Archived News

20th September 2015

A week is a long time in politics and farming. 

Jeremy Corbyn has appointed Kerry McCarthy as the Labour spokesman on farming, environment and rural affairs and as Karl Schneider in the Farmers Weekly Editorial suggests, it would be very worthwhile Ms McCarthy visiting the countryside and some real farmers as she appears to be quite misinformed if her past comments on farming are anything to go by.

Mr Schneider went on to say; ‘Before we write her off, we should make a real effort to show her that her skewed, negative image of farming is a million miles away from the reality of 21st-century farming in the UK.  In three weeks’ time Farmers Weekly will be celebrating the cream of British farming, at the 2015 Farmers Weekly Awards. The winners of these awards reflect all that is best in our industry, showcasing the highest welfare standards and the most sustainable production methods.’  

Farmers Weekly has offered to introduce Ms McCarthy to some of the UK’s premier farmers at that event, let’s hope she attends and begins a fresh and open minded approach to her new role.

On 11^th September we finally finished the core of harvest 2015 with the last of the peas which were on the floor due to heavy rain.  

Recent collections of fodder beet have gone to a pig farm and to a keeper of heavy horses, and during the past week about 20 trailer loads of fresh beet have been lifted at Raikes.

It was a marathon trying to get the last of the wheat harvested and as it came off the field wet, all the grain is gradually being put through the dryer and then back into the grain stores until it can be sold.

Ed has been cultivating ground at Park Farm which will be drilled with wheat following on after oilseed rape, whilst Laurence spent a day in a post-harvest finance meeting checking the quantity of grain, pulses and seed harvested this year.  Last week the price for barley on the grain market was £88/tonne and wheat was £96/tonne both below the cost of production.

Last weekend we hosted a farm visit for some of our Beltie beef customers and neighbours.  It was a lovely afternoon and we looked back over the past 80 years of the Matthews family farming in Wotton and to the present day with ten landlords and about 3,000 acres of arable and grassland.

We visited the various grain stores and dryer, discussed cultivations, drilling, wildlife margins, cattle rearing and conservation grazing.  The feed-back has been fantastic and the general theme being how much more the visitors understand about what is being done in the fields they pass by on a regular basis and why.

A group of six month old Friesian x cattle have recently been chased by a group of male youths in a field at Elex Wood, Abinger Common.  One of those cattle subsequently became poorly and we had to bring him in to recover.  If anyone sees anything unusual such as cattle being chased by teenagers or dogs please contact the police.