Yesterday felt special.
Blue sky streaked with soft mare’s tails left by watery brush strokes. Clean, bright air full of warm honey-bread-fragranced grasses and delicate green-tea scented blossoms – a day when you breathe in, and in, and in. The colours clear and crystal-sparkly. Bird song filled the air, the soft lowing from a cow calling to her baby and the distant humming drone and clank of a tractor working. It made me smile.
I walk, the dogs scuttering and bounding in front of me, surprising the odd hiding pheasant which explodes into the air with loud chuck, chuck, chuck. Spears of southern marsh and spotted heath orchids peeping through young green stems of purple moor grass. Meadow thistle, bugle, tormentil, hay rattle and ragged robin flowering amongst the earlier lousewort and vetches. Huge dragonflies blunder past me with the whirr of old propeller aircraft as butterflies flit and dance silently overhead.
Idyllic, glorious, extraordinary. Yes, all of these…
Special, unique, exceptional. And that too…
Rare, uncommon, unusual. But of course…
One thing these beautiful meadows of mine don’t do very well is produce grass for my stock. Yes, it’s true there is some summer grazing, but the grazing is more use to the flowers than my stock. Yes, it’s also true that herb-rich pastures give a superb taste to our beef and lamb. But they are not productive, so my stocking rate has to be very low.
Locks Park has been under a green farming scheme, Countryside Stewardship, since early nineties in recognition of the wildlife and landscape we’re producing alongside top quality food. This payment meant the difference between profit and loss on the farm. So, you can imagine what I felt when my application for the new scheme, Higher Level Stewardship (HLS), was rejected recently.
Locks Park is not alone in this, the budget being a fraction of what it should be in the West Country. Along with many others, we find ourselves having to re-appraise our land management and may have to let our neighbours have the grazing, taking advantage of economies of scale. Or another option, seen more and more in the farming community, is to sell to incomers who don’t need to make a living from the land.
Ironically and perversely the money would more than probably be up for grabs…for restoration…if I ploughed the whole bang lot up !
So there we are. I hope someone will take note and that the good budget settlement from Europe and the Treasury will mean that applications like ours are reconsidered. If not, then before long my walks may be less filled with flowers, the countryside the poorer.
9 comments
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May 31, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Erin Gill
Paula, I love your blog! It’s wonderfully written and your entries are helping me chip away at my agricultural ignorance. I’ve always wondered what fly strike was! In fact, your entry about the impact of persistent rain on sheep gave me a clue as to the purpose of all those tubs of veterinary medicines with worrying brand names that occupy a vast amount of space at our local farmers co-op in west Wales. As an organic farmer, you presumably don’t use these medicines very often. How do you cope? It seems to me that all the sheep farmers around us - not to mention the remaining dairy farmers - couldn’t farm without them.
June 1, 2007 at 10:20 pm
paula
Thank you so much, Erin!
One of the main things I try to achieve with both my cattle and sheep are contented, unstressed animals. This means allowing them to behave as naturally as possible. They then develop a good natural immunity within the flock or herd. By allowing them access to herb rich pastures and hedge/tree browsing you find that they will often self medicate. In fact watching what they graze can give you insight to possible problems, such as mineral deficiencies, worms etc. There are of course certain problems that do need addressing. For these I would obtain a derogation from the Soil Association and monitor the situation. I also have a closed flock and herd; this helps considerably towards animal health and wellbeing
June 2, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Liz Kent
I’ve just found your blog, having followed links from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, of which I am a member, through the BTO, and CPRE. I am so grateful for all the organic farmers like you who continue to farm in harmony with nature despite the EU and DEFRA, as without you, as well as the conservation organisations, we would be at serious risk of not having any wildlife or pollinating insects left. I hope that you can soon qualify for HLS, as the fact that you allow wild flowers to grow is what is enabling commercial crops to be pollinated, no thanks to the farmers of monocultures! Do have a look at the bumblebee website, to be found at http://www.bumblebeeconservationtrust.co.uk, also at http://www.plantlife.org.uk, which sites species decline in wildflowers to be due largely to modern farming practices and chemicals. Farms with species diversity should be rewarded. If you can encourage wildflowers which are rich in nectar, especially at times of year when nectar is scarce, you are doing a great thing to help our bees! I don’t know if you are aware that the nectar of the invasive rhododendron ponticum contains low levels of toxins that can become concentrated in honey if there is too much of it in the area, and is best avoided. This plant needs to be controlled.
June 11, 2007 at 8:54 am
paula
We’ve been away in Scotland for a week and come back to a farm devoid of any outside communication…now we wait patiently for BT to fix it! So apologies for the delay in replying.
I’m glad you’ve found my site Liz and thank you for your supportive comments. I’ll certainly have a look at the sites you mentioned.
July 1, 2007 at 2:55 am
jeanette
the catch phrase in austrialia for thirty years has been (to the farmers detriment) GET BIG OR GET OUT resist if possible .
July 1, 2007 at 9:37 pm
paula
I certainly plan to try!
November 22, 2007 at 10:39 am
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January 11, 2008 at 11:12 pm
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[...] realised very early on that to make the farm pay we would have to do the same. We also signed up to green farming schemes which initially made the difference between profit and loss. In the mid-nineties I began to develop [...]
May 12, 2008 at 7:29 am
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[...] and farm such a piece of land. But I’m also made to feel culpable. When completing the infamous Higher Level Stewardship application I was brought to task over keeping sheep and ‘lost points’ as this is considered [...]