It's easy to lose your farming mojo when the weather has gone from a baking hot May and June to a damp and drizzly July and August. And then, all of a sudden, the sun comes out, combines roll and you feel like the day you drove your first combine.
Harvest is where it is at; the culmination of months of work, a fortune in inputs and man hours turned into a pile of saleable commodity.
And the camaraderie too. Long hours with a teams of people all driving at the same goal. Eating fish and chips in the tractor headlights.
Good times.
Today I am completing an audit. It is not the first I have done, and it certainly will not be the last. In general, despite the outcry when ACCS (Assured Combinable Crops Scheme) was devised in 1998, I think that audits have been positive for the industry. They have prevented every processor developing their own scheme, and given a minimum standard by which the industry can market its produce - except in Potatoes and vegetables. In potatoes, retailers and end users constantly vie for bragging rights as the greenest and the most ethical source. Processors too are keen to prove how well audited their farmers are. I see this as part of our role in the supply chain, and whilst completing the audit and complying with it is time consuming and expensive, I am well aware that we are audited considerably less than other parts of the chain. I have no problem with showing and auditor that our moisture meter has been checked or that soils used to grow a crop have been tested. I become a little more uncomfortable when I am asked for the service records for our machines or the toilet cleaning audit. Today I am asked whether I have an anti-bribery and corruption policy and whether I have implemented an HIV / AIDS policy. I am sure that the person for whom I am completing this audit feels that these are important questions, and ones which may be asked by consumers (perhaps ones with too much time on their hands) but they are taking me away from the job at hand - that of growing good food in a world where one third of its population are starving.
Last year, I read Richard Hammond's autobiography. His recovery from a horrific car crash on a Top Gear filming is a amazing story of medical skill, his wife's devotion and good fortune. On Thursday I was in our office with my cousin Tim. We were discussing plans for the weekend and the potato market. Less than two hours later, he was being flown by Air Ambulance to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge with head injuries, following a fall in a potato store. He had fallen from a gantry onto the concrete below. Fortunately our assistant Stuart, and I were nearby. Stuart's swift response and the incredible speed and professionalism of the emergency services who attended have given the surgeons every possible chance with Tim. He remains very poorly, and the prognosis is not yet clear. What is clear to me is how precious life is, and how easily and quickly it can be changed. Tim was looking forward to so much; I hope he is able to fullfil his ambitions. Get well soon Tim.
Farming is a fabulous career. Farmers are at the mercy of so many factors outside their control like the weather and commodity markets, much like other careers. The great thing about being a farmer is that every twelve months or so, we get the chance to tear up what has gone before, good and bad, and do it all again. This field was growing a crop of potatoes until 3 weeks ago. Now, it is that fabulous green hue that wheat turns just after it emerges. On a stunning morning like today, it lifts me. I hope it lifts my staff, and you.
