A clever use of advertising

A recent email from a member of Eurolink highlighted a clever use of both student voices and digital manipulation. Hadlow College in Kent that specialises in land-based industries has released a video to encourage young people to get qualifications in farming and other land-based industries. The video has a quirkiness and the concept of the talking heads is similar to the Aardman animations for the electricity adverts from the 1990's. It is good to see that there is still a lot of interest in rural based training and employment, especially for the younger generation. I wonder if it will change the face of advertising for other land-based colleges.

To see the video of the talking animals, click here.

Something different next time, but if you liked this please pass this blog on to other people, thank you. 

What is Eurolink?

So you will have noticed this blog deals with things both agricultural and rural related, but what is Eurolink, please read below

The Eurolink Agricolae Club was formed fifteen years ago to enable those who had taken part in Eurolink exchanges to maintain friendships and continue to learn through the exchange of ideas amongst people with similar business or personal interests.

The Club publishes two Newsletters a year, sometimes in as many as four different languages, and these contain reports about Club activities, articles by members about topics connected with their businesses, or just items of general interest.

The Club also holds a Reunion every year in different countries. To date, four Reunions have been held in France, two in the Netherlands, one in Germany, one in Spain, one in Hungary, one in Scotland, and four in England.

The Club has extended its membership by including associate membership for those from land-based industries who have not taken part in an exchange but are interested in joining in the Club activities, and by widening its membership outside Europe.

We would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to join us.

To find out more about the Eurolink Agricolae Club, either read our blog at: http://eurolinkseas.blogspot.com or email the Club secretary on julia_reynolds@hotmail.com or by post to The Secretary, Eurolink Agricolae Club, The South of England Agricultural Society, The South of England Centre, Ardingly, West Sussex, RH17 6TL.

Dew Ponds - how to survive the drought if you are a farmer - part three

So how do you make a dew pond? In the early 1920's dew pond makers would travel through the southern counties for around six or seven months from September. This would link in with the production of straw at the end of the harvest. With a period of four weeks to make a 22 square yard (7.102 square metres) pond, the pond makers would take the time to dig a hole and then start with the crown and only extending the pond when the conditions called for it. The work started that day had to be finished before the dew had fallen - does dew fall or rise (this article may give you the answer) - and a layer of straw had to be added for insulation at night. Work stopped for frosty and inclement weather. It is suggested that puddled clay was used to make the majority of the pond (it had been estimated that seventy cartloads of clay was needed for a single pond) - however the structural analyses of dew ponds in the region of Brighton suggested that puddled chalk was also used. Martin Snow, a dew pond spotter, has found between 100 and 200 ponds in West Sussex alone. The location of a dew pond is created so that it exploits both mist and the rain clouds from the coast. This Country life article lists 2 contractors.

Dew Ponds - how to survive the drought if you are a farmer - part two

An article in Country Life (2nd of June 2006)  by Sandy Mitchell suggested that there were about 500 dew ponds left with most of them being found in Hampshire, the Peak District, Sussex and Yorkshire. Said to have a magical quality for not running dry, it is probably down to their siting and the locational conditions. One of the conditions is to insulate the dew pond so that the water remains colder than the earth beneath it. So that when the dew condenses within the pond structure. This insulation can be created by layering both clay and straw but this can be achieved (nowadays) with a geo-textile blanket. It is estimated, in Sandy Mitchell's article, that a 10 yard pond (8.361 square metres) would cost £12,000 to construct in 2006. Does anyone know what it may cost today?

Dew Ponds - how to survive the drought if you are a farmer - part one

Dew Ponds

In this time of decreased rainfall, despite it raining for a few days in the south east the hose pipe ban is still in effect. Is it a time to rely on these structures? The dew ponds, also known as cloud or mist ponds, were first recorded in  around 1865 and are of a shallow and saucer-shaped form lined with normally readily available material, (be it chalk, marl or puddled clay) over a layer of straw that insulates the pond from the subsoil heat of the surrounding landscape. There have been examples where either soot or lime has been mixed to deter the burrowing effects of earthworms. Other methods of attempting to reduce the rates of evaporation included siting the pond in a hollow or leaving the grass to grow taller (if you could stop the animals eating it) as the taller grasses were thought to help refract the heat effect or maybe it was just the micro movement of the grasses that helped to reduce the  heat around the pool. Other precautions may be taken into account to deter the drinking animals from entering the pond, this would include adding irregular shaped rocks or flints within the bottom of the pond.

Hedges - part two of framing the countryside

The Medieval Age, from 700 years CE, the hedges seemed to use more plants instead of stones, such as  the Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) plant. Oliver Rackham found this as explained in the Medieval Landscape of Essex. Hedged fields are noted in the surveys, such as the one of Leaden Roding in 1493. The parish consisted of fields “enclosed with hedges and ditches”. The emergence of hedgerow trees appeared in the "rolls" or the court records of the 14^th and the 15^th century where there were disputes over felled trees.

The Manorial Open Field system where the hedges were removed. The hedges were destroyed to create the manorial open field system. Fields belonging to the manor or village were farmed in strips  - a furlong (about 200 metres) in width and this would then be subdivided into strips. The strips were divided by public lot at the beginning of the agricultural year and often the quality would vary so no favouritism was created. A patch of common ground was provided for animal pasture. The village of Laxton in Nottinghamshire still has this form of farming. The strip style of farming reduces the use and need of the hedge.

The Enclosures Act – Hedges were replaced after the instigation of these various acts in the first part of the 18^th century – 4,000 private acts of enclosure covered some 7 million acres were taken from the use of the villagers with a lot of rioting before The General Enclosures Act of 1845. It is thought that a similar amount of land was enclosed without Parliament’s application. This led to the lord of the manor or principal owner of the land instigating the move to enclosure – the reason was usually due to gaining more money.

Hedges were removed after World War Two (post 1945) to create more food after the war and then were replanted as it was found the hedge provided something that chemicals couldn’t provide…

Hedges give the added benefits of reducing the water movement, which reduces the flooding; it improves the water quality by creating thorough filtration; it reduces the siltration in water course; it provides stock-proof boundaries as stock shelter and it prevents the spread of disease; it prevents soil erosion; it supports beneficial invertebrates; it supports beneficial invertebrates to arable crop production; it acts as a surrogate habitat for all levels of the food chain such as wild flowers, butterflies, ladybirds, bats, hedgehogs to name but a few; 149 species of invertebrates are supported by Hawthorn and Blackthorn, the hedges and the hedgerow trees contribute to carbon sequestration and the provision of hedges and hedgerow trees can increase property value by 5 to 20%.

The management of hedging will make the hedges last longer and provide the benefits:

• Coppicing can help to rejuvenate the health of a hedge ecosystem if the hedge has gone too far for simple layering or trimming.
• Hedge laying - if unmaintained, the hedge will gain holes in the its length or at the base, this affects the integrity of the benefits. To maintain the hedge’s health, it needs to be laid – where the healthy stem is cut, laid and interwoven between wooden stakes.
• Hedge-trimming – the use of a flail where the cutting height can be increased over the years. The hedge takes time to reflower and refruit on which the biotic factors of the hedge ecosystem depend on.
• Hedge Management Scale – an informal management system as devised by Hedgeline UK using the High Hedges Law, where on a scale of 1 to 10 describes hedges in mainly residential area but can be used with the management of rural hedgerows. 1 describes heavily overtrimmed, 5 is a healthy hedge and 10 is a unmanaged row where the plants have become trees.

            Hedge legislation:

• The Hedgerow Regulations 1997 in section 97 of the Environment Act 1995 prohibits the removal of most countryside hedgerows.
• Tree Preservation Orders made by the Local Planning Authority can be made on areas, groups, individuals and woodland.
• Single Payment Scheme compliance part of GAEC (Good Agricultural and Environmental Conduct) 15 restricts the cutting of hedges from the 1^st of March until the 31^st of July.
• All wild birds, (listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981) are protected and as are their nesting sites within hedgrows.
• The agri-environmental schemes, including the Environmental Stewardship Scheme, restricts the cutting of hedges between 1^st of March until the end of March (or the end of August, which is dependent on the start date of the scheme (1^st of October)).
• The old Inclosure Acts may require old hedges to be retained and managed forever. 

Hedges - part one of framing the countryside

For the keen of eye, I have not mistyped the title. But it could be stated that farming is a form of framing the landscape and the hedges add extra dimensions to those field boundaries.

The picture above shows an arable farm in Ely. There are no visible hedges to act as the field boundaries. The land is flat and ideal for arable.

The picture above shows a more mixed farm with pastoral and arable in Trenerth, Cornwall. A few more hedges along the field boundaries and there are a few more spinneys and copses. There is a gentle undulation to the land and the picture suggests arable agriculture with a possibility for some pasture.

Hedges, be they a collection of shrubs and trees (whether hawthorn, hazel, or whitethorn) manicured with the aid of tractor flail or the Devonian version, which is an earthen bank topped with shrubs and often faced with turf or stone. The Cornish variant is a similar earthen bank with interlocking stones topped up with shrubs and trees as this will help to reduce the wind damage on the farms. 

Farmers used to frame the land with a form of a hedge – this word comes the Dutch (haag) and the German (hecke) meaning to enclose. Presumably to protect the animals, crops and the land from wild animals and other people.  The first example were used to enclose arable land six to four thousand years ago, the Neolithic Age. BCE = Before Common Era. The fields tended to be approximately 0.1 hectare where the farm may have been up to five to ten hectares. 

The hedges become prominent in the Bronze Age (2,000 to 1,800 years BCE), the use of bronze as a working material meant that a single family or tribe could tend more fields. The increased number of fields meant that a crop failure may not be such a problem. The fields tended to be of a basic shape such as  a square or a circle. This was presumably as there was little competition and a turning circle was needed for the ox and plough.

The Iron Age (800 to 200 years BCE) led with an increase in the amount of workable materials and at cheaper prices, the demand for the amount of fields would become greater and thus the need of field boundaries would be in greater demand.

Next time - hedges from the Medieval Age to the present day.

A Changeable Spring

With the advent of hose pipe ban from seven water companies staring on Thursday, which covers the east and south east of England, as well as this March being one of the driest months (see below); it seems rather unlikely that snow would be covering the ground. It was thought that last night's weather forecast may have been a delayed April Fool's joke.

A recent article in the Guardian stated that "Some parts of Yorkshire have seen the driest 12 months since 1910 and river levels are continuing to fall, prompting the Environment Agency to urge farmers and businesses taking water from rivers to use supplies wisely." A report on the Channel 4 News tonight showed the difference between a week in Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, last week the temperature had risen to 23.6 degrees Centigrade and today there was snow on the ground. An entry in the Met Office's blog stated "Despite the current cold and snowy weather, March 2012 was the third warmest in records dating back to 1910 and the warmest since 1957."

The Met Office issued a Yellow Warning of Snow (the colour always make me smile) for Yorkshire and Humber on the 3rd of April at 11.41 where it was stated that "rain is expected to turn into snow on higher ground as colder air moves south across England and Wales on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some 2-5cm of snow is likely in places, mainly above around 200m with as much as 10 to 15cm possible over 300m. Little, if any, snows is expected to accumulate on roads and pavements below 200m. The area of rain, sleet and snow will clear from the north during Wednesday."

However with snow having fallen in both Scotland, Ross-shire, and northern England, including Yorkshire and Teeside, as of the time of typing this, as well as rain in Cambridge. But instead of wondering how far the snow or rain is travelling down the spine of Great Britain, isn't it more important to see how are the farmers and rural practitioners coping with these changeable conditions? We all have to eat, as I notice from waistline, but with reduced water in the soil and more demands on the precious water resources will this not affect the size of harvested potatoes, will the onset of snow flurries upset the pollen carrying bees. 

An article in The Gazette.Net from Connecticut describes some of the problems that are caused by unseasonable warmth followed by freezing temperatures: including fruit tree blossoms being burnt; asparagus may face difficulties underground and "bees are adapting by gathering pollen from crocuses, daffodils, pussy willows and trees, including sugar maples and red oaks". Can any farmers and rural practitioners that read this blog, add their problems that they are facing with the weather fluctuations? Just add it to the comments box below, thank you.

Where do you get your farming news?

With the advent of the Internet, there has been a reduction of noise of mail falling through the letter box of the door, although there has been an increase of electronic mail coming through to your email in box. But as a farmer or a rural practitioner, how do you find out the news with regard to your industry? 

I have put forward a few links, below, that are useful to farmers and rural practitioners for getting news on their industry. Some of the weblinks may ask you to register or become members with them. Please note that these websites are outside the control of this Blog and whilst we've done our best to make sure it's suitable for you to visit, we remind you that we're not responsible for non Eurolink web content. 

Can you add anymore, add to the comments below.

Country Land & Business Association

Defra 

The Farmers Guardian  

The Farmers Weekly 

The National Farmer's Union

NetRegs, a website that deals with efficiency and environmental guidelines is going through a structural change and is being split up into the countries England, Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales and the information is being disseminated between the Business Link and the Environment Agency websites (things are not always easy).

Rural Payments Agency

South East Farmer

South of England Agricultural Society

On asking a farming friend in Canada, I was told they read The Western Producer

As I asked, can anyone add their own useful websites? Use the comment box below. 

News of Organic Food Sales of 2011

With news from one of the Eurolink committee, Mr. Ben Dent, I have pleasure in giving you some news on last year's organic food sales:

Trends is organic food sales might not be exactly the same as for local food, but figures out last week (see here) show that organic sales were down 3.7% in 2011, though the fall was less at farmers’ markets at only 1%.  This would support the overall view that farmers’ markets have been protected from the economy’s worst effects, but nonetheless there is some drop off, and probably the pattern is variable between markets depending on their catchment area. 

Perhaps more worryingly, organic sales via mail order and box schemes were up 7%, suggesting that the challenge to farmers’ markets (and farm shops) from home delivery may be strengthening.

The article that Mr. Dent links to in his first paragraph is an article from the Farmer's Weekly from the 9th of march 2012 entitled, "Organic sector must change to stem falling sales".

Do any readers of this blog agree with this and what experiences have they had within their own sectors, feel free to comment below.