Bales of colour brighten up the countryside
IN the height of summer the countryside can look radiant in a whole host of different hues of green, enough even to challenge the very best paint boves.
At this time of year though, unless it’s been snowing, only two colours seem to be visible in fields and farmyards around the country – a wee bit of green and an awful, awful lot of brown.
Whether the brown is in the form of fields which have been ploughed for sowing come springtime or because they’ve been guttered into a mess by stock or tractors, the predominant earthy tone still gives a muddy, swampy look to a landscape which seems to be crying out for the warmth of spring to dry it out.
And, with the possible evception of the strikingly bright yellow fields of oilseed rape which bloom in May, the fields which make up the countryside tend to favour these muted, camouflage colours of brown, green and the pale yellows of harvest.
So it might have come as a bit of a surprise to people passing through some rural areas in recent years to see what appeared to be giant, vibrant pink marshmallows lying in fields or stacked neatly outside cattle sheds.
For an industry which tends to be pretty restrained in its use of colour these brightly wrapped silage bales – for that’s what they were – came as a bit of a surprise at first as well.
But over the last couple of years you could almost say that pink has become the new black on farms – as the black plastic film used to wrap these bales up has been joined by this vivid pink.
However, the use of the pink film isn’t a sign that the fickle world of fashion has caught up with agriculture. It isn’t even because pink is a new, cheaper alternative – quite the reverse, in fact – as it’s more a sign of generosity. For each and every one of these striking bright pink bales represents a donation to a charity supporting breast cancer research.
And while contributions from growers and suppliers using farming’s equivalent of the pink ribbon idea, together with other fund-raising events, brought in £10,000 for the charity in 2015, last year saw this rise to more than £26,000 as everyone fancied having a few of these eye-catching bales around the place while supporting a good cause.
So the campaign is going to be run again in 2017 and everyone is hoping the uptake will help keep both farming and the charity in the pink.