Chairmans Chat 2026

Hello all Country Linkers,

After recently telling a friend in the Languedoc region of France how mild our winter has been so far, it seems to have rained every day since. Every year on my daily walk during the winter I pass empty grass fields only a couple of fields away which might look better with my sheep grazing on them. There's about fifty acres or so. The main problem is the first two are level with the watercourse and flood most years, and have the only gate which also cuts off access to the higher ground beyond. The second, perhaps more important problem, is the sewage works a couple of fields upstream.

The sheep seem to be coping well with the wet weather. On a seemingly dry day we brought the sheep in to check them all for tags, condition, and hoof problems, and we got soaked doing it. As they say, 'no good deed goes unpunished'.

My daughter got me a ticket for LAMMA. at the NEC, as my son-in-law was on a stand. I later found out that I had to take her and my granddaughter along with me as well. I enjoyed a good afternoon there along with pushchair manoeuvring, an escaping child, and stops along the way. I was very surprised by how big the show was, never having been before, and I was happy to see some livestock equipment being shown. I had a coffee at Major the hedge-cutter firm, and told them I had spoken to a customer using one next door. I bumped into a few old friends and found out later that some Country Link members attended and had a good day out as well.

Torrential rain seems to be a constant in my days out this year, a planned visit to RHS Wisley with my camera turned into a lunch and shopping trip for plants and bulbs last week. I'm hoping my visit to Ayrshire for their 40th Anniversary Dinner later this month will be drier. I'm also planning to visit a very old friend who farms near Lockerbie during this trip. I've recently visited Warwickshire for a dinner and one of their planning meetings, a thriving club with lots of activities.

There is a very old ironstone causeway between two kissing gates, across a water meadow, near me which I walk across. It was put in very many years ago to keep you dry in floods. Probably due to leaf mould, global warming, and lack of maintenance it now lies below ground level and you get wet.

There is still time to book a place at the National Weekend in May, and I hope to see many of you there in Worcestershire. The national AGM will be held at this weekend and any nominations for the national committee need to be submitted by Friday 13th March 2026. The nomination forms are on the documents page of the website.

Dick Stephens - Chairman

Hello all Country Linkers,

A Happy New Year to Everyone.

I hope you have all had a good festive season, and enjoyed a Christmas Dinner or Dinner dance.

At Oxford I managed to get six former members to come along and meet up with old friends. I also went along to the Worcester dinner dance where everyone had a good time, dancing away until late. A few of us are off to an Adult Pantomime in Chipping Norton on Friday.

Well, the new year has brought in snow and freezing conditions for a lot of us, although much worse in Scotland and the Northern Counties I understand. Last night we had a thaw and the ground has gone from very hard to mush, and is very slippery underfoot. Do be careful on your walks and carry a stick, taught my granddaughter as you are never too young to learn. Walking Daisy today I saw a Red Kite for the first time this winter, then I disturbed a covey of partridge as well as a cock pheasant. I think they are a bit optimistic of an early spring. This reminded me to top-up the bird feeders in the garden. With a lot more snow on the way those of you with oil fired central heating do make sure your tank is topped up as my daughter ran out last year. I'm waiting for a chimney sweep due to a lack of planning here. I also had an Osprey hovering over the buildings one day, before you all say 'no way' this was a V22 Osprey VTOL, or a drone with the same configuration. Bad enough with the pair of Chinooks that sneaked up on me and Daisy last week.

I gave the sheep extra hay on Christmas Day, and again when it snowed, from my very limited supply along with extra hard feed. Sadly, I have not put the ewes to the ram this year, and due to the future loss of my hay field I'm just going to take them to market as they get fit. I will just purchase store lambs in the future.

So far as I can see as I travel around, and locally, the crops in the ground look an awful lot better than the disaster that was last year's harvest for most of us. Only time will tell. I need to get some fencing done on a three acre paddock, having relied on an electric one until now. When I first came here over twenty years ago none of the fields were stock proof, after a couple of years of haymaking on it all decided to stock fence most of it, only to find out that a lot of the wooden stakes I used rotted away very quickly. Some have been replaced three times and a lot more still need doing. So, I now have to decide whether to replace them with the same cheap ones, use creosoted ones, or something else. If I was younger I think I would splash out on concrete or oak posts. I have some concrete ones dotted about which have been since the nineteen twenties, and some oak ones that are rotting away after only seventy years or so.

I'm planning to go up to Ayrshire in February for their 40th Anniversary, and then down to Cornwall soon to pay them a visit. I will then fit in the Cheshire and Yorkshire groups when I can.

Finally, congratulations to long time stalwart of the committee Phil Charles for being awarded the BEM in the New Years Honours List.

Hope you all take care in the snow and winter weather in the next few weeks and are looking forward to an early spring.

Dick Stephens - Chairman