Devonshire's East Devon magazine September October 2018

Th e C O U N T R Y M A N
CHRIS TAYLOR
The COUNTRYMAN
Chris lives with his wife, Brianne,
in north Devon at the confluence
of the Mole and Bray Rivers.
Raised on a farm, with a degree in
Agricultural Zoology, Chris moved
into Farm Management and more
recently into Estate Management
and Consultancy. Over the past
50 years his passions cover all
aspects of the countryside, wildlife,
conservation,agriculture and
country pursuits.
Photos copyright C. Taylor
A late Global start influences?
to the season
Cornflower
Blackberry
Grapes
How can anyone write about
the countryside without
mentioning the worst
drought in living memory and
the effect on everything in our
rural environment. With any
luck September will live up to
itʼs reputation for storms or low
pressure systems approaching
from the West, driving in heavy
rain. Our media sources have
been rather slow in picking up on
the drought and itʼs long-lasting
effects, many too complex to touch
on here but I will touch on a few
of the expected and some of the
less obvious.
carries all forms of livestock
through the winters months. As
the problem is nationwide, there
is little prospect of importing
winter feed or bedding from other
areas. There isnʼt a simple answer
in the spring has suffered. The
result of all this is increased costs
of feed stuffs this autumn and
winter. Again not anything for
the non-farming public to concern
themselves about.
Chicory
Ragged The harvest Robin
Firstly, my simplistic rain
gauge recorded less than an inch
of rain in the preceding eight
weeks up to the end of June and
since then, less than another
inch. The hay crop which was
shrivelling by mid June soon died
away and before it completely
disappeared the ewes were turned
in to eat what they could find. I
just play at this with my few ewes,
but my farming friends are not
so lucky. Grass for grazing has
vanished and worst still the forage,
mainly silage, just hasnʼt grown.
So this is no longer a problem
for the present, but one that
will run for months, this forage
Dry, dry grass, clouds approaching
to this problem, only rain and
very quickly, then maybe there
could be one more small cut of
silage. Fertilizer isnʼt the answer
without rain. On a more positive
note the winter cereals were early,
having recovered from a slow
start in the spring and it appears
yields were good, but that sown
But hang on a minute, what about
veg production, these crops rely
on our temperate, usually wet
climate, though only small parts
of our county produce veg for
human consumption, but that
which I have seen is nearly total
crop failure. If my memory from
Agriculture at University serves
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