Live 24-Seven - Farmer’s Diary Farmer’s Diary harvest time
Herefordshire farmer Richard Thomas considers the role of women in the countryside during wartime before his thoughts turn this year’s harvest…
“
Women are often the unsung heroes of the countryside
” Photo: Ryan Price
“Without the women, Britain would have starved.” This is the stark headline for a National Farmers’ Union (NFU) article about women’s contribution to agriculture and the nation during the First World War. The front of the most recent NFU magazine shows a woman gathering corn and other photos show women ploughing and shearing. The WI was formed in 1915 to encourage women to take on some of the roles vacated by the men who had left for war and to revitalise the depleted rural communities. The Women’s Land Army followed in 1917, with perhaps a more proactive role to get more women involved in agriculture and break down the anti-feminine bias that existed in the countryside. These moves obviously worked and women played a huge part in the war effort, producing food for the nation. My grandmother used to talk about having to stand in the feed manger as a young girl, during the Second World War, to put the harness on the shire horses on the farm. She had to show the women how to tack up the shire horses because they didn’t know how to do it. Of course she was not alive during the First World War, but the principle is the same, women were integral to the agricultural effort during the conflict and the farming community is right to remember their essential contribution — a contribution that has continued ever since.
While they may not do the physical work, although they are more than capable of doing so, women are often the unsung heroes of the countryside. It has been said to me that they are the glue that binds us all together and keeps us going. Farming is all about working together and we are certainly stronger for it.
Combines have been rolling around the county for a few weeks now, gathering in the harvest for another year. By all accounts yields are mixed, but then that always seems to be the way. Even with high yields, confidence in arable farming is not high at the moment. The wheat price is down, with some commentators reporting a multi-year low. Wheat is a commodity that is traded world-wide. A good harvest in USA will help to deflate the price and events like the conflict in Ukraine will help to increase it, but expectations are not for major price increases this year. Oil seed rape is in a similar situation, the price being at a lower level than recent years. The farm gate price for a product is an age-old discussion point in farming. Averaging out prices by forward selling or ‘hedging’ is common in the case of wheat and oil seed rape, but some farmers have sought out alternative markets for their produce, increasing profit by bringing their raw product closer to the consumer. Brockmanton cold pressed rapeseed oil is one such example of this (
www.brockmantonoils.co.uk). The oil seed rape is grown on the farm in Pudleston, near Leominster and farmer Ryan Price has been producing oil for around 12 months in a barn on his farm; he uses a German machine with an Archimedes screw to extract the oil from the rapeseed. The resulting oil is bottled and sold in local outlets and the remaining oil ‘cake’ is fed to cattle as a sustainable protein source.
It is quite rare for the whole food producing chain to be done on farm, but more and more farmers are trying to do so. It is all about shortening the supply chain, which has to be better for all involved. See you at the local farmers market!
108
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116