Spring is making her presence known with the rapidly emerging snowdrops and daffodils appearing in great numbers all around the farm and gardens. We have sunshine and blue sky to day and I've been able to hang out the laundry for the first time this year, always a heartening thing. The Farmer & I have been away for couple of days with the Grandchildren. We took them to stay in a cottage in a tiny village on the coast of Pembrokeshire. The property was only 100 yards from the beach and so despite the strong winds we spent a lot of time walking along the blustery sands and along the spectacular coast path. Windy walks are a very good way of wearing out energetic children we find! And they are very happy to be blown about and watching the sea in its tumult as it crashes onto the rocks and cliffs. The cottage had no tv., dvd player or radio so evenings were spent playing games and reading and it cannot be but good for children to have time away from media entertainment. They didn't complain at all about it which is encouraging, it means they are capable of being entertained in the old-fashioned ways, games , books and conversation.

After the tremendous storms that battered the British Isles last weekend we are finding just how many trees came down around the farm and the Farmer is having to plan how to clear them up and get them to his sawmill to be planked. As well as cutting them up for timber there will be a vast amount of firewood, which will have to be processed, but we can never have too much firewood with six wood-burning stoves between the three households on the farm.

British Dairy Farming, Red Tractor Scheme

British dairy farmers are reeling from the negative impact of a television programme put out by the BBC earlier this week. It showed the appalling mal-treatment of dairy cows on a large farm just a few miles from us, in fact. The cows were being subjected to a level of abusive handling that left us all horrified. The farm employed a number of workers who clearly had no compassion for the animals in their 'care'. It has shocked the whole industry and we are all trying hard to show that the huge majority of dairy farm would never treat their cows in such a way. Instances of such cruelty are very few and far between, thank goodness. We as dairy farmers spend our lives ensuring that our cows are in the best of health, well-nourished, clean and comfortable. They are our livelihood and deserve the best of care and yes, we do love them. The farm concerned is under close scrutiny now and has lost its milk contract but the damage has been done. We as dairy farmers now have an uphill task to counteract the mis-information put out by the programme which played into the hands of the animal rights and vegan lobby. Please do not believe everything you see on television or read in social media...the majority of farmers care passionately about their animals and look after them to very highest standards with regular inspections, in fact British animal welfare standards are among the highest in the world. We have the Red Tractor assurance scheme (www.redtractor.org.uk)which covers 11,000 dairy farms producing 95% of all the milk in the UK. The Red Tractor logo ensures that whatever produce you are buying whether it be millk, meat or vegetables, has been produced to the very best standards of welfare and quality. We are an organic farm and so we have the double assurance that our milk is produced to both Red Tractor and Soil Association standards (www.soilassociation.org).

Today we are in the grip of Storm Eunice (I don't when they started naming storms or why!) with a rare Red Warning out for our area. We are certainly enduring incredibly strong winds and heavy rain. The advice is not to travel and to be aware of the risk of falling trees and flying debris. The ferries that leave from Welsh ports for Ireland are all cancelled and the bridges crossing the river Severn from England into Wales are closed as are a number of number of roads over high ground. How long the strom will last I don't know but hopefully it will blow itself out over the next twenty-four hours. The Farmer has just this minute called me out to see a poplar tree that he saw fall in Younger Son's garden and he has just be cutting up an elder tree that had fallen across the driveway, so we are not escaping unscathed from Eunice. A comical side the stormy weather is the sight of a hen coming out of the hen-house and having her feathers all blown forward and being propelled at speed across the paddock! Hens are not very aero-dynamically designed.

Tree planting in Wales

As I walked the dog this beautiful clear frosty morning my route took us through the field where the sheep are currently being kept. It is known as the Mansion Triangle, not because of any mysterious big house disappearances but mundanely because it is triangular-shaped and it backs on to the mansion, which is not as grand as it sounds, where Younger Son and his family live. The Welsh word 'plas' meaning a large house is better than the grandiose 'mansion' but as the house is offically Penyrallt Mansion we are stuck with it. Anyway, I was walking down the gentle slope of the field and was joined by our small flock of ewes known as the ladies-in-waiting as they due to lamb next month. They followed me as they hoped I would have food for them, I didn't, but they have a good supply of lovely hay, the sweet smell of which conjures up long summer days and the satisfaction of hay-making. The Farmer & I write a monthly column for our local county newspaper in which we talk about local and national farming issues as well what goes on here at Penyrallt. One subject that is coming much to fore is that of tree-planting to off-set carbon emmissions. Whilst this is admirable in principle things are going a little awry for Wales as big companies from England are buying up large tracts of good agricultural land with a view to obtaining Welsh government grants to plant new woodlands. This is causing many farmers in Wales great distress as the land is being sold at prices that make it unaffordable for local people and potentially much good land is being taken out of food production. Apart from the loss of productive farm land it is also bringing about the loss of family farms, and communities that have been established for generations. It is eco-colonialism to coin a phrase. Also the fact that Welsh tax-payers money is going to companies who have no regard for Wales but just see it as a place to salve their consciences by exploiting the landscape in order to continue with their unsustainable and polluting practices.

Sheepdogs, Promise of Spring, Holidays

This is Judy our sheepdog who is the Farmer's constant companion around the farm. She is very much a one man dog as is is only right and proper for a working collie. If any of the rest of us try to give her any directions they are ignored but as soon as she hears her master's voice she springs into action and works round the sheep superbly. She is a good dog but not the best the Farmer has had over the years, she does not have what is called 'the eye' which in a good dog can be the make or break when it comes to trialling. At the end of last summer we gave ourselves a day out at some sheepdog trials held locally and had wonderful time. Dogs working well are always a great sight and the committment of the owners and the hours of training pays off when a dog, or a brace of dogs, can bring the sheep into the pen with such apparent ease. It must not be forgotten however, that these are not just 'show' dogs, they are fully working dogs on the farms where they are an essential part of the management team. Judy is not of trial standard but she is a very useful dog and saves the Famer lot of running around. In the past we have had some really good dogs, one in particular, Sam who was from a long line of champions. He certainly had the eye and could move sheep incredibly efficiently almost just by looking at them.

With spring teetering on the doorstep our thoughts turn to holidays and the summer months. Running a holiday cottage here on the farm has been interesting to say the least over the past two years. In 2020 with the national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic no-one took holidays but once lockdown restrictions eased we were able to welcome guests back and though bookings were reduced it was lovely to see how people were so pleased to be able to get away once more and were appreciative of what we were able to provide for them in terms of a rural escape after months of being stuck in their urban fastnesses. This year I think it will be much the same, people who have been restricting their travel plans are choosing to holiday in UK and discovering the joys of 'staycations' (ghastly word!).

Mallards Return

Our mallards have returned! For the last two years, ever since we moved into this house, we have had several pairs of mallards adopt us and it is wonderful that they have come back to us this year. They are certainly the same pairs as they show no fear or anxiety at our presence or having the dogs loping around them. The Farmer threw some some corn down onto the yard for them and they are out there now having been joined by a wood pigeon and a robin who both know a good thing when they see it. Last summer we ended up with about 15 ducks coming most days to the house which is lovely, though it can get a bit messy underfoot which is not great but the pleasure from having what are basically wild birds, just sitting contentedly outside the back door compensates for the small quantity of guauno they leave in their wake. It is beautiful morning here with sunshine and a light breeze, very spring-like though we must not take it for granted, it is after all still only the end of January and February & March can be pretty awful so we must make the most of each lovely day as it happens. There are already a few lambs to be seen around the area and this fine weather is just perfect for them. we don't start lambing until March and we always hope that the weather will kind as the worst thing for lambs is rain and cold winds.

Return to blogging

At last after 18 months or so of not being able to get posts posted on this blog, due to major technical ineptitude on my part I have at last worked out what has turned out to be a very simple problem and so am now able to pick up the blogging habit once more. Since my last post which was back in August 2020 (!) life has of course carried on through the Coronavirsu pandemic and all its impacts on everyone's lives. The social restrictions kept everyone at bay for so long and although here out in the countryside we did not suffer as badly as many people it is nonetheless a relief to see how things are easing. In Wales we are still required to wear facemasks in shops but that has become the new normal and so one doesn't think about it now, except when one realises that you've inadvertently left your facemask in the car and have to make a hasty shame-faced exit from the shop, to return seconds later disguised and apologetic. Life on the farm is as busy as ever, the cows still have to be milked whatever is going on in the outside world and we still have the seasonal round to keep us on track. Spring is beginning to send out small hints that it will appear eventually in its full glory. This week I found the first snowdrops peeping up through the grass on the side of our driveway and the early daffodils are shooting their green spears through the lawns. Small coral buds are appearing on the oak trees and the birds are beginning to chorus joyfully. A year ago, On New Year's Day 2021 in fact, we had a new grandson born to Younger Son & his wife and so now we have a sturdy one year old not quite toddling but crawling at great speed to entertain us all. He has proved a great charmer and his older cousins (11 & 8 years) who are also here on the farm find him great fun. We have always had a collection of dogs around the place belonging to the three households and the Farmer & I have for many yers had his working collie, while I had the company of my Jack Russell terrier, Dottie and a stately black Labrador Hattie. Sadly just a week before Christmas we lost Hattie who died in her sleep, after havein been visibly fading away over the preceding few days. She was thirteen years old and had a full and happy life as a gun dog in her younger years and then a contented retirement lying in the sun. I do miss her and I think Dottie does too...she no longer has her Labrador-sofa!

Thank You Farmers

Shockingly it has been about four months since I last updated this blog. One could use Coronavirus as the excuse as it seems to be the excuse for everything else going on in our lives but that would not be completely honest. Since our house move life has had it's usual busy-ness here on the farm with the normal routine required by dairy cows. The milk tanker has continued to come throughout lockdown, we have continued to do the seasonal work of lambing our small flock of sheep, silage-making and generally carried on feeding the nation as was acknowledged by this sign appearing at the top of main road near the farm. For those of you who do not read Welsh it says 'Thank You Farmers' and is much appreciated by we Ffermwyr. The main difference to our lives has been the absence of holiday-makers in the cottage though they returned from the middle of July. With the exception of social distancing and the extra cleaning protocols required between each group of guests life has pretty much returned to a near normal. Coronavirus has affected everyone and even though the farming community has carried on much as usual (and we did have exemptions for travelling more than 5 miles (in Wales)) the lockdown has changed the way we live in small and subtle ways. Friends are now allowed to call but we find that we, and others, prefer to meet outside and fortunately the weather has on the whole enabled us to drink coffee and chat in gardens. We no longer go to our local market town for a leisurely shopping trip calling in various shops but we stop at the green-grocer and the whole-food shop only, with just one person allowed in the shops at a time (they are very small)and then head for home. No longer is there the inclination to tarry and converse. The one person at a time rule does not encourage one to linger when there are people waiting outside the shop. It is now the very tail-end of August and we have a glorious day of sunshine, blue skies and fluffy clouds scudding overhead but there is strong hint of autumn in the air. After some very dramatic weather in tha last few weeks,thunder and lightening, terrific winds and lashing rain causing flooding and general misery we can only rejoice when days like today come along. The menfolk are making the most of it and getting in another cut of silage. We have been rearing some pigs over the summer who have been benefitting from the Farmer making use of the wind-fall apples (thanks to the violent winds of recent weeks) by being given the pomace to eat. Pomace is the sludge left after the apples are pressed for juice. The juice is delicious and while some is frozen to see us through the winter, much of it is made into cider. Why waste the windfalls when both we and the pig-wigs can enjoy them. There will of course be more juicing taking place in few weeks when the apples remaining on the trees are picked and processed.

For the agricultural community one of the sad fatalities of the pandemic has been the local agricultural show. The Farmer is on the committee for our local show and their last meeting was cancelled back in February with the decision to cancel the show taken a few weeks later. This story will be repeated all over the country and it will leave a big hole in the farming community social calendar. The shows are struggling to survive anyway and one can only hope that having missed the 2020 show season due to external forces, the committees and their supporters will work with renewed vigour to make sure 2021 can be a year of great agricultural shows...pandemics permitting, of course.

New Home, Shop Local, Butter-making and Milk Sales

Well, we have now been in our new home for two weeks and all is well. Most of the hundreds of boxes are now unpacked though there are still a number of boxes of books waiting for shelves despite the Farmer having made what seems like miles of shelving already. This is a very quirky little house and surprisingly spacious after all the work we have done on it and now beautifully decorated throughout so is looking very spruce. We were able to bring only some of our furniture with us, the favourite pieces on the whole, and they look as though they were meant to to fit into this house so it really is home now.

Our great move coincided with the Great Lockdown which in many ways was a good thing as it kept us very busy and distracted from the sadness in the outside world. As farmers we are used to a life of isolation and in so are not really finding life very different except we do not have friends and neighbours coming in to drink coffee in the kitchen and of course we are not able to welcome friends and family to our new house. As soon as life returns to neormal we shall have to have grand house-warming party.
The move meant we did not have any internet connection for several weeks, having to rely on taking my mobile phone for walks around the farm to get any kind of signal, so our communication with the outside world was rather limited. In these days of lockdown when everything seems to be happening via the internet one realises how fragile that dependence can be. Long gone are the days when we were content with just a landline telephone and the the Royal Mail.
We have adapted to limited access to shops and use our small but well-stocked village shop rather than going in to our local market town. This is very good for the village shop which has seen increased trade and as they now offer a delivery service have probably extended their customer base considerably. Many of the outlying farms are occupied by older and retired farmers who are understandably nervous about going out during these strange times so to have their groceries delivered is a great boon.

I have just had a visitation by Elder Son and his children from across the yard. The children are very excited by having been making butter. They have of course been home from school for weeks now and so finding little projects to keep them busy and entertained is quite a challenge. Butter making seems an excellent idea especially as we have some milk to spare as the milk price has dropped so dramatically. With the closure of the main coffee shop chains and MacDonalds etc. the milk market has been badly hit for those who were sole suppliers to these businesses. If you are dairy farmer whose milk buyer is contracted to provide all the milk to Costa or Nero then things are very serious indeed. The milk could be sold on what is called the 'spot price' but this is now down to 0p per litre some days. Disaster if your price of production at minimum is about 27ppl.

The beautiful warm sunny days over these past weeks has been wonderful though we do need some rain but nonetheless the orchards are full of blossom now and our lambs are frolicking in the sunshine while their mothers watch on benignly.