Putting the boot in

Last month I spoke to Darren, the fitter who is installing some grain equipment for us. “I can’t see you next week, I am going skiing” I informed him. For some reason he found the idea of a farmer skiing very funny. “How do you fix the skis to your wellies?” he joked. Well I have not heard that one before, Darren, but as a pig farmer just about every other welly joke has been directed at me. I blame Billy Connolly. When I was young I wore ‘rubber boots’ as we called them all winter just as a matter of course, unaware that in the future they would be targeted as joke footwear. Adapting the famous Duke’s boots and making them from rubber and completely waterproof happened in the mid 19th century. But they were mass-produced during the First World War for soldiers in the trenches and then became, for farmers, the best invention since Turnip Townsend’s seed drill. The horror of life for a pig farmer without wellies cannot be imagined. A punctured welly and resultant evil smelling soggy sock gives a clue.

I mention wellies as they have been essential for us all this winter. I am not sure if total rainfall has been any higher than usual (read the weather article on page 29), but the land seems to have been a constant mud bath. But as winter ends so the land does dry out, and the luxury of deciding what job to do next changes overnight to chaos as ten jobs need to be done at the same time before it rains again. Nick has to finish the ploughing, and John has to finish hedge cutting at the end of February and then cultivate all of the land to be planted with spring barley, an important crop for us and all beer drinkers. The crop has then to be drilled, and there is spraying and fertiliser spreading to be done on the whole farm. The autumn sown crops all look in reasonable heart, at least. The Oil Seed Rape has not been hit too hard by pigeon damage, and the cold weather in early winter chased the slugs deeper into the soil so lessening their impact. The winter wheat also looks well. It is important now to get the spring barley planted as soon as possible. Last year it was planted much too late, and suffered from a very dry spell in late spring leading to a poor harvest in that crop. But no one said farming should be easy, certainly not Michael Gove.

So I am hoping you can very soon put away your wellies as spring arrives. But when temperatures hit the 80s spare a thought for the pig farmer sweltering away still in his wellies.

Mike Hartley

April – May 2018