A rocky road ahead?

As things return to some sort of normality after Covid, the spotlight moves firstly toward the energy crisis and then to COP26. Both of which are likely to hit us all square on the jaw and in the pocket! From my industry’s perspective, the energy price rise seems on the face of things to be partially down to Russia’s monopoly of the gas supply, but that conversation is well above my pay grade, so all I can do is worry about how it will affect my hill farm on Dartmoor. The answer is pretty simple, prices will rise significantly. 

The main conversation is around fertiliser which helps grow our crops — with prices going up from usual levels at about £250 per ton to £700 per ton. But ultimately prices for everything will rise, especially if energy prices stay this high. The good thing for farmers is our prices for lamb and beef have risen significantly over the past two years, although nowhere near in line with fertiliser and other inputs, so the next 12 months could be a very rocky road! We have always made best use of our organic manure, but this coming year it will be valuable stuff.

With COP26 in Scotland, it is great to see some real progress with the climate change conversation. It just worries me that it could be just another talking shop, where we as a global community kick the can further down the road! Grazing livestock often gets the blame for climate change, but flying away on holiday twice a year, driving cars, buying food from Deliveroo and the many disposable electronic gadgets also play a part! As farmers we are part of the solution, not the problem, and the narrative needs to focus on the real culprits, based around fossil fuels and a disposable culture, not just cows burping and breaking wind!

During the half-term break Gemma and I took the boys to London, visiting some of Gemma’s cousins and taking the boys to the Imperial War Museum, Covent Garden, the Harry Potter Exhibition and the LEGO Store — not my usual stomping ground and as a man of the moor used to being the only person in the vast Dartmoor landscape, dealing with crowds again was a bit full-on to say the least! But the boys had a great time and you have got to love a Premier Inn breakfast.

Meanwhile, back on the farm we have purchased Tom his first flock of sheep. He now has a small flock of Herdwick ewes, which are very hardy, white-faced sheep with very distinctive black, wiry wool. We got him a different breed so they will be easy for him to identify. His Herdwick ram Donald is off on a date night very soon so I will let you know how he gets on.

We have also recently done our annual pony drift, when we round up the Dartmoor Hill Ponies on the various commons of the moor. We have a small herd on our common near Greenwell and we gave each of the boys a piebald filly foal. My great-uncle gave me and my brother a mare each, when we were about the boys’ age, and all of my small herd are descended from that one mare. So, I gave Billy one from my herd and my brother Neil gave Tom a foal from one of his mares, descended from his original pony. Even though the ponies don’t really make the farm any money, they are very much part of Dartmoor and its farmed landscape, and they are very much in the blood of most Dartmoor farmers to this day.  

Merry Christmas from Greenwell Farm.