Farming / environment

[dave moore]

I agree the reason they struggle is because the largest percentage of are tenants to the large estates.

[happy daze john in oz]

In a previous life my step father as a pig breeder, not personally you understand he just facilitated it, and back in the 50's and early 60's it was a good business.
Prices were good and as long as there was no Swine Fever you could make good living.

Then in the late 60's the market as flooded with cheap bacon and pork from Denmark, it just about killed the UK trade.
Many sold up and one family I knew with a very large pig farm in Biggin Hill sold up and came out here to Oz.

[Tony Taylor]

I agree the reason they struggle is because the largest percentage of are tenants to the large estates.

Dave, I agree, most of County Durham was owned by the Bowes Lyon (Queen Mother) family, especially in your neck of the woods; but even in my old village (Kibblesworth in N. Durham) the mines were owned by them also. I recall that even up to the time of the pit closure in late 70s, all the rolling stock was still carrying the name Bowes Lyon and the historical rail line they ran on was the Bowes railway which included the Bowes incline famous for being (at one time) for being the only gravity rail line in the country.

[dave moore]

Tony,most of the land is now on the Raby Estate owned by Lord Barnard family,back in history one of their ancestors had every one of the farmhouses painted white.The story goes that tha the Lord at the time while out riding stopped st a farm and asked for some water for his horse the farmer ,his lordship said to him do you know who I am ,I own this farm ,the reply he got was you don't,that brought about the reason that all the estates farmhouses in the dale are painted white,and God knows how many there are,they reach from Gainford right up the to Forest and beyond .

[Tony Taylor]

Tony,most of the land is now on the Raby Estate owned by Lord Barnard family,back in history one of their ancestors had every one of the farmhouses painted white.The story goes that tha the Lord at the time while out riding stopped st a farm and asked for some water for his horse the farmer ,his lordship said to him do you know who I am ,I own this farm ,the reply he got was you don't,that brought about the reason that all the estates farmhouses in the dale are painted white,and God knows how many there are,they reach from Gainford right up the to Forest and beyond .

I can believe that, life was almost feudal until relatively recently. When my dad was a kid in the twenties, there was only one shop in the village, owned by the mine owners of course (before Nationalisation), all the houses (hovels more like, as I lived in one until 1964, when we got a better one, but still owned by the colliery), and he told me that the mine manager was like god. Although it was never a problem, I was told that if you wanted a dog you had to ask permission of the mine manager.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI John.
Eighteen months ago Supermarkets in N.S.W.raised the price of milk by 20cents a litre, the money to go direct to the dairy farmers who were struggling, it must have made a difference for them as to many were just walking away.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

In the news today, a very large cattle farm here has been purchased by an English farmer who states he will make it into a very profitable one.
Sold by Consolidated Pastoral Company for some $600,000

One of the problems we now have here in Oz is the younger generation.
They have very little interest in continuing the family farm, too much like hard work, easier to make a living in the city.

[dave moore]

John,many very large farms in the UK are arable only growing crops in rotation,crops as a rule are Wheat Barley Oilseed rape and potatoes there may be others .This type of far mining is all mechanised,the one that have mixed are different,animals are a 24 hour a day management and involve bloody hard work .In some cases many farmers use farm contractors to do most of their tilling and harvesting .A farming friend of mines who family have farmed for generations has a saying about farming nowadays ,it goes if a machine can't it ,it don't get done.

[happy daze john in oz]

Very true there mate.
Farming here in Oz is very different to that of many other countries.
Cattle stations here can be as big as some European countries, and sheep are everywhere.

Crop farmers do well some years when the wet comes, but one crop that never fails no matter is the Canola.
Just about ready for harvest now the yellow fields are all over the place.

Up in the north water buffalo are grazed and sold for export, though some does make it to the local shops usually in the form of mince.

Many of the smaller veg growing farms have been bought out by Vietnamese, many of who came here after the Vietnam war.
All they do is work, and work hard as well.

[dave moore]

John,what is Canola ?