Farming Diary by Stewart Lambert, Kitridding Farm, near Kirkby Lonsdale:
ONE extreme to the next.
Lambing time was long and cold, grass was slow-growing but it caught up, now we have a heat wave, streams and springs have dried up and even the thistles are struggling to flower - but they will succeed.
I was fencing yesterday on our allotment. There was a breeze but, as it got hotter, it was like one of Attenborough’s desert nature films; the sheep stopped grazing and found shelter, the rabbits and hares took cover, even the crows flew into the trees and, to top it off, my mobile phone on the bike box started bleeping and flashing, with a red cross appearing and saying ‘overheated - put in a cool place’.
Farmers and contractors are regularly accused of working in too much of a hurry and not being caring of the wildlife their farms support. Some may be like that, but ours certainly aren’t.
I was sat with a contractor on his tractor mowing grass late one night, working under lights, and we came to a sudden stop. Revs off, mowers off, ‘there’s something in the grass’, ‘go and check’. Searching through the grass, lots of flies and cleggs nipping round my neck and head (glad I wasn’t wearing shorts), I caught a leveret, put it over the wall, and mowing continued. While mowing 100 acres, he stopped for several leverets - or maybe the same one several times - as well as rabbits and pheasants and their chicks.
I commented about this at Kendal market to other farmers and it seems to be the done thing, but not publicised, so carry on, contractors, and tell folks why you’ve left a bit of grass in the middle of the field. One farmer did say he had searched for a while to clear a field of two leverets and put them both over the wall into the next field, only to see a buzzard swoop and carry one off, but that’s nature and it was probably feeding young.
I don’t feel quite the same about the mink that’s taken up residence. We’ve lost two runner ducks and have noticed quite a few wild duck and pheasant carcasses around, but it’s clever and can eat a whole tin of John West sardines by leaning into the trap and not setting it off.
Has anyone any better ideas on how to catch a mink? If so, I would love to hear from you or see you at Kendal Farmers’ Market on Friday.
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