Farming News – January 2025

And so, the year drifts over into it’s successor and the wheel of life takes another rotation. From a farming point of view, I will be pleased to see the back of 2024. I am not alone in realising that the harvest of all non-grass crops was the lowest in my farming lifetime.

I ran out of potatoes in early December, simply because the yields were so low. Fodder beet and Spring Barley yields were also poor. Only the first crop of grass exceeded its five-year average and, therefore, the cattle and sheep will have sufficient winter fodder.

Over the last few weeks, I have been sawing fallen trees into logs for heating the house. I like to have a ready supply of 12 tons of logs to last the 8 winter months and have found that one ton potato boxes are ideal for drying, storing and handling the logs, particularly because I have no potatoes to store in them this year.