Michael and Kathy Fordham are tenant farmers working about 700 acres at Isfield and 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 in 1916. Last year, they vacated the farmhouse and moved into their own house in Isfield village. They also closed their farmyard butcher’s shop and built a larger village stores on their own land in the middle of Isfield.
All is now calm again after the festive season and life goes on very much as usual. It has been unseasonably warm until this week and there are primroses and daffodils flowering bravely around the village - they are looking a little chilly now, as we finally have some frosty, crispy weather. The sunrises and sunsets have been very beautiful, although so far, we have failed to take a decent photo of them.
Michael was lucky enough to have been invited to join fellow farmers and customers of Yeowart agricultural, for a ‘jolly’ to the Massey Ferguson tractor factory in France - something to brighten up the dark winter days! It was a very well organised trip and everyone enjoyed the hospitality of the MF team - in Michael’s case, perhaps a little too much! Eighty well engineered tractors come off the production line every eight hour shift and it was very impressive indeed to see how that is done. The logistics of a modern factory is just amazing. Everyone agreed however, that working in the fresh air and being a customer was much better than building them.
There is not much going on in the fields at present, but the animals keep us busy as usual. Once again, we are trying to decide what to do with the sheep, as the remaining grass fields are fenced adequately for cattle, but barbed wire doesn’t work for sheep! We usually end up with a sort of ranch system which necessitates searching for them each morning over most of the farm!
One of the donkeys seems to be mysteriously off colour - listless and somewhat off his food. The vet couldn’t find anything wrong with him, except a need for some dental work, which has now been done, but he is still not himself. Perhaps he is just getting old, but his companion is ancient and still OK and donkeys live for ever - 40 is not unusual!
We have finally weaned last year’s calves this week, so the barn is full of indignant mooing. As we now live off the farm, we don’t have to listen to the noise - we have explained to the new occupants of the farm house - let’s hope they are as tolerant of farming activity as they said they would be! We start calving again in March - the years seem to roll around ever faster.
As our life has changed so much recently, in that we now have our own house, new shop etc., we are going to see our solicitor today to update our wills. This is very important, particularly for farming families - we have known much misery caused, farms split up, livelihoods ruined and homes lost when this is not done carefully. We are also setting up powers of attorney, as without these, if one of us becomes incapacitated, the whole business and all accounts could be frozen, with disastrous effects - cheery thoughts, but necessary!
Michael & Kathy
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