Will Howe’s drainage board has earned its cheque this year
Every year I have to write a large cheque to the local internal drainage board for the privilege of them keeping my farm from returning to its original state – the sea.
I must confess to often feeling like it is money for old rope, especially when you only see the occasional digger or dyke mower. In the past week, though, they have earned all the money from the past several cheques, as the pump whirrs away 24/7 to keep the water at bay.
Perhaps the quango responsible for flood control could learn a lesson from the good, old-fashioned countryside management displayed by the IDB. They have draconian powers and are more omnipotent than Brussels; but the dyke sides are mown, the bottoms scraped and cut and the simple result is that the water flows. Perhaps the rights and the needs of water voles and lesser spotted newts have been given too much importance and are now infringing on farmers’ rights?
With plenty of time to spend in the office at the moment, I have taken the decision that in order to keep the business progressing, I am going to require a full-time assistant. The main duties are to include driving the Challenger and doing the spraying, while maintaining a sharp sense of humour. This will, hopefully, allow me more time to hunt for slugs and blackgrass and other managerial matters.
The rain apart, this is one of my favourite times of year. There are few things to rival loading sub-standard wheat on a dark drizzly morning than listening to TMS broadcasting the cricket from an exotic part of the world. I feel a little like MS Donhi, the Indian captain who before the series said he wanted turning wickets to beat England, and then gets thrashed by the English spinners. Only a few months ago I said I wanted rain!
Will Howe farms 384ha of medium to heavy land at Ewerby Thorpe Farm, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, growing wheat, oilseed rape and winter beans
