David Tydeman - Stonham Aspal Parish News December 2001

After experiencing some bizarre but truly stunning autumn sun during October we have just had our first hint of the winter to come. This time last year I reported that we still had 200 acres of wheat and 100 acres of beans to sow. This year things are much more cheerful, I am pleased to say. We have 60 acres of beans to establish and are reverting to conventional broadcasting and ploughing as the land is too muddy to experiment with direct drilling. We did not get our last field of wheat sown and have decided to leave it for spring barley. Virtually every farm has all planned autumn cereals in and looking good and I am a bit concerned to where all the wheat is going to go! This year we have not exported any wheat as the pound has been too strong against the Euro and if we find ourselves in the same position next harvest there will be about 5,000,000 tonnes of UK wheat looking for a market abroad - not a comfortable scenario.

In contrast our spring barley for malt has buyers chasing it! UK malt has a good reputation in Europe and is in increasing demand. Many of the quality lagers - like Beck's - use British malt exclusively. Our investment in previous years in good grading and drying equipment enable us to present a good sample of malting barley and so we have no concerns about substituting barley for some land planned for wheat. Our enthusiasm for malting barley was further kindled by a visit to Paul's Malt and Greene King in Bury. This was very informative and interesting. It enabled us to learn more precisely, the requirements of our customers and how to achieve them. One surprising fact came out. Apparently Budweiser is brewed in the UK using American malt and rice to pad out the fermentation. The only British ingredient is water. No wonder it tastes like unpleasant alcoholic fizzy water which, according to the advert, only frogs are keen on. So if you want to support British agriculture ditch the Bud and go for Beck's or Holsten instead!

This is the season of meetings and AGM's in the farming world and we are being bombarded with helpful advice on how tough life in farming is going to get and how only the most cost effective farmers will survive and how the number of farms will halve in the next five years etc. However, the advice on how to ensure that we are not one of the failing statistics varies. Bank managers suggest that expanding the business with a bank loan is the way forward. Machinery dealers are convinced that larger more powerful equipment will help. Farm consultants advise the hiring of specialists to prepare business plans at £100 an hour. Accountants tell us not to spend any money if we can help it. The government tell us to go forth and diversify! My inclination is to retire to the middle bar of the Ten bells with a group of village friends and consider the problem at length. Things look a lot less difficult with the assistance of Mr Charles Wells' Bombardier!! A very Happy Christmas to you all.