Farmer Patrick says – March 2024 – Tandridge Independent

What’s going on at the farm?

Time seems to be going by at a rapid rate, and I’m sure that as you get older it speeds up. Days have gone in a flash and the months just fly by! This morning, while in the chicken sheds collecting eggs, as the first glimpse of daylight dawned, I noticed the first buds of a tree bursting through. Spring is just around the corner – yippee!

On the farm we’ve been busy clearing the fallen trees and trimming back overgrown branches, cutting them into logs to keep the farmhouse and bistro warm during winter. Our pigs are growing fast, on Wednesday I’m off to look at some young cattle and soon it will be lambing time!

Wet weather has prevented most local farmers from heading to the fields, and so little has been done on the land in the Tandridge area. As soon as it dries, the tractors and ploughs will get busy and the spring crops will need to be planted. Luckily, the Tandridge district has a large range of soil types, which makes for a range of possibilities when it comes to farming systems. We have everything from breweries, vineyards and arable land to chickens, dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep.

What’s going on in the UK?

Farmers are often accused of never being happy! If it’s not the weather (too much rain…or not enough), it’s being treated unfairly by people. But for farmers to actually take to the streets to protest takes a lot: they don’t often leave their farms as there’s just too much to do.

Recently, farmers across much of Europe have taken to the streets, blocking cities and docks, protesting against the way they feel treated by supermarket buyers and government policies of increasing legislation, declining funding and a growing shift in focus on food production, in favour of more vote-catching environmental policies. Crippling energy costs are making matters worse.

Recently, our own farmers attempted a blockade at Dover in protest of unregulated standards of imports, to be met by opposition in the form of the authorities. I find it interesting that our fellow farmers in France seem, meanwhile, to have received a blind eye to such activities and protests and have wide support.