http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/ Andrew is the Daily Post’s Rural Affairs Editor and is the Farmers Union of Wales’ current Farming Journalist of the Year. en Copyright 2008 Wed, 21 May 2008 18:13:43 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss SOME 23,000 visitors attended last weekend’s Royal Welsh Smallholder Festival, around 2,000 less than last year. I was slightly surprised: when I visited on the second day, the place was packed to the rafters, with thousands of red-faced punters hauling vintage spades and clematis plants backs to their cars. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/05/more_pigs_one_less_sheep_breed.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/05/more_pigs_one_less_sheep_breed.html Wed, 21 May 2008 18:13:43 +0000 THOUGH I say it with gritted teeth, it was good to be back in Nefyn for the opening agricultural show of the North Wales season. It’s in a great location, is sound underfoot and has accommodating section secretaries (my thanks to Anwen and Gwen, as always). So why do I always regard the event with a certain dread? http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/05/tuttut_for_mutts_at_sheep_show.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/05/tuttut_for_mutts_at_sheep_show.html Wed, 07 May 2008 15:34:28 +0000 A FEW people have asked me why the annual Wonderwool Wales festival has been split from the Royal Welsh Smallholders Festival, Builth Wells. The two events were, after all, a perfect fit. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/smallholders_should_gets_their.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/smallholders_should_gets_their.html Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:58:24 +0000 ORGANISERS OF last night’s Producers’ Forum in Mold should have checked their diaries before proceeding with the event: for goodness sake, didn’t they realise a Champions’ League semi-final was being played? http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/nasty_shocks_lie_in_store_for.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/nasty_shocks_lie_in_store_for.html Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:25:57 +0000 MONTY has been in touch again: the last time he called, four years ago, Special Branch interrogated me in a dingy basement at North Wales Police HQ. Since then the Animal Liberation Front has been strangely silent. But this morning Monty was back on the phone; and threatening mayhem in the Welsh countryside. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/alf_tool_up_for_badger_cull_pr.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/04/alf_tool_up_for_badger_cull_pr.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:17:09 +0000 IN THE darker corners of the forest stood a small wooden building surrounded by the whites of prying eyes. Were small children to stray too near, they'd be impaled on pearlescent tusks and reduced to bony piles by their ravenous owners. Bloody hell. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/the_devil_at_the_door.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/the_devil_at_the_door.html Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:55:24 +0000 A SURPRISE awaited me when I arrived home this week. Not dinner - life was never that kind - but a large hairy Collie, its coat still caked with farm mud. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/attack_of_the_colliewobbles.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/attack_of_the_colliewobbles.html Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:38:45 +0000 YOU have to sympathise with Richard Clegg, NFU county chairman for Cheshire: returning to his farm after an evening function, he discovered thieves had half-inched his pride and joy, a brand new Deutz Fahr tractor. Ever since he’s been looking for ways to increase security on his farm. But it’s not easy: tractors, normally worth £30,000 or more, are easier to nick than 1983 Austin Maestro and, dare I say it, marginally more desirable too. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/ways_to_beat_the_tractor_thiev.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/ways_to_beat_the_tractor_thiev.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:45:15 +0000 ONE OF life’s certainties is the ability of the UK farming sector to shoot itself in the foot. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/one_of_lifes_certainties_is.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/one_of_lifes_certainties_is.html Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:51:03 +0000 EXPRESSIONS of concern, some of them sincere, have been pouring in for my battered and bruised wife, who is still nurturing a painful posterior following her unexpected encounter with an unruly sheep. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/butt_too_painful_or_just_super.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/02/butt_too_painful_or_just_super.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:26:41 +0000 IN hindsight it was probably not a good idea to venture into the domain of the devil ram. The psycho beast had already (twice) smashed his way through a steel gate and left a permanent indent on a friend’s kneecap. ]]> http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/mauled_by_the_devil_ram.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/mauled_by_the_devil_ram.html Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:33:24 +0000 EVER wondered how far chickens walk in their lifetimes? If you don’t know the answer, don’t fret: it's been reliably calculated by staff at Clarence Court, the free-range egg producer, and is given below. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/farm_porn_and_useless_trivia.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/farm_porn_and_useless_trivia.html Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:27:52 +0000 WANT TO know why Westminster is refusing to pay up for last August’s foot-and-mouth bungle? Or why farming is being made to pay for animal disease outbreaks it may not be responsible for? http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/fat_of_the_land_for_defra_chie.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/fat_of_the_land_for_defra_chie.html Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:58:03 +0000 OH DEAR, I’m in trouble with Morgan Parry, head of WWF Cymru. This morning he fired off an angry missive to the letters page after reading today’s Farm & Country. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/lies_damned_lies_and_surveys.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/lies_damned_lies_and_surveys.html Thu, 03 Jan 2008 16:09:06 +0000 WHAT lies in store for 2008? One thing’s for sure: if you aren’t already heartily sick of reading about climate change, prepare to reach for the vomit bag. http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/conservation_vs_food.html http://andrewforgrave.welshblogs.co.uk/2008/01/conservation_vs_food.html Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:10:58 +0000