Never had it so good!

AT Aloss

Member
NFFN Member
My Dad farmed through 2 such winters - 47 and 63, in which he lost half the hill flock.
He was forever after grateful to see the end of January, cos 'whatever happens now, it can't go on forever'
1963 took hundreds of my Dad's in lamb ewes, he gave up sheep - he gave them up again in 1991 & 2006 - we've still got sheep, but haven't got Dad anymore
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Father recalls last water left ours in June, no cropping that year, summer spend digging all ditches out getting ready for 48 crop year.
'snow melted and left the hills'....bl;iddy hill farmers, we should rewild it.....er......

sobering bit of film but
 
Could a 1947 happen now or in the future

who knows

in my first 30 years we always had at least weeks snow every year
the last 30 years it has reduced to 1 in 10years with the last 10 years very little snow in 7

if we had a 1947 my locality 4 villages grouped as 1 parish council has 5 farmers with 7 loaders /telehandlers
roads would get dug out
if the council and highways keep the main roads open then essential supplies would be available
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Father recalls last water left ours in June, no cropping that year, summer spend digging all ditches out getting ready for 48 crop year.
One point i take from the commentary is the concern at loss of good wheat and potato land and the threat of impact on food supplies during 1947 48. Food was short after the war. How times change. Now the government wants to rewild the place. Build over the place. Food who cares. Hey ho.
 

2wheels

Member
Location
aberdeenshire
If their was an inch of snow this afternoon the locals would panick buy the shops they would be empty by closing time , and to refill artics have to come over Carter bar or if south soutra , both notorious in snow , I often wonder what would happen if these roads were blocked for say two weeks ? I think it would get to point food would be least of the worries and within a day or two helicopters 🚁.
aye the a68 is a lovely road. :)
 

texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
My Dad used to tell the story of digging out,by hand,a mile of private track to the farm.It took 5 brothers 8 days to do it only for high winds the night they finished to fill it all back in !!!!!!
I can ,just, remember 1963 snow followed by floods,then severe frost.
We had a lot of snow,also,in 1981 or was it 82,snow was about 2ft 6ins approx.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
cockermouth snow katherine.jpg


proper snow, 1/3 mile of lane, level with the wall tops. Jan 87?
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Tbh I wasn't alive in any of those years. Think it was 2011 the last proper cold and snowy time. Although I remember it snowing while we were drilling spring beans in late April one year. Yuk.
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
The main problem today wouldn't be clearing the snow, but all the abandoned vehicles blocking snow clearing. Plus all those trying to " help " tooling about in Mark 1 Discoveries with snorkels and all that sh!te.

IMG_0309.JPG
 

Bruce Almighty

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Warwickshire
Plenty of snow in the 80s, particularly 81/82 but most winters in the 80s had a fair dollop of snow.

December 1990 is the most disruptive I can remember.
The weight of snow snapped poles off & no electric for a week.
Milking with a PTO shaft on the vacuum pump was ok but we couldn't cool the milk so a few days had to be dumped. We soon got a plate cooler & a generator after that.

2000/01 was quite cold, after the wet Autumn our neighbour had his maize harvested on Boxing Day when it was about -10, but I think the noughties were fairly tame until 2010, that was nasty, constantly watering cattle all day with an IBC on the Matbro from the only tap we had running. Usually the cold weather is Jan/Feb, but that year it was in December, about -15 Christmas Eve.
I think that was also the Winter when the weight of snow on portal frame buildings caused the steel work to crumple which killed many animals & also led to new legislation about the manufacturing of steel frame buildings.

As for the Beast From The East in 2018, awful, but look at the Summer that followed - one extreme to the other.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
This was the problem in 1947, too, with the powdery snow and high winds - dig hard all day and back to square one next morning.
Council used to put up snow fences here next to roads. To catch blowing snow.

Have stopped now. Thinking about it, how would a fence catch snow!? They were only about 4ft high. Set back about 20 ft from road. Only at 1 side. Must have been direction wind normally blew from.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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