ON THE FARM WITH ADAM
Adam Henson reflects on a challenging year for his own farm – and all farmers.
Talk to any farming family and there’s a fair chance that, within a few minutes, the conversation will turn to the landmark events that have changed lives and left their mark on the industry. The big freeze of 1963, the UK joining the Common Market in 1973 and 2001’s devastating outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease are high on the list. After a tumultuous 12 months, there’s no question that
2020 is now among those never-to-be-forgotten years.
The hardest decision I have ever had to make was to voluntarily close our rare breeds visitor attraction to the public back in March. With coronavirus cases rising sharply at the time, it was inevitable and the responsible thing to do. But having reopened Cotswold Farm Park for the new tourist season just days before, locking the gates was like a kick in the teeth. As it turned out, the national lockdown was announced a week later, although that was little consolation.
It broke me to have to tell the 53 farm park staff that I was sending them home. I couldn’t tell them when, or even if, they would be coming back and, at that stage, the furlough scheme hadn’t been revealed by the Government. Some members of the team have been with us for years, so the sense of responsibility weighed heavily on my shoulders.
It was eerily quiet without the bustle and chatter of hundreds of visitors every day, but that doesn’t mean the farm was silent. Livestock don’t do lockdown and they still needed plenty of attention; in fact, looking after the animals was a very welcome slice of normality for me. It was a refreshing diversion to get back to mucking out the horses and doing the rounds with buckets of feed.
DISAPPOINTING HARVEST
It’s well known that isolation and loneliness afflict farmers more than most, with months of lockdown, shielding and social distancing not helping matters. I know it’s a problem that is of huge concern to the various farming charities and rural helplines at the moment. So I consider myself very lucky to have had my family at home throughout the pandemic, and a small but supportive workforce helping to keep things going on our commercial sheep and arable farm. Because, within weeks of lockdown, we had hundreds of sheep waiting to be sheared and 4,000 acres of crops that needed harvesting.
As if 2020 wasn’t hard enough, this year’s harvest was also the biggest test we’ve faced in decades. A combination of downpours and droughts meant oilseed rape, wheat and barley yields were all significantly down and the amount of grass we could cut for silage was about half as much as we’d expected. We even lost around 70% of the straw we were hoping to sell.
All these issues were captured by the Countryfile cameras that have continued to visit the farm, although the way we make our films has changed beyond belief. We don’t share microphones, all the kit is sanitised before it’s handled, I don’t travel with the crew anymore and recording voiceovers is just as likely to take place at the kitchen table as it is in a sound-proofed studio. Some of the changes you will have noticed on screen, others are purely behind the scenes, but when I sit down on a Sunday night to watch the programme, I’m in awe at what the production team achieves every week – a reassuring constant in uncertain times.