Farmers all know that our livestock require salt and certain trace elements to remain healthy. Why it has taken so long for the penny to drop that we too need salt to keep our bodies healthy is a mystery.
 
It is shocking that for decades doctors have been advocating no or low salt intake, which has without doubt caused undue health problems.
 
Why has it taken the eminent Dr James DiNicolantonio, a leading cardiovascular research scientist, or his colleagues so long to dispute the theory that salt is killing us?
 
Reading his article in the Daily Mail in which he highlights the benefits of salt, and the catastrophic consequences of a deficiency, including obesity, infertility, fatigue, erectile dysfunction, and reducing our bodies ability to withstand trauma and shock, is truly disturbing.
 
Fortunately livestock farmers have always known better and ignored what they considered to be bad advice. Let us hope the rest of the population read Dr DiNicolantonio’s article, take heed, and increase their intake of salt.
 
The arable crops are looking remarkably well, although the dreaded Black Grass is appearing to raise its head above the growing crop. This weed is becoming increasingly difficult to deal with as it has built up a resistance to many chemical sprays which we are able to use without damaging the growing crops.
 
The programme of sprays which we administer are carefully advised by both our agronomist and Independent Soil experts. The latter regularly take both soil and leaf samples which show any deficiencies, particularly during the growing season.
 
The leaf tissue tests are taken a week before each of the fungicide sprays, so that micronutrients can be added if a deficiency shows up. These can include manganese, zinc, selenium, copper or sulphur. By adding these trace elements to the growing crop helps its growth and balances others elements which can be locked in and not made available to the plant.
 
There is a surprising amount of ‘science’ related to growing arable crops which unless one is involved with agriculture, most people are totally unaware of. The need for research and development is essential, particularly the advancement of new varieties. Each year new hybrid varieties of wheat, barley, oats and oil seed rape come on the market.
 
The breeding programmes and trials will have taken years to get to the point where they are available to farmers. Those brave enough to be the first ‘guinea pigs’, often grow bumper crops the first year. Some fall short and do not reach expectations.
 
It very much depends upon what soil type we farm, and if we are growing for quantity or quality. For example a Grade I wheat which is for bread making is a different grain to that of a Grade II, which would go towards biscuit making. Then Grade III is grown largely for quantity, and marketed as animal feed, much of which is shipped abroad.
 
The recent rain is helping to keep the crops growing well. What we don’t want now is heavy thundery down pours, as this will flatten the crop as is grows taller.
 
The Lupins are still under attack from the pigeons which is highly irritating, but new tasty and delicate plants keep popping up which attracts their attention. The larger mature plants are now of little interest to them.
 
There is so much going on both nationally and globally, that it is increasingly difficult to concentrate on the forthcoming General Election.
 
However notable local irritants include the destruction and defacing of roadside boards, and the absolute rubbish that is published in certain election leaflets.
 
In some European countries, including Spain, when information in election literature is clearly untrue about another candidate, those distributing the false information are prosecuted for deformation.
 
There are definitely some notables in the Lewes constituency who by rights should shortly be having their collars felt by the local constabulary!

There is so much going on both nationally and globally, that it is increasingly difficult to concentrate on the forthcoming General Election.
 
However locally notable irritants include the repeated destruction or defacing of conservative roadside boards, and the absolute rubbish that is published in Lib Dem election leaflets.
 
In some European countries, including Spain, when information in election literature is clearly untrue about another candidate, those distributing the false information are prosecuted for deformation.
There are definitely some notables in the Lewes constituency who by rights should shortly be having their collars felt by the local constabulary.
 
Following the Manchester bombing which targeted youngsters and their families, the public are asking why successive governments have not tackled an obvious problem.
 
Radical so called Islamists, have for decades made it perfectly plain that they hate the indigenous British, our culture, values, freedom, and Christian faith. However, they have made it equally clear to anyone prepared to listen, that they ‘Love’ our country.
 
They have said that they are just biding their time and waiting for instructions from their leaders, and when the word comes they will ‘systematically wipe us out’.
 
Already they are raping and impregnating British girls and young women, ‘creating’ Muslim babies; just see what is happening in Rochdale. The rest of us they say they will exterminate with bombs and knives.
 
Politicians have been aware of this for years, but have not been prepared to venture out from beneath the PC umbrella. Anyone who has dared to raise the matter of this integrated threat, imbedded within our communities, ‘a fifth column’, has been vilified by the press, media and political elite.
 
Let us hope that the 22 victims of the Manchester bomb have not died in vain. Perhaps this was the wakeup call which was needed.  The policing of city centres must be revolutionised, and radical monitoring of what is going on within the Muslim population, their mosques and schools must be addressed.
 
Genuine peaceful Muslim clerics, Imams and communities must take responsibility for their own. They cannot stand by wringing their hands saying, ‘it’s not us’. It damn well is and if they are not willing to ‘police’ their own extremists, then something has to be done.
 
We have been too cautious, polite, even perhaps afraid to act, while turning a blind eye and allowing vast areas of our cities to become unrecognisable as Britain. Local planners have much to answer for by allowing vast mosques to be established which hold thousands. Would Christians be allowed to build vast cathedrals in Muslim countries? No, of course not.
 
The British public are angry, they want strong leadership, and a government prepared to deal with this problem now. We could take the view it is too late, that the Genie is out of the bottle, and there is nothing to be done. However, we know this is not so. We are not prepared to roll over and accept ‘the inevitable’, the British don’t do that.
 
Farmers all know that our livestock require salt to remain healthy. Why it has taken so long for the penny to drop that we too need salt to keep our bodies healthy, is a mystery.
 
It is shocking that for decades doctors have been advocating no or low salt intake, which has without doubt caused undue health problems.
 
Why has it taken the eminent Dr James DiNicolantonio, a leading cardiovascular research scientist, or his colleagues so long to dispute the theory that salt is killing us?
 
Reading his article in the Daily Mail in which he highlights the benefits of salt, and the catastrophic consequences of a deficiency; including obesity, infertility, fatigue, erectile dysfunction, and reducing our bodies ability to withstand trauma and shock, is truly disturbing.
 
Fortunately livestock farmers have always known better and ignored what they considered to be bad advice. Let us hope the rest of the population read Dr DiNicolantonio’s article, take heed, and increase their intake of salt.

Having had a quiet word last week with our vicar ahead of the Rogation Sunday service about our desperate need for rain, I think he must have been on his knees for hours, and he surely has a very impressive ‘direct line’ to him upstairs. By Sunday the call for the Revd Christopher Powell to perform a ‘Rain Dance’, whilst he blessed and the congregation prayed for our crops and cattle, was fortunately no longer necessary!

We had some much needed serious rain last week, and within a matter of days the crops were transformed from looking parched and stressed, to having grown several inches, and developed a healthy glow. We now have every hue of green from dusky emerald green grass, dark blue green wheat, to the softer green of the winter barley, restored across the farms. All of which are now swaying gently in the breeze and warm sunshine.
The Lupins are certainly looking better, but I shall reserve judgement as to whether they have fully recovered from their difficult start. Until they are harvested and safely in the barn at the end of the summer, we will not know what damage the drought has done to them.

The countryside is now peppered with roadside boards of various colours as the General Election draws closer -  just two more weeks to go. In this part of Sussex, they are mostly blue, which is I am told the most noticeable and attractive colour.

I wonder if this could be due to the fact that most have the image of the lovely Maria Caulfield smiling out from them. It is perhaps not a complete coincidence that it is mostly gentlemen who tell me they admire this particular shade of blue!

Ann Hill and her boys John and Ed, together with a few close friends and family, last Friday celebrated her husband Charlie’s 51st birthday. The one important person who did not join this celebration, was Charlie himself. The previous day they along with several hundred of his friends, colleagues and admirers had gathered together in church to celebrate his full but all too short life, spent almost entirely in Wivelsfield. He was buried in the beautiful grave yard, in the pouring rain to the distant sound of ‘Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree’.

Charlie had been diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer on the 1st February. Just 88 days later on the 29th April he died two hours after walking into St Peters and St James Hospice, despite the best efforts of his medical team. Earlier that morning he had put on his overalls and was found fixing the brakes on Anne’s car, in his workshop!

In a final tribute to Charlie who had spent his entire life working on engines, tinkering with old farm machinery and brilliantly restoring old tractors and cars, he was taken on his final journey to church by tractor and trailer. A Nuffield 10/60 which he had lovingly rebuilt, which was driven by his 21 year old son John.

Charlie had been a long standing member of the South Eastern Vintage Agricultural Club, or tractor club as it is known. He had been chairman, and for the past few years, with Ann’s help he produced the monthly newsletter. He was brilliant, and very persuasive at encouraging members to contribute articles, including his sons.

Charlie leaves a void which cannot be filled. His immediate family will miss him terribly - he should have been with them for many years to come. He was always the heart and soul of any gathering, and his kindness, cheerfulness and unfailing support for his family and friends were legendary.
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He leaves behind him a fine legacy; John and Ed are chips off the ‘not so old’ block. They and their mother will cherish his memory, and will together with his friends from far and wide, including his special community, never forget him.  

Almost by magic following the arrival of much needed rain last week, a field of Lupins which we had totally written off as a complete failure, suddenly leapt into life four weeks after drilling. Now a mass of little green shoots have at last emerged, where just days before there were none. Nature is truly remarkable.
 
It is not just me who is delighted by their arrival, but so too are the pesky pigeons. Having given up hope that a crop would emerge in the bone dry Royal Oak field, after some rain and a rise in temperature, it is now a race to see if the Lupins can out manoeuvre the thieving pigeons  growing quickly and making themselves unappetising. The vital rope bangers will be called into action once again, in an attempt to keep them off the crop.
 
Next weekend is ‘Rogation’ Sunday, the traditional time of praying for agriculture, and in particular blessing the elements used in farming; the fields, the seeds and farm animals. It is a time when vicars will challenge congregational members to think carefully of the food we produce to eat, those who work the land, and care for the water, earth and seed.
 
This year our vicar has suggested holding the service on the farm. Usually the service is held in the church followed by the congregation trooping down through the graveyard, where prayers and blessings are directed over the wall in the direction of the fields and our lovely Sussex cattle. When remembered to move them into the church field, they could generally be seen lurking nearby.
 
Next Sunday the service will take place in the new grain store. Had the rain not arrived last week, I would have insisted the service included a suitable ‘rain dance’. Mind you, it may well still be worth doing so, just for the entertainment value!

I hope prayers and blessings will aspire towards seeing off any disease and aphids in the crops, request a good yield, an increased price for the grain, and for good measure a special request that the menacing black grass to be wiped out this year.
 
I am hopeful that our new vicar the Revd Christopher Powell, has a very good and effective direct line to ‘him upstairs’!
 
I am beginning to feel a little sorry for some parliamentary candidates who are receiving an increasing amount of abuse in the press, and on social media.
​
It is wise when speaking publically, particularly through the media, to ensure you have total command of your subject and produce accurate facts and figures. To attempt to go head to head with experienced journalists and try and ‘wing it’, is suicidal.
 
The criticism and abuse Diane Abbott and a number of her colleagues are receiving, has been relentless, is unsurprising but is now verging on cruelty. The ongoing reports of her incompetence on more than one occasion, has now become the story, and the message she was attempting to convey totally lost.
 
The public will not tolerate being lectured by politicians who quite obviously are taking them for granted, and clearly do not have command of their subject.
 
It is interesting that the Conservative battle bus has Theresa May’s name plastered all over it, but Labour’s has no mention of their party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
 
Mrs May is much in demand to visit constituencies across the country. Her presence is positive, and her popularity amongst the public and candidates is in stark contrast to the last General Election, when most wise conservative candidates ensured David Cameron did not to visit their constituency, being fully aware that his presence was toxic and unhelpful to their campaign.
 
The tactical manoeuvring of candidates amongst the Lib Dems and Greens demonstrates another disregard for the electorate and democracy. There is a rumbling of disquiet in Brighton where the Lib Dems have withdrawn their candidate hoping their votes will go to the far left wing Green candidate Caroline Lucas. This and the blatant interference of the ‘Remoan’ brigade, makes interesting  viewing.

Still not a drop of rain, and it is doubtful we will see any this week despite promises from the weather men. The Lupins are now under severe stress, and those bravely hanging in there don’t look at all happy. They are desperate for a good soaking but if the rain does not arrive soon, the crop will definitely fail.
 
It is weeks since we last saw rain in Wivelsfield; there have been showers in Burgess Hill, Hurstpierpoint, Haywards Heath and elsewhere but as so often is the case, here we are as dry as a bone.
 
The pigeons have been breakfasting, lunching and dining out on the Lupins despite heroic attempts by local guns to keep them away. However, the evidence is indisputable, as any shot have crops full to bursting with Lupin seeds.

​​We have invested heavily in bird scaring banger ropes which we hang high in the trees around the fields, well away from dwellings and footpaths. Within a day of setting them up we received the inevitable visit from the local Environmental Health Office. He had been contacted by just one member of the public who lives over a quarter of a mile away from the closest banger, but could hear ‘bangs’ in the distance! The officer’s duty was to investigate, and caution me that my first duty is to protect the public, not my crop! You couldn’t make it up!
 
British agriculture should be high on the list of priorities during the run up to the General Election, and even more importantly, during the Brexit negotiations.
 
Depending on who one listens to, there are two very differing views on the future of British agriculture post Brexit.
 
Some believe that once we have cut the umbilical cord from the EU, British farmers will be starved of life saving financial input which currently does indeed keep the wolf from the gate of many farms.
 
Others are quite relaxed about the future and can see only opportunities, including expanding our markets globally, increasing national investment into research and development, and directing support where it is actually needed instead of the current scatter gun effect, costing millions.
 
The restraining and smothering hand of the bureaucratic red tape of ‘mother’ Brussels has not in fact been helpful or constructive.
​
What is certain is that if we had not been cushioned and restricted by the Common Agricultural Policy, British agriculture would be far more advanced, productive, and innovative.
 
As with families which have for generations relied on the nanny state, and now are incapable of standing on their own two feet, preferring to live off benefits rather than aspire to gain qualifications and aim high, British agriculture is over reliant upon support which comes via Brussels.
 
The future for farming, post Brexit, should be somewhere in the middle. It will only work if the right people are handling the negotiations, but there does appear to be rather too much extremism from both sides of the debate, which is probably doing Andrea Leadsom’s head in.
 
The Minister has done well to grasp her very complicated brief. Not easy as agriculture was never her subject.
 
She should have been part of the hard core Brexit negotiating team, as few in Westminster have as much experience as she regarding the workings of the EU. However, for whatever reason Mrs May decided to lob agriculture at her which she no doubt realised was particularly tricky!
 
I suspect following the General Election Andrea Leadsom and several of her colleagues will be well and truly ‘shuffled’. There are certainly several square pegs in round ministerial holes at present.
 
Stories that the Prime Minister is not prepared to meet the general public do not hold up in reality. Sussex saw Mrs May visit both Eastbourne and Seaford last week where she walked happily along high streets and knocked on random doors, as she supported County Council candidates. The public found her willing to chat and very accessible as did the local press.
 
It appears the negative reports were an example of ‘fake news’?

Another Bank Holiday which fortunately brought some much needed rain. We have been increasingly concerned about the 80acres of Lupins planted two over weeks ago which got off to a bad start due to the parched earth, cold winds, lack of rain and frosty nights.
 
Those which do emerge are in danger of being ripped out of the ground by hungry pigeons, so the prospects for a bumper crop this year, due mainly to the weather, is looking increasingly remote. They are grown under contract for seed, but I should not lose sight of the fact they are a very effective break crop, and a good crop of wheat should follow next year.
 
The dry cold spell has virtually stopped the grass growing, and the winter cereals, although looking well, could be better. It all needs a really good soaking and some warmth.
 
At this time last year it had hardly stopped raining since the previous September, and we were desperate for it to dry up so we could get onto the arable fields, and turn the cattle out.
 
No two years are ever the same which is why farming is always a bit of a challenge. Our lives and businesses are deeply influenced by the weather and Mother Nature, but there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.
 
Bank Holidays are disruptive for many businesses and national productivity. Anyone contemplating adding a further four Bank holidays must need their head examined. I think Boris was perfectly justified labelling a certain party leader a Mugwump, and that was before he made the suggestion which would totally disrupt the British economy.
 
As the General Election campaign gets into gear, it is certain that the crusade to determine ‘who governs Britain’, will not be pretty.
 
The reports of the four minute deliberation amongst the remaining 27 EU countries at the weekend, regarding Brexit, was insulting. The message that unless the British Government ‘rolls over’, there is no deal, is unacceptable.
 
This attitude only strengthens the realisation that strong leadership is crucial to ensure our exit from the EU is decisive and UK driven.
 
The reason that Mr Junker and his mates are so aggressive, is because they are fully aware that we have right on our side and hold the trump cards.
 
It is certain is that if Messrs Blair, Branson, Mandelson and Miller believe they can ‘buy’ influence by parading their anti-British, pro EU propaganda, and bully the public into turning our backs on Brexit, they are clearly mistaken. Between them, Mr Juncker and Donald Tusk, they will only intensify the public’s determination to support Mrs May in achieving a clean break.  
 
It is hard to define their motives, but what is clear is that they do not have the best interest of the country at heart. If they and their sycophantic friends love the EU so much, they should move there permanently, while they still can.
 
The new fashion for wealthy city people wanting to wear jeans caked in mud, farmyard manure, tractor grease or paint, is an opportunity for hard pressed farmers to branch out into another type of diversification.
Instead of throwing jeans and overalls into the wash at the end of each day, we can now market them as authentic ‘British Farm Jeans’, ideally with the Red Tractor Logo guaranteeing that they have been produced ethically.
 
A nice little business, as the average price for jeans is around £30. We can produce at least seven pairs a week, and apparently the ‘dirty’ jeans are flying off the shelves at a staggering £300 a pair!
 
No doubt this theme could be expanded upon and we could also market our filthy 4 x 4 vehicles. They come naturally covered in mud on the outside and have interesting interiors having ferried muddy dogs, lambs, calves and dirty children on the back seat, and cans of diesel, milk and chemicals in the front. The range of ‘dirt’ could be customised which should surely add several thousand pounds to their value!