Farmers need to cut back on complaints
Over the past month or so, there has been an intermittent whine coming from my television. The usual remedy of giving the goggle-box a smart smack on the side panel has not solved the problem.
Further investigation into the source of the noise produced no problems with its electronic innards. Instead the whinges were coming from interviews with farmers complaining about this summer of high temperatures and low rainfall.
As the TV cameras focused in on dust dry soil, the farmer could be heard moaning that yields would be down and, as the cameras then panned across to where livestock were munching through a bale of hay, another wail came to the effect that this fodder was meant to be kept for feeding the cattle through the winter.
By this time, I am indulging in one of my pastimes, which is shouting at the tv. “Get on with it. Look for the opportunity it provides. Stop moaning. It’s your job.” I realise this does no good other than I feel relieved having expressed my views.
All too often nowadays any wrinkle in expected weather patterns produces a wave of media types sent out from their urban headquarters with instructions to “get a farmer complaining about the heat/cold/ wet/wind/sand storms/ typhoons/any other meteorological phenomenon.”
And Joe Farmer rises to the bait as swiftly as a trout snaps a gadding mayfly. This is his much parodied five minutes of fame and he is not going to miss his opportunity in the spotlight.
And that is the source of all the agricultural moans and groans this sunfilled,
rain-free summer. What is not appreciated is that complaining reinforces the general public view that the farming industry is full of moaners and groaners and that is not a good image to project.
The only part of any interview that is broadcast relates to the negative effects of the extreme weather. There is no room in the tv clip to discuss rising grain prices which might help compensate for loss of yield or at least it might if the farmer had not sold the crop earlier at a fixed price.
Lest any farmer reading this is already spitting into his porridge and muttering ‘this guy does not know what he is talking about,’ I was farming in 1976 which was the last time the sun split the sky for most of the summer.
As such, I watched my potato and grain crops frizzle up in the unrelenting heat. In an echo of today where many grain farmers have sold their crop forward and are now watching futures markets winging upwards, I had also sold a fair percentage of the growing crop and had to grit my teeth and supply it.
That may all have happened four decades ago but I still recall how tough it was. For masochists, it was also tougher than today because interest rates in those far off days were well into double figures thus making any financial pain more severe.
I remember mumping about it all those years ago
only to be advised by one who had seen a few summers, “Don’t see the difficulties. See the opportunities it brings, son.”
And this is the crux of the matter. If you choose to have an outside life farming with all its variety rather than commuting to an office or factory floor where the temperature is controlled, the roof does not leak and the biting wind does not whistle through your clothes, then cut back on the complaints.
Next time I see farmers interviewed in the next hot spell, I would like to see a positive response including, for example, the farmer explaining that it has opened up new and different business opportunities.
He might include a resolution to make the farm less vulnerable to the more variable weather we are now getting with more effort going into improving water supplies or removing crops that rely on a benign climate. The fancy word is resilience, I believe.
Some examples of opportunities include grain crops cut for whole crop silage. I have also seen more straw baled than is usually the case.
And while we are at it, perhaps the colleges training the next generation should be pointing out to the students that the weather is not constant. It varies and they should get used to it.
As the old man said, “Look for the opportunities the weather brings.”