Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

lostinrates wrote: »

Its a terrible year to be in farming.:(

It's not any better in the land of big business...

lostinrates

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

It's not any better in the land of big business...

Well, i dunno. We will see when harvests are in. Fwiw, not my neighbour but on the otherside again look like they have lost all theirs, just have to be ploughed back in. My neighbours is a later crop, he will have a narrow window of viability, in about a week he thinks. We will see.

The outdoor cows are all living in, chomping through grass ( which thank god is growing well, even if its a nightmare to cut, even silage because its so wet) mre of an issue is straw,....because using mopre than they should be with a high chance of there being less produced this summer.

Its really ot looking great here. I do not know the national outlook, which i think must be better, i don't tikevetyone can have had the rain we have had, we would all be underwater.

misskool

I think food prices will increase more than people realise as the crops are terrible.

We'll be buying more food this year and our crops are pathetic. Anything that survives has to be harvested small or it gets chomped by everything, slugs, pigeons, squirrels. ugh

vivatifosi

Well my stinging nettle crop is coming on a treat:(.

I have bought a hoe and a long handled weeding tool in the vain hope I can get out into the garden Sunday. We have a morning with no rain forecast. Fingers, toes, arms, legs, all crossed. Makes typing pretty hard.

I'm working tomorrow, which probably means the sun will come a day early:(:(.

Ho hum, I'm starting to sound like Eeyore:(:(:(.

Sorry about your neighbours' crops lir. I am so glad I am not a farmer.

On a different matter, does anyone know if I buy Moo milk whether more goes to the farmers?

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Well, i dunno. We will see when harvests are in. Fwiw, not my neighbour but on the otherside again look like they have lost all theirs, just have to be ploughed back in. My neighbours is a later crop, he will have a narrow window of viability, in about a week he thinks. We will see.

The outdoor cows are all living in, chomping through grass ( which thank god is growing well, even if its a nightmare to cut, even silage because its so wet) mre of an issue is straw,....because using mopre than they should be with a high chance of there being less produced this summer.

Its really ot looking great here. I do not know the national outlook, which i think must be better, i don't tikevetyone can have had the rain we have had, we would all be underwater.

misskool wrote: »

I think food prices will increase more than people realise as the crops are terrible.

We'll be buying more food this year and our crops are pathetic. Anything that survives has to be harvested small or it gets chomped by everything, slugs, pigeons, squirrels. ugh

It's awful isn't it? I noticed little cards in Tesco the other day, apologising for the total absence of broccoli and explaining that much of the national crop has been lost because of the weather. Felt sad for the farmers.

vivatifosi wrote: »

Well my stinging nettle crop is coming on a treat:(.

I have bought a hoe and a long handled weeding tool in the vain hope I can get out into the garden Sunday. We have a morning with no rain forecast. Fingers, toes, arms, legs, all crossed. Makes typing pretty hard.

I'm working tomorrow, which probably means the sun will come a day early:(:(.

Ho hum, I'm starting to sound like Eeyore:(:(:(.

Sorry about your neighbours' crops lir. I am so glad I am not a farmer.

On a different matter, does anyone know if I buy Moo milk whether more goes to the farmers?

Yes, in general, is there milk you can buy that gives the farmers a decent price? If I'm buying fair trade bananas and chocolate to avoid exploiting farmers thousands of miles away, I'd like to buy milk that doesn't exploit farmers nearer to home either. Oh, and I want to know if that little tractor symbol actually means anything in terms of the cows having a reasonably quality of life, if anyone can tell me. Thanks.

In gardening news, I have collected the strimmer from the friend who offered to lend me one. Now just need to wait for a day when the grass is dry enough to strim... and then maybe mow.

lostinrates

The red tractor means UK produced. This means uk standards (often higher than elsewhere, but not necessarily enhanced uk standards) are met.
http://www.redtractor.org.uk/Why-Red-Tractor

I checked the website to check, but the welfare aspects are airly porrly defined, so i would say ime uk welfare is higher than many others at basic level, but enhanced welfare if you can secure it is better. Welfare often increased with organic and free range, though organic is NOT a welfare guideline in itself, but in lieu of havingan easily traceable local producer its a way to try.

Re milk prices, hmm. Its a toughie, but while a penny on a pint is £40k extra for many medium sized dairy farms, its kinda accepted that farms only make a profit on te books every four, maybe five, years. Because it makes financial sense to. I would want to look at the whole as the industry standa now which is very hard to do beore making a stand for milk prices atm, over welfare standards certainly.

What i will say is even free range organic herds i know of are having to spend a lot of time indoors on lots of farms this year. Its just too wet to let them put with stocking densities as we have them in the uk. (otoh they got a longer season out last autumn and some got let out early in spring)

lostinrates

Oh, and as for nettles, taller than dh and i in the back garden, and weeds everywhere else too. Not much one can do about it this year but laugh i think.

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

... enhanced welfare if you can secure it is better...

How do I identify enhanced welfare meat, milk etc? Just by looking for the words "free range"? Or is "enhanced welfare" a legally defined term that might be on some packaging? What about the sorts of packets that say something like "all our farmers follow our special code of practice"? Do those actually mean anything significant?

Feel vaguely bad that I've been buying free range butter for ages without actually thinking about what milk I buy. How inconsistent is that? Mind you, I buy a lot less milk than most people. And at least I started buying free range butter when it occurred to me that cows deserved at least as much of my consideration as chickens do.

sss555s

vivatifosi wrote: »

Well my stinging nettle crop is coming on a treat:(.

I have bought a hoe and a long handled weeding tool in the vain hope I can get out into the garden Sunday. We have a morning with no rain forecast.

You are allowed to "hoe" in the rain viva!

LydiaJ wrote: »

Yes, in general, is there milk you can buy that gives the farmers a decent price? If I'm buying fair trade bananas and chocolate to avoid exploiting farmers thousands of miles away,

I wouldn't mind buying FT (bananas) if they weren't so cwap

fc123

vivatifosi wrote: »

NP's can I please ask for your help? I have a concert to attend on Saturday evening in Islington. I was looking to drive in, but hear that the Olympic lanes are now in use and I;m concerned that the traffic will be dreadful. Trying to decide whether this is still best course of action or whether to go somewhere on the Northern Line and park up, take tube in.

My go to train lines are the Met and Jub, I don't really know the Northern Line. Any ideas?

Though we are saarf lundun, our lanes are active and they are no different.....just as chocka as usual.
I shouldn't think it will make a difference but we are now in the middle of a huge new super CPZ......but doesn't become active until next W/E so N London will be the same.
Total PITA esp as we had to request to be included as we are a side bit on the edge and they left us out.

Reminds me I must go and visit the anti aircraft missiles around the corner as they are active from today. Instructed to shoot down any plane that goes into the wrong airspace (I think ...heard it on the radio).

zagubov wrote: »

I can't stand the idea of more building work. I'd rather stick pins in my eyes.

I almost find it disturbing that we don't build houses the right size and struicture the first time round. We don't buy unicycles and fit a second wheel on them

I suppose fashions change how people live through time and houses are altered to reflect that. I know a lot of people bricking up their living room back into 2 rooms (were originally 2 rooms that were knocked through 20- 30 years ago) and the trend for larger kitchens with dining area included (rather than a seperate dining room) is in full swing.

Our house was 68 build and considered super luxe at the time but the way the space is divvied up doesn't suit how we wish to live now.

Having said that the 1st quoutes are in and it's all very meh
Huge enormous quotes......trying to work out if OH can have a sabbatical for 6 months and do some of it himself (which he would love to do).

Don't know of anyone has been watching 'History of our streets' but has been so intresting. A townhouse in Portland Rd Notting Hill cost exactly same amount as our suburban box back in 68. The Notting Hill house is now worth 8 million. Ours is nothing near that.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Aye, it's weeks like this that make Old MacTavish wish he had a farm, instead of a stupidly stressful corporate job.

Ee I Ee I Ohhhhhhh, it's time for another drink already.

I know what you mean....I have noticed the few corp emplyees we deal with seem more wired at the moment, seem to be kind of under a lot more pressure than usual. My sector hasn't had a great season (hence the bumper sales kicking off again) and all down to the weather. Even the trade press aren't saying it's an excuse anymore as the continual rain just dampens mood and the need for new stuff.

Def worse to be a farmer this summer though.