| | Anton Coaker is a Devon hill farmer whose stock was culled as contiguous to an outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth.
Ten years ago he diversified into the sawmill and timber business, he also retails beef and lamb reared on the farm.
A family man, each month he takes a look at the state of farming, from grass roots level: |
| I have always had the strongest unbidden flashbacks to pivotal events in my life, triggered by various things at the relevant times of the year.
Birdsong, daylight hours, the smell of various fauna and flora, all build to remind me suddenly of something, or someone, I might not have thought of for months.
 | It may be several years before the anniversary of foot-and-mouth will
pass without reflection |
It is therefore with some trepidation that I approach the FMD "anniversary". The 10 days between diagnosis next door and the cull here were, as I have already written, the worst.
Watching as I fed my cows, the fire being built next door, knowing I was probably next.
By the time we had to gather the stock into the yard, I was mentally and physically exhausted and entered into a real-life video nasty.
I won’t dwell, it’s unhealthy, but I suspect it will be many years before this time of year can arrive comfortably. Roll on the public enquiry which is our right.
To help brighten my day,the first of the replacement Galloway heifers calved recently. She had been fussing about most of the day and as the storm clouds grew and the wind rose (another gale was forecast for the night) she marched up to the top of the new take to deliver her calf.
I followed her a while later to see if everything was happening OK.
She had indeed dropped a fine little bull calf and was stood upwind of it giving a bit of shelter from the wind as she licked it clean.
 | Dawn arrived and I hurried up the hill
to check on the new arrival |
I suggested - in a soothing voice - that she might like to take her new treasure down into the valley. She suggested - in a rather less soothing manner - that I might like to spend the night in casualty. (There is no language barrier at such moments!)
I retreated to spend a good deal of the night worrying about this stumbling new baby.
The dawn arrived a bit drier and I headed up the hill to find them in the same exposed spot with the calf dry, fluffy and skipping clear of the ground.
That my lowland friends, is why I keep Galloways.
Beauro-crap award of the week goes to the DEFRA sheep subsidy department: A colleague of mine has had his claim form returned; "Sorry Mr X, can’t process this, you don’t have enough sheep’. (There is a minimum of 10 ewes per partner).
Mr X replies "That’s all us’ve got, your party come an’ shot the rest".
"Sorry Sir, rules are rules".
Now, Mr X and his family are as steady as they come. The only stock they salvaged from last spring were the replacement yearling ewes which were away on their winter holidays.
 | Counting sheep: Rules are rules
says the department |
The whole valley watched with fingers crossed when Farmer X was eventually allowed to bring these few girls back and put them on the open hill.
It was a matter of local celebration when they walked back to the patch of hill (their ‘lear’) they’d known for a few months as lambs, sat down and chewed their cuds.
They were home and they knew it.
Farmer X had bought their ancestors from his predecessor several decades past, along with the ‘lear’. The irony about this subsidy claim (apart from the fact that it is for less than most people's weekly salary) is that Farmer X was concerned about this "minimum" rule so, in front of witnesses, I’d sold him the single ewe he might need (sale price 20p, condition of sale being that I could buy her back next year for 20p!). She was running on the same common and represented a "spare" for me.
Problem solved? Well no, Mrs X didn’t consider this was quite proper so she omitted to include this purchase in their claim.
There would seem to be an "honesty penalty" now.
(Current state of play seems to be that if Farmers X changes their business partnership in some way they might be able to resubmit the form).
Having the luxury of looking at the past 6 months entries, I see this diary seems largely to consist of whinges about beaurocracy, FMD and inclement weather - and we wonder why us farmers are often perceived as grumpy old gits.
Ho hum, one of life’s little mysteries!
Farewell from peasant land and fingers crossed for a good lambing. See you next month.
ANTON
Tony Beard | You can comment on Anton's Diary on our Farmers' Forum and there'll be more "Grass Roots" in April. And don't forget to turn the pages of Tony Beard's Dartmoor Diary in our Great Outdoors section |
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