January 2002

Until the last few days of the month we continued to have very good weather, with the Herefords still out and causing very little treading. Now that has all changed with days of heavy rain and just recently some quite severe flooding again dumping tons of rubbish across the fields.

I enjoy January as much as any time of year because it is the best month of the shooting season and I am lucky enough to be asked either shooting, picking up or beating all over the place. As time goes on I want less to do the shooting, but I love the different countryside, the weather, working the dogs, the social side and the shear fun of it. It's a great sport. However that's all over now and thoughts turn to other sports. I'm hoping to make up for lost time (Foot and Mouth) and get onto the end of a fishing rod much more often.

On the farm work is very routine with Milking, feeding and cleaning the cattle going on day after day. Rather worryingly the price of Organic milk has dropped by about 5 pence a litre. That will make a huge hole in our income this year. I notice the price in our local supermarket has not dropped-We now get 25 pence per litre, I see it is 75 pence per litre on the shelves! Someone is making a big profit and it is not us!!! The faster we can get into processing our own milk and selling it ourselves the better.

Spotted a Jack Snipe the other day in my new plantation of trees, a bunch of about 30 Yellowhammers have also moved in, I wonder how many will move into the surrounding hedgerows in the weeks to come. The thrushes have started their song so nesting time is not far away.

We have been working with the chain saw recently.

A Willow partly pollarded	The finished job