Let’s shut the door on spring and welcome summer to Dartmoor and let’s hope that the sun comes out to get the first cut of grass harvested and start shearing the sheep, but the rain arrives back in small doses to keep the grass growing, the dust damp and the farmer happy…. There is only ever a few days between the last downpour and a farmer somewhere who will spout the inevitable “could just do wid a drop o rain ya know”….. But with the longest day closing fast I am sure we shall muddle through.
I am sure by now you are all fed up to the teeth with talk of Brexit and Europe but as the polling stations open the decision will have to be made. British agriculture has a large stake in the outcome as the European Common Agricultural Policy has been one of the main stays of Europe since its conception and this decision will affect every farmer in the UK, like it or not. I am not going to start a history lesson but I may just touch on how BREXIT or STAYIN, could affect a family farm on Dartmoor. We currently rely on payments from CAP and without them farming on Dartmoor would not exist as we know it. Land and labour costs for a start would just drive us to the wall and the national park and the British countryside as it stands would be a very different place. In Europe we are supported, the question is will the BREXIT campaign support British agriculture? I think the answer is yes but how and which sectors? Farming in the UK continues to experience hard times with no real light at the end of the tunnel. But many farmers, perhaps braver than me say let’s cut the shackles, red tape and support ourselves. For me I think the head says stay, the heart says BREXIT. My gut feeling is the election will be tight but we will stay in. This gives us bargaining power whilst still maintaining a seat at the table. Whichever way it goes, I will be glad when a decision is made, we can then get on with it.
Political commentary over, I shall return to my day job…. Cows and calves are now growing fast and getting ready for courting. All the Bulls have their shiny new summer coats on and are ready to step out with the ladies as the eternal season’s role around once more. We have a new bull this year as we are trying a new breed on our commercial cows. We have bought a Hereford Bull called Lancelot. Hansom young 2 year old chap from Nottingham. Some of our younger cattle can get a bit spooky so we are slowly moving away from the Simmental which is more prone to being bad tempered in our experience, to the quieter Hereford. Let’s hope it works.
All the autumn calving Galloway cows are away on the common for the summer and will only come home briefly to have their calves weaned. They will start calving again in September, and although that seems a far way off and too much like autumn to be talking about it, we have to give the cows a couple of months to rest and recover before they calve again.
This time last year I was going on about our family holiday to France. Sorry to say now our eldest is at school full time our holiday will have to wait until the prices and the temperature triple in late July and August! So thanks big brother, we will be engineering some kind of staycation in the UK. Wish us luck.