Monthly Update - March 2024

It is always busy for Steve Waters as he looks after Rushall Farm, especially as his main man Adam Beavis has had to have surgery on his back.  BUT February 29th was extra busy.  Three hedge cutters were chasing to finish flailing the last of the miles of roadside hedges.  Cutting is best done in January and February so that food from the hedges is plentiful for the birds. This year an early spring has stolen the show with daffodils, and some hedges, breaking into leaf. Mid-morning a load of straw arrived from Marcham as Steve’s supplies were running low.  Most of the ewes had just been housed, all ready to lamb this month. Scanning promised 650 lambs to come. Those having single lambs had joined the finishing lambs on turnips and hay, returning manure into the soil for the next crop of spring barley.   Steve’s dad and sister Elizabeth were busy converting a portacabin into a rest room for the veterinary students who had signed up to help with the lambing.  The 40 cows were well through calving, and noise from the house was evidence of much needed renovation for this busy family. Text messages and emails make sure that there is never a dull moment for a farmer today. Right now, the worry is that overdue fieldwork cannot be carried out as everything is so wet.

And this year is the start of new things.  The farm has been accepted into a scheme for organic and stewardship payments for the next 5 years.  This takes over from the previous one set up in 2011, and is essential if government payments for farming are to be received.  “Public money for Public good” was the bold statement by Michael Gove when he was in charge. The emphasis of the new scheme seems to be more on conservation than on producing the stuff that keeps us alive. It focuses on biodiversity, looking after soils and hedges, air quality, water quality and healthy farming practices. So, it is out with field margins, wildflower meadows and permanent grassland and in with specific wildlife areas; herbal, clover rich grassland; minimum tillage of the land; more new hedges; managed woodlands and sustainable organic farming methods for Rushall Farm.  Bear with Steve as it all takes time to happen. School visits are still in the mix, with farm safaris from a trailer to get up close to crops, grassland, trees and hedges, cows and calves (what a beautiful sight), ewes and lambs. Another new chapter for farming in the Pang Valley!