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 !