First Lambs, Dog Memorial

Well, on a blustery, wet morning we have had our first lambs born, a fine set of strong twins. It's always a good feeling when the first lambs are healthy and 'good doers'. The ewe is contented and has taken to the lambs without any trouble, so a good start.

On my way up to the lambing shed I pass what is known to us as the 'Dog Stone'. This is a large cut pillar of sandstone that we erected many years ago to commemorate our dogs after the death of one called Ted who died following an accident. We realised at the time that we had had many dogs over the years, (most of whom died of natural causes, mainly old age though life as a farm dog does carry certain risks) and felt they deserved a memorial. They give us such devoted service and work hard for ten or more years, so the Dog Stone was placed where we walk past it all the time and near where several of the dear dogs are buried. Each year the narcissi that I planted at its foot come up in a glorious display which on grey days like today are so cheerful and along with the lambs, are a sure sign that spring is in full swing. While our lives here on the farm carry on with the seasonal round keeping us busy we cannot ignore what is going on in the rest of the world, especially in regards to Ukraine. The horrors being launched upon the innocent civilians of that country are unspeakable and while we can donate to the Red Cross and other aid agencies and charities it seems very inadequate but one can only hope that the politicians can bring about an end to the crisis before too long. The bravery and courage of the Ukrainian people has been extraordinary.

Getting ready for lambing, Food Security, Old Ecclesiastical Buildings

The ewes have been brought into the large polytunnel prior to the start of lambing which is any time in the next few days. The polytunnel is an ideal lambing shed, light and airy and big enough to have pens erected in one half leaving the rest of the tunnel for the sheep to roam loose. It also opens at one end out into the orchard so once the lambs are big enough they and their mothers can go out onto fresh grass. This is such good time of the year with the arrival of lambs and we are only lambing about 50 yewes nowaday so it is not to onerous though there will no doubt be the usual struggles to keep lambs alive whose mothers reject them or don't have any milk and will have to be bottle fed but hopefully they will be the exception. March is proving to be an interesting month, we have had torrential rain storms and yet the last three or four days have bright, dry, very cold and beautiful though I think more rain is on its way. Still, what is bit of rain and mud compared with what is going on in the outside world! The ongoing tragedy of Ukraine is constantly in our thoughts and that situation, though so far away in terms of miles is affecting us here on the farm as the price of diesel and oil shoots up. Feedstuffs are becoming more expensive almost daily and there is no guarantee of a continued supply. The Ukrainian farmers are unable to get seed to sow for the harvest in what is the breadbasket of Europe, even if they can get to their fields safely. There will almost certainly be shortages of wheat, sunflower seeds and other crops that are needed to feed both people and livestock. It is interesting that the Irish government already is urging its farmers to increase production while the UK government is saying very little, if anything about food security and the need to start growing more. As farmers we will all step up to the mark when required, we just need the word. The cost of farm diesel to run the tractors is going up and domestically I think we are all going to have to turn our heating down a couple of degrees to conserve oil and justify the use of the car as the price at the garage pumps increases. This is all rather a severe approach to the problem at present but needs to be considered. On a more cheerful note the Farmer and I had to journey to Brecon at the weekend, about 60 miles from here for a family celebration and our route took us over the mountains of southern mid-Wales, The day was clear and bright and the scenery in that part of the country is spectcular with vast views across a huge reservoir and empty landscapes with very little habitation until one drops down into the more fertile areas where there are old farms tucked into hillsides sheltering from the elements as they have done for centuries. As well as old farmsteads occasionally one comes across remote chapels built in the 18th century by non-conformist groups who needed places of worship. One of these is a place called Soar-y-Mynydd which is a beautiful, plain whitewashed building set about with beech trees in the middle of nowhere. There are no houses nearby or even many farms though there are signs of old abandoned steadings from long ago. But even so, when it was built ther local population could not have numbered many. Remarkably, services are still held there from time to time. Many of the old chapels in Wales are no longer in use and those that are have dwindling congregations as do many of the churches. Sometimes these old building are sold off and converted into remarkable and quirky homes which seems to me to be a good use for these redundant buildings.

Lovely Weather for Ducks

Once again we are having lovely weather for ducks! I seem to spend a lot of time describing the weather but that is because our weather here is so changeable... we have weather rather than climate! On Monday it was glorious sunshine with a brisk wind and a decided chill in the air but since then it has been warm and very wet, endless rain causing so much of the farm to be muddy and unpleasant underfoot. Even the dogs tend to tiptoe around and skirt the puddles. Judy the sheepdog with her long coat & feathery tail is caked in mud. Despite the rain the birds are singing gaily and seem to be unpeturbed by the constant downpours, we see them carrying nesting materials and I have just seen a jackdaw checking out the old nesting holes in the ancient gardener's shed across the yard from my kitchen window. While life here is going along its usual seasonal path we are not unaware of the horrors being endured by the people of Ukraine. In spite of the grimness of the news reports there are are moments of cheer such the footage of farmers towing away Russian military hardware behind their tractors, 'liberating' them presumably for use by Ukrainian forces. One of the major problems faced by us all if the conflict continues further into the spring, is that Ukranian farmers will not be able to get their seeds sown for the vast wheat harvest that we are hugely dependent on for flour and sunflower seeds/oil etc. For us living in west Wales, on the very edge of the western world, Ukraine seems a very long way off but the impact of this war will be felt by all of us. Already we are having price increases in the fuel which is so essential to us for running tractors and machinery involved in food production. Food prices will increase but now is surely the right time for our government to take a serious look at increasing food production in Britain so that we are more able to feed ourselves without being dependent on imported foodstuff. Vegetables and meat we can produce at home so easily and rather then exporting lamb and then importing similar quantities. Why can't we supply the British market with home-grown meat? The fashionable thinking at present is to give massive funding to 're-wilding ' projects i.e. taking land out of food production and 'returning it to nature'. What seems to be forgotten is that people need to be fed. In recent reports and studies to introduce new farming subsidies it seems that food is not considered a 'public good' which most farmers find an very difficult concept to accept. Surely food production is more important than giving greater access to land for people walking their dogs!

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.