Autumn is a lovely time of year on the farm with its stunning colours; so much to celebrate with the harvest done, plenty of food for the winter, the animals all looking well after a good summer, lots to sell at market and money coming in as the work load eases before that winter routine starts. It is little wander the old boys invented the harvest festival.
The trouble is we no longer live in the idyll of a bygone age. We are now subject to a global commodities market, where we struggle to mass produce food as cheaply as other parts of the world where their labour, land and raw materials are cheaper and sadly welfare standards, traceability and provenance can be non-existent. You will all have seen the dairy farmers and their milk being shamelessly undervalued - well it is not only this sector struggling. Beef, lamb, pork and cereals prices are all down to critical levels and the situation for most farm businesses is becoming extremely serious.
We all know the supermarkets are pushing suppliers to sell cheap and undercut their rivals. They all dress it up claiming to deliver the best product for the cheapest price. This spirals down the food supply chain and unfortunately we farmers are at the bottom! Since the Second World War agriculture has been supported in order to protect our food supplies but this support is now dwindling and as an industry we have to adapt, stand together, market ourselves and control a stronger position in the market place. British agriculture leads the world in production standards, tractability, welfare, provenance and innovation. Let’s shout about it! We are being undervalued!
Farming on Dartmoor with sheep and cattle delivers the fantastic environment and landscape of the national park for all to enjoy. Initiatives like Dartmoor farmers Ltd (dartmoorfarmers.co.uk) that has seen 50 or so likeminded Dartmoor farms working together to set up a business that sells its Beef and Lamb (with fantastic provenance) directly to the customer are one such solution. How better to support our local area than buying beef and lamb which is part of that story and helps secure the future of the park and the farms which shape it. Most of my own beef now goes through Dartmoor farmers and Howells of Tavistock and it is great to be able to talk to the people selling your beef direct. They give me feedback straight away and tell their customers exactly where it comes from, and they love it! The message is I suppose, buy local and shout about it!
Elsewhere on the farm the cows are now looking to come off the high moor and come in to the barns and yards for the winter. The moor turns from green to brown and the cows look homewards. Gradually all the cattle will be housed for the winter. It is a lovely sight to see cows on the fields but through the winter this wet piece of granite we live on soon gets bare and churned up by hooves if we leave the cows out to long.
We are now well into selling our lambs and although prices are well down this year, there is little we can do about it. Problems in Greece, Russia, China and exchange rates all influence the market and this is going to be a particularly bad year for the sheep trade. That said, we have to look forward to the next year’s crop and the ewes are now in good condition and will spend the autumn courting. The rams are let loose on the girls at a ratio of about 50 to 1. All that glitters isn’t gold and those rams will have earned their keep in these crucial weeks!