We could see the disease creeping nearer as each farm succumbed. It started at the head of the valley where rumour fed on rumour concerning some sheep bought from a concerning part of the country that had connections with foot and mouth and were moved to gain from this areas close proximity to Birmingham and the need there for cheap mutton at that time of year.
So all stock from one farm after another, down the valley, at eight day intervals, was slaughtered and burned. We could smell the smoke, and a trip to Bromyard necessitated running the gauntlet of these pyres. And then my neighbour’s cattle became ill and we waited with baited breath! 
 On the 5^th day, a Sunday, a ministry  vet rang at just after 1 o’clock to ask my comments on the possible cull of my cattle as a contiguous cull. I said I would take his advise but was fully aware that if I my cattle got this awful disease, then my next door neighbour would also be culled, and he had, and still has, a wonderful herd of pedigree Herefords. Greatly prized.
I had a small young herd of beef shorthorn cows that were in the middle of calving and we now had eleven beautiful calves, having spent the whole morning calving one heifer. She was so pleased and proud of her new calf, a little bull, and couldn’t leave it alone
The vet rang to say that the slaughterers would come in the morning! What could I say – I felt it was the right thing to do in the circumstances, and i probably had no real choice, but was so sorry for all these young animals. I think all livestock farmers at that time felt very isolated and fearful. The government in London seemed to have no idea what to do except kill every thing, and little practical advise. Only interested in covering there own backs and saving money by delaying culls of actual outbreaks, allowing further spread.

Monday dawned and along came the flotilla of men. I wasn’t allowed to stay and watch the rifleman at work, but apparently, the vet pushes all the cattle into one pen and there is a lot of bellowing as each mother tries to find her calf. Then he starts, and when the first cow is shot all the others turn round to face the man in surprise, so his job is easy and there is sudden total silence except for the sound of each cow or calf as she falls, and the crack of the rifle. He did a good job!  Each one had a neat bullet hole through the forehead. Even the newest arrival and his mother, and I know it sounds melodramatic, but as my neighbour, whose cattle were also culled, said,  ‘I lost many friends today.’
I saw the people off the farm after they had  issued  me with lots of enforcement notices, and the slaughter man left me a spent cartridge case, which I still sits in front of me on my desk. I suppose rather a grim reminder. Maybe it should go !

 I felt  numb, and it has to be said rather guilty that I had not somehow prevented this catastrophe from afflicting my herd. When you buy and own living animals all farmers have an unwritten code and agreement with the animals that says, we will protect, feed and nurture you to the best of our ability. And the cattle agree to provide you with your livelihood. I felt that I had failed them.
I went in the house to sit quietly.  I think I was in shock.

 I turned on the radio and Barber’s  ’adagio for strings’ was playing.  Very beautiful music, but so sad. It rounded off a terrible day, and due to the Governments ineptitude things got no better for many a month.
 
 
 
 
           

Foot and Mouth 1967

 
Foot and mouth seems to have been an ever present sore all my farming life. It started way back in 1967 when I was at Walford Agricultural College.  All the new students arrived in late September for the start of the term and we had all just about started to settle down and enjoy all that was on offer with a year away from home, when down came foot and mouth. To say it drastically restricted our social life would be an understatement.

 
Walford student’s life was spread between Radbrook ladies teacher training college, Oswestry nurse training college and one or two other fun places. And then you come to the pubs in Shrewsbury. All of that was gone when the college was surrounded by foot  & mouth. All surrounding farms were culled due to the disease, but somehow the college stock escaped the disease.  Extraordinary, especially when you consider that one or two people  could not contain their amorous tendencies and absconded for the occasional evening. If found out it was instant expulsion.

 
When the outbreak calmed down, it was time for exams and the end of the year.

 
And then came 2001 !

August 6^th 1982

 
Heavy rain and thunder last night causing another No6 wire to break in the hop yard. The hopyard is like a giant cats cradle. Heavy gauge wires stretch  across the  area of hop roots at a height of 16 feet, held up by a succession of straight pine or chestnut poles. Across and at right angles to this wire is stretched the No 6 wire onto which is hooked the string which acts as a climbing aid for the hop shoots.

 
The problems start when, as the wire starts to degrade due in part to the chemicals that are forever around hops to control the many diseases and pests, after heavy rain or wind the wires break one by one until the complete unit collapses. This is a disaster and involves rapid repairs in all weathers and at any time of day or night.  

 
I’m afraid if this  wet and windy weather keeps up, I have many wet hours to spend and many sleepless nights until the crop is harvested. I sometimes wonder why I bother – there must be an easier way to make a living.

 
Like growing cereals for instance. Sold a 25 tonne load of this years winter  barley which yielded about 2.5 tonne per acre for animal feed. Selling at £100 per ton and a  load of hay for 75p per bale, helps to ease the cash flow at this most important time of year. The whole farming year hinges on the performance of the harvested crops over the next month. So it’s exciting and worrying all at the same time.

Flattened Toes.

 Hot day after the blustery heavy showers of the last few days. Could do with some fine weather to finish making hay. I have also got to find the time to drench last summer’s calves. This is a  horrible job involving  catching each animal and drenching it with, to the animals taste, foul liquid. They really struggle and fight, and you end up with heavily trodden toes and a really bashed body. Worse than two  rounds with Big Daddy.  If only some way could be found to give animals something to kill the lung worms etc that doesn’t involve the farmer risking getting trampled to death himself !
Drenching cattle is  one of the worst jobs on the farm, but not as bad as hop tying. Hop tying is training each young hop shoot to climb the Hessian hop string. We have 18000 hop roots on the 11 acre hop yard and each root has 2 strings reaching from the ground to the 12 foot wirework. above. Each string has 2 shoots  climbing  one string, and 3 shoots climbing the other for optimum yield. For the variety called Fuggles,  that’s not 2 & 2 or 3& 3. It has to be 3 & 2. It is back breaking and mind numbingly boring work.
It was also ‘one of those days’ on the calving front I’m afraid. The good news is that we have so far calved 29 cows with 21 bull calves and 8 heifers. The bad news is that one cow died. She calved quickly and with little trouble giving birth to a lovely Hereford cross bull calf, and I left the mother contentedly being suckled by  the calf. On checking them both 30 minutes later the cow was dead. Probably a burst blood vessel according to the vet. Now the difficult part is to find a foster mother and persuade  the calf it was all a bad dream.                      

I have kept a farm diary for the last 35 years, and it can be very interesting looking back. In fact it seems like another world.

Farming was very different then, and the format of farming was different. I see that on that Friday, July 27  1973 ,I  was blackcurrant picking having got an annual contract with the makers of Ribena. And fruit picking  was a lot of fun as well as hard work. The pickers were all local, and relied on the income from farm work from July though to early September . Blackcurrant picking, then plum picking and then hop picking.  It was not big money by today’s standards, the blackcurrants  earned 30p per 12lb bucket which took about 30 minutes depending on the crop and how much sun bathing was done. Some people got very carried away on hot afternoons ending up very red and embarrassed. It has to be said that some of the village lads enjoyed sneaking down the fruit rows, which were quite tall, hoping to catch any inexperienced young lady unawares - topless being the order of the day.

As we had a  Hereford cross suckler cow herd, later on that day 34 years ago  two calves were born, one with help from a vet as it came backwards. Hay making was  also in progress because it was a cloudless day, and everyone knows that farmers make hay while the sun shines. And  that’s what I did, down by the side of the river Teme. The same fields are still there now growing the same  hay crops, though this year they  have been destroyed  by the floods. You can’t make hay under six feet of water.

 This year not a blade of grass has yet been cut for winter forage . Quite a concern !

And it rains again. Twenty years ago this week Jeffrey Archer had just won half a million pounds and costs of up to 1 million against a London paper. I’m afraid that the flood losses to farming alone is going to come to that sum many many times over. In my valley alone the losses are huge. On this farm we have been luckier than some. All the winter fodder has been lost which will necessitate the sale of all the cattle on the farm, but only 8 acres of wheat have gone. My neighbour has 150 acres of cereals under water. Probable losses to me are in the region of £4500, but at least I will be able to have longer ‘lie ins’ in the winter with no cattle to feed every morning. Every cloud has a silver lining!

With more and more people interested to know where their food is coming from, and all the public scares we’ve had with the increasing number of chemicals being put in our food and the health consequences, Organic Farming is bound to be on the increase. It’s a huge and i’m sure very competative market, but i’ve found this site with some useful information on.

Scotish Agricultural College

Poplar Trees could be a great alternative crop and provide a long term return. There are also grants available for planting the trees and then on-going payments for the first 10 years. You can either apply directly with The Department for Food and Rural Affairs, or you can go through a company who specialises in the industry.One such company i’ve found is The Poplar Tree Company.

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