Michael and Kathy Fordham are tenant farmers working about 700 acres at Little Horsted in East Sussex. It is a mixed farm, with around 500 acres of cereal crops and a beef suckler herd. The Fordham family has farmed in Little Horsted since Michael's grandfather started there in 1916...
Calving is over for another year and the grass has finally started to grow, so we have put all the animals out, including the cow with the Caesarean, who is a wonderful mother and seems completely unaffected by her experience.
The bull has also arrived and appears to be busily doing his stuff! All the cattle have been blue tongue vaccinated as well - despite a lower risk threshold we still feel it is important to protect our animals.
We took advantage of a brief quiet period to snatch a week at our apartment in the French Alps. It is very quiet down there as it is off-season, but the alpine flowers are magnificent (although at least three weeks behind last year - that’s global warming) and the marmots are delightful, as of course, is the food and wine.
We drove down via the Eurotunnel and were somewhat shocked on our return journey, as the machine asked which language we wanted to use and when we replied, “English” it said, “Hello Mr Fordham”. How did it know, as we hadn’t even logged the car registration number on our booking form? It is all a bit sinister. Big brother really is watching!
The weekend after our return we had been asked if we could host a surprise party to celebrate the 60th birthday of Michael’s sister, Margaret. We happily offered the grain store and agreed to clear it out, other members of the family agreed to do the decorating, organise the party etc. As usual, the weather promptly improved, so that we found ourselves sweeping and vacuuming the floor in the middle of silaging and Michael spent a while in the JCB while son-in-law fixed fairy lights up in the ceiling!
Thankfully, it was a fabulous party and Margaret hadn’t guessed the surprise at all.
There was a wonderful band, ‘Electric Hoedown’, who played very lively folk and barn dance music. The caller told us that she had recently been asked to train a group of young men from a nearby village in the art of Morris Dancing. She obliged and was very pleased that the younger generation seemed to be taking an interest. It subsequently transpired that the youngsters had an ulterior motive - they wanted to win a prize in the Crowborough Leek Festival, which apparently involves doing something innovative with leeks, so they danced using leeks instead of wooden stakes. We don’t know if they won a prize, but fear that their Morris Dancing careers are now over!
Sadly, we lost our Labrador, Bilbo, this week. He seemed perfectly well one day and the next morning he was unable to get up and didn’t want to eat! We took him to the vet and it turned out that he had a massive tumour inside which had ruptured his spleen, so he had to be put down. This was a huge shock to all of us and the house seems very empty without him - we are left with one very smug ginger cat!
The butcher’s shop has been incredibly busy, which is surprising as other people keep telling us that they are quiet - long may it last. We have submitted our planning application for the new shop in Isfield and are awaiting the outcome.
Silaging and haymaking are progressing well in the lovely sunshine. Yields are surprising, as we seem to be getting more bales from each field than we did last year, which is just as well because we had no carry-over stocks - let’s hope we get enough for a second cut.
The cereals are all now in ear and one thing that the cold and very dry weather has shown up is that fields with varying soil types have reacted differently to the weather. Deeper clay loam soils have good crop stands, whilst sandy land has short thin crops. On some of my wheats, on this sandy land I did not use growth regulator, which is just as well, because they are only knee-high now, so we fear that straw yield will again be low. Is this an effect of climate change, or is it just another freak weather year?
I enjoy this time of year, as I get up at dawn and go spraying. It is so peaceful (except for me and my sprayer of course), but the crops and the countryside look beautiful in the early morning light - because nobody rings on the phone or interrupts me, I just get on with the job and take a great deal of satisfaction from living and working in such a wonderful place.
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