Farming in Mozambique

I spent a week in Mozambique at the end of September. The contrast of the landscape to the UK was so striking. The farming principles were very similar and it was an incredible experience - one I will never forget.

Better weather

Well we put the tent away at the end of the summer holidays and the weather has finally turned. Everyone I talk to seems a lot happier with the better weather that we have had this week. The wheat was very wet at the beginning of the week (25% moisture) and we have left it to dry in the field. The combine was getting stuck in the field it was so wet. Hopefully the weather will hold. If we have to dry the wheat because it it is too wet to go into storage then we have to burn a lot of diesel in the mobile drier and that adds to the production costs so fingers crossed ...

I miss lying in the tent at night and listening to the owls calling ... there is always next year.

The lambs are here!

Well the lambs are here! The children and I stopped to take this photo last week of the ewes and lambs in one of our neighbours fields. Herefordshire is a beautiful county with rolling hills and it is fantastic to see the lambs gambling in the fields. Sheep farmers are facing a touch time with all the restrictions due to bluetongue and the foot and mouth outbreak last year - but some farmers have lived in hope of better times and begun the cycle again!

California Beaches

I had a great trip on Sunday around the farming of North California, Napa Valley - wine, Marin country - dairy farming, beef as well as passing almond groves and fields with peppers being harvested. I ended up on Dillon Beach, a small secluded beach with a small community living nearby. I had to paddle in the Pacific before I went home!