Farming
Farming News – November 2024
I am approaching a time of decision, whether to grow potatoes in the future. My 39-year-old potato harvester is wearing out.
Read MoreFarming News – October 2024
This has been a strange year, 6 dark, wet months followed by 3 dry, droughty months. This has enabled most crops to be harvested, but the weather pendulum appears to be swinging back towards rain.
Read MoreFarming News – September 2024
As you read this, you will have noticed how the nights are drawing in. The light nights are slipping away quicker in the autumn than they arrived in the spring, which, I think, is due to the tilt in the polar axis.
Read MoreFarming News – August 2024
The winter barley has now been harvested and the straw baled. I started to use the combine harvester on the 3rd Friday in July, but I had to stop after 50 metres because a bearing on the return’s auger had seized and it took 20 hours of work to replace it.
Read MoreFarming News – July 2024
The upturn in the weather in recent weeks gives anticipation that the harvest of winter barley should commence in the last few days of July.
Read MoreFarming News – June 2024
The relatively dry and warm weather of May gave us the chance to get this year’s crops planted.
Read MoreFarming News – May 2024
Drier weather has enabled me to sow some spring barley, apart from a corner of the field which is still under water.
Read MoreFarming News – April 2024
In his book, ‘A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages’, Martyn Whittock explains how solar activity affected the weather throughout history.
Read MoreFarming News – March 2024
This has been the wettest winter of the 50 that I have been farming. It is mostly dry in the lambing sheds where I have buckets to catch rain which drips through holes in the roof and can be used to water the sheep in their pens.
Read MoreFarming News – Febuary 2024
The recent request from the council asking farmers to clear the roads of drifts in times of heavy snowfall reminds me of the last time that the village was isolated by drifts, in excess of seven feet!
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