009-09-03T11:05:00.002Z

The end of our Summer Holidays, the children have gone back today. Unfortunately we have received rainy weather similar to that of last years, and in some farmers opinions worse than last year. Our harvest was much alter in coming in, and we still have one filed left at Caergynant which we would like for hay, but at this rate we will have to let sheep graze it.

Summer has been full of events. Our tenants and very good friends left Brynllefrith to move to the local village, and we had to find new tenants - what a job, hopefully not again for a long time. Dave and Julie with their family will be moving from Southampton to take up residence and think this part of the world, and in particular Brynllefrith are wonderful.

We helped my Mum move house into the village., and she is settling in nicely.

We had a big family reunion - on my mums side and forty of us were here for the weekend, camping, caravaning, camper vans and sleeping in the house. We had a hog roast on Saturday evening, and a big roast, new pots and salads on Sunday. Old acquaintances were renewed and new ones made for the younger members of the family. It was very successful and we hope to repeat the process next year.

My son Daniel has given in his notice in London and will be moving to Paris to live and work, and I hope this works out for him, as life is too short to be working and not enjoying life, and I have always said it's being happy in life which counts the most.

I have a meeting this afternoon regarding secondary school food and farming education which is very exciting, so far I have only been able to access primary school classes but this means we could be helping older children understand how our food and farming systems work and are so important.

I will keep you posted.

by the way the two chickens which we hatched at Treffonnen school, and now live with us have produced their first egg, a full life cycle has been completed that's worth talking about.....

Beautiful Rural Property Long Term Let

2009-07-23T17:11:00.003Z

We have a 4 bedroom house on a long term let. 1 months deposit required and 1 months rent in advance with references. Large detatched 4 bedroom house in beautiful rural location.

Comprises large utility room, large kitchen / dinning room, large entrance hall, porch, large licing room, 3 double bedrooms, and one single bedroom, large bathroom / shower.

Huge gardens with stream running through. Large shed, with electricity, glazing insulation etc. Beautiful views across stunning valley.

Interior heated by calor gas central heating, soid fuel rayburn in dinning room, and wood burner in living room. water supply form own bore hole, and sewage in own tank.

House is fully double glazed and in good repair.

£550 per calendar month available immediatley phone 01597 851614 to arrange viewing.

Shearing Time - Again

2009-06-23T11:42:00.002Z

Yesterday the men spent the entire day from 7.30am until 7pm in the evening shearing, wrapping fleeces and moving sheep around in and out.
The previous day Philip, Len & Colin, had spent 1/2 the day getting the sheep nearer to the shearing shed.

laughingly I had my British Wool Board postcard today to inform me that last years shearing cheque should be in the region of £797. This does not cover half of the cost of shearing yet we have to do it for animal welfare.

So when customers wander how their lamb is so expensive, this is yet another cost that has to be covered.

here's waiting until next year

schhol Visit Tuesday 21st April 2009

2009-04-29T08:40:00.006Z

Always a favourite - just holding a lamb. This is taken for granted by many farmers but children think this is wonderful, to feel them hear them, and to be taking 'care' of them

What could be better than a roly poly down a big hill. Simple fun. (thank goodness they didn't ask me to do it!)

Here in the butchery the children were able to see different cuts of meat and compare them to where they came off the animal.

After arriving at the farm I always allow the children some freedom, running, walking to use up some of the excitement that many of them feel when coming on a trip. this visit we spent an hour in the old oak wood. the only rules being to stay within the confines of the trees, and telling them that it was fine to get muddy or wet now but that is how they would be for the rest of the day. This allows the children to risk asses for themselves and to make their own decisions, two thinking that today's children are rarely allowed to do for themselves and yet is such an important part of growing up. tree climbing, exploring, balancing, playing in a bog, following the stream, exploring the ground, running, whilst the teachers, helpers and i sat and listened, and no electric anywhere!

There is no better way to tell a story than with pictures. Class 5/6 certainly had a brilliant day when they came to visit the farm, some children for their second time. Shown here eating their lunch on a trailer, during a wonderfully sunny day.

It has to be said that the children behaved wonderfully and it was a pleasure to have them, and it has yet again reaffirmed my belief that it is this generation who will champion British farming and the countryside.

Coming to the End of Easter

2009-04-17T05:17:00.003Z

Sitting in the office now at 6.17am it is pouring with rain. But I feel we have to admit we've had a pretty good Easter period. Lambing has gone very well, and with the organic flock entering its second week perhaps the men have a couple of weeks left of late nights. I'm sure Wyn our Shepherd will be pleased as he is running out of cocktail sticks!

The past few days we have begun vaccinating our cattle and sheep against bluetongue, and the lambs against Orf, and then we will begin vaccinating the calves against several nasty diseases they can get when they are released out onto fresh pastures.
These procedures are not as easy as it may initially seem. most of the vaccinations are in doses of 50's. once opened they have to be used within 24 hours. Our cattle and blocks of ewes with lambs vary in numbers, and you need to be a mathematician to work out how to use all the vaccine in one bottle whilst being able to dose cattle ewes and lambs within the same vicinity and without getting too many bunches in...............................

My husband Philip will be pleased today as he will be able to go into the butchers shop and avoid working in the rain. He also has the prospect of completing our IACS form which arrived at the beginning of lambing, I'm sure farmers everywhere are viewing this task with great anticipation! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we opened them up and after all our hours of work correcting them last year we found that amazingly the forms were correct this year?

Stranger things have happened!

Easter is Upon Us

2009-04-07T09:14:00.004Z

Easter is just around the corner, and we've had a pretty good lambing at this stage. We have been lambing on and off since January, and our organic conversion flock is due to start this week. Our heifers have all calved successfully and now the older cows have started, so far we have a greater number of male calves to females but it usually evens out.

The farmers markets continue to be very successful, which is different to the current retail results we hear about on the TV and in the media. I hope that the past years of educating the consumer to the advantage of buying good quality and maybe a little less or a poorer cut has paid off and we are seeing the change in peoples shopping and eating habits.

I have just picked up and paid for our Blue Tongue vaccine. It has cost just short of £1000, with enough to vaccinate all of our sheep and cattle. The Welsh Assembly Government were concerned last year that there was very little take up on the vaccination programme, but then as farmers had had a very bad year in 2007 with lamb prices where do they think that the majority of farmers will get the extra money to pay for yet something else? As with all business' if you haven't got it you can't spend it....... anyway after a partnership meeting ( after lunch on Sunday) we all decided if we were going to do ti it had to be now just after lambing, and as much before our next tupping season as we could make it, or not at all, we also deduced that if blue tongue midges were already in the country after last years outbreaks, then they were going to move across Britain much quicker this year, and as we are not insured against this then the risk was too great.

Reading the farming press on Friday (we receive both the farmers weekly and the farmers guardian) it is difficult to imagine why farmers would want to stay in a business where they are granted so little respect by government officials making decisions about farming business which affects so many rural incomes. Currently there are discussions afoot that farmers should compulsorily contribute towards animal health plans dictated by the government. So for instance TB which costs the taxpayer millions of £'s per year should be contributed towards by us. They are suggesting a levy in the region of £5 per cow and 9p per ewe. We would welcome this if the government then gave the farmer- who would be paying for the outcome of disease running riot, the option to deal with such diseases, i.e. dealing with badgers who spread TB, and taking responsibility for their own laboratories which hold these diseases such as Pirbright, which released the last outbreak of Foot & Mouth into the community, and for which the government will take no compensatory action.

The legal battle has been lost by the NFU into taking the government to court to gain compensation for the losses these farms made, as has the battle to gain farmers in England satisfactory compensation for pedigree cattle that they have been made to slaughter under TB regulations, on a TB test which is only 70% reliable.

I will finish by saying that after reading the Media on Friday and having a rant about why do we bother, by Saturday morning, when the sun was shinning and I was watching Philip feeding the ewes with lambs gambling about the edge of the fields I decided - yes we would carry on what a life we lead and what a wonderful opportunity we have to contributing to the worked, helping feed it's population, continuing to help tend the countryside and environment, and to educate all as to the worthiness of farming.

We wouldn't swop it for anything!

Our Old Dog Moss

2009-03-29T11:01:00.004Z

Farmers always seem to 'collect' dogs, and we certainly have an assortment. This is a picture of our old sheep dog Moss.He is in his 15th year, and I have had him since a puppy. Philip trained him when he was Two and a half and ever since then he has been with Philip a faithful companion. he has had some hard times having ate something poisonous several years ago and having to have a major operation, where he died on the table and they resuscitated him, and more recently, well only four weeks ago having a large growth removed from just behind his right ear. When he had had enough of being a sheepdog,(well he still sometimes liked to potter) he was fortunate enough to retire as a butchers dog! and sat on the doorstep of our butchers shop at Nantleach where Philip worked a lot of the time. After his operation he was demoted to Kitchen dog and spends all of his time again with me. he is totally deaf, but responds well to sign language however this sometimes means running up the road to get in front of him so he can actually see you!

Then there is Pip. Daughter of Moss and born on Philip's birthday hence the name Pip. a totally useless sheepdog. Oh she can do it but she clocks on and off, she will only work if she feels like it.

Lady our rescue Spaniel about 12. Very happy - aren't all Spaniels loves hunting and putting things up but is totally gun shy, much to Philips disappointment. But she is a happy dog her tail wagging all the time, is still frightened of any strangers, but just happy to be with any of us.

Saffy Layton, our lovable hound dog is back from the hunt season. and it's like she never left. She is just like a naughty child. After a visit from a consultant last week he started in his car up the hill, then half way up began to reverse back down. he got out and said to Philip " I think i have something of yours here" and in the back Saffy Layton had jumped in and was sitting in the middle back seat looking around as if to say Ok where are we going, this looks like a good adventure. If he hadn't looked in his rear view mirror she could have gone all the way to Builth Wells with him!

Then there is our new sheep dog Turk 2 1/2 and Philip is now training him seeing as Moss is retired, he very rough around the edge but a big dog and hopefully he will come on to be a good sheep dog.

So a menagerie of dogs but great fun and what makes country life all worth it - apart from the dog food bill at the end of the month!

Conference in Wales

2009-03-29T10:57:00.003Z

I have had a phone call asking me to speak at a conference in Aberystwyth on April 24th. This is a conference aimed at Women in Farming, organised by Farming Connect,and they hope I can be an 'inspirational speaker', also adding that no doubt I will speak off the cuff! ( I don't know what they mean......).
I can only say I will do my best

Kitchen Infirmary!

2009-03-29T10:51:00.002Z

This is Basil, who currently resides in my kitchen. One of a pair of twins, who appeared Ok with his mum and left the lambing sheds after 24 hours. Philip picked him up off the field on Thursday, cold wet and shivering, we didn't think he would make it. His breathing was very laboured, and he was wheezing. However he drank a bottle of milk as soon as he came in so he was a survivor. four days on he is still alive, after some antibiotics his breathing is a lot better, and he can now drink 1/2 pint of made up milk in one go, he is still unable to stand on his own, but he can turn himself over and we hold him up on his legs and he can then almost take his weight hopefully if he continues to gain strength he will be alright.

Finger crossed........

Sir Bryner Jones Award

2009-03-29T10:45:00.002Z

Sorry to say that we did not make it through to representing the county for this award. Our Colleagues Elan Valley Mutton will represent Powys.
The judges thought that their business met more of the criteria, specifically that they were producing and marketing Mutton, which they thought was a more specific commodity and quite new which meant discovering new ways of selling this product.
Well done to Tony and Angela

FACE - Farming and Countryside Education

2009-03-23T11:56:00.002Z

We have been used as a resource on FACE's website.

Go to the home page as directed above, then click on to RESOURCES on the green band across the top, then GO TO FARM PROFILES in the blue box on the left hand side, then on to UK FARM PROFILES in the blue box on the left hand side.

There is lots of information about us and about other farms in the Uk.

Welsh Black Cattle Society Beef Promotions Committee

2009-03-23T11:06:00.003Z

The Welsh Black Cattle Society Beef Promotions Committee will work to promote Welsh Black Beef produced from Pedigree Welsh Black herds. By doing this the general public will be able to buy welsh black beef with confidence knowing that its origin is truly from welsh black cattle.
The background is that many people have contacted the Society with their concerns regarding the selling of beef as Welsh Black beef!
The Society believes that these people are exploiting and undermining the good name and reputation that Welsh Black beef has reached in recent years.
Therefore in response to this matter the Welsh Black Cattle Society has set up a Beef Promotions Committee to address these concerns.
The Committee is made up of Society Council Members that are involved in marketing Welsh Black beef themselves i.e. Box scheme, Farm Shops, Butchers etc. These people are passionate about their product and believe that the system needs strengthening to ensure that what the general public believes is genuine Welsh Black beef is what they are purchasing.
It is to award premises such as farm shops, butchers, hotels, restaurants, box schemes etc that sell 100% Pedigree Welsh Black Beef from accredited Pedigree herds.
We feel this is a step in the right direction to weed out unscrupulous businesses that exploit our good name.
Premises who sell 100% Welsh Black beef will receive certificates to register their business. The Society would appreciate enquiries from businesses who abide by these criteria who sell 100% Welsh Black Beef produced from pedigree Welsh Black Cattle.
For further information please contact Dafydd James on 01982 551111

Dolithon Meats is pleased to announce we have been awarded with the very prestigious certificate which means that we sell 100% pure pedigree Welsh Black Beef.

Brilliant!

Sir Bryner Jones

2009-03-23T10:44:00.003Z

We are having a visit today form two of the committee form the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show to see if they will put us forward for Powys for the Sir Bryner Jones Award 2009. We are in selection process along with our farmers market colleagues Elan Valley Mutton Company, who produce mutton organically in the hills surrounding the Elan Valley in Rhayader (www.elanvalleymutton.co.uk)
This year the award will be for the farm which has diversified into selling their produce direct to the end consumer.
Fingers Crossed..............

Future of Farming Week - 16th - 21st March

2009-03-23T10:26:00.004Z

I went into Treffonen Primary school on Monday 2nd of March with an incubator in which we put 12 eggs, Black Rock x's which should hatch out on Monday 23rd.

The children were really eggs-ited! they got into groups of three and each group adopted an egg. they made a chart so everyone had a turn at turning the eggs three times a day until day 18 when they should be left alone.

This morning at 8.45am there were signs of one chick hatching out so i am now like an expectant parent waiting for a phone call.

The whole school has been talking about the eggs which will hatch into chicks, children, teachers, parents, NTA's there has been a real buzz. It really is so easy to take a little of your farming experience into the classroom, or get them out onto your farm, they care about their future which is in our hands - so feed the children with information - they love it.

Christmas Is Nearly Here

2008-12-15T12:39:00.002Z

I suppose we had to succumb to something soon, Myself and all three children are at home today with colds. It's a toss up as to who is the worst, i think it may be Jess, then me, Hannah and James. Phillip, who has just stated his busiest week in the butchers shop is still Ok and keeping his distance!, however true to form he will go down with everything next week went he adrenaline finishes and he's left flat.

One night last week at about 9.30pm I had a phone call from a gentleman who wanted to order some meat for the Oswestry Market. He'd had some last year and it was brilliant and he wanted the same again this year. I explains that we had given up doing Oswestry Market nearly 12 months ago. He was amazed, "Oh why did you do that your meat is so good". Perhaps if I hadn't been half asleep, or that I don't want to seem churlish I may have put him right by saying - well it doesn't pay the bills customers just coming once a year at Christmas for their meat we need sales all year around to be able to attend farmers market.

One customer this week left a curt message on the phone to cancel his order it was no way to run a business. He had placed an order on the Internet I had been ill so not in the office for some time, so we were unaware. he had phoned Philip, Philip had told him i would phone him in the morning, as soon as I got back from taking all three children to school, on the morning that the roads were covered with black ice so i was back at 10.30 ish instead of 9.30, I phoned him and left a message, then played back my messages to find his message already left cancelling his order. I phoned again apologised and explained what had happened, when i switched my e-mail on there was another message from him, which I answered in more detail explaining how the complications had arisen, to date I have heard nothing from him.

On the brighter note a customer phoned this week and asked for a sirloin joint, chatted about where the beef came from what we did, how it was raised and butchered and it was a pleasure to do business with him.

I think what it is important to get across is that we are not Tesco's or Safeway's or Aldi. If one of us is ill we do not have back up and jobs have to be prioritised, when placing orders with us its not a supermarket or big business you are placing orders with but a small family business who are doing the best they can, and satisfying 99% of all the people we deal with.

I am sorry to those few ( only 2) who feel we are not up to scratch.

Challenge of Rural Leadership Course 2008

2008-12-09T11:19:00.004Z

A photo of the course students on the last evening. 18 of the finest agricultural brains ( or so we like to think!!!!)

I have yet to look at the DVD which I have just received from the Duchy College which shows our media interviews, perhaps this is a cop out on my behalf, but it will certainly remind me of all the friends I made during the two weeks.

Going from right to left there is Matthew, Me, (front to back), Nick, Mathias, Anthony ( The Colonel) Tom, Oliver, DJ (David) Andrew, Mike, Clive, Julie, David, Dale, Tom, Dr Phil, Thammi and Paul.

Hope you're all still looking on from the Balcony...........

Worshipful Company of Farmers

2008-11-28T13:31:00.003Z

As always when Ii find something out about anything to do with agriculture I want to let you all know about it.

I had never even heard of this worshipful company, nor any of the other liveried companies in London and it's quite interesting.

THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF FARMERS grew out of the Company of Agriculturalists (subsequently altered to the “Company of Farmers”) of the City of London which had been established on 23rd September 1946. In December 1946 Lord Courthope, a Past Prime Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company, accepted an invitation to become Master of the new Company.
The initiative came from the the Chairman's Committee of the British Red Cross Agricultural Fund which had been set up during the Second World War and was known as the Duke of Gloucester's Red Cross and St John of Jerusalem Appeal Organisation. The purpose was to raise funds for the war effort. The whole of agriculture and ancillary trades were united by this appeal and over £8.5million had been raised when the Fund closed in 1946.
In February 1951, a Petition was presented to the Court of Alderman and on 22nd January 1952, the Court granted the Prayer of the Petition. The Company's Grant of Livery was fianlly approved on 10th June 1952 and formally presented to the Master by the Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House on 31st October 1952. A Grant of Charter of Incorporation was formally made by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 29th July 1955.
The annual installation of the Master is held at the conclusion of the Company's Harvest Festival Service in October each year.

Challenge of Rural Leadership Course

2008-11-28T13:11:00.003Z

Unbelievably it will be two weeks tomorrow since I returned from my course in Devon. The farm is still here, the children still alive, and Philip, although ill for several days after I returned, has sustained very few life threatening ailments, meaning that it is alright for me to go away for two weeks on a regular basis.............!

It has been very hard, now I'm back, not to have come in like a bull in a china shop and tell everyone that we are all doing it wrong - after all we are fairly successful in what we have achieved so far, so softly softly.

The two weeks were wonderful and I would recommend that any one who is interested in going forward within the rural workplace should apply for a place on the course. Applications are taking place now and can be found at www.cornwall.ac.uk. The course fees may be subsidised in some way by the Worshipful Company of farmers, again all the information can be found at the website quoted previously.

The course is very hands on, and ours consisted of candidates from South Africa, Australia, Chech Republic, Scotland, Wales (Me) and England. There were people from many occupations, NFU Policy Makers, Solicitors, Land Agents, Agricultural Bank Managers, Tenant Farmers, Arable Farmers, Dairy Farmers, Organic Farmers, and Rural Lecturers. We took part in lectures from Jane king - Farmers Weekly, Prof. Keith Grint - leadership Expert, prof Fuller - gene technology. John Stones - Nuffield Scholarships, International farming, Organic Perspective form HRH Farms, Neil Parish- EU Agriculture, Col.Bryan Watters - Military Leadership, Media Relations, communication workshops and much more, finishing in a presentation dinner at the end of the course.

I would be happy to talk to anyone interested int eh course who may like to apply so for a personal overview give me a ring on 01597 851614 - well worth the two weeks away!!!!!!

Coleg Powys Pay Us A Visit

2008-11-28T13:00:00.002Z

A Beautiful crisp, frosty and icy morning.

Coleg Powys year three agricultural students have just paid us a visit, they are doing their unit on diversification.
This is now the fourth year that they and their tutor Nigel Barrat have been using us as a role model for a Farm diversification.

We started off in the cattle shed talking about how and when we started, and how we have much more control over our business as it is not totally dependent on live stock auction prices or abattoir prices, and how we have to be able to adjust our business to accommodate ever changing events, such as lamb prices up or down etc.

We then go to the butchers shop where Philip explains how we add value to Lambs and Cattle. This is the area which amazes them the most. Like many farmers they probably take their stock direct to abattoir or to livestock markets and the price they get for them dose not comp[are to the retail price. although I have to say that this year the lamb price has held up much better, possibly due to a smaller amount of lamb being available as more and more farmers leave the business every day.

Finally, after a coffee, we have a brief visit to my office, which amazingly for some of them is not a biscuit tin on the kitchen table but a nerve centre of the business (or so i like to think!).

After my recent course I hope I have inspired them as to how important it is to step back and have a good look at what you are doing take time to leave the dance floor and view everything from the balcony - go on give it a try........

Cawl Workshop at Treffonen School

2008-10-23T11:23:00.004Z

I went into class 4 on Tuesday 24th September as part of our

British Food Fortnight celebrations.

This is a little late in being posted, but I did promise the children that I would, I have just received a disc of the photo's taken by the teacher, Mr Williams, during the workshop, and they are fantastic. You can see from just these three images that the children are engrossed with their cookery 100%.

I had precooked a boned and rolled shoulder of lamb having shopped it into small pieces prior to putting it into a pan of water. The children then peeled and chopped parsnips, leeks, potatoes, carrots and swedes to add to the bubbling pot, whilst we went on to talk about our farm where the lamb came from and all the different cuts of Welsh Lamb that you can get and how you can cook them.

The finale of the workshop is of course where the children get to eat the Cawl that they have made, they all lined up like Oliver twists soup kitchen and true to form there was a few who came back and said "Please can I have some more"?

Anouther School Visit

2008-10-22T18:54:00.002Z

Today we have hosted a visit from Knighton primary school, years 5/6, and we had a really smashing day. the weather held out for us, actual sun shine for some of the time, and only a light shower when we were in the sheep shed in the wood, describing what it would be like during lambing time.
They arrived at 10am and left at 2pm and we never stopped and they thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, even when two of them fell bottoms up in the mud going down a slippery field. (you both know who you are!!!)

We started off with a tour of the farm yard, including the various sheds we have, the machinery which is housed in them, and what it is like through winter with stock in them. We then visited the three orphan calves including Nemo (see an earlier blog), the children were all able to come into the pen, accompanied by me and stroke and feel Nemo, probably the closest they have ever been, or may well ever be to a calf of this size. they also saw the two little bulls (18 months old).

Two groups had turns in the butchers shop, watching sausage making demonstration, and looking at cuts of Welsh Lamb. they were most interested in the kidneys which were still intact in a full lamb carcass. They ate their dinner during this time sat on straw bales in the shed.

Two trailer rides took them to the top of the hill ready for our walk to Caergynant, our new farm in organic conversion. we had a mile and a half walk to get to the farm buildings over there, which most of the children were not looking forward to. however they relished walking through the mud over the stream, and racing up a steep hill over the quarry, through yet more mud and into the buildings , where Wyn, our Shepherd, was tailing ewes ready to go to the tup.

Minx, his terrier stole the moment, lying on her back for 29 children to pet her, I'm sure she would have stayed there all day if we'd had the time.

A walk down past Malcolm's garage to meet the bus which appeared on time, the perfect ending to the perfect day.

I have arranged to go over and do a welsh lamb Cawl workshop with them after I return from my course in mid November, and i am really looking forward to it.

it was lovely to spend time with such well behaved children and to share our world with them, i hope they are now much better informed as to what goes on on our farms in order to get food to the general public,and also of the costs ad work involved in doing so.

They have taken loads of photo's ad I hope to publish some of these when I receive them.

thanks knighton

National Welly Week ( 11 - 18th October 2008)

2008-09-10T14:30:00.003Z

An organisation which could be close to all of our hearts. the RABI dos not just support farmers but people in the farming community and that could be any one of us locals in years to come. We don't see much about these organisations but they are there with financial help when people really need them and usually able to make decisions very quickly and effectively, with many cases handled by sensitive volunteers

RABI helps people in the farming community who are suffering from illness, bereavement or crisis in their lives. For example, during the flood and FMD movement restrictions of 2007 we helped hundreds of working farmers and farming families in addition to our long-term beneficiaries.

Give it some welly!
Have fun and show your support for the farming community
What is welly week?
Welly Week is an exciting fundraising campaign for farming’s national charity, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution.
Welly Week asks you to take part in any activity involving wearing wellies between Saturday 11th–Saturday 18th October 2008.
By using this opportunity to raise funds you are supporting people from the farming community who are experiencing hardship or distress through no fault of their own.
RABI NATIONAL WELLY WEEK -Get Involved!
Saturday 11th–Saturday 18th October 2008

We were helped as a family during the 2001 Foot & Mouth Crisis and now I feel I can help give something back, so I have decided to wear my wellies for a week and ask for sponsorship, I hope many more of you will be able to do something and have fun in your wellies, I will of course be approaching our local schools to organise some events.

End of the Summer Holidays

2008-09-10T13:41:00.002Z

Back into the office.......... it's a little bit like riding a bike, you don't forget, but it's hard work to get used to the routine again!

As I still have relatively young children, I tend to take what I laughingly refer to as a break through the summer period, when the children are off school. It always amazes me how I class myself as irreplaceable, but the business still manages to tick over (well I write the cheques out twice in that period, and obviously bank the money!) So I am now at the stage of easing myself back into it.
I have also not been very well for the past few months, the past two where I have known I am not well, previously just not felling well, but with no diagnosis I have carried on wandering why i have no energy, am tired and loosing weight, ... yes i know I am a farmer and these ailments go with the territory but there is a limit - and I reached it - so after a nice break here I am again.

Well I'll give you a quick overview of the summer we have had here in Wales on the farm........... Wet.
Yes it's all there in one word, and it's been the same for most farmers over Britain. Our cattle are discontentedly mooing all around the farm, they think it's time to come in, and time for us to be dropping a few straw bales on their fields so they can fill up on good dry stuff. However up until yesterday. we did not know if our supplier could provide us with the amount of straw which we would usually have and so we have been holding back on distributing what is left from last year, last night a relief phone call informed us that our supplier has our straw stacked in his shed- slightly discoloured, (which we assured him didn't matter), but ready for delivery. So our nightmares about how do we lamb with no straw, what will the cattle eat out now, how will we cope with our cattle in and no straw for bedding, how many cattle will we therefore have to sell - and so on and so on, anyway everything is now sorted!...........

Our organic conversion at Caergynant is going well, our harvest was as good as any ones was this year, apparently it will be next years which will tell. At the Royal Welsh Show, which by the way, was superb, I visited the 'Basic Slag' stand and in due course the bags for me to take soil samples in, arrived. (although it has been so wet ever since I received them that I have been unable to get said soil sample) Apparently it is best to apply basic slag to the fields in dry conditions and I feel that the appropriate time has not yet arrived.
All of our ewes are looking good, we have all of our Buleah Speckleds at Caergynant,- that way it's easier for the men to remember which is organic which is not!

We have put into place a Farm Health Plan aided by Liz from the local vets, we have decided to take our flocks in hand, and eradicate foot rot, so there has been months of extensive foot bathing, segregation, monitoring, marking, and culling, all of which we hope will pay dividends, especially when it comes to lambing in the spring. we have decided not to vaccinate against blue tongue, which is now available in our area, mainly due to the inadequate information there is a bout the long term effects of a vaccine which has not been tested over a nominal space of time. Amongst farmers and farming press their are accounts of high abortion rates in cattle and vets are advising not to give to ewes prior to tupping, or after tupping, and as it is a voluntary vaccination there will be no compensation if the effects of the vaccine are adverse. Another strain of blue tongue is sweeping across Europe currently and as the present vaccine doesn't cover this, will we need 2 vaccines next year? and at 56p per dose so £1.12 just to cover against blue tongue the sheep industry just can't afford the additional input costs, already suffering from minus profit margins.

The farmers Markets took a downturn in the early part of the summer, probably due more to the credit crunch scare mongering by the public press than to anything else, and has started to pick up again now.

Philip has a place on the All Wales steering group for farmers markets, and I am looking forward to taking part in the Challenge of rural leadership course in November.

As ever there is a huge list of things to do in front of us, looking for alternative accommodation for a farm shop, selling one of our properties Windy Ridge in Penybont, Arranging events for British Food Fortnight, Arranging an event for Wellie Week (see further blogs) helping the church with it's harvest festival supper, having our extension built (we hope!) setting up a community enterprise company to enable more school visits and accommodate them more effectively and help with transport costs, and repairing damage to one of our properties which the excessive rain has caused...........- Oh yes it's good to be back in the driving seat!

National Insect Week -23rd - 29th June 2008

2008-06-20T13:34:00.004Z

Never one to let an opportunity go to get children out onto the farm, up pops the first National Insect Week.

On Monday 23rd, I have The Nursery/Reception Class and Class 1 from Crossgates CP School, coming to the farm for the day. (approx 35 children), then on Monday 30th (we're only a day out!) I have class 2 coming out for the day. arriving at 10.00am both classes will have the opportunity to seek and find out about the different insects that can be found in different habitats;

A wild meadow lane

A cattle shed

A Pine wood

A river

A pond

We are providing them with a bar b q style lunch, drink and ice cream, which we hope made it more affordable for the parents to afford the £1 transport each child has to find to get a bus to deliver them just 4 miles up the road.

The cost of transport is the major factor in being able to get children out onto farms and with increasing cut backs and other drains on schools incomes, very often trips have to be funded by PTA's or parents.

Keeping our fingers crossed that the weather isn't too bad, although the weather forecast seems to be allowing fro showers, still it may change...

I'll let you know how it all goes.

Hooray ....We've Gone Clear of TB!

2008-06-14T05:46:00.002Z

Thursday's testing showed a clear result on all of our cattle to TB, including the bull, who last time showed as inconclusive.

We were able to put all the animals back out to pasture on Thursday afternoon, knowing we wouldn't have to test again for 6 months, by which time many will be housed again for the winter, which will make testing much more logistical than chasing 17 young heifers and bullocks around and round the fields in blistering heat.......

Several of our neighbours, who also went down with Tb for the first time, at the same time we did, have also gone clear. Which leads tot he question where did it come from?

We operate what is known as a closed herd. We breed our own replacement cows, and only buy in bulls once every 4 -5 years. When a bull, or indeed if any other animal was purchased into the herd it would undergo a pre-Tb movement test, so technically your Tb status should be preserved. Our cattle have tested negative to TB for years before our breakdown in Autumn this year, ........so where did it come from???????????

TB Testing again today

2008-06-09T11:01:00.002Z

With temperatures set to hit max. 26degrees today, I am sitting in the cool of my office catching up and remembering running around in the heat of the late afternoon yesterday getting the cattle in for TB testing.
Tb testing although a pain is much more easily structured in the housing months as obviously the cattle are, in the majority, mostly already in doors. It is just a matter of running them into a cattle crush, and then back into the shed again.
During the summer months they are all out on their grazing ground, so we have to get them into sheds the previous day ready to test them all and then get them all back in four days later to read the test.
Philip, Len & Colin were out yesterday after lunch sorting out the cattle sheds, moving gates etc and then they would begin to get the animals in. Then Philip hobbled in,( with Len & Colin in tow obviously looking for some tea!) he had been lifting and pushing the cattle crush and had felt something go twang in his calf muscle followed by tremendous pain. A couple of hours later, a trip to Llandrindod to the Docs, a torn muscle confirmed, rest, ice and feet up advised (as I had already suggested .... oh I am so wise!), and Philip is now sitting watching cricket moaning that he is bored, whilst Wyn, Len & Colin see to the TB test.
We can only keep our fingers crossed that we go clear this time. 6 weeks ago one of the Bulls read inconclusive, so hopefully this time we will be in the clear, because as he came from a TB free herd, and was tested free of TB pre-movement onto our farm, there is little chance of him having TB.

Will keep you up to date with the results.

And One Becomes Three

2008-05-07T13:48:00.003Z

Our orphan 'Nemo' has two friends with him now.

Nemo is the largest one closest to us, his mum, Lisa, went down after calving him, never got up and despite homeopathic treatment and conventional treatment by the vet she died just five days after having him.

The middle calf is one of twin calves. Her mum had twins last year, but didn't seem to do the two of them as well as she should have, so we have taken one of them off her this year and hopefully this one will do much better having calf milk and calf pellets than she would if we had left her on her mum with her butty. This calf will not go for breeding but will be raised for meat. Twin calves do not breed, there is something that alters in their genetic make up, which will be sad as we will get to know her very well as we are feeding her three times a day and the children get in and play with her etc.

'Oscar' is the calf lying the furthest away against the corner of the wall, his mum was quite old and several weeks after having him she got down and was finding it really difficult to get up, and was staying down for longer and longer. the vet decided she was very arthritic and rheumatic and so we had to have her put down, otherwise when she went out into the fields she may well have got stuck somewhere and died in a tragic way because she was too old to cope with normal cow life.

They will now feed from an automatic feeder which is like a long bucket with three boobs on it, this is where the calves can all suck at the same time. previously we were feeding them out of a bottle with a teat on. Well you could feed two at a time, but the third one kept trying to suck at anything ti could, ears, clothes, feet etc and then when you fed the third one the other two would be sucking away at you.........

It won't be long until they can go outside for the first time into the fresh air. I bet they'll run and jump around together.

Bayer / FACE Farm to Classroom Awards 2008

2008-05-07T13:42:00.004Z

I am so excited because we have got through to the next round the farm to Classroom awards for our work educating children on the farm and in the classroom.

The Bayer Crop Science & Farming and Countryside Education Awards were started in 2007, to coincide with the launch of the Year of Food and Farming. These awards were set up to reward those that have been pro-active in the field of education. Our categories are; Access, Biodiversity, Promotion of Countryside Careers, Farm to Classroom and Innovative Learning.The Bayer/FACE awards have already become known in the industry as a celebration of the very best in farming education.
The awards this year, are again open to CEVAS accredited farmers, nominated by the FACE Regional Co-ordinators but new to this year, we have also invited our Four Seasons Farmers to take part and given farms and Centres the opportunity to self-nominate, so this year we can look forward to even more entries!

Farm to the Classroom Award
Criteria:- For a farm making a valuable contribution to school life away from the farmyard,
whether it be covering curriculum activities, setting up a school farmers' market or helping with
growing activities, as not all farms are conducive to hosting educational visits, the emphasis is
on bringing expertise to the school.

Fingers crossed! ( I keep my fingers crossed that often its a wonder they do any work at all!!!)

We Are Hosting a LEAF Open Farm Sunday Workshop

2008-05-07T13:14:00.002Z

We are getting ready to host our open farm Sunday Workshop tomorrow, so the most important thing is getting the cakes and teas ready!

One large spongecake and two bara briths down just Welsh Cakes, and chocolate brownies to go.

My husband will be helping me put together a health & safety crime scene this evening, similar tot he one in the picture which we visited on our Speak Out course recently. (The farmers amongst you will indeed grimace - is it very similar to your own farmyard?)

We will be expecting between 10 -15 people who hope to get involved in open farm Sunday on the 1st of June this year, LEAF, the organisation who co-ordinate the event will be helping us get to know how to deal with the general public, how to avoid jargon,(we farmers do so like all of our farming terms) and how most people will just love to have the chance to look around a working farm.

I hope it goes well because I really badgered Roly to have a workshop in mid Wales, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well. it really is an opportunity for us to sing out our achievements and show everyone why farming really matters.......................

Off To Llangranog

2008-04-23T05:00:00.004Z

It's 6.00am and I'm up drinking my Ginger Tea and putting together the last of my pile because I 'm off to Llangranog with my son's school, Trefonen, today.
It was the most beautiful day yesterday, the sun was shinning, it was warm, the grass grew in front of my eyes!, I spent all day outside (apart from the obligatory shopping, and a few phone calls from the office). I cleaned and hoovered the car (well overdue) I planted some corn and some beans and flowers in the little green house, I began to clean out the large green house. When the children came home James cleaned out the hen house and then went shooting, Jessie cleaned out the Guinea pigs, and Hannah cleaned out the stable and then went riding, they didn't even want tea until 6pm - what a difference some nice weather can make.
So today I've woken up, been awake since 3am actually, have come downstairs, let the cats in- they are terrific mousers now, and looked outside and it's raining!!!!!!!!, so Llangranog is a wet start.

What and where is Llangranog well.........
Llangrannog Urdd Centre was founded in 1932 as the Urdd’s first permanent residential camp. The land was given by a gentleman named J M Howell, and as appreciation for his generous gift, the first building on the site, a wooden cabin food hall, was named after his Mansion - Plas Penhelyg. Penhelyg acted as the focal point, and became the heart of the Centre, Four weeks of summer camp was held during that hot summer for 150 people. One gentleman that attended the camp during the summer of 1932 has written an account in a local newspaper in Cardiff. During the 30s the Centre grew from strength to strength, with Social Services, Council and the Jubilee Trust grants in 1936 providing assistance to develop further the facilities in the form of more cabins.In 1938 the first mixed summer camp was held, where previously two separate camps were held. Also during that summer, a summer camp for adults was held as a change for them to relive a little of their youth on the Ceredigion coastline.In 1939 with the aid of The National Fitness Council a gym was built, which opened the gates for Llangrannog Urdd Centre to develop educational courses for children and schools. This was the start of combining educational courses and outdoor activityDespite the war a summer camp was held in 1940 with many restrictions, one of which saw no tents being erected.The summer camps were cancelled for the next few years until a campaign in 1944 to re-open the summer camps gathered force. Below is a complaint that was posted in the editorial of the Aelwyd that year:"The loss of a year's summer camp isn't only a loss of holidays, but the loss of a part of life, an experience that does more than any other to prepare young people for being leaders and complete citizens in later life."In that year over a 1000 campers were welcomed of all ages, including many from the ‘Young Wales Clubs’, non-Welsh speakers, that spent two weeks at the Centre.

Check out the website at http://www.urdd.org/ but I am certainly looking forward to having a go at Skiing speak to you again soon.

Trefonen Have an Educational Visit

2008-04-17T13:41:00.006Z

Ysgol Trefonen visited the lambing sheds on Tuesday this week. They arrived in the morning and had a brisk walk down the hill to Nantleach, whilst i pointed out on the way the damage the badgers were doing to the roadside and how they could all be countryside detectives if you keep alert and look at everything that is going on around you.

After arriving at the Lambing sheds they helped to water and feed hay to all the ewes in the shed. they bottle fed some of the tiddling lambs (Lambs with no mums) and also gave Nemo his first feed of the day. He was very pleased to share his pen with four children at a time who scratched his head and legs for him, and he just loved trying to suck on someones wellies or coat!

Some of the children would have sat the whole time and just cuddled a lamb, I'm sure - what all of we farmers take for granted is a little bit of heaven for many children and older people.......

It was a good opportunity , in my opinion, for the children to see a dead lamb. They had the opportunity to see that there is nothing to be feared in seeing death, and that the body of a dead lamb looks the same as a body of a live lamb but is cold. All stepped back when I said of here's a lamb which has died in the night, but when I said it was alright to touch him and feel him they all stepped forward and soon everyone had come running down from the first shed to share in the knowledge of the dead.

They saw the Cattle and Calves in the sheds, and also one of our bulls, they met Saffy, our hound dog who is back for the summer, and had the opportunity to play on some large stacked bales of straw. they had a wonderful time, and I actually had to throw the teachers out as it was well over the time when they should have left and they were still looking on at lambing pens.

They were fortunate to see a lamb being born,(with a little help from farmer Len) and they named him Trefonen. he will be going out side today with his mum we have marked him with a T so we can keep them informed of his growth and maybe they can see him again next time they come to visit us on the farm.

I have to say the next day a parcelforce man came to deliver a parcel to us and said he believed we had had a school visit yesterday, apparently he had a niece who had come out, she was full of it last night he said couldn't stop talking about it, but mainly she was most talkative about the dead lamb!!!!!!!

TB Test Results Are Much More Hopefull

2008-04-11T14:35:00.003Z

Just a quickie before i go and fetch Jessica from off the School Bus.......
We read our TB test today from the first day of testing on Tuesday. Wonderfully the only 'INCONCLUSIVE' result is for our youngest newest Bull. We have been advised to keep him isolated from all the other cattle until the next test which will be in 6 weeks time.

the reason this is wonderful is that all of our cows, most of whom have now calved will not have to go away to slaughter and therefore neither will any of their calves, which makes it a lot easier for us, as we do not have to make the decision to send the calves for killing, or to to try and keep them, knowing they would probably suffer as they would not take easily to being bottle fed, so for another 6 weeks we have a reprieve.

On a much more hopeful note as well, just before we started to read the TB test one cow gave birth to twins...... let hope the bad luck is all behind us - fingers crossed.
I

What A Sad Week

2008-04-09T19:05:00.004Z

You haven't heard much from me over the past few weeks, as many of you will know, if you've been able to catch up with me at one of the farmers markets, or meet me at school, or have a quick chat on the phone, we are in our main lambing season.

This means all hands to the pump......... crotchety men, tired staff, and lots of heartache.

The first really cold Saturday we lost several lambs out on the fields who had yearling mothers (first time mothers - not always the best as they don't always know what to do for the best). One lamb, which the children had called Saddleback, died as did his butty - brother on the night just froze out on the filed as their mum had stuck them in the coldest windiest place she could find.

Then last Thursday my cow, Lisa, started to calve, but had problems and finally the three men had to go over with the calf pullers and get the calf out, they feared it would be dead, it's tongue was sticking out and as hard as a bullet, but amazingly it was still alive and came around fairly quickly. Unfortunately Lisa was not so lucky, she could not get up, eventually they gave the calf some artificial collostrum, and milk, the vet sent some anti-inflamatories and painkillers, and I treated her with homeopathic remedies - rescue remedy, arnica and hypericum. On Monday she still had not got up, we had rolled her over several times, and she was still eating and drinking. we had to find a hoist to borrow from somewhere and the vet helped us to source one. Monday evening they attached the hoist to the JCB and managed to get her up for a few minutes. they took the calf away on Monday evening to put him under the infra red light as it was supposed to be a freezing night and he was beginning to show signs of a naval infection for which we had to get antibiotics.
The next morning I was taking my motley crew of dogs for their 6am morning walk and I found her dead in the building, I cried all the way back home, what a terrible way for her to die, and she hadn't even once fed her calf.
Nemo as the children named him, (photo above with Louise feeding him) had gone through a sticky patch during the night, but I think that the infra red light had got him through, and he was still alive - but not yet over the worse. I thought today I could here a rasping on his lungs, and he was very listless so we took him into he vets. Where she suspected bronchitis on his left lung, he had a temperature of 105 degrees. So it was a jab of antibiotics, a pain killer, and a dose of selenium - poor babs, he too has had homeopathic remedies including aconite for his breathing, and to boost his immune system and rescue remedy.

Lets hope he makes it - fingers crossed.

Organic at Caergynant

2008-03-26T08:59:00.004Z

We have decided to have a go at Organic Farming at one of our farms, Caergynant.

There are several reasons for this....

The price of fertiliser has almost doubled during the last twelve months. As you may or not know, sheep farmers have not been making a profit on their sheep from traditional farming practices over the past 10 years or so, and to carry on with the same methods without looking at your outputs is madness, especially with core costs such as food, oil, etc ever rising, it is the recipe for even grater losses which most farms can not sustain in the long run. (or even the short run!)

Our farming system is not far from Organic presently. This means little changes to our present systems. (Our fertiliser usage per acre was very low originally, and our stocking rates were not high.)

We retail our end product ourselves, and have hopes of the farm shop, which we are opening in partnership with Kath & Gareth Griffiths, will be able to take in some of our end organic product. We have also already invested in an on line shop via our website so we can carry organic lamb to serve our Internet customers demands, with no extra outlay.

The local abattoir which we use is already registered to slaughter organic stock.

The Welsh assembly government is offering significant financial input to help us convert.

I now just have to get through all the paperwork which goes with non-simitaneous conversion (have to get used to using all the jargon - just what LEAF tell us not to do..........)

LEAF 'Speak Out' Course

2008-02-25T18:43:00.005Z

Here we are in Leics at the LEAF 'Speak Out' Course, to which I was kindly invited.

I have to say it was a most enjoyable course and I would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to participate in one.

Two days, with 12 farmers, all from different backgrounds, all with different skills, and from different farms, all with a common cause - to tell the story of farming, to serenade the industry, and to sing the praises of farmers and what they do..... bring food to the Nations plate.

Here we have Hugh (affectionately known to us as 'Vegetable man') telling us all about his parsnips, which Anthony is holding (affectionately known to us as 'the Gentleman Farmer'), In the background we have Roly from LEAF, and Fay, who's farm won the prettiest Farm title.

This was the part in the day which we had all taken in a 'prop' to tell a story of our own farms. Hugh was telling us that the parsnips he had brought would not be up to scratch for the supermarkets and that they had a huge pile on his farm which would go to animal feed and this was one of the reasons why food is getting more and more expensive because there is such a lot of it wasted.

I certainly valued my time in the course and the knowledge of the other students around me. I hope I can now put some of the brilliant notions I have come away with into practice, I would recommend this course to any one who wants to get our food, farming, environment message over to the general public.

see http://www.leafuk.org/ for further details on LEAF's work

has

Speak Out Course

2008-02-19T10:46:00.005Z

A snap of some of our wonderful Welsh Black Cattle enjoying their rolled barley

It's a beautiful, no glorious, spring day. I have just walked Turk, our trainee sheep dog, up the road, our Spaniel, Lady, accompanied us, going at 100 miles an hour, as Spaniels do, with her tail wagging all the time. Turk will just about walk steadily now on a short lead, which is good because with all this icy weather I have to be careful he dosen't pull me over. it was a difficult manoever at the cattle grid when he decided today, for the first time, to try to walk down the side, so I followed gingerly balancing, and he decided to jump the last half-...... so off I went as well!

I am having a lift to Dolau station at 11.30 to catch the train, ( mindfull of my carbon footprints!)first to Shrewsbury then to Birmingham then to Oakham in Leics, near Melton Mowbray, as tomorrow I am attending the first of a two day Speak Out Course organised and funded by LEAF.
I am staying at the Stilton Cheese Pub, which apparently is renowned for it's food, - so looking forward to that.
I have been told to take along a prop which will be relevant to my farm for a farm walk, ?.................... and to take some newspaper cutttings, not from the farming press, which are relevent to environment or farming so I am going armed with all these things, a large suitcase, containg boots for a farm walk, my handbag full of essential things for a train journey, reading book, newspaper, mobile phone, oh and two bars of Thortons Cakes, new at the garage this morning - well I have to keep abreast of food markets, - don't I?

Is Spring Here?

2008-02-17T10:01:00.003Z

A little ray of sunshine and I 'm off around my garden to see what is emerging. Isn't it lovely to have a week of sunshine after the months of dark days and rain?

At the back of my garden, by the tump, overlooking our well field, I found a clump of lovely snowdrops looking beautiful in their natural surroundings. It made me think of Philp's Mum, June, who died in October. Snowdrops were her favourite flower, and this time of year when we took her on any trip she would point out every clump of snowdrops between home and the destination, and on the return journey, she would say how lovely each clump looked. She knew where every clump between here and Hereford was, and between here and knighton!

What they say is right, when you see the snowdrops peeping out you know spring is just around the corner.................................

What A Sad Day - We Have Got TB in Our Herd

2008-02-08T11:56:00.001Z

We have been reading the TB test reults today, and when I phoned Philip at 11.00am they were moving from Nantleach to Brynllefrith with some very bad and sad news. Three of our younger cows have reacted positively to the Tb test meaning they will have to be culled.

All three are in calf, and expecting within the next few weeks. We are hoping that they will be able to stay in isolation on the farm so that they can have their calves before the cows are taken off to be culled. We will then have to raise the calves on the bucket / bottle.

It would appear that the bullock whom has already been culled who reacted at the last test probably picked it up at Nantleach, where we have never had Tb before.

I am now researching to find our all we can about TB and to see what we can do to eradicate it at this stage. I think it may well be that we can get together with neighbours because we should all be working together on common ground if we are to do this.

I have put together some snippets so that you can see what a huge problem this disease is for the farming industry.

Why is it important to keep wildlife away from cattle feed?
Evidence suggests that transmission between badgers and cattle is possible through cattle investigating and/or eating contaminated feed or fodder (indirect transmission).
Research has found that badgers regularly visit farm buildings to feed. Evidence of this was found in research by the Central Science Laboratory and can be seen in video clips accessible on the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) website. This is particularly true during dry, warm periods when the ground is hard and one of their preferred food sources (earthworms) is more difficult to find. Unprotected food sources may be contaminated by foraging badgers if they are carrying TB. There is a particular risk from badgers if they are in the advanced stages of TB since they shed bacteria and are more likely to look for easily accessible food and shelter. Source (defra)

Fourteen leading agricultural and veterinary organisations met earlier this month and agreed a controversial strategy to start killing the animals.
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The extermination will cover a vast area of the West Country, with the first cull expected to take place this summer. Organisers hope the cull can then be repeated for the next three years.
The proposed area covers Britain's best-known badgers, on the Fishleigh Estate near Okehampton, Devon, who have been watched by millions on BBC2's Springwatch series.
The Government has yet to decide whether to formally permit a cull, but Lord Rooker, the farming and animal health minister, admits that it has "no justification" to reject it.
Scientists claim badgers act as a reservoir for TB, contracting it from cattle and then reinfecting them.
Both bovine TB and the badger population are on the increase - confirmed infections have risen from 125 in 1994 to about 2,000 last year.
No one knows how many badgers there are, but some suggest the figure may now stand at 400,000 in the UK, double the 1990 estimate.
However, any attempts to cull badgers are likely to be met with fierce public opposition.
An official consultation last year attracted 47,000 responses, three times as many as a similar one on fox-hunting, with more than 95 per cent against the slaughter.
Earlier this year a report by Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, concluded killing badgers would help reduce the spread of TB in cattle.
In the report sent to ministers, Sir David called for a badger cull to be carried out by "competent operators" in areas such as the South West where there is a "high and persistent incidence" of the disease.
His report explicitly challenged the conclusions of a 10-year study, chaired by Prof John Bourne, which said culling badgers would be ineffective in controlling the spread of the disease.
That conclusion was met with fury by farmers, who point to Government inaction and say 2007 has been the worst year for bovine TB in recent times. Source(Telegraph 31.12.2007)

DEFRA has concluded.The Independent Scientific Group on bovine tuberculosis has published its final report today (Monday, 18 June) after nearly 10 years of investigation in to the role badgers play in spreading the disease.
The report acknowledges that badgers do play a role in perpetuating the disease amongst cattle, but that a cull would have no worthy contribution and could make the situation worse.
For more articles and comment on bovine TB see our special report page at Bovine tuberculosis: FWi special report
For any cull to be effective it would need to be conducted over a very large area, such as the south west peninsula, require the complete eradication of badgers from that area and sustained for a number of years, said John Bourne, chairman of the ISG.
He added that it was made clear to the group by ministers at its inception nearly 10 years ago that any policy requiring the removal of badgers from large areas of land was totally unacceptable.
In its final report the group is also been critical of the current cattle policy and of DEFRA’s ability to implement a policy based on scientific findings and advocates DEFAR base future policy on tackling the disease spread between cattle with the introduction of a tougher suite of cattle controls.
“The objective of our work, outlined in this scientific report, has been to seek scientific truth and to provide clarity on the major issues that need to be considered for gaining control of cattle TB,” Prof Bourne said.
“We believe that in this Report Ministers now have sufficiently robust and extensive evidence to enable informed policy decisions to be made. They now have the sound science they require.”
“After nearly a decade of work we believe that we have fulfilled our original aims and are now able to provide a comprehensive appreciation of the overall problem. Our findings will surprise some, and be unwelcome to others.”
He added: “Having shown that the main approach to cattle TB control should be rigorously targeted to cattle, we hope that the overwhelming scientific evidence we have provided to support this view, and the policy options we present, will enable the farming industry and government to work together in a constructive and cooperative manner to tackle this very serious disease of cattle which causes so much economic loss and hardship to cattle farmers”.
In a statement to the House of Commons on the ISG’s report DEFRA secretary David Miliband said: “We know that the badger can play a role in maintaining disease in the areas where bovine TB is endemic.
“The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 allows the culling of badgers under licence for disease control purposes but, while the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) has been in progress, there has been a moratorium on issuing licences for culling of badgers for bovine TB. The ISG’s final report marks the end of the RBCT. We therefore need to decide next steps.
“The ISG's report summarises the results of the RBCT. These show that small scale culling can increase levels of TB in cattle. The report also says that proactive culling as practiced in the RBCT can bring benefits but only if culling is sustained over a number of years and co-ordinated.
“The ISG are not convinced that it would be practical or economical to deliver a cull in this way, leading them to conclude that badger culling could not contribute meaningfully to the control of bovine TB in Great Britain.”
The report’s conclusions came as bitter disappointment to the NFU, but were warmly welcomed by the Badger Trust.
NFU president Peter Kendall said: “I simply do not accept that the industry cannot devise a culling strategy that will reduce the reservoir of TB in badgers”, he said.
“Indeed, recent experience in Ireland, where a targeted badger culling strategy has reduced TB outbreaks in cattle by 42% in the last five years, confirms that culling can and does work, if it is carried out thoroughly and carefully.” Mr Kendall has requested an urgent meeting with DEFRA ministers to discuss future policy.
Trevor Lawson for the Badger Trust said: “Killing badgers is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, doing far more harm than good.
“A less brutish approach to the small role played by badgers, such as electric fencing around farm buildings, might well yield greater benefits at a fraction of the cost.”
by Andrew Watts Source (Farmers Weekly webpage)

Lamb Cutting Demonstration for Dolau WI

2008-02-07T08:26:00.000Z

Last night, Wednesday, saw us arriving at Dolau community centre to give a talk and demonstration on lamb Cutting, Farm Diversification, and Oopen Farm Sunday. Quite a lot considering we only had 1 hour. It went wonderfully, and we were warmly encouraaged by the group, who were interested and asked lots of topical questions. At the end we had a quick quiz just to see if our aldies had been really listening, and gave away some freebies which Hybu Cig Cymru had sent to us.

The talk was followed by a lovely supper and cups of tea and of course lots of chat. It is wonderful knowledge that so many people do care abo9ut what we do as farmers and ahve quite good information as to the happenings in farming and the countryside but we ahve to keep plugging a way and get the message over to as many people as possible.

Thanks for a lovely evening ladies.

Yes We Are In Our 2nd Lambing Stage

2008-02-05T12:19:00.001Z

Stage 2 of lambing has commenced.. So off I went this morning, camera and James in tow, to take phots and have a look. As we don't lamb here at our house we have to travel to take part in, or see any lambing. This little lamb had been born just minutes before we arrived and mum was encouraging him to get up and was licking him clean all over. There are lots of lambs around now and luckily the weather is being kind to us, although there is lots of rain, it is fairly warm. When a lamb and it's mother go out into the fields the mother ewe will tuck the lamb up against the hedge or tree, out of the wind, and very well sheltered from the rain and leave it there whilst she grazes or eats at the feeders. It is surprising how warm and dry the lambs usually reamin. Of course the shephard has to check them every day once outside, because, as with humans, every so often you get a Ewe who is a 'bad' mother and forgets her little one, or leaves it too long without feeding it, so our shephard, Wyn, takes them in hand........

TB test time Again.........................

2008-02-05T11:59:00.000Z

At 10.00am this morning the ministry vetinary turned out to conduct our 60 day re-test. We are hopeful that all of our cattle will go through alright this time, as the one which did have a reaction was a bought in beast.

True to form the weather was windy, cold and raining. I have to say the vetinary had the cleanest pair of leggings on in the world, but then they must clean them and disinfect them every time they go on to a farm because of bio-security, which is a good thing.

Somehow I ended up with the job of writing down the cattle identifications, and the skin thickness measurements( I had only gone to take photographs!), but I had chance to talk with the lady vet, who was very nice, and was telling her of our decision to no lonnger buy in any animals, especially cattle, because the risk of contamination disease is just too great. Even with the pre-movement testing, the results are just not accurate enougth to risk our herd going down with TB, so in future we will keep pedigree Welsh Black Heifers to replace and increase our own herd, but all other pedegree Welsh black Heifers, which we would usually take to market to sell on as breeding stock will be killed and put through our butchers shop, and that will enable us to have enough beef carcass to prevent us having to buy in a few Welsh Balck Bullocks to put through the Butchery.

I had several chances to have a little chat with the vet, as the men moved different sections of cattle in and out of the yard. I explained that although we have badgers, we thought they must be 'clean' badgers, i.e. TB free and these badgers being territorial keep other, possibly infected badgers, off our land and away from our cattle. The vet agreed, but also told me there are pockets of land where there are cattle, which are away from all other cattle in the middle of nowhere, with no contact with animals (domestic) who suddenly contract TB. She implied that the slaughter of all the cattle which is happening at present is not the way to eradicate TB and a badger cull was inevitable, but it had to be done in a humane and constructive manner.

Nuffield

2008-01-25T17:04:00.000Z

Just to let you all know, I have just got back from Oswestry Farmers Market and opened a letter to find out I didn't get a scholarship again. I just must be bad at interviews I think. I can't tell you how dissapointed I am. But this is just to say thank you to all the poeple who have supported me, given me wishes of luck and encouraged me, and given me great references, it means a lot.
Thanks

Back From London

2008-01-24T17:04:00.000Z

Just a quickie....... Back from the metropolis, nice to see Dan and meet his flat mate Pam. Very tiring two days, mostly travelling. can't think why all those people want to work in London, still they are high earners and keep the likes of us in employment, buying our meat etc. the tube is a fantastic experience. everyone gets on and immediately starts to read a paper or a book, no one talks to each other, no one looks at each other it is as if they are all clones, even Dan got on the train and got out his book .... and I was THERE!
My Nuffield interview did not go very well I feel. It was a totally different format to other years, no random questions, or up to date news questions, mostly on your subject and I just find mine so big, that I think I get bogged down, no not bogged down there is just so much of it, perhaps I'm just not very good in the interview but i know I've got it in me to do the job. Well I shall know soon, but I;m not hopeful, I was very disappointed with myself travelling home but what shall be, shall be.
More updates on Breakfast week tomorrow

Farmhouse Breakfast Week

2008-01-21T11:22:00.000Z

We were up at the crack of dawn,(well it was still dark!) loading up the old Landrover with my microwave,( Philip had knocked the gas cylinder last night so all the gas had leaked out, had to leave the doors open for 1/2 hour so we all didn't die on the way to Crossgates School!), Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling Machine,- don't you just love that name? and all of the bits and pieces for cooking a farmhouse breakfast.

My youngest daughter Jessica, was very excited ( the one brandishing a plate and trussed up in a red apron), and had been looking forward to this for days, including asking me was I going to cook breakfast for them next year as well? ........lets get this one over first Jess.

We had a lovely selection, lamb & rosemary Sausages, welsh Black Beef Sausages and lamb & Cranberry Sausage, Bacon, Grilled Toms, Grilled Mushrooms and Scrambled Eggs, donated by Roger Abberley from Llanyre Free Range Chicken Sheds, Baked Beans and Bread & Butter (proper butter....)

All the children loved the sausages, and some even tried things they weren't sure about which I always think is good. The boys hung on to their plates, waiting for seconds, and the Headmistress Sue Meeke made a journey up especially for her cooked breakfast. Apparently all of the builders on site were asking what the lovely smell was, I should have taken a cash box and made a profit for the morning!, not like me to miss an opportunity....

Mrs Smith, the class teacher explained how Breakfast was made up of two words- Break and Fast, fast meaning to not eat for a period of time and break meaning to stop the fast, so during the night whilst you were sleeping you were indeed fasting, then you break the fast by having breakfast in the morning. we need to eat breakfast to give us energy to do all the things we need to do in the morning, including growing, especially if you are a young child. we went through all of the other breakfast things you could eat, which included, Cereals like Bran Flakes or Porridge, Toast, Fruit, Yogurt or Croissants.

The conversation, or shall I say debate, moved on and I was very impressed with the children's knowledge of current news regarding food issues. we discussed Free Range and what it meant, and they had some very good views and opinions on this, we discussed waste of food and the war years and obesity.

it has given me an idea to have a monthly, fortnightly weekly food debate during 1/2 hour at lunch time in the school to see if pupils want to enhance their knowledge of food and learn about the bigger picture concerning the food we all eat, what a fantastic opportunity to engage with the next generation in enthusiastic conversation about the food they eat and where it comes from, the children are interested and we should take every opportunity to encourage and nurture this.

Thanks for having me Crossagtes Class 3 & 4, and don;t forget to remind Mrs Smith that after Easter invite me and I'll come back and we'll make healthy sausages or beef burgers for you to eat at Lunch time, and many thanks to the two boys who did the washing up - well done to everyone.

Nuffield Farmining Scholarship

2008-01-17T12:45:00.000Z

It's that time of year again.

Last year, when I went for my first interview for the Nuffield, I was inspired by Heather Gorringe, of Wiggly Wrigglers, to write my own Blog. Heather was successful in obtaining her scholarship, but unfortunately I fluffed my interview, was initially gutted, so I decided to try again, but I promised myself I would make the twelve months in between really count. And I think I have achieved that.

New year is mostly a time to reflect and with this anniversary of the blog I think now is appropriate.
We joined LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming)
I enrol ed in the first ever trial Welsh CEVAS (Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme) course, enabling us to take school visits onto the farm.
We were asked if FACE (Farm And Countryside Education) could use our farm as a portfolio on their site, which we agreed to. (http://www.face-online.org.uk/)
I finished my NVQ level 4 in management - adding Dip.RSA after my name.
We successfully opened as one of only 7 farms in wales on Open Farm Sunday June 10th and had over 200 visitors.
We made contact with our MP and have had several meetings with him where we have bought to his attention some of the problems in farming and remain in contact with him regularly.
We opened a local village Farmers Market, which had to close due to lack of continuity both from supplier and customers, but it gave us the idea of a Farm Shop.
We approached a farm on the main road and formed a partnership to open a Local farm Shop
We hosted our third visit from Coleg Powys Agricultural Students.
I made two visits to local schools with our cawl making workshop.
Both Philip & I had the confidence to apply to become Industry Board members of Hybu Cig Cymru -(even though both of us failed to get an interview)
I put FACE in touch with the YMCA College Cardiff to try and get funding to put on more CEVAS courses in Wales.
Hosted young farmes Clubs Visits to the Farm
Have been asked to do demonstrations and talks for local clubs i.e. the WI
We have taken every opportunity locally to get the media involved in anything we have done so lifting the profile of local food and farming.
We have helped Penoffa Pork to get going, processing their pork for them, so they can sell it on farmers markets and locally.
I met up with Powys County Council head of Catering and had several meetings talking about the procurement of local food for school lunches, he actually came out to the farm -

So all in all I have to thank the Nuffield for turning me down, because it gave me the energy to seek out all these things this year and grow in confidence within the industry - wow just think what actually getting a Nuffield would do for me? Well fingers crossed my interview is next Wednesday at precisely 10.3. I am going to stop the night before with my son Daniel....... never do just one thing if you can do two - that's my motto!!!!!

British Farmhouse Breakfast Week

2008-01-17T12:37:00.000Z

20th - 26th January 2008
Farmhouse Breakfast Week is an annual campaign that emphasises the importance of eating a healthy breakfast every day. 'A Great Start' is the theme of this year's celebration to encourage everyone to wake up to a balanced breakfast as part of a healthy and active lifestyle. Nutritionists agree that a healthy breakfast is essential for starting the day. Breakfast provides 'A Great Start!' to the day, no matter what you have planned.

Always up for a challenge, and not one for missing an opportunity to get across to our younger generation the chance to taste local produce and talk about the benifits of eating properly and giving them the opportunity to cook, taste and make their own decisions I have arranged two Breakfast mornings.
The first will be on Monday morning at Crossagtes School with class 3 & 4. I will be cooking a variety of sausage, eggs, bacon and of course beans for the class to sample.
The second venue will be on Thursday Morning at treffonen Church in Wales School with Class 5,(not so long ago this class made Cawl with me- see previous blogs)

for pictures and an update on how these dates went tune in next week.

Our First lambs Have Arrived.......

2008-01-17T10:08:00.000Z

The First 2 Lambs Of 2008

Yesterday was a lovely day, clear with sunny skies, and our Shepherd, Wyn, let us know that at 1pm the previous evening 2 lambs had arrived, the first of our 2008 lambs.

Spurred on by the change in weather after what seems to be days of rains, and minor floods all over our area, I took my camera and off I went to investigate.

Caergynant is the new farm we purchased nearly three years ago. This is where we do all of our early lambing. We have 200 early lambing ewes.

The ewes (mother sheep) are all indoors in a big, high ceiling shed. We usually leave the doors open as long as it isn't too blustery or snowing, because the more fresh air that moves about the better for the animals indoors. The walls of the shed are concrete bottom with slatted tops, again to ensure air circulation around the animals, as with them all being indoors virus' and bugs can soon begin to breed and infect the ewes if the air is stale.

It is lovely to walk in after lunch. the ewes have all been fed and are contentedly munching hay or silage from big round feeders which are in the middle of all the pens. At Caergynant, because we use the shed for different uses throughout the years we make the sheep pens out of huge oblong straw bales which we buy in at the end of summer, and the crafty ewes know that they can have a lovely munch on their pens if they fancy a change!

Also in the shed are 8 - 10 Welsh black bullocks about 18 months old, they were sitting in the sunshine which was streaming in through the slatted sides, and munching on hay, so all in all it was a very idyllic scene.

In the middle of the ewes is our blind ewe. A story which reminds us of the cruelty which can go on in nature. last summer Wyn was out checking the stock on the fields when he saw a ewe lying on her side not moving. he got to her and she wasn't very well, but whilst she lay poorly, crows had pecked out her one eye which was on her upturned side. Wyn tried to get her standing but she was too weak so he knew he would have to go and get the quad bike to take her back to the farm where he could nurse her back to health, he managed to get her lying in a different position, because when ewes lie on one side for a long time their bellies swell up with trapped gases and they can die from it, so this way he was relieving the pressure of the gas and enabling it to distribute normally through her body again. By the time he got back, just 10 minutes later, the crows, knowing her weakened condition, had pecked out her other eye............

Wyn nurtured her through the summer keeping her near to home and making sure she had water readily available, and we think she will be in lamb when we scan her in a few weeks time. She is very happy to sit with her friends and listen to them munching and she finds her way to water, and of course the lovely ewe cake which they are fed once a day.

In one of the back pens is a ewe who had to go to the vet on Sunday. She was trying to have her lambs and it was very obvious to our experienced Shepherd that the lamb was dead inside her. in this case we have to get the lamb out. the Shepherd was unable to pull the lamb out so we had to take her to the vet, who luckily managed to pull out the dead lamb and give her injections which would help any infection that having a dead lamb inside her would cause. She is looking very sharp and we hope she will make a full recovery.

On monday we are hosting aschool visit for the Welsh unit at Treffonen Church of wales School Llandrindod Wells, as Wyn first language is welsh we hope they will have a loveley afternoon

In Comes New Year with a Big Bang - The insurance is Due today!

2008-01-04T10:29:00.000Z

Yes it must be just about the worst time of year to renew our insurance... although in hindsight there probably isn't a best time is there lets face it.
Faced with a renewal bill of £6555, it was pretty obvious that I was going to approach other companies for a quote. One local company in Knighton failed to respond at all to my e-mail asking for a quote, another local company regretfully informed me that although they would love to provide cover, the insurance organisation they dealt with refused to touch the butchery side of the business, and so I managed to get one quote from a Ludlow based firm which is looking very promising at the moment at £4575........ it is unbelievable that these can be quoting for the same cover don't you think?
Not having received our single farm payment yet, or our ESA payment, I have spent considerable time on the phone over the past few weeks trying to find out what was happening. Most Welsh Farmers were supposed to have their payments on December 1st, which is what happened to us last year, but not this.... after a week I phone The ministry of Agriculture in Llandrindod Wells to find out what was happening. I was put through to a HELP department, although i feel this may have been in appropriately named!
I asked when I would receive our payment and was told she wasn't sure. I asked what the problem was. I was told she wasn't sure. I asked to speak to someone who could help me as I would like a definite answer. She asked me to write in. I told her no I was on the phone and I would like someone to answer me now rather than me writing a letter which would take at least two weeks for someone to answer. She was unable to help. I asked about our ESA payment. This is the Environmentally Sensitive Area payment we get, not for free, but in return for agreeing to quite a large amount of criteria, which costs us money to comply with, such as paying a contractor to pleach or lay a certain amount of hedging each year, keeping ponds and certain wildlife areas free, not putting fertiliser down in certain places. She was unable to help so I asked to be put thought to the head of the ESA department.
Please note that in October I had phoned the ESA dept. and queried if our claim was all OK with no complications or problems and I had been told yes everything was fine. So you can probably imagine my frustration when I was told that the file had been taken away because of some queries. I complained, as you do when things are not going your way, that these claims had been in for 12 moths how come at the very last minute when the payment was due that a problem was found? I was even more astounded when I was told that if it was a query to do with the land and maps, and that three weeks before Christmas the mapping dept. had closed for refurbishment and currently had not re-opened - nearly 12 months!
Is it any wonder that we farmers pull our hair out sometimes, how can a ministry dept. function in this way?
Lets hope the new year changes a few things - or that we change a few things for ourselves..........

2007-12-11T11:51:00.000Z

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........

2007-12-07T04:04:00.000Z

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

2007-12-04T16:05:00.000Z

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!

2007-12-04T12:03:00.000Z

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

2007-10-07T18:25:00.000Z

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

2007-09-09T13:38:00.001Z

(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!

2007-07-10T06:09:00.000Z

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!

2007-06-25T13:16:00.000Z

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'

2007-06-13T10:23:00.000Z

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

2007-06-12T14:50:00.000Z

Open farm Sunday

The end of a long, but rewarding day!

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

2007-06-12T14:16:00.000Z

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?

2007-06-12T13:32:00.000Z

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

2007-05-27T06:16:00.000Z

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

2007-05-21T10:45:00.000Z

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

2007-05-16T10:35:00.000Z

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

2007-04-29T06:43:00.000Z

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!

2007-04-23T17:41:00.000Z

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

2007-04-17T11:22:00.000Z

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

2007-04-16T17:10:00.000Z

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

2007-04-11T19:41:00.000Z

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

2007-04-11T06:30:00.000Z

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

2007-04-10T09:03:00.000Z

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

2007-04-05T11:33:00.000Z

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

2007-04-04T11:26:00.000Z

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!

2007-04-04T08:01:00.000Z

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

2007-04-01T19:20:00.000Z

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"

2007-03-19T09:15:00.000Z

‘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!

2007-03-10T17:47:00.000Z

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

2007-01-17T11:31:00.000Z

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