Andrew Blenkiron

[Barleymow]

Sunday dinner at 12 noon.
Switch the telly on in the front room, so the valves could get warmed up and then the BBC farming programme at half past followed by the ITV one at 1pm.
David Richardson, John Cherrington, Henry Fell, Phillip Wrixon et al

Proper farmers talking about proper farming - we didn't know we were born.

How the hell that morphed into Countryfile, God only knows

And the weather forecast after it for the week was a lot more accurate than today's efforts

 

[yellowbelly]

And the weather forecast after it for the week was a lot more accurate than today's efforts

No computer modelling then, just a bloke with a barometer and a fir cone

 

[onthehoof]

We all get old and some get bitter and seem to moan more and more. Before you all tell me “You are already there!”, I do hope somebody tells me when it’s time to hang my gun up.

As FW keeps reminding us the industry needs new foward thinking young farmers with innovative ideas, not the old stuck in their ways cronies who know nothing. They forget that these old farmers were once the young farmers they so desperately crave.
I find this whole agenda particularly patronising and I don't consider myself an 'old farmer'

 

[Henarar]

As FW keeps reminding us the industry needs new foward thinking young farmers with innovative ideas, not the old stuck in their ways cronies who know nothing. They forget that these old farmers were once the young farmers they so desperately crave.
I find this whole agenda particularly patronising and I don't consider myself an 'old farmer'

think farming needs both
the forward thinking young guns with there innovative ideas and the old farts to tell them that the ideas are not really new just a re-hash of something that has been done before, sometimes you need the really really old no narts to tell them though as this particular idea skipped a generation or two

 

[ajd132]

think farming needs both
the forward thinking young guns with there innovative ideas and the old farts to tell them that the ideas are not really new just a re-hash of something that has been done before, sometimes you need the really really old no narts to tell them though as this particular idea skipped a generation or two

Was chatting to my dad and some of his mates last year and they said when they were really young they were still looking at the things which I am doing. But then all the pesticides etc came and it all went out the window.

 

[Charlie Flindt]

Can’t I say I find charlie flindt yearning for the past a particular high point of that that magazine

That's rather odd - my No 1 philosophy of farming/writing about farming is that the good old days weren't good. See, for instance, the column a few weeks ago about the tractor driver's funeral.

 

[Robt]

7 sheep and artisan peacock eggs for sale at the end of a gate and a big Instagram following being paid to advertise fairfax and favour boots appears to be what constitutes a mover and shaker in my age bracket in agriculture!

I can see you in white jeans and knee high fair fax!

 

[Two Tone]

Was chatting to my dad and some of his mates last year and they said when they were really young they were still looking at the things which I am doing. But then all the pesticides etc came and it all went out the window.

That is true!
It was in the mid to late 70’s when I was in my mid to late teens that DD first got started due to the invention of the Bettinson DD, then 3D and soon after the MF 130 direct drills were invented. The key and promotion behind it was ICI’s Gramoxone.
It’s ICI 10 Tonnne Club was born. Around Cirencester, a small group of Farmers tried it with new varieties of Winter Barley’s Sonia and then Igri. Together with the newly invented Bayer’s Bayleton and Bayleton BM, they got these fatalistic yields, which became the catalyst for DD to be used bay a lot of other farmers, all over the country.
At about the same time, Oilseed Rape growing took off and many farmers used DD to plant it.

Edit:
In 1979, what is now regarded as the 1st Cereals event was born, called Barley ’79. One of the founders behind it was Prof E. John Wibberley. He then also founded the CCC (Cotswold Cereals Club) that eventually went onto become the TAG part of NIAB-TAG.

 

[manhill]

That's rather odd - my No 1 philosophy of farming/writing about farming is that the good old days weren't good. See, for instance, the column a few weeks ago about the tractor driver's funeral.

Bad old days?
How much were your cattle making and how much were your input costs then compared with now?

 

[Two Tone]

And the weather forecast after it for the week was a lot more accurate than today's efforts

Jeez!
I’d forgotten that the weekly weather forecast was as important as the farming program itself. It was the only weekly forecast available. We daren’t cut the hay until it showed a decent week’s weather ahead.

However, it wasn’t always right. I once cut my hay an a Monday and it pee'd it down as from the Wednesday for the next 6 weeks. That was the first time that I started using Round bale Silage. There were no wrappers, so we used bags at a quid each in those days.

 

[glasshouse]

Jeez!
I’d forgotten that the weekly weather forecast was as important as the farming program itself. It was the only weekly forecast available. We daren’t cut the hay until it showed a decent week’s weather ahead.

However, it wasn’t always right. I once cut my hay an a Monday and it pee'd it down as from the Wednesday for the next 6 weeks. That was the first time that I started using Round bale Silage. There were no wrappers, so we used bags at a quid each in those days.

1985?

 

[Charlie Flindt]

Bad old days?
How much were your cattle making and how much were your input costs then compared with now?

How good was the in-cab hi-fi? That's the big one.

 

[Two Tone]

That's rather odd - my No 1 philosophy of farming/writing about farming is that the good old days weren't good. See, for instance, the column a few weeks ago about the tractor driver's funeral.

I wouldn’t fully agree with you that the good old days weren’t good. The work was harder, but profitability was easier.
It was very satisfying and a lot less frustrating. Had computers and IT never been invented, I wonder if even IACS would ever been invented. Let alone Red Tractor!

But, then again TFF wouldn’t exist either.

I will agree with you that putting a radio / radio cassette in a tractor cab was a huge step forward.
Today, mine is set on Radio 4, showing that I have definitely become a SOB (Sad old barsteward)!

When my next door neighbour (25) uses my sprayer under our Joint-venture farming agreement, it comes back set on Radio 1. Even though 35 years ago I listen to it too, it pisses me off that I now cannot read the radio buttons to switch it back over to Radio 4!

 

[Henarar]

Was chatting to my dad and some of his mates last year and they said when they were really young they were still looking at the things which I am doing. But then all the pesticides etc came and it all went out the window.

Doing without sprays and artificial fert can't be new as there wasn't any years ago, just now it has a few fancy names back then it was just farming

 

[glasshouse]

I wouldn’t fully agree with you that the good old days weren’t good. The work was harder, but profitability was easier.
It was very satisfying and a lot less frustrating. Had computers and IT never been invented, I wonder if even IACS would ever been invented. Let alone Red Tractor!

But, then again TFF wouldn’t exist either.

I will agree with you that putting a radio / radio cassette in a tractor cab was a huge step forward.
Today, mine is set on Radio 4, showing that I have definitely become a SOB (Sad old barsteward)!

When my next door neighbour (25) uses my sprayer under our Joint-venture farming agreement, it comes back set on Radio 1. Even though 35 years ago I listen to it too, it pisses me off that I now cannot read the radio buttons to switch it back over to Radio 4!

There was far less stress back then
May - june was a time to ease off and maybe take a holiday
Now its iacs nonsense and farm assurance rubbish

 

[Two Tone]

How good was the in-cab hi-fi? That's the big one.

Where would we be and how boring would life be without our daily dose of Women’s Hour?

 

[digger64]

There was far less stress back then
May - june was a time to ease off and maybe take a holiday
Now its iacs nonsense and farm assurance rubbish

everybody seemed to be happier , and more time for everything and everyone

 

[teslacoils]

Bad old days?
How much were your cattle making and how much were your input costs then compared with now?

Indeed. Add to that many of "us" wouldn't be doing the grunt work back in the 60s and 70s. Rather, we'd be driving around supervising.

Was led to believe that in the 70s farming was akin to printing money. And post war govt policy was strongly in favour of efficient production .

 

[digger64]

That is true!
It was in the mid to late 70’s when I was in my mid to late teens that DD first got started due to the invention of the Bettinson DD, then 3D and soon after the MF 130 direct drills were invented. The key and promotion behind it was ICI’s Gramoxone.
It’s ICI 10 Tonnne Club was born. Around Cirencester, a small group of Farmers tried it with new varieties of Winter Barley’s Sonia and then Igri. Together with the newly invented Bayer’s Bayleton and Bayleton BM, they got these fatalistic yields, which became the catalyst for DD to be used bay a lot of other farmers, all over the country.
At about the same time, Oilseed Rape growing took off and many farmers used DD to plant it.

Edit:
In 1979, what is now regarded as the 1st Cereals event was born, called Barley ’79. One of the founders behind it was Prof E. John Wibberley. He then also founded the CCC (Cotswold Cereals Club) that eventually went onto become the TAG part of NIAB-TAG.

I worked for a farmer with a 4 m bettinson drilling into weathered fluff on the top and trying to retain it (he was very focussed grass weed control etc though) , the attraction as I understood it was not ploughing up "horses heads "/a fresh crop of wild oats etc and getting crops in early on challengeing land but a good burn was the key .
Now on here it seems light land is more suited -I am confused by this as light land "slumps" and ploughing /getting a seedbed would be relatively cheap and easy on lightland .
He said if he had lightland he would plough .

 

[ajd132]

That's rather odd - my No 1 philosophy of farming/writing about farming is that the good old days weren't good. See, for instance, the column a few weeks ago about the tractor driver's funeral.

Fair point!