Curlew

[mel b3]

55 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

I come from a farming fanily where we milked a large herd in those days...28 head....of shorthorns and the milk was delivered by hand in 5 gallon buckets carried up to back doors and measured onto jugs on the door step. Believe it or not the world has changed in 70 years to where a housewife needs to pick up a carton of milk from a her local store(if lucky) or the supermarket and at a price near or even below what the pint was back in 1950 (equivalent).  I am afraid this so called progress has meant hat things have to be produced at pace and within a budget. Contractors cannot come and cut your silage today with a finger mower and slow enough for a pheasant to rise ahead, they have a string of customers who want their silage cut today within the hour almost.  I do not see that changing.  Progress has never in my lifetime been stopped but sometimes I wish it had.  They where joyous times back in the 50s when you could stop the tractor and sit and eat some fresh mad scones and drink tea brought in a botlle by the farmers wife into the field.

I remember reading somewhere quite recently (it might have been pw) . That around 100 years ago iirc , a dairy farmer could make a living , from five cows , on five acres of land.  

[Walker570]

33 minutes ago, ditchman said:

used to love drawing the finger mower..the farm has 2 one working off the pto thro a pitman arm the other one was worked thro the ground wheels....if they were sharpand well maintained they did an awesome job....made a lovely sound as well.....then they were followed up with a crimper and a pheasant and a spider after that....baled the next day..

Yep, first job of the day was to sharpen the knives.  Ours was the wheel driven kind and had a rope you could pull to lift the bed on the turn.

[ditchman]

1 hour ago, mel b3 said:

I remember reading somewhere quite recently (it might have been pw) . That around 100 years ago iirc , a dairy farmer could make a living , from five cows , on five acres of land.  

this is what is like in France now............the EU funds them....total unstainable....idle *********'s..........dosnt it make your skin crawl knowing that the British farmer was indirectly funding that way of life ?....as were we thro EU taxes

[mel b3]

54 minutes ago, ditchman said:

this is what is like in France now............the EU funds them....total unstainable....idle *********'s..........dosnt it make your skin crawl knowing that the British farmer was indirectly funding that way of life ?....as were we thro EU taxes

That sounds like my kind of farming . I reckon I could cope with a handful of cows.

Lin used to ask me if I've ever fancied having a go at farming my reply was always the same , " you must be joking , I've seen how hard they work".

[ditchman]

12 minutes ago, mel b3 said:

That sounds like my kind of farming . I reckon I could cope with a handful of cows.

Lin used to ask me if I've ever fancied having a go at farming my reply was always the same , " you must be joking , I've seen how hard they work".

farming must be hard, as they pay people to do it

[Old Boggy]

On 11/06/2022 at 21:58, Dave at kelton said:

Pleased to say I still see and hear plenty of curlew here in Dumfries and Galloway. Never shot them even when I could due to there reputation as pretty bloody awful to eat. On the subject of gulls a friend is in the Trough of Bowland where the problem of gull colonies is massive with red listed birds such as Curlew.

Up here most of the grass is cut by contractors, massive machinery and rattling through the farms as fast as they can but I guess we can’t turn the clock back.

Contrary to large farms with massive modern machinery covering many acres at a time, I`ve just watched them cutting and baling the field at the back of my house using a fairly old baler. They`ve been out there for about three days, including turning it and still there are many bales on the field. Mind you, this is a small field of around 10 acres owned by a small farming family. They only cut it twice a year. Sometimes it`s good to see it done at a steady pace.

OB