Farm Diary

MY holiday seems but a distance memory already! Mind you the journey home needs forgetting, as the clutch master cylinder on the Land Rover failed, leaving me to pump the clutch for every gear change (and there are thousands) for over 650 miles; using both legs in turn when stationary so that I could engage first gear.

Paying the motorway toll was never easier; anything so I did not have to change gear! We were lucky to get back.

Since we came home the weather has been atrocious, and the cereal harvest is still to get going properly, as the grain deteriorates whilst combines stand idle.

There has been a bumper harvest in Europe and the price of feed wheat has dropped sharply in the last month or so. The farm is in good order with plenty of grass due to the rain, and the maize is all a forest of green, but needs plenty of sunshine to ripen the cobs.

We have a Welsh TV film crew arriving for two days this week to do some filming, and my niece has been forewarned that she will be taking a major part; in fact she will be the star!

More changes to staff as a Hungarian couple arrive (both to work on the farm), to take over from Alex from the Ukraine and Miroslav from Bulgaria. Miroslav has now been back to Sofia and bought an apartment with the money he has earned working at Crouchlands over the last two years. Its good to see people work hard, look after their money and set themselves up for the future. It's good to be a part of that.

The launch of Wiseman's 'Fresh n low' in all Tesco stores last week shattered the traditional quiet time in the dairy sector. I think it would be accurate to say that absolutely everyone in agriculture and the retail trade were taken by complete surprise when a new line was introduced to Tesco's shelves at 10p per litre below the cost of standard milk.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette