Blog Posts

Harvest

Posted on September 6, 2021July 30, 2024 by Andrew Davis

By the time you read this, I expect the combines will be rolling, cutting winter barley somewhere, although it will not be an early harvest. The growing season has been very variable with periods of heavy rain interspersed with drier days. April brought frost and drought and, by the end of the month, plant growth was around three weeks behind a normal season. May was very wet and crops grew very rapidly, resulting in some very lush grass for first cut silage. Then three weeks of warm sunny weather dried the soil up a little before heavy rain returned again in late June and early July. Now the Jet Steam has buckled again to allow the Azores High to establish across the country and summer has returned.

Threat to Livestock

Posted on August 25, 2021July 30, 2024 by Andrew Davis

There has been huge change to our lives over the past fifteen years, much of it unrecognised. Of course, the more obvious has been caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but others are just as significant.

Starting with politics, the old divisions of left and right have been conflated with the current Conservative Government spending more tax-payers’ money than many Labour administrations. The Labour party once represented the working man with its heartland in the industrial areas of Wales, the Midlands and the North of England, whilst the Tories represented professional classes in the South, the rural areas of the shire counties. That was turned on its head at the last Election when the red wall turned blue and the Conservatives now woo votes in the post-industrial heartland once staunchly Labour. Labour now appeals to middle class intellectuals in Notting Hill and Islington. This raises the question of who stands for rural areas, the country folk that make up more than a quarter of the population? Perhaps the Liberal Democrats after the Chesham and Amersham by-election.

Country Matters – Summer

Posted on August 5, 2021July 30, 2024 by Peter Geldart

It has been an extraordinary spring. It seems that whenever I write about the growth of farm crops, I start by describing extreme weather, perhaps we need to redefine what we expect from our climate! But this spring has brought a very dry, sunny but cold April followed by a drenching but still cold May. All sorts of records have been broken yet again.

At least wild spring flowers have enjoyed the weather as primroses, dandelions, buttercups and bluebells have all had a bumper year. One suggestion is that when a plant is under stress, especially if the season is late, it may send up more flower heads in the hope of seeding whilst it can. By mid-May, with waterlogged, very cold soils, the season seemed about three weeks behind normal. It is amazing how quickly nature can recover and the recent dry sunny weather has enabled growth to catch up. Even ticks seem to be around early in large numbers.

Deer Management

Posted on July 26, 2021July 30, 2024 by Andrew Davis

There are more deer in Britain today than at any time in the last 1,000 years
according to a 2018 Countryfile programme. The population was put at two million,
whilst the Deer Initiative says that numbers have doubled since 1999. What is clear
is that the population and range of the three species commonly found in lowland
England, the fallow, roe and muntjac, have expanded exponentially over recent
decades.

Posted on April 16, 2020July 30, 2024 by Saxelby News

Originally founded as The Standing Conference for Countryside Management and Sports, and re-launched in 2019 as The Countryside Forum with an amended remit,

The Countryside Forum holds two conferences each year, at which the most influential organisations and individuals who shape the future of the countryside of England, Scotland and Wales meet to consider major issues in a gathering which is impartial, objective and well-informed. The conferences address all issues which affect our countryside, including conservation, farming, wildlife and country sports.