Those of us who farm know it is a tough all-consuming business. Currently friends and neighbours who are lambing or calving, or in some cases both, are working flat out 24/7 as they tend their livestock.
The joy of seeing new life emerge after nine months gestation in the case of cattle or five for sheep, is rather tempered by the exceptionally wet and muddy conditions. Watching ewes and snowy white lambs trying to find shelter from the wind, torrential rain and hail stones the size of marbles, has been depressing. We badly need sunshine and a gentle breeze to dry the waterlogged fields.
Farming is hitting headlines and the public are becoming more aware of what happens ‘down on the farm’, thanks to high profile ‘farmers’ like Jeremy Clarkson, Amanda and Clive Owen and their children, and Zoe Colville known as The Chief Shepherdess. All have written books and appeared in our living rooms, shining a light on what is goes on down on the farm, warts and all.
Today it is rare to find someone who has not watched Clarkson’s Farm. All who have, including farmers, admire the way Jeremy has allowed the cameras to expose the highs and lows of life at Diddly Squat Farm. In so doing capturing the public’s hearts and attention with his unique team including Kaleb, Lisa, Charlie and Gerald. Neither BBC Countryfile or other efforts like Spring Watch have ever been this honest, un-sanitised, hilarious or gripping.
Good for all those who raise the profile of British agriculture, and the life farmers lead as they toil away despite facing the wrong weather at the wrong time. Or, watching crops deteriorate in waterlogged fields, coping with heart wrenching fatalities, herds of valuable cattle slaughtered due to testing positive to TB, spread by badgers, a protected species, while domestic cattle which feed the nation, are considered to be worthless.
It is hardly surprising that statistics show that more than 20 per cent within the farming community suffer from depression, a figure escalating year on year. Isolation in today’s world of agriculture where mechanisation and cutbacks result in people working alone with livestock and machinery, does not help. It is worth noting that farming has the highest work-related death rate than any other occupation in the UK.
Farmers do not sign the Hippocratic oath promising to put their livestock, land, and soil above their own needs. We would never strike and down tools leaving livestock to suffer or crops to rot in the fields, despite often working day and night producing food for which we are regularly paid less than the cost of production.
The public’s sympathy for militant junior doctors, and some nurses, is wearing thin. If they don’t want to do the jobs they signed up for, they should have chosen alternative careers, not a vocation. These politically motivated reckless strikes are causing many patients stress, suffering and even some deaths. May they be forgiven.
The joy of seeing new life emerge after nine months gestation in the case of cattle or five for sheep, is rather tempered by the exceptionally wet and muddy conditions. Watching ewes and snowy white lambs trying to find shelter from the wind, torrential rain and hail stones the size of marbles, has been depressing. We badly need sunshine and a gentle breeze to dry the waterlogged fields.
Farming is hitting headlines and the public are becoming more aware of what happens ‘down on the farm’, thanks to high profile ‘farmers’ like Jeremy Clarkson, Amanda and Clive Owen and their children, and Zoe Colville known as The Chief Shepherdess. All have written books and appeared in our living rooms, shining a light on what is goes on down on the farm, warts and all.
Today it is rare to find someone who has not watched Clarkson’s Farm. All who have, including farmers, admire the way Jeremy has allowed the cameras to expose the highs and lows of life at Diddly Squat Farm. In so doing capturing the public’s hearts and attention with his unique team including Kaleb, Lisa, Charlie and Gerald. Neither BBC Countryfile or other efforts like Spring Watch have ever been this honest, un-sanitised, hilarious or gripping.
Good for all those who raise the profile of British agriculture, and the life farmers lead as they toil away despite facing the wrong weather at the wrong time. Or, watching crops deteriorate in waterlogged fields, coping with heart wrenching fatalities, herds of valuable cattle slaughtered due to testing positive to TB, spread by badgers, a protected species, while domestic cattle which feed the nation, are considered to be worthless.
It is hardly surprising that statistics show that more than 20 per cent within the farming community suffer from depression, a figure escalating year on year. Isolation in today’s world of agriculture where mechanisation and cutbacks result in people working alone with livestock and machinery, does not help. It is worth noting that farming has the highest work-related death rate than any other occupation in the UK.
Farmers do not sign the Hippocratic oath promising to put their livestock, land, and soil above their own needs. We would never strike and down tools leaving livestock to suffer or crops to rot in the fields, despite often working day and night producing food for which we are regularly paid less than the cost of production.
The public’s sympathy for militant junior doctors, and some nurses, is wearing thin. If they don’t want to do the jobs they signed up for, they should have chosen alternative careers, not a vocation. These politically motivated reckless strikes are causing many patients stress, suffering and even some deaths. May they be forgiven.
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