ON THE FARM WITH ADAM
TIMES ARE TOUGH – BUT SO ARE FARMERS
Farmers are producing plenty of food despite the challenges of Covid-19.
This has been the strangest spring
I’ve ever known, no question about that! The coronavirus restrictions have closed schools and factories, swept millions of cars from our roads and plunged cinemas and theatres into darkness.
Cafés have pulled down the shutters and tourist attractions locked their gates, as I know only too well; my business partner and I had to make the heartbreaking (but necessary) decision to close our rare breeds farm park in the Cotswolds just before the lockdown.
Yet despite our world being turned upside down, the rolling of the seasons goes on. In the midst of a global crisis, the green shoots of this year’s harvest are everywhere. Orchards have been heavy with blossom and, as I write this, I’m looking out at fields that are bright yellow with oilseed rape flowers. In lambing sheds, the long days (and longer nights) are over for another year and the thoughts of sheep farmers are now turning to shearing. This has been the familiar, age-old pattern for generations of farming families, but this year it’s an odd sort of ‘normal’.
REALITY ON THE FARM
Of course, for many people, the last thing they’re thinking about is the day-to-day concerns of the agricultural industry. For some viewers, it’s only our coverage on
Countryfile on BBC One or the social distancing displayed on my other TV series, Springtime
on the Farm, that has raised awareness of how this is affecting life on the land. In fact, the Nicholson brothers at Cannon Hall Farm, who we featured on the Channel 5 show, were the perfect example of life in lockdown for farmers. Rob and Dave were able to appear on TV side by side because they live and work together on their livestock farm in West Riding.
Off the farm, I hope shoppers queuing outside supermarkets or ordering a food delivery online have noticed that, on the whole, there haven’t been any major shortages of fresh British produce. Despite the closure of restaurants and pubs cutting off a direct point of sale for many growers, the supply chain to shops and consumers at home has stood up. Not everything has gone smoothly, though. Lamb prices dropped dramatically in March, some dairy farmers have struggled to shift their milk, and quite what happens to the tonnes of summer fruit and veg that needs to be picked in the coming weeks is far from clear.
SAFETY FOR ALL
And who could have predicted the confusion over access to the countryside? Most of us actively encourage walkers to use public footpaths across our land, but you have to sympathise with those farmers feeling worried about visitors touching gates or walking dogs through fields of livestock. The land is a farmer’s home as well as their workplace and we need safeguarding too. In the past few months, we’ve discovered this balancing act doesn’t come easy, for any of us.
In a world where lots of families rely on farm diversification for survival, having empty B&Bs, silent Go-Kart tracks or deserted catteries are a huge worry. But British farmers have always been a resourceful, resilient and adaptable bunch; we’ve coped with depressions, disease and disasters and bounced back. I’m confident the same will happen again when these extraordinary, difficult days are finally over.