NFU Lancashire County Chair
There’s nothing more effective at getting the locals all a flutter than having two police vans and five police stood in your yard.
One of the theories to their presence included us having a cannabis farm in one of the barns, although murder is more likely on the cards if family members don’t stop bringing grain into the house in their trousers/socks/boots and scattering it everywhere and blocking the filter on the washing machine.
However, it was really good to meet the South Lancashire Police Rural Task Force in person and to talk about rural crime with BBC North West Tonight (leading to another local theory we were the location for a new TV drama).
It will be good to build on these links with both Lancashire Police and Merseyside Police and its even more encouraging to hear that through joint working between the North West forces they have been making some real breakthroughs in tackling rural crime.
I know many members have felt in the past that rural issues have been ignored, so it is good to know that we now have dedicated rural teams across the county.
I also spent an interesting morning at Graham Young’s dairy farm near Samlesbury with members of the Royal College of Defence Studies.
Having given a presentation to them online last year, it was good to meet them in person and talk with people from all around the world.
They seemed to gain a lot from Graham’s tour of his farm, and I had an interesting chat with a Captain from Pakistan who said that the majority of people in her home country still have strong links with food production. She informed me that most people grow some of their own food or have family links with farming.
There was also one visitor who couldn’t get enough of the fresh milk straight from the tank, having declared it was the best he’d ever tasted. Hopefully they all went away with a better understanding of UK agriculture and it certainly made a big difference to see things demonstrated in person as opposed to being talked about on a screen.
Talking of which, I’m keeping fingers crossed that by the time this is printed members will have been able to take part in farm walks and have a show or two to look forward to going to.
Hopefully, I’ll get to meet up with some of you and put faces to names and it will be good to finally get away from our own farms and back to having a good nosy at other peoples.