Take advantage of the early fine spell to spring ahead
I HAVE been enjoying the unprecedented luxury of sunbathing on my deck-chair in the garden to make the most of the recent heat wave – now that’s a first for me.
When I was farming I would have been working flat out, like the rest of Scotland’s farmers, using every minute of the good weather to get on with all the spring work.
There’s an old saying that “a pickle March stour is worth its weight in gold” and there has been enough stour on seed beds recently to allow crops to be sown in ideal conditions.
Most have taken advantage of the fine spell and are now well up to date with ploughing, sowing and slurry spreading, while those who are lambing have had a relatively easy time so far.
I even saw a herd of dairy cows out at grass during the day at the beginning of last week – the earliest I can ever remember.
As I sat out under a clear, blue sky I couldn’t help but reflect on the absence of clouds. March clouds are often angry and in a hurry. Squadrons of their shadows hurry across the hills and dash down into the glens before streaming up the next hill and disappearing over the horizon.
It’s fascinating to watch the changes of light and shade on the hills as cloud shadows chase each other up and down them.
Invariably March skies are dark, with rain-bearing clouds that keep the land sodden and kill young lambs with hypothermia as a result of torrential, cold rain. So it was a rare, pleasant experience to sit under a sky more typical of May.
I don’t know who the fool was that coined the phrase “every cloud has a silver lining”, but it certainly wasn’t a farmer. Clouds invariably herald rain that can disrupt jobs like sowing, baling or harvesting and lead to the ruination of hay, silage and cereal crops. Clouds are invisible water made visible and that’s why farmers always keep a weather eye on the skies.
There are cirrus clouds that are invariably small and harmlessly float high in the sky in vast droves like celestial sheep.
Then there are the fluffy big clouds known as cumulus that stimulate our minds as we imagine them as creatures, faces, rugged mountains or pretty palaces – but it’s the rain-bearing clouds that fill the sky with films of dark grey that farmers keep the closest eye on.
Down south, where farmland is now suffering severe drought conditions, farmers are desperately praying for the skies to darken with rain-bearing clouds. It’s a sad fact that nothing grows without water and many English arable farmers are facing a disastrous financial year for the want of it.
There’s an old saying that “if there are two moons in May there will be no hay” meaning that such a lunar event will lead to a dry month. Fortunately there is only one moon this May, but that doesn’t guarantee that Scotland will not suffer the same drought conditions as the South of England – only time will tell.
Last year, April was Scotland’s summer and the rest of the farming year’s work was hampered by torrential rain.
There’s nothing more sickening than gathering a flock of hill sheep for shearing only to have to call off the day’s work because they got soaked to the skin with torrential rain.
It’s much the same when baling as the rain clouds gather and then to watch that dry hay become sodden by a downpour.
That means the time-consuming work of scattering the hay out to dry has to begin all over again. After going through that process several times over a period of weeks the crop ends up as black, indigestible rubbish. Fortunately, silage-making has minimised the risk of losing the nutritious value of winter fodder as a result of wet weather.
Last year’s Scottish harvest was one of the most difficult in recent memory, with extra drying costs and crops abandoned due to the atrocious weather.
No two years ever have the same weather patterns, so here’s hoping for good growing conditions this summer with appropriate spells of fine dry weather to allow shearing, hay and silage making to progress the way they should, and a trouble-free harvest.
In the meantime, farmers will make the most of the current fine weather and enjoy it while it lasts.