A year ago today
the British Isles were basking in unusually warm spring sunshine and in many
places it was warmer than the Mediterranean coast. Today much of the country is
blanketed yet again in snow or swamped with rain, with much more still to come,
and spring is just a word, not a reality. Though we have got off much more lightly than
many places so far, the world outside my window is still white and snow is
falling continuously.
But this isn’t
just another post bemoaning the dreadful weather and the way it interferes with
my little life. It’s late March and throughout Wales hill farmers are in the
middle of lambing, which is normally timed for the beginning of spring to give
the newborn lambs the best chance of survival. Instead the lambs and their
mothers are struggling with snow or, further south, with driving rain, and
everywhere it is still much too cold for animals to thrive.
This is also
dairy country, but there is no possibility of the cows being let out into the fields,
not only because of the snow, but because it has been so cold for so long that
the grass hasn’t yet started to grow again and the fields are almost
waterlogged in any case. So the cattle remain in their barns and the farmers
continue to have to feed them with the remains of last summer’s silage, or else
expensive bought-in food.
Elsewhere, in
the crop-growing areas of the country, autumn-sown crops are water-logged, if
not actually under water, and the ground is far too wet and cold for spring
ploughing and sowing. After a year of exceptionally bad weather the situation for many farmers is becoming desperate.
We take it for
granted that when we need food we can go to the shops and find everything we
need, at a price we can afford to pay. As we fill our trolleys this weekend,
let’s spare a thought for the farmers and their problems and be grateful that they don’t
just give up on what must often seem like a very unequal struggle.
Postscript HERE and HERE are two news items from the BBC website, showing the devastating impact the deep snow and continuing cold are having on livestock and crop farmers around the country.
Postscript HERE and HERE are two news items from the BBC website, showing the devastating impact the deep snow and continuing cold are having on livestock and crop farmers around the country.
Image courtesy of the BBC
website
Amen, Your Vicarage!
ReplyDeleteThe four horses who have been overwintering in the field behind us or the one the other side of the big hedge are nowhere to be seen today. I hope they have shelter somwewhere warm, dry and well stocked with hay.
PS You have seen Rev on BBC2, I hope?
Here ends today's lesson. :-)
DeleteIt's no weather for horses to be out, given the forecast for the next couple of days, so I imagine they are snug in a stable somewhere.
The reply to your PS is No. We always seemed to be away when it was on, so never got the habit. :-)
They are back in the field with their rugs on now the snow has stopped and the cloud lifted, and have kicked up their heels and cantered round in it. They are thick-skinned hardy types, not thin-skinned thoroughbreds, so they can overwinter in the fields even without some night shelter, I guess, provided they get hay, etc every morning and evening.
DeleteAsk for a DVD of Rev for your birthday. It'd be a shame for you to miss it. Many Happy Returns for tomorrow, BTW. I'll say it now in case I forget.
If they are Welsh cobs or something like that, they will certainly be hardy. Have just been up to the bend in the lane to ascertain that we aren't going anywhere for a while. The drifts are nothing compared to further north, but still enough to stop us getting out. It's actually thawing slightly, but you'd never guess with the windchill. Brrr!
DeleteThanks for the birthday greetings. I'll put them away safely until next month. :-)
DOH! 24th of April! You see I said (somewhere else) that days weeks and months seem to have a very tenuous connection to us nowadays, since The Husband stopped going to work a year ago.
DeleteBetter early than forgotten, I guess...
:-) If its any consolation, last year my German penfriend made the same mistake. :-)
DeleteThank you Perpetua, it's so easy to be superficial and think only that snow is pretty or a nuisance (or both!) when it is possible to nip to the shop and pick up anything that the whim dictates without giving a thgouht to the farmers and growers whose livelihoods are directly affected by the weather.
ReplyDeleteI get much of my news from the BBC website, Catriona, and there have been several items recently about how hard farmers are finding it. Also 40 years of living among hill farmers means that I do know something of how difficult unseasonable weather makes life for them, particularly when it's as prolonged as it has been this year. I do hope they get some respite soon.
DeleteThank you for reminding us just how important weather is to our farmers and herdsmen. Everywhere on Facebook we all bemoan the weather, but our complaints are pretty shallow.
DeleteI was reading somewhere the impact of the mini ice-ages in history. Farmers couldn't grow enough food because their winters were so long.
I hope warmer weather will make its appearance soon.
I've been as guilty as the next person of moaning about how the weather is affecting my life, but at this time of the year bad weather can be so devastating for farmers. And what is devastating for farmers can so easily become devastating for food supply and in particular food prices and then the poor will suffer most. What you say about the mini ice ages is sio true and sometimes led to famine.
DeleteWeather, the one thing farmers can't control, and the thing that they depend on for good crops.a conundrom to which there is no answer. Spring here is still slow coming, and there already has been some flooding in low lying areas. One must always keep hoping for the best and preparing for the worse. I hope your farmers will soom be able to get on the land.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, there are farmers in the south-west of England (the area that is getting so much rain again just now) whose land has been under water for months, with no sign of it drying out. You can have all the machinery and technical know-how you need, but if the weather doesn't co-operate, you're helpless. I do hope your spring turns up before long too.
DeleteHere farmers are having problems because of the drought. Feed is in very short supply and many farmers are feeding out their precious silage or hay.
ReplyDeleteIt has suddenly started to feel like autumn but no sign of any decent rain (3 mls over the last two days).
If only we could swap! We've had far too much rain for a whole year and other parts of the world are crying out for it. Here's hoping your drought eases soon and the farmers have enough feed left for the winter. It's hard to believe that western Europe was in this situation only 2 or 3 summers ago.
DeleteMy grandfather used to bring his sheep down and fold them for lambing....but he had a full crew of men as well as the shepherds and was farming before the days of monoculture.
ReplyDeleteHe'd have a fit at farmers having to buy in feed as almost a matter of course as his place ran autonomously...if it wasn't produced it couldn't be used.
And, as you say, you can have all the machinery in the world...but if it's too wet to use it, what do you do?
I remember a year in East Anglia so wet that the spud lifting machinery was getting bogged down....a man in Suffolk who kept work horses - Suffolk Punches - as a hobby, made a fortune getting his own and neighbours' crops out of the ground.
I do indeed feel for the hill farmers....and the lambs and calves born into conditions made to carry them off....but these farmers need to make it clear to society in general that they are not part of the cereal barony who get the lion's share of handouts.
Form their own union...link up properly with their counterparts in Europe who are in a similar pass.
Farming was extremely hard work in your grandfather's day, Helen, but at least he had plenty of manpower at a cost he could afford. In my days as a parish priest I visited so many small farmers who were basically running their places single-handed. During lambing they would be working round the clock and anything that made their job harder was almost the last straw. This year, on top of everything else, many of them have the Schmallenberg virus affecting their crop of lambs. Sigh....
DeleteWe're on the opposite side of the country from the huge cereal farms, so almost all of my experience is of much smaller-scale farming, most of it livestock rather than crops. But the potato farmers of the West Midlands have had a horrible year too and if things don't improve soon, this year won't be an easy one either.
As you say, the subsidies are heavily slanted towards the big cereal farmers, yet if the small livestock farms go under our countryside will start to look very different very soon.
Who'd be a farmer. Just as they get back on their feet after one set-back, it seems another is on the way to knock them back again.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly been true of the past year or two. From drought to floods and waterlogging and now this prolonged cold spell and that's just the weather! Add to that the recent livestock epidemics and your question is spot-on.
DeleteI feel sorry for the babies, the little lambs who will find it such a harsh world to come in to.
ReplyDeleteThere were pictures ion the news tonight of farmers finding dead lambs in the snow and prolonged rain and cold can be just as deadly. Let's hope it goes soon.
DeleteVery wise words. My Father was a farmer and I still see him waking 5.30 with a howling rain storm outside having to walk across the muddy fields to milk the cows. People never see that side of things. Great blog by the way.
ReplyDeletehttp://maninantalya.blogspot.com/
Hi Westy and welcome to my blog. As a farmer's son you must have seen it all and I'm sure could have written this much better from memory. I saw Ayak's post introducing your blog and must pop over for a visit.
DeleteHear hear! One of the farmers near here says that he is probably going to have to resow most of his crops this spring owing to the first sowing being so waterlogged. A lot of time and money down the drain and a poor harvest in prospect. No wonder they say that farming is a vocation, not a job.
ReplyDeleteSadly I think that's going to be the case for an awful lot of arable farmers once the ground finally dries out and warms up - if it ever does. Here I foresee the first crop of silage being very late which means the second will late too and probably small, making it more probable that they will need to buy in expensive feed. Farming may be a vocation, but even the called have to pay their bills.
DeleteOuch! The change in weather patterns is affecting so many all over the world.
ReplyDeleteVery true, as I can see from the blogs I read. Here in the UK the contrast between this March and last March is very stark.
DeleteThank you for a very interesting post, Perpetua. My father was a farmer and I grew up in a farming community but of course my knowledge is of Australian conditions. Generally drought or flood is the problem here, but I feel for the farmer's in the UK under such alarming weather conditions. May things improve very soon.
ReplyDeleteAs a farmer's daughter you must know all too well what it's like to have to contend with the vagaries of climate and weather, Patricia. Whether your stock is suffering because of heat and drought or cold and snow, you still have to do something about it, often at great cost of time, effort and money. Roll on spring and dry weather.
DeleteWell put, Perpetua. Here, too, we are experiencing odd weather; in our case a summer of drought, little moisture, but, this this month of snow and rain is helping. Storms are coming in for the central part of the state, which is a rich corn producing area. Meat, dairy, and poultry prices have been sky-high this winter. On a lighter note, I've been hearing a male cardinal for days outside my window. Today, a female stopped by to hang on the bush. Spring will come - at least to the cardinals.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend.
I'm so glad you're seeing, or rather hearing, some signs of spring over there, Penny. Weatherwise you have had a very hard year too, with last summer's exceptional heatwave and drought which sounded very frightening. Thank goodness your area is getting some much needed moisture now. Here the snow has eased, but is still falling gently. I must go out to check whether we're snowed in.....
DeleteWe get the opposite problem here when we have drought conditions for so long that the grass burns so the farmers can't feed their cattle in winter because they've zlready used their stocks of hay. The state has to put theoir hand in their purses to help out, and milk prices soar...
ReplyDeleteI can well imagine it, MM, given your usual summer temperatures in the south. Up in Normandy there isn't usually a problem, but in 2010 there was a very dry summer, with crops failing for lack of water and I can remember neighbouring farmers starting to feed their newly-harvested hay to their animals in midsummer for lack of grass.
DeleteThank you for this post Perpetua - how we take things for granted, It is 7.30am and I'm reading your post in my warm house ooking at the snow outside and would not have given the Farmers a second thought, this has made me sit up and think.
ReplyDeletePatricia x
I think we're all guilty of just accepting things as they are, Patricia, especially if we live where there aren't regular reminders. Here in the Welsh hills, we have friends and neighbours who are small farmers so we know how hard they work and how difficult these exceptional conditions make their lives.
DeleteThank you for this thought-provoking post, Perpetua. Living close to the farming community we are aware of all the problems farmers go through, including extreme weather conditions.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you are, Linda. Your part of the country has experienced a lot of difficult conditions this winter and I feel for your farmers as I do for ours. Let's hope this cold lets up soon
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteAm a bit late getting to viewing - time-lag plus my access time - but I really wanted to add my voice to this. I am from farming folk also - Scottish Borders - and recall many a lamb nursing by the kitchen stove due to inclemency of climate. All Farmers who stay on the land in this current economic 'climate' wherever they are in the world (I of course have Aussie interests also), deserve medals. Thank you for putting up a post that reminds us of this.
It's never too late to comment, Yamini, and I really appreciate your doing so in your circumstances.
DeleteAnother farmer's daughter. :-) I grew up next to a farm and have farming neighbours here, but though I've never had a lamb in my kitchen, I know how hard it can be to care for young stock in bad weather and crop farmers have just as many difficulties in their own sphere. We couldn't survive without what farmers produce and it's important to recognise this and support them.
Thank you for this post Perpetua. Having become a city dweller once more in 2008, after over fifteen years as a parish priest in the Oxfordshire countryside, it is good to be reminded again as to how difficult the weather can make life for farmers. However, it does bring to mind a conversation I once had with one of my farmer churchwardens in Oxfordshire. I asked him about the weather at that time & how it was affecting his farm work. He famously said in reply, "Ricky - if I'm honest, I want rain on that field & another field further over there, & warm sunshine on all the rest!" He said it with a broad smile recognising the impossibility of his wishes being fulfilled!
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the current weather, in Prague it is currently -5 or -6 & with the wind chill factor, more like -15. We keep asking, "Where is Spring?"
I thought you would be able to identify with this post, Ricky. Your anecdote about your churchwarden made me chuckle, as arable farmers are like gardeners, wanting all kinds of weather at once according to the crop. The problem is of course that in the past year they've basically only had one kind - cold and wet, which suits neither crops nor livestock. Surely it has to improve soon....
DeleteNot as cold here, just around freezing, but we have a lot of windchill too and my guess is that it will be a white Easter this year. Brrr!!
Dear Perpetua, last year at this time, we were having a heat wave. The hottest recorded weather for March since records began being kept in the late 1800s. Right now, the temperature is about 29 degrees F and it's snowing. We may get as much as eight inches!
ReplyDeleteHowever, we've been in a severe drought for two years here and so the farmers welcome all moisture that comes our way. Peace.
So were we, Dee, but we didn't go on to have a drought. Instead it started to rain in April and hardly seemed to stop all year, as well as being colder than usual. It was one of the wettest years on record for the UK and a dreadful year for farmers and so far this year isn't proving any warmer or drier.
DeleteI'm glad your farmers are getting the moisture they need, but wish ours could get some warmth and dryness now to be able to get onto the land.
As ever, you pick up really important issues in a post about the weather - skimming lightly over the inconveniences caused at a personal level and identifying the things that are really important. I love the farmer churchwarden story above - it sums it all up so perfectly. RIght now, I'd like less rain in Spain as we're moving on Wednesday and it predicting showers all week. But here, we can manage a bit of spring rainfall in preparation for the hot summer that will doubtless follow. It's a bit different in the UK but I do hope it dries out a bit for you all soon - and gives the grass a chance to grow. Farmers really do need all the help they can get.
ReplyDeleteAxxx
Annie, I think we all did our bit of justified grumbling about the weather earlier in the year, but in late March I'm so aware of how hard this unseasonable weather is making life for farmers. Interestingly, in a comment yesterday on a BBC website item on the snow, a farmer's wife in North Yorkshire remarked that in all the media coverage she had yet to hear anyone mention the difficulties being experienced by farmers. Their farm is in the middle of lambing and they are spending so much of their time finding and rescuing their livestock.
DeleteI too love the churchwarden story and having worked with Ricky for three years could hazard a guess which churchwarden that night be. :-)
Moving house in the rain - been there, done that and I don't envy you the experience. I do hope it eases up for you and lets you move your belongings without getting them wet. All the best for the coming week. :-)
Having moved from the hills to the valley, it's good for me to be reminded how my old neighbours will be struggling in this weather. "Our" sheep farmers, Bruce and Janine, have 3 daughters, so, I know the and the girls will be out in the fields, checking on the sheep that stay out all the time, taking feed up to the tops and various spots in between the tops and the barns. Some lambing is done in the barns, and we always wondered how Bruce managed to be up all night, barn lights on, and then working all the next day, back in the fields. Watching him "train" the girls, with crooks,dogs, orphaned lambs and baby's bottles under their arms, when they were as young as 5 or 6, was always fascinating.
ReplyDeleteLets hope things improve in the next few days, and spring gives us, and all those farmers a bit of respite.
Oh yes, the Pennines are really suffering at the moment, Janice and I can well imagine how hard your sheep farmer friends must be having to work to care for all their animals. That high country is so bleak and harsh and the weather is much more extreme. Mind you, my native Lancashire and Cumbria where DH and I lived after our marriage have also been very badly hit and both are counties with a lot of small farmers.
DeleteHaving just looked at the Met Office's UK forecast there are no immediate signs of improvement. Here it's snowing lightly again and there's no change forecast until at least Easter weekend when we may get unsettled weather coming in, with rain preceded by - yes, you've guessed it - heavy snow in places!
A bit of snow here down in the valley but more up on the Cotswold Hills, but nasty cold, damp weather.
ReplyDeleteRef the series 'REV' I got a DVD of the first series for you a while back but have never got it to you - I will pop it in a jiffy bag & in the post so you can enjoy it curled up on the sofa with a blanket over the cold snowy Easter holiday (between your Arctic expeditions to your Easter services). Enjoy!
A lot more than a bit of snow up here, PolkaDot and it's snowing again as I type.
DeleteMany thanks for the offer of "Rev", but there's no hurry. Until the drifts disappear from our track, the postman won't be able to deliver it in any case. :-) I missed the Palm Sunday service today and at this rate I'll be lucky to get to the Good Friday and Easter ones. Ho-hum.....
My goodness, Perpetua, you've opened my eyes to an aspect of the extreme cold I wouldn't have thought about at all. That is a gave concern, actually. I am aware of the farmers and their extremes in our state when there are serious water shortages or an unseasonal cold snap that affects our fruit crops, but I haven't really once considered what the harsh winter cold would do to spring seasonal farming. I do think we all need to be more mindful of the farmers and their very difficult livelihoods. They are more resilient and at such a cost, and we tend to just get grumbly if something costs a few cents more. Stay warm, my friend!!
ReplyDeleteI don't expect there are many sheep farmers in the greater Los Angeles area, Debra, so it's hardly surprising it didn't occur to you. I've always lived in livestock farming areas so the problems caused by adverse weather are part of my mental furniture, so this very late and snowy cold spell prompted me to blog about them.
DeleteThere is a belief in some quarters in the UK that all farmers are cushioned by EU subsidies, but this just isn't the case for many of them and a long spell of bad weather can leave them on the brink of bankruptcy. We've had almost 12 months of it and at present there's no sign of much improvement. Sigh....
Well said! It may not be snowing here but it is still quite challenging for our local farmers too.
ReplyDeleteThe fields are waterlogged and in some, where they've decided to go in anyway the tractors have gouged out huge tracks. The brebis farmer close to us still has his sheep indoors--normally they'd be out and about with their lambs.
I can well imagine it, having seen what the countryside around our cottage in Normandy looks like after a wet spring. It must be costing your brebis farmer money he can't afford to go on feeding his stock indoors at the end of March.
DeleteA couple of weeks ago our farmer neighbour here managed to grab a window of opportunity to get the muck-spreading done on his silage fields before the grass starts to grow, but it rained soon after and under the snow they are now appallingly soggy again.
I can't think of a worse time to be a farmer..although knowing one or two, I can't honestly think of a good time to be a farmer! My French farming neighbours had a terrible time last year, too..snow at the wrong time, rain at the wrong time, dry at the wrong time...it really seems as though the weather patterns of the past few years have made farming into a game of roulette.
ReplyDeleteThat sums up the situation nicely. A game of chance with the odds stacked against you on both sides of the channel. As I do every Monday I've just sent the BBC's weekly weather outlook to my mother-in-law, who likes to know what's coming, so she can plan her week. :-) It's for more of the same with no immediate end in sight. Nobody's going to be planting their potatoes on Good Friday this year.
Delete