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My name is John Belcher. I have lived and farmed in the parish all my life. The home farm is at Nell Bridge and that is where my two brothers David and Geoff live. We are very much a family farm employing only my son James and nephew Mathew. We also farm at Deddington, Bloxham, Adderbury, Kings Sutton and Warkworth Hall Farm. Warkworth Hall was my grand parents old farm so we were pleased to have the opportunity to take it over about six years ago.
As a result of the Aynho Community Action Plan it was considered that a farmers diary might be of interest to the village. The Parish Council asked me if I was interested and I said I would be happy to give it a try.
I hope to give a simple guide to what has happened during the last three months, also comments on the weather, and the odd country saying.
Hopefully this will make your country walk or drive more interesting and create a good relationship between us all.
A Farmer's Diary
OCTOBER 05 to AUGUST 06
The diary returns
Again a long delay. No excuses come to mind. Perhaps the social calendar and work are taking up too much time. As I get older it all seems to take longer. I was getting very little feedback until I attended a farmers wedding. (Local farmers son marrying local farmers daughter). A number of guests told me how much they enjoyed the diary and wondered why I had stopped writing it, so here I go again.
The Weather:
Unbelievable. After the very helpful summer (2005) weather wise it just kept going. Even in the middle of February it was not like winters were in my childhood days. So what happened to that very severe winter that the forecasters were predicting? We are way down on rainfall, which is very worrying, No floods, no February fill dyke, the meadows are dryer than I ever remember them at any time of year. It will catch up. When it does it will not be pleasant for the outdoor workers.
"As the days get longer the cold gets stronger". My father used to say, "April can be a hungry month," and so it proved to be. A very cold spell stopped everything from growing. So we had a very late spring followed by a very dry hot summer.
The Crops:
What wonderful starts all the crops had, all drilled in ideal conditions, and by the optimum dates. The mild autumn allowed too much growth so all crops looked too forward in early spring for the time of year. Fertilizer and disease control had to be thought out very thoroughly. With the very dry summer we were not expecting a bumper harvest but with over half the crops cut by August 10, it's not looking too bad.
THE CATTLE: I think the bull is saying, "don't come any nearer".
The cattle are enjoying the summer but have been making good use of any shade that is going. Grass is in very short supply now so supplementary feeding will soon have to begin. Calving again went well keeping Matthew very busy. Geoff has been sending fat cattle regularly through the year at a slightly better price; although the price has dropped a bit lately. People don't eat so much meat when the weather is very hot.
THE SHEEP:
Not the best year I can remember. So what went wrong? Lambing was very difficult. Although ewe mortality was below average, lamb mortality was above average. It was not from lack of attention, more silly things like being smothered by the ewe or drowning in the water trough. The favourite being membrane over the nose at birth. Lambs seem to find a hundred ways to die. Maybe I will make a list sometime. Still maybe not, too depressing. The problems continued. The ewes lost their milk in the April cold spell, which left the lambs hungry. Once ewes loose their milk it never comes back the same. As a result the lambs have been slow to mature. However they are making up for it now.
Maggots: What a year for maggots
Treatment has been non-stop all summer. It must be to do with global warming. I finally had to resort to the good old-fashioned plunge dipping. It is not easy with all the modern restrictions about health and safety disposal etc. The sheep end up suffering because of it. To think that dipping used to be compulsory with the local policeman watching with a stopwatch. My father's trick was to wait until the policeman was close to the dip then throw in the biggest sheep to hand. They did not like a good soaking and were soon gone.
NATURE:
North Wales on a visit last autumn. More on nature next time.
