Jiglu: Farmtalking: Discussion: Re: Importance of looking after the land

Originally from: Farmtalking

Hi Louise – welcome to the Group!

You seem to have two very interesting and rewarding jobs and an equally interesting hobby!

You're so right and many farmer members of this group have diversified with great success and at least in some areas seem to be recovering well from the disaster of 2001.

All we need now is a sensible contingency plan from the Government to set our minds at rest.

Such a disease outbreak in future must never be handled in a similar manner causing the cruelty, heartbreak and financial losses – not only to farmers – that occurred during and since 2001 as a result of FMD.

Jane

Author wrote:
Dear All
Hello my name is Louise i am new to the group. I am a
farmers fiance from Banbury. I work for an adoption
charity as my day job and jointly run the Agricultural
Contracting Business as well in my spare time, as well
as building Livery Yards as a hobby!
Following Carl's email, i do agree completely that
Farmers get alot of criticism, and i feel it generally
doesn't matter what it is in relation to.
Many of our friends either breed beef cattle or still
have their milking parlours in operation. When foot
and mouth hit six dairy farms in the area closed
immediately and farmers have had to diversify to stay
afloat,however the general public don't see it that as
a problem, they figure we have all got loads of
money!or tried to cash in on the crisis. Today you
need to have sound business sense and an eye for
running multiple businesses under one roof.
--- Poppa Crispin <poppa ...> wrote:
http://icteesside.icnetwork.co.uk/0400business/northernfarming/content objectid=13973950 method=full siteid=50081 headline=-Importance-of-looking-after-the-land-name page.html

Importance of looking after the land
Feb 21 2004
By Carl Hudspith, The Journal
I have to wonder why the image of farmers is so
often depicted unfavourably by the media at times.
By their nature, farmers are not always the best
communicators. After all, a lot of them do have to
work on their own and this does not give them the
opportunity to explain many of the false accusations
made against them. Having said that about farmers, I
bet other occupations, such as police officers and
teachers, feel that the media is also against them.
We have to accept that the media thrive on tragedy,
crime, scare-mongering and of course sex. We live in
an age of the mass media where the public gets most
of their information from the newspapers,
broadcasting and the internet. There are pressure
groups with their own agendas who use these various
methods of communication to spread false facts about
agriculture.
This is a small attempt to put the record straight,
but many readers will no doubt say – well he would
say that wouldn't he?
Farmers are accused of abusing the countryside by
ripping out hedges for example. However, during the
last 10 years over 13,000 miles of grass margins
(grassed areas around the outside of fields which
remain uncropped allowing wildlife to prosper) have
been established and almost 9,000 miles of hedgerows
have been restored or planted, plus the restoration
of 1,000 miles of dry stone walling.
Farmers have planted more than 87 million trees and
in doing so have doubled the woodland cover in
England and Wales from what it was in 1920 and five
per cent more than in 1990.
In 2001, the British Trust for Ornithology reported
large increases in a number of species of farm and
woodland birds and there has also been a welcome
improvement in the biological quality of rivers and
streams and their habitat corridors.
Our farmers, although few in number, look after a
large percentage of Britain's land surface area.
With the current trend, the skills of land
management are disappearing with the farmers and
farm workers.
I have seen the surprise in the eyes of new
non-farmer landowners when they are advised of the
need to maintain drains, ditches and hedges. They
suddenly realise that being a landowner means
ongoing maintenance work that doesn't come cheap.
There is ample evidence around us to see that this
maintenance is not being done, either by non-farmers
who do not regard it as important or are unaware of
the necessity, and also by the farmers who no longer
have the profit to spend on such things.
Take a closer look the next time you drive in the
countryside. Look at the field gates (an old saying
was that you could judge a farmer by his gates), the
increasing amount of ragwort and other weeds and the
numerous farm buildings that are now not used for
agriculture. This lack of maintenance will
inevitably have repercussions on the ability of UK
agriculture to feed the nation. You might say – so
what, if the food is in the shops why worry? Well,
nature can create all sorts of problems which
undermine the food supply. Add to that the
possibility of terrorist activity and global
warming, and the potential for food shortage is
clear. With all these possibilities there has to be
some safety margins and one of them is to ensure
that home food production does not continue its
current decline.
* Carl Hudspith is the NFU's North-West's public
relations officer.
====================================
Hi All
<snip>
I have seen the surprise in the eyes of new
non-farmer landowners when they are advised of the
need to maintain drains, ditches and hedges. They
suddenly realise that being a landowner means
ongoing maintenance work that doesn't come cheap.
<end snip>
I think this article and this snippet underline the
argument put forward in recent posts in Farmtalking.
Hoo Roo
Norm
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