Yellow Fields of Spring

Yellow fields of May …I think that sounds like the first line of a top 40 song, I might pass that on to my mate Sil who manages the Stranglers or perhaps it’s more Sting! 

Daffodils and Roe Deer

 I hope, all you keen walkers and countryside lovers out there have seen the rising of the daffodils and enjoyed the snowdrops! I first noticed the snowdrops appearing on 9th January. I can’t remember them coming up quite as early as this for many a year.

Hardington Vale’s Farming Today

The first glimmers of spring are finally beginning to emerge in our hedgerows and fields. As the snowdrops blossom and the daffodils start to raise their little heads, Andy Fussell delights in the abundance of wildlife to be found in Hardington Vale.

January on the Farm

 January… it’s dark, it’s cold, it’s damp and it goes on for a long time - well it seems to! The crops that looked so good going into the winter now look completely different; away with the dark green colours and in with lighter shades; the leaves have gone flat and are somewhat bedraggled and forlorn, and February ‘s still to come. Christmas has gone and we’ve all got fat! What can we do?

August farming Diary

 ‘Records Go ‘

Well into August and hardly any wheat cut , we have only managed to cut 40 acres out of 875 that we need to get through this harvest ! But as my grandmother always used to say….

 “There is always a time to get it in and there is always a time to get it out “

She was also partial to the saying “The world has come off its axis my boy. “, and looking at what‘s been going on lately all over the world and in our towns and cities, she wouldn’t be far from the mark! 

June 2011

Well, well, what happened to the last month? It has truly flown by and a lot has happened in a short time. Firstly we have had some rain, and in some cases we have had rather a lot of it which was very hard and persistent at times. As they say, ‘It never rains but it pours!’, but then again it came just in the nick of time for our Barley and wheat. It will now have plenty of moisture to enable the grain to ‘fill’ and to develop into plump and heavy grain, well hopefully!

May 2011

Hi everybody,

Well the sun has certainly had his hat well and truly on! For most people it has been a great spell of weather and it was for farmers everywhere, to start with, but the dry spell was too long for most of the farming community.

A blog from the Dragons' Den

Who’s afraid of the big bad Dragons? Not me that’s for sure because I have been into the Dragons’ Den and lived to tell the tale, and here it is.