A Month on the Farm - June

by Libby and Lisa Buchanan

Well, can’t things change in a month? From drought to an abundance of rainfall. We know everyone is craving sunshine, but we have needed rain so badly. The sense of fear all farmers felt in April was intense. When you cannot see how to feed your stock and when the cops aren’t growing, it is very scary indeed. And it doesn’t just affect farmers, but everyone - after all we are growing your food. Now the grass is rich and thick. The wheat, barley and oats are flourishing. The stock is content in the fields and we will start cutting the silage as soon as the drier weather comes. The year ahead looks very much brighter.

Meanwhile, our batch of late calvers (the result of our bull going lame before he had finished the job last year!) is popping out. At this time of year we calve outside, which necessitates some 3 a.m. visits to the field, but it is so beautiful and quiet it is positively joyful. Interestingly, our bull alerted us to a calving the other night by roaring outside the window - and he was not even in the same field as the calving cows. A combination of animal intuition and a father’s pride!

The great task of cleaning out the cattle yards is done and dusted. The dung is in piles in the fields ready for spreading the Autumn and the building are power-washed and spread with lime to kill off any bacteria. All the waste plastic from the silage blues which store in special bins has been collected and gone for recycling. Everything is clean and tidy, which we think is the only way to do it.

We have been working with Sussex Flow Initiative, which encourages farmers to slow the speed and force of water at times of heavy rainfall to prevent flooding downstream - more important than ever as we come to terms with climate change. We will be putting leaky dams in the woodland and planting even more hedges and trees. All of which benefits Nature as much as slowing the water.

We didn’t realise that the Black Poplar had become nearly extinct in East Sussex in the 1990s - Wakehurst Place has been working it wonders to rescue them - so we will be planting a stand through on of our fields as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee next year. It is such a fantastic initiative of which we can all be part - whether in fields, gardens or in the community.

Maybe Fletching could plant an avenue of trees to mark this historic occasion? As The Prince of Wales said: “Let’s make it a Tree-bilee”!