Chairmans Chat 2021

Hello all Country Linkers,

After a busy summer on the farm we have finished all the autumn drilling and cleaned down and put away all the machinery for the winter. We are now feeding about 350 cattle in the yards plus more who will be out all winter.

I must thank Claire and her team for all their hard work organising the recent weekend in Corby, the first for 2 years due to the pandemic. We had a very interesting trip to Bletchley Park, where, during the second world war, people were employed code breaking using specially devised machines. There were other good trips to a farm growing bird feed and, on the Sunday, our walk was to Welland where we were treated to the sight of the longest railway viaduct at 1,275 yards long comprised of 82 arches. It was constructed between 1875 and 1878 using over 30 million bricks and involved 3,500 people to build it costing £12,000.00.

When we have cold nights, and bright sunny mornings you may have noticed many tiny "money" spiders with threads of webs seemingly floating in the breeze. These are ideal conditions when air currents are rising from the ground and the tiny spiders take advantage by climbing to the top of stalks of grass or an emerging cereal crop to transport themselves to a new place. They achieve this by releasing strands of silk from their abdomens. The silk or gossamer is so light that the air currents lift the spiders. They can then travel huge distances. Weather balloons positioned thousands of metres above a remote group of Hawaiian Islands have recorded money spiders drifting by. The silk that spiders produce is extremely stretchy, stretching to one third of its original length without breaking. Weight-for-weight it is 7 times stronger than steel. The United States military is investigating the possibility of using spiders' silk to make bullet-proof jackets as it is so strong and stretchy that it can absorb the impact of most bullets much better than man-made fibres.

The Country Link National Committee is putting out an appeal for more Group Organisers to help to run YOUR CLUB. This is very important if we wish the Club to remain vibrant, as new ideas are always useful.

Also we need Group(s) to arrange the autumn 2022 weekend, so please consider putting yourselves forward.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

We've now slipped into Autumn, with the equinox taking place on the 22nd September. Now we have days and nights of equal length. Fortunately this year the clocks do not go back until 31st of the month, so hopefully we will have some lovely autumnal days to enjoy. September was the second warmest we've experienced since records began.

Now that we are free to go to more events, we recently attended our local steam show called the "Berwick Bash" this year as it only lasted one day, where usually it is a whole weekend event with people camping overnight. However, it was extremely well organised all being held in one large field underneath beautiful rolling downland to the east of Shaftesbury. I have attached some photos. The event is usually bi-annual and serves as a get-together for farming folk, local village and townspeople as well as anybody interested in old tractors, ploughs, steam engines, heavy horses, vintage vehicles, etc. The show is non-profit making with donations made by the public on entry for the Salisbury Hospital charity Stars Appeal which offers direct practical support to patients, their families and the hospital staff.

Happily, barn owls, having been in deep decline during the 1950's and 1960's, due to the widespread use of organochlorine pesticides, i.e. D.D.T., are now making a good resurgence. This is due, largely to the practise by farmers of planting grass margins alongside arable fields and leaving field corners of tussocky grass. This habitat attracts small mammals, i.e. common shrew, wood mouse and short tailed field vole, all of which are hunted by the barn owl. They eat an average of 4 small mammals per night so need to be excellent hunters. They are equipped with superb hearing due to their heart shaped face which collects and directs sound to their inner ears. The ear openings are situated inside the facial disc just behind the eyes. They are shaped differently and placed asymmetrically (one higher than the other) and as a result, sounds reaching the two ears are heard very differently. By analysing these differences the owl's brain automatically calculates the exact position of the sound source. Experiments with captive owls have confirmed that they are able to locate and capture prey in total darkness using their hearing alone. What a remarkable bird and it is such a privilege to be able to see them almost daily hunting locally.

We have the Corby weekend to look forward to from 15th - 18th October, the first for 2 years. Let us hope that the weather will be kind to us. I look forward to seeing members who will be attending the weekend.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

As I write it's the 31st August, two thirds of the year gone and I don't know where and the evenings are definitely drawing in. We're still wearing masks to keep ourselves and others safe more than a year on.

It has been a very poor summer for weather with very little sunshine, much different from last year's heatwave.

The harvest is very slow going - we could do with more sunshine. Some photos are attached of the combine on the farm. The yields are down on other years. The rain and damp misty mornings do not help as the moisture content is too high and the cost of fuel for the drier has rocketed.

On a lighter note, it is good to see local fetes dog show and fayres taking place this summer. As they mostly take place outdoors it is reasonably safe as long as we are still careful.

We recently visited a sunflower field where the farmer has sown a whole field of sunflowers for his diversification project. It was a glorious afternoon as we roamed up and down the rows of giant sunflowers cutting our own stems for 80 pence each. They have lasted as cut flowers for well over 2 weeks and certainly cheered us up on these gloomy, grey, cloudy days. The farmer has a neighbour who keeps his bee hives around the field edges and, as it is also very close to Salisbury Plain, the bees make wonderful honey from both the sunflower pollen as well as nectar from the profusion of wild flowers on the Plain. The farmer sells sacks of black sunflower seeds for bird feed and presses some of the seeds for oil. The cut flowers are popular for wedding flowers, so the farmer is doing well from this project.

Until next month, when some of us will meet at the weekend in Corby, take care and keep safe.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

Even though it is meant to be high summer we seem to be having nearly all of the seasons in one day, i.e. extreme heat, high winds, thunder storms with incredible lightening and torrential rain.

In between all this weather that nature is throwing at us we have managed to combine all of the winter barley, which is very poor quality with a tiny berry. The grain is still in a barn on the farm as we are not sure where it will end up as the quality is probably below that which is required for malting. The oil seed rape has also been cut and gone off farm to a crusher in Norfolk, to be used for various products - cooking oil, margarine or an ingredient of putty. We did all of our haymaking during the heatwave, which, and I know we should not complain, is a bit dry, but better than being damp and going mouldy.

Ragwort, a yellow plant, which in the old days was known as a noxious weed is now prevalent along roadside verges and in many fields. Until a few years ago we had roadmen, who were employed by the local council, to keep our verges trimmed and tidy. They pulled out ragwort, wearing protective gloves as it contains arsenic. But now conservationists have discovered that bugs and butterflies feed on the nectar, so the councils have decided to jump on the bandwagon and leave the noxious weeds in the name of conservation. What a good excuse to do even less with our council tax payments. What they do not tell us is that if an animal eats as little as 2 kilograms of ragwort they will die of poisoning. Each plant produces approximately 3000 seeds and if it is cut instead of pulled out by the roots it then becomes an annual instead of a bi-annual and therefore will appear each year alongside those which have seeded meaning that we will soon be overrun with this noxious weed. (I should be sending this to local councils)!!

I've attached a couple of photos of some lovely white park cattle we encountered on a walk in the fields around Tisbury where I live.

The second form for the autumn weekend will be on the website in early August. If you have any queries about the weekend or the form please email or phone Clare, who will be only too happy to help.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

June has come and gone with the longest day being colder than the shortest day last year. Our climate is certainly dramatically changing. During the last week of June parts of western Canada experienced temperatures of 47.8 degrees Celsius, being double the seasonal average.

On the farm we have completed the silage clamp and we are now baling silage for our neighbours. The cost of the wrap alone on the baled silage wrapped in either black or green plastic sheeting shown in my photographs is approximately £5.75 per bale. The government plan to ban the use of plastic in a few years time, which would necessitate the re-introduction of silage clamps covered with chalk, which in turn has an adverse effect on the cattle as they could then ingest soil on the chalk causing health problems.

Did you know that, in Britain, there are 270 species of bee with 250 of them being solitary bees. They are very important pollinators - without them the whole ecosystem would fail and humans and animals would not survive. Bees fly at 15-20 mph from their hives to forage for nectar/pollen from flowers. They cannot see red and are guided to pollen by ultra violet light given off by the flowers.

A country folklore rhyme about swarming bees:

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon
A swarm of bees in July isn't worth a fly

It's now too late for bee-keepers to gather any swarms this year.

Most groups have now started meeting again. This is a good time to catch up with old friends and meet new ones. Hopefully a full programme can be put in place soon with pub meals and the all important cream teas being enjoyed after our walks.

THERE ARE STILL PLACES FOR THE AUTUMN WEEKEND IN CORBY 15TH - 18TH OCTOBER 2021. PLEASE BOOK YOUR PLACE(S) OR CONTACT CLARE FOR DETAILS. ANY PROBLEMS/QUERIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO CLARE, WHO WILL ADVISE/FIX.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

April has been an extremely dry month with frosts most nights. The daytime temperatures have been hotter than average, but with the extreme range the plants have not grown well. There is very little grass for the cattle and sheep as we have had virtually no rainfall. The farmers are having to feed next winter's silage, which will leave them in a very bad position later on.

We had a week's walking holiday on Exmoor for the last week of April and have never seen the moors look so dry - driving across it looked more like a desert. I have attached a few photos.

As I write this on bank holiday Monday the rain has come with a vengeance and extreme winds also - it's more like November weather. Hopefully the rain will soak into the ground and do some good for the farmers and gardeners.

The Autumn weekend is going ahead from 15th - 18th October. For those members who are interested we will need a deposit by the end of June. We need to know approximate numbers before the end of June, so please contact your organisers or myself if you intend going. The hotel needs to know numbers by mid July. As I write I have just heard on the news that the government intend us to return to the best type of normality possible on 21st June, so let us keep our fingers crossed.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

What a month February was, starting off cold, then wet and very windy and going out unseasonably warm and sunny with temperatures at around 12 degrees Celsius, but still with a chill in the easterly wind.

Now spring appears to be here people are busy mowing their lawns and as we walk past there is the lovely aroma of newly cut grass. The snowdrops, daffodils and primroses are putting on a splendid display and lifting our spirits after a long, cold winter. There is also hope on the pandemic front with over 20 million people vaccinated, so we hope that the suggested date for the end of lockdown will still be 21st June.

Some of the Group Organisers and members have suffered from covid and we wish them all well. As these people may not feel up to being contacted at the moment we at National need another contact for each group. Please contact either myself charleshumby@btinternet.com or Liz lizbethjg@yahoo.co.uk if you wish to volunteer yourself as this can be the only route between National and members.

I am attaching a few photos showing the cattle on the stubble turnips and the new barn under construction on the farm, with which yours truly is assisting the builders.

The ground has at last dried out enough to get on with ploughing and fertilizing and hopefully we will be drilling the spring barley during the next week. Once again the barley will go for malting, the end resulting product, we hope we will be drinking instead of it being poured down the drain.

Charles Humby - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

We're now in the grip of Winter with sub zero temperatures and snow. We've had an awful lot of rain and the cattle out on Salisbury plain grazing on stubble turnips are very wet and muddy. It's too wet to get onto the land so work is now inside jobs doing up old tractors and repairs. We've got all the materials now for building the new cattle shed and the builders have also arrived so it's all hands on deck when the concrete is delivered as 8 loads appear at once, so that soon warms us up.

I have had the time to experiment a bit more with my computer and have discovered how to upload photos. So I'm attaching one of myself with my dogs Socks and Spot in the snow and one of Salisbury Cathedral spire in the distance taken from the top of the fields about 7 miles away. Salisbury Cathedral has been in the news as it has been used as a vaccination centre for 3 local surgeries. The patients are treated to a musical recital from the magnificent Willis organ whilst being vaccinated and in recovery.

At this time of year the starlings perform amazing aerial displays. Huge flocks of birds gather together in what is called a murmuration just before dusk and going to roost. Thousands of birds turn in a closely bunched flock almost like one complete organism. This incredulous act is made possible by each individual bird paying close attention to their seven closest neighbours, reacting instantly to any move made by them. I am attaching a couple of photos taken at this time last year on a Country Link outing to Ham Wall on the Somerset Levels.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE
The National Committee is not expecting members to pay their annual subscriptions until we are allowed to meet up in our normal group numbers. Our organisation still have obligations to pay for certain essential services, as some things, for example, our insurance, we cannot afford to stop as some groups are still meeting, albeit in very small numbers.

Charles Humby - Chairman