Down on the farm, life can be a real struggle (From Gazette & Herald)

Down on the farm, life can be a real struggle

IT is six weeks since Pat and I moved back to the farm in the hills above Hovingham and this has been one of the most difficult periods of my life.

I had been more consultant than farmer over the past ten years, as well as almost full-time writer for various papers, which has made the transition back to working farmer very challenging to say the least.

Moving house, of course, added to the complications and there are still a few things we seem to have mislaid on the road from Hovingham, but things are getting better as we once again get into the farming routine.

There cows are to milk every day and all the day-to-day planning to do, just to keep the farm running and all the cattle fed.

And of course there is the weather. This is merely either a bonus or an inconvenience if you are a semi-retired scribbler who has a part-time interest in the farm, but very important to the full-time farmer with a lot of cattle to feed every day.

In this country, we have either a drought or a deluge and already the dry spell leading up to Easter is behind us with heavy rain sending the irrigators back into storage until midsummer droughts strike.

Today, the worry is will we get some fine weather for silage-making which should be done by the end of May? If we are too late, the grass quality falls away very quickly and we need to buy in expensive concentrates to balance the cows' winter rations.

But things are slowly falling into place and my long-forgotten farming skills seem to be coming back again. This is mainly due to the help which is being given by my friends and all the people we do business with.

Most people expected us to have a sale and give up the farm, because this is the trend today. Just yesterday, a young man told me how pleased he was not to be losing another customer because of the current farming crisis.

These, of course, are age-old farming problems and were just the same 50 years ago. But today, we have a lot of new problems associated with the regulations emanating from the EU and "gold-plated" in Whitehall.

In the six weeks I have been in charge, no fewer than four officials have visited us. All of them very pleasant and helpful young men, tasked with making certain that English farmers obey the rules, which most of our continental cousins ignore.

Every day, yet another document arrives in the post telling of another change, or proposed change, in the rules, quoting the severe penalties which will follow if I transgress. This, of course, is not new.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported because they wanted better conditions and America was colonised when the Pilgrim Fathers sailed away in little wooden boats in search of freedom from repression.

Sadly, every other industry seems to be having the same problems and we are all being regulated out of existence.

Out in the woods and fields, however, young life is once again very evident.

The swallows arrived on April 16 and are building their nests. Our ponds are teeming with waterfowl of all ages, with young swans, ducks and geese sharing the water with all the common water birds.

Sadly, thanks to the otter family which was with us last year, all the fish have disappeared from the ponds and a pond without fish is a very boring place.

The footpaths, however, are teeming with walkers - or "the plastic pigs" as they are called in the Lake District - and they must be feeling much happier thanks to a very elaborate series of foot bridges and kissing gates which have been installed on the farm.

I would rather have had an extra policeman, or even a few potholes mended on the roads. But then I am just a simple peasant and nobody listens to the views of country dwellers any more unless we happen to be a retired professor or doctor qualified in some obscure science and completely illiterate as far as real country living is concerned.

But out in the real countryside, all the dramas of nature continue, largely unseen by the 'chattering classes'.

Our garden is full of birds, to Pat's delight, but a few years with lack of control has allowed the squirrel or 'tree rat' population to grow unchecked and they have destroyed a few nests.

The swans, having hatched seven cygnets on their island nest, have started to move them from pond to pond every few days in order to confuse the local foxes and mink.

During the course of their travels last week, two of the baby swans got stuck in some wire as they tried to cross the farm road and all the rest of the family stayed put, completely blocking the farm track.

I was called out to rescue them and help them on their way. It took ten minutes, no policeman, no RSPCA, just a simple farmer who knows and understands wild animals and birds and afterwards, peace reigned again.

Today they were all enjoying themselves and life goes on quite normally.

Updated: 13:14 Wednesday, May 21, 2003