Chairmans Chat 2025

Hello all Country Linkers,

Lambing normally starts here on or around 20th March. Now that my granddaughter is one year old my daughter and son-in-law can help out. I always do the midnight patrol, usually around 2.00 am, unless Daisy wakes me earlier. Kate or Paddy carry out the early morning check. This means I try to have a lunch time nap. Unfortunately, this year our Spring committee meeting was on 23rd March and I had to do my best to keep up. Apart from the cold evenings, it's been the best outdoor lambing weather I've ever experienced. Especially after last spring's incessant rain.

While taking Daisy out for her late evening walk I noticed a red coloured crescent moon. Sand from the Sahara perhaps? I hope some of you took advantage to look at the planetary alignment recently. I made a point of looking while checking the sheep.

During my daily walks with Daisy I've noticed the oilseed rape has just started to shoot through, and one or two yellow flowers are appearing. If there is any oilseed rape near you just watch, at this time of year it can grow over a foot in just a couple of days or so. The skylarks are singing everywhere, the partridges are running, and Daisy is ever hopeful of catching a cock pheasant. This got me thinking back to my teenage years. My grandfather farmed next to the old London (to Coventry) Road. Every Easter puppies which had been bought for Christmas were abandoned at a busy junction nearby. We picked them up and rehoused some. The rest went to charities. We once had a Labrador sized mongrel named Rusty who would spend walks chasing rabbits and hares, always in the feint hope of catching one. One day she set off after a hare, which was probably coasting, and unbelievably came back with it. It turned out that my father had been around the day before blocking gaps in the hedges before moving some stock. One of the gaps had been used by rabbits and hares.

A few weeks ago I had a pleasant jolly down to Tiverton, in the land of narrow roads and high banks, to visit the Somerset West / East Devon group for a meal at a local hostelry. This is a thriving club with 35 members and a varied programme. The meal was very good value as well. Many thanks to Sally and Shirley.

As I arrived in Devon I noticed a small field of freshly baled grass, I can only assume it was ready for wrapping. On my way back I stopped off to visit Sedgemoor Market, a very large and modern auction centre just off the M5. There was a lot going on during the Saturday I visited. And I bumped into one of the members I was chatting to over dinner the night before.

I've been listening to the AI (Artificial Intelligence) debate on Radio 4, and how much it is going to benefit everyone? According to a double Nobel Prize winner from MIT "no technological advance has ever financially benefitted the ordinary worker" as opposed to the makers and the shareholders. As the USA and China are putting $100 bn each into the development our only chance to be involved is in niche markets, such as medical science. As the projected energy requirement in the USA is 12% of all their production just to run the servers I'm not sure how much 'benefit' this is going to be!

Following on from Will Evans column in the FW, I would recommend Brazil, Blade Runner, and Silent Running for a view of our dystopian future, rather than The Terminator.

I never thought I would be saying this, but after 22 degrees yesterday, when is it going to rain again to keep the grass growing? I hope some of you are making the most of it.

Wishing everyone a sunny Easter.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

The snowdrops are beginning to droop, but with that the daffodils and crocuses have started to flower, and the grass is growing. It is finally starting to feel like winter is waving goodbye and that spring is on its way.

My last few wethers are in a paddock, along with the free range hens. At first the wethers were afraid of the hens as the hens were eating the sheep feed. However, yesterday my daughter saw two lambs in the hen's compound eating the chicken feed. Obviously getting their own back. I've noticed some very patchy crops as I've travelled around the country, with a lot of fertiliser going on in the hope of recovering yield, as the weather improves and the daytime temperatures are rising.

Some time ago I helped an elderly farmer a few miles away, with the TB testing of his suckler herd, and a few other jobs. He decided to keep some heifers for breeding, so the bull (their sire) had to go. The artic taking it could not get down his drive, so Gerry agreed to meet it in a layby on the main road, and take the bull in his Ifor Williams trailer - enlisting my help! As I had not travelled in the rush hour for some time I arrived a little late. Consequently, we had to load the bull in a rush, a lot of to-ing and fro-ing ensued. Eventually the bull was loaded and we set off. We got to the layby and the lorry was not there. Gerry called the driver who was delayed after having problems loading another bull. While we waited our bull got restless and started rocking the trailer, so I went out to see if I could calm him down. "Gerry you didn't connect the lights", "I thought you were doing it" came the reply. As we waited for the lorry we mused what we would do if the bull broke free or escaped as we did the changeover. Eventually the lorry arrived and the bull walked calmly on board. As we journeyed back we had to pass the festival field on the Great Tew estate, where we had noticed earlier two very large marquees had been erected, and where a meaningless (to us) TGT only sign had been put up. By this time there were queues building both sides of the gates. I asked Gerry to pull in, as we did so a security man walked over. Where do you want the Lion I said to him, he started to walk towards the trailer, "don't go near him he is not very happy, he is a Pooka and we have just brought him from Ireland" (Gerry is half Irish and smiled at this). The security man got on his walkie talkie and told us Jeremy said he hasn't ordered a Lion. And that was how we found out what TGT stood for. (There is a part two to this anecdote which I can't print).

I had occasion to visit friends in Wiltshire and Somerset recently. Taking a meandering route there and back and including a stay over on the Isle of Wedmore. The contrasting landscapes of Wiltshire, Somerset, and Gloucestershire can be pronounced in certain areas. The rolling arable chalk downland of South Wiltshire, with mixed farming in the north of the county. Dairy farms and the levels in Somerset, mixed farming and gentle land south of Cirencester, and the rolling hills and Cotswold brash soil on the Fosse Way heading east.

It's good to see that groups are sending in their new Spring / Summer programmes for inclusion on the website. It would be good to see more reports about the group events and activities going on to the website. Let people see what we get up to as an organisation. Photos are good as well to go with the reports. Please send anything for the website to Vicky on website@country-link.org.uk

The Spring national committee meeting will take place on 23rd March so if you want to raise anything please get in touch with me, your area rep, or any other committee member to let us know.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

While walking around the garden, in between the showers, I've noticed that the winter aconites are going over, and are being overshadowed by the snowdrops in full flower. Narcissus are shooting up everywhere and, most important of all, the grass is growing again.

It's been very busy here getting ready for lambing. Although we've had a dry spell it's now back to working in the rain. I needed to take a free range pig to the abattoir and had to get the tractor out of hibernation to pull the box across the wet ground. We have been offered, and have taken, some winter grazing a few miles away. This has relieved the pressure on the hay stocks. The hard frosts we had earlier have done their job for the arable farmers, but it's not so good for the livestock and mixed farmers who need to go out in all weathers. It will be another month before they migrate back to Britain for their wintering grounds of St. Moritz, Provence, and the Caribbean.

I was hoping to take the last of the lambs to market on Monday but have had to postpone this for the time being. The reason for this is that the market I go to is now a Red market on Mondays when most of the fatstock go in, and a Green market on a Thursday for store animals. For those who don't know a RED market is where all stock going in has to go directly to an abattoir after being sold. This is to try and prevent the spread of Blue Tongue, a disease which affects sheep and cattle , and which came in via insects blown across the English Channel. This separation has had to be carried out at markets in TB areas for some years. The only exceptions allowed are for cattle going straight to sealed fatting units. Previously, at Rugby market, they graded all of the sheep as they arrived and any that were not fat enough would be sold as store lambs for further finishing straight after the fat sale. This suited me as I knew, when I took a load in, that they would all be sold one way or another.

I would have liked to have paid a visit to LAMMA this year, a big machinery show at the NEC, and look at tractors that I cannot afford to buy. Instead, I had to settle for a visit to a farm sale at the other end of the county. I didn't buy anything there and I'm not sure if young Kaleb did either. While drinking our coffee at the market on Monday we did, however, see an awful lot of very large machinery going in to Stoneleigh for the Dairy Tech event which was held on Wednesday. I may go to the Low Carbon Agriculture Show at Stoneleigh on 5th - 6th March, and thinking about paying another visit to the Paris show at the end of the month.

As the days start to draw out, and the temperature rises, the grass and other crops start to grow more quickly. My sheep are finding more to eat outside, and the oilseed rape crops that surround me may finally grow away from the pigeons that proliferate after having a wild bird seed crop grown for them last year. I still don't see the sense in growing that!

I'm glad to see that the groups are sending their Spring/Summer programmes to Vicky for uploading to the website. If you haven't sent yours in yet now's the time to do it. Remember, the website is our front door so programmes and reports of your group's activities over the last 6 - 12 months will attract interest and draw in new members.

As your groups hold your AGM's please don't forget to update Liz (Goodwin) and Vicky (Hutton) with contact details where your Group Leader / Chair, and the secretary have changed.

Liz can be contacted by email on nationalsecretary@country-link.org.uk and Vicky can be contacted on website@country-link.co.uk

Finally, I have been contacted by Nigel (Swain) to say you still have time to get your booking forms in for the National Weekend in Kent from 9th to 12th May. Last date for bookings TO ARRIVE is Friday 28th February 2025. Links to the forms are below:

Weekend Information
Booking Form
Information for pet owners

Hopefully it will be warmer and drier in a month's time.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

Happy New Year everyone.

Oxfordshire Country Link had an enjoyable Christmas Dinner on 18th December, followed by a visit to Worcestershire for their dinner dance on 20th December. Sixteen people attended. We all took to the dance floor with enthusiasm, with the last member finally leaving the dance floor at 12.30 am.

I've been suffering with the flu since Boxing Day which rather spoiled my short birdwatching sojourn to North Norfolk. I'm recovering slowly but this isn't helped by the freezing weather and frozen pipes!

I took a leisurely drive to a village near Holt on my way to Norfolk to see pink-footed and Brent geese, short-eared owls, marsh harriers and the like. I noticed the changes in the landscape en-route. From the rolling countryside, and mixed farming, of North Oxfordshire and West Northamptonshire, to the slightly less rolling landscape, arable land, and building site of East Northamptonshire. Then on through the Nene Valley, flooded land around Oundle, and into Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. I knew Peterborough as the home of Perkins engines as we had all Massey Ferguson at home. It was also home of the East of England show, the last of which was held in 2013. The last event at the showground was an equine event in 2022, and the site is now destined for housing.

I visited the show twice. The last time was many years ago with another Country Link member funnily enough, we stopped at the NFU stand for tea and biscuits. We were served by a gentleman in a tweed suit, chatting to him I asked if he was in farming, he said "not exactly". He was more of a grower and supplied 80% of the asparagus for the British market from his farms in East Anglia, and farms in several other countries around the world.

Leaving Peterborough I headed on to Whittlesey and into Fenland. The contrast with the rest of my trip was startling! Entering the flat landscape of dykes, ditches, fences (instead of hedges), lorry and container parks, vegetable packhouses, and wind turbines all the way to King's Lynn. The roads are raised above the silt land although in some parts they appear to be sinking.

I stopped off at Welney, a WWT centre, where I spotted a short-eared owl, a barn owl, and tree sparrows, all while enjoying tea and cake in the second floor café. It is sited on the One Hundred Foot Drain built in the 17th century. It was built by a Dutch engineer to bypass the River Great Ouse for the 4th and 5th Earls of Bedford and in exchange for 90,000 acres to relieve flooding. It had to be completed by Parliament as more work was needed and they had to settle for 40,000 acres. It is tidal even though it's 19 miles from Welney to King's Lynn and the sea, and it still functions despite the best efforts of the Environment Agency.

Travelling from King's Lynn to Holt the North Norfolk landscape is not so flat, and it gently rolls towards the sea, I noticed a lot of sugar beet in the Fens and Norfolk. I was surprised to see quite a few sheep grazing, and lambs being fattened, behind electric fences on land previously used for spring barley. When I first became a regular visitor to North Norfolk, some 30 years ago, a lot of coastal marsh land was grazed by sheep and cattle, and winter migrating birds. Since then most of the animals seem to have been banished in favour of birds, and arable land changed to solar panels. It seems to me that with 9 million people starving to death in 2023 that some people in authority may have got their priorities wrong!

Due to the failure of junior management, I arrived back home to be greeted by frozen pipes. At this time of year, and at the first hint of a freeze, the water pipes that feed the troughs need to be drained by hand after use to ensure they can be used the next day.

This place runs on buckets, string, small bales, and small bags, so carrying buckets of water becomes a way of life. In the freezing conditions however, even wearing work gloves, I had to limit myself to 30 minutes at a time. While you may feel like carrying on for longer I have found it can be a hard price to pay. A cup of tea in between allows the hands to warm up before carrying on. I have acquired a very lightweight and very warm pair of gloves which I wear when walking Daisy for an hour or two, although I have a feeling they wouldn't last for 2 hours working outside.

Some members have asked me how tall was the tree that took down the power lines. I'm not exactly sure but the two poles that had to be replaced are 11 metres in length. If you look at the photos with the 'chat' from August 2024, the one taken behind the baler shows the tree and pole in front of the tractor.

For those of you who are worried about my lack of cultural activities I managed to get to the Birds exhibition at the Natural History Museum where I learned that feathered birds have existed for more than 100 million years, and they survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

I was also treated, by another member, to a Ben Elton concert on his first tour for over 20 years. I can thoroughly recommend it.

I am slowly recovering from the flu/virus that is going around. As the nights are drawing out, and it was not so cold today, I managed to catch and treat 8 sheep with foot problems.

It seems I spoke too soon about the Environment Agency. I have just heard that the area around Welney has flooded.

Don't forget there is still time to book a place for the Spring Weekend in Kent. This is a place that we haven't been to before and there are some interesting visits to look forward to. Follow the link below for the information and booking forms:

• Information
• Booking Form
• Info for pet owners

Dick Stephens - Chairman