The Year Round: Weather on the wish list

My wish list at High Wolds Farm is for "normal" weather, a few hiccups in crop production worldwide, except the UK and for a new government that will take more interest in farming.

We can't do anything about the weather, despite politicians making a case for reducing CO2; more an excuse to tax polluters than stop temperatures rising.

But we need more accurate weather forecasting, as getting it wrong costs us.

UK crop production is a drop in the ocean, so our prices are at the mercy of the rest of the world. Wasn't it good when the world sneezed and we saw 200/tonne for wheat? Then wasn't it disappointing when the cold was cured and we dropped to less than 100. Ever since the Ministry of Agriculture was shut down, politician's interest in farming has swung from supporting agriculture to creating employment for ever more bureaucrats, to handle ever more paperwork. I also think the NFU has passed its sell by date and all its teeth have dropped out.

At the moment we have rules made in Europe, slightly challenged by the NFU but without any clout.

We need UK farmers to be led from the front by an interested government in Whitehall rather than Brussels, fed by guidelines from a board of successful farmers and business men – the best in every class of farming.

Meanwhile, High Wolds Farm is hibernating, apart from the continuous cycle of chicken rearing and its associated movements of corn going off the farm and feed coming back in.