Absolutely immense amounts of water flowing at speed. through the farm and taking anything in its wake, including precious top soil, there is no amount of resilience I can build in to soils that will
Compensate for rain like this, I could cry.
I hope every MP listens to this before the go and vote on the ag bill tomorrow.
@herdyshepherd1
speaks for me and many others.
@NFUtweets
have worked hard to get an amendment to allow parliament to vote on trade deals. Principles matter.
Caroline Van Der Plas makes the point that O2, H2O and food are the building blocks of life. And issues a warning that loss of critical mass in farming is a key political and societal risk. Sending the message- Cherish Your Farmers.
Summer 2020 will be my kids summer of being kids, they were growing up so fast, peer pressure etc. 8 weeks in they are growing as people and thinkers, but gone back to trampolines and dens. School life grows them up, home life lets them grow in to themselves.
#SilverLining
A bit of
#train
footage for anyone who enjoys heritage structures doing the job they were designed for. Very few passenger trains over the viaduct at the moment as not a lot of demand for the Oakham to London route during
#lockdown
Human population has doubled as biodiversity halves, climate is changing. If we took a purist view, we would halve the human population, but it’s easier to ask agriculture to pull an ecological rabbit out of a hat. Much harder to stop pulling fossil fuel out of the earth
#climate
A quiet warning to anyone who puts a swollen finger with some sort of infection down to ‘it will blow up or go away’. Emergency antibiotics needed yesterday after the infection found it’s way in to my chest. I thought the GP would dismiss it last week.
#sepsis
#dontriskit
Massive thanks from my family to the amazing team at
@GreatOrmondSt
who have looked after my youngest for the last 9 years. Today they discharged a well child. 9 years ago we had been told that he wasn’t for this life and we were unlikely to know a reason.
Congratulations to
@Sarahbellagri
on her election as
@NFUEastMidlands
@NFULNR
Council Delegate tonight 🗳
Many thanks to Chris Parker for his many years of service to the members of Leicestershire, Northants & Rutland.
Not surprising- Liam Fox is obsessed with cheap food, he will sell the UK food system down the river for his ideals. If the uk farmer thinks otherwise they haven’t been listening
#brexit
#food
#farming
#NFU
Even this afternoon, in freezing rain, with a raw wind there was hope. And there is always hope. Spring will come, there will be better days, for now we put one foot in front of the other and keep finding the small joys.
#run1000
#mindyourhead
#farm365
@howemill
I am an Arable Beef and Sheep farmer in the East Midlands. My mum is also a farmer, she started farming at 18 and in a different world in 1980.
Yesterday I put away all of my ‘office’ and going out dresses, it was depressing me looking at them. Today Yorkshire Pudding is bringing me joy. Deal with the things within your control.
#AgMentalHealthWeek
A quick shout out to
@JanetHughes
for her time and grace engaging with farmers this week, this brand of radical honesty and willingness to put yourself out there is a rare thing, huge respect to you Janet.
Bitterly cold, tiny ❄️ hitting my face like ball bearings carried in on a viscous east wind. But doesn’t it make the hedge dad laid in the autumn look beautiful!
#lockdown
#snow
#hedge
#environment
#farm365
I had a great chat with the ladies from
@XRebellionUK
this evening outside the farming conference. Lovely people who want to make a difference, whilst their knowledge of ag wasn’t huge the big question was how can we help. They didn’t see ag as the problem.
#ofc20
Two separate people have said to me in the last 24 hours that taking land out of production and turning it over to sole environmental use is on paper profitable. I haven’t run the numbers but can see how the logic goes. Bad for the next generation of farmers and food security
I really dislike the ‘thank a farmer’ narrative, I think this blog sums up the reasons for that pretty well. Positive dialogue is the key. No one ‘has / needs to buy’ our product, they choose it, and spend their hard earned 💷 on it. Let’s give them good reason to.
Followed by the statistic that Uk farmers are 4x more likely to be dyslexic. I am, and wouldn’t give it up if I had a choice. Though I do wish Twitter had an edit button
#Dyslexia
#superpowers
#farming
#OFC23
After 16 months of being very careful, covid has crept in to our house from school. Child entirely well and symptom free. Please be careful friends it really can be a silent disease. 😷
I might need to step away from Twitter for a bit. Nuance is completely dead, the politics are beyond belief and the hypocrisy from many who are melting down about the future via the press, rather than making sound arguments based on realities is maddening.
2 cups of coffee and a slice of cake with a neighbouring farmer this morning, lit the fire and had a chat. No guilt, we both feel better for drying out and offloading.
#mentalhealth
Great Infographic showing the positive impact of livestock on biodiversity. Combine this with the inherent benefit of a rumen converting grass to high quality protein and we have a highly nutritious outcome!
THIS is why plant-based, ultra-processed fake meats are NOT better than grass-fed beef. We need better meat, not fake meat. Also, real meat is WAY healthier than ultra-processed pea protein and canola oil. more at
#yes2meat
#sacredcow
Bella has grasped that the difference between farmers and landowners; farmers are owned by the land.
Just when we need them most, farmers face an unsure future. Let’s heed their voices | Bella Bathurst
It still amazes me that the Victorians put trains in to the sky. The red bricks are original masonry. Nothing like heritage to put things in to perspective- we are no more than a spec of dust in time and space.
A 26-year-old tractor driver has been sentenced to 38 months imprisonment following the death of a man in a serious road collision on the
#A14
in 2017.
read more here
Absolutely incredible light for
#snow
photos today. Despite walking like a penguin I still managed to end up on my bum in the yard, go carefully out there my friends
#healthandsafety
#Farm24
starting with bee breakfast from the wildflowers. Lots of berries on the hedge, the birds will enjoy through the autumn. The bales are hay from the grass strips which are a great habitat for 🕷🦗🪲🐞🐛🦋🪱🐝
I look at my Twitter timeline today and see farmers hit hard by this rain. I find myself wondering (again) how the world will be fed if we reach 1.5C warming never mind more. Then I step out and see this, Nature at its very best, warms the heart, but doesn’t change the Macros.
I only wish Twitter could send you the smell.
#harvest
starts here. A week early, a side effect of the mild winter or the dry spell? We will see when we get it baled.
Minette is a role model for everyone, honesty, integrity and bravery in speaking the truth to power and fighting for both our society and our industry.
Sorry to break the bads news but...… a team of researchers based at Oxford University, shows categorically that methane from UK's ruminants is not causing global warming
It’s Friday, the kids are grumpy, we are all a bit fed up of home schooling - I’m not ashamed that an hour on the mower with ear defenders constitutes time to myself at the moment.
I am consistently impressed by the FT’s reporting on agriculture- excellent sources in this article
@RuthDairyFarmer
@JoeWStanley
@ProagriLtd
all people I have the privilege of working with, who genuinely know their subject
A week of massive progress with holiday cottages, I now have heat pump so when the plummers are clear of covid… I might even have heat! If you want to see more
@the_stables_ayston
on FB or Insta. We will be open from mid May!
Stellar work from
@GarethBarlow
this week on
#Focusonfarming
. All credit to
@BBCNews
the reporting this week has been good. I hope it signals the start of a fresh, educated approach to food and farming coverage.
So delighted to see Will as chair of
#ofc24
a great friend, a change maker, a generous contributor to the industry. An inspiring start to a conference focused on the diversity of our industry. Against a background of everything being tough this is needed.
I am pretty concerned about the arrival of
#stormbella
this is 12 hours after the flood peaked from Wednesday’s rain, more falling at any speed on to saturated ground is not going to be pretty.
My life is so exciting I have just responded to the ELMS consultation, it took 45 mins. If you are farming this will affect you and I would urge you to let DEFRA know your views.
@Minette_Batters
Shall I pop a lasagne in the post? If I lived next door I would happily keep your kids fed whilst you are busy rocking true leadership. As ever brilliant work and massively appreciated.
We all fought hard, and have had amazing support from friends family, the local community and colleagues over the years. A heartfelt thank you to each and every person who has been with us. This is the best outcome we could have ever hoped for. ❤️
And the world service, which I love and brings some amazing programs to BBC sounds. Some of the most accessible ad free science radio programs in the world. The beeb isn’t perfect but I would miss it hugely, it’s worth every penny of my licence fee.
📺 10 TV services
▶️ BBC iPlayer
📻 10 national radio stations
📍 39 local radio stations
🎧 BBC Sounds
💻 1 of the UK's most popular websites
91% of the UK population use the BBC each week
A quick reminder about how much we all get from the licence fee 👇👇👇
The political stuff is shocking, so focussing on the things that make your ❤️ sing is critical. Here is mine, a fabulous bird rich farmed landscape
#NFU23
#farming
Sam Godfrey, Pig farmer takes to the floor, holding all the emotion of so many pig farmers living on the brink.
Delivering a professional and measured plea, for help direct to pig producers, who are facing truly heartbreaking circumstances on farm.
#NFU22
@herdyshepherd1
all over the issues with the bigger vision of brexit and agriculture policy. As ever an excellent and articulate summing up of the situation
@DavidParsley50
@theipaper
It’s not only homes, but farms - businesses, which have already had the infrastructure on the land demolished. Soil is a life’s work. Utterly devastating on so many levels. Real people, real lives all affected for zero benefit, and huge residual cost.
I am watching apocalypse cow as prep for something I am doing tomorrow.
@AbiReader
my daughter is blown away by your patience and honesty. You are inspiring the next generation (as well as this one). Be more Abi is now a thing in our house.
Leaving Oxford with a heart full of friendship and inspiration, it was fabulous to have so many people back together, especially to see those who live further away. Great work from
@emilymnorton
and
@willpenrievans
. Looking forward to next year
#OFC23
Due to changing times the kids have decided its time to mothball their carpet contract farming ventures. This is not a
#Brexit
related decision, they hope that a successor will be found in the long term.
A tweet yesterday reminded me that my parents instilled in me that being female wasn’t a barrier. So on
#InternationalWomensDay2019
I am grateful to them and to all the others who think that way in
#agriculture
and beyond.
Watching
@HenryDimbleby
on countryfile and scratching my head about how to produce an animal without
#mince
. Personally I think I will take a decent burger over Processed meat alternatives every time.
#britishbeef
Prof Alice Stanton concearned about the long term health effects of meat alternative veggie foods which are highly processed. They drive consumption of sugar and sodium whilst lacking key building blocks of health
#OFC20
@Minette_Batters
and
@HertsFarmer
have been all over the media this week being a level logical voice of reason, in a climate of hysterical and selective reporting. I am hugely grateful that we have strong leaders standing up and speaking up for a sustainable future 🐄🐂🐑🌳🌾🌱
A day spent in central London, if the media tells you it was awful, they aren’t telling you the truth I was in Whitehall at 11.45, apart from a few sirens it was fine, the met had massive presence, but fair play to them it felt secure and calm.
Two hours spent on the Red Tractor standards review for arable and sugar beet this afternoon.
#Farmers
it is important you look at this as it involves some major changes to the amount of things you will be audited on in future.
Point 1, invest in women in agriculture. I have been asked in the last 24 hours, what about your husband, what about your father? Draw your own conclusions…… For info, Husband and Father are both critical and equal on our farm, as is my mother - but that person didn’t ask
This is not new, my wages only just covered nursery fees when my kids were in nursery. I was working to keep a foot in the door, drink tea whilst it was still warm and escape the monotony of kids TV. It is very sad as it sacrifices too many good, bright talented people’s careers.
A little bit of footage of the worm thieves round the drill yesterday- credit for the video goes to my lovely husband (sound on 🎶).
#drilling
#simtec
#seagulls
#farm365