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November 2006

Autumn colours are making a very late appearance this year due to an unusually mild spell of weather, with little or no frost.  Trees around a farm provide shade and shelter for livestock, food and cover for wildlife and game and income from timber sales (the latter only works if you actually own the trees, landlords tend to get bit upset if you’re a tenant who starts selling timber!). 

There are downsides however; autumn gales bring down acorns in large numbers each day.  Autumn born calves which are suckling their mothers and just starting to eat grass will pick up acorns which are highly poisonous to them.  A temporary electric fence can be put up to keep stock away from oak trees, but the safest thing to do is move cows and calves to another field, if possible. 

Later on in the year, during spells of snow and frost when food is in short supply, sheep are able to fulfil their main mission in life; to kill themselves by whatever means possible, for example eating rhododendron leaves.  A sheep will copy whatever the sheep in front is doing, so any incident of poisoning by eating these leaves usually results in losing a number of sheep - and a large vet bill trying to save them.

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While on the subject of sheep, if you’re a male of the species whether you call yourself a tup or a ram, it’s time for you to earn your keep on lowground farms.  The tups have been with the ewes since mid October, and lambing will start from mid March onwards. 

On the higher hill farms, Blackface tups don’t get any action until nearly the end of the year, so that lambing doesn’t start until well into April and May.  The later lambing on higher ground is supposed to coincide with the start of the spring grass growth so that hill ewes have enough grass to produce milk for lambs to suckle.

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Grass growth this autumn has been one of the best on record.  If it’s due to global warming then it’s very difficult as a farmer not to enjoy the higher temperatures and extra grass.  One of the NFU Scotland’s current campaigns is about how agriculture can play a part in the fight against climate change.  Methane recovery from digested slurry, road fuel made from farm crops, biomass plants burning woody material and carcass waste processing for electricity and biodiesel production are all contributions which agriculture can make. 

One of NFU’s main ideas is also that some day, whichever government is in power, they might just realise that it’s better to produce as much food as possible at home rather than contribute to climate change by burning fossil fuels to haul it round the world.  It is hoped, by keeping the countryside working and producing fuel and energy, that it will be easier to switch back to food production in the future, when global food shortages and food security climb a bit higher on the political agenda.