Organic future?

All businesses have to re-evaluate their progress on a regular basis.
We have farmed the land as fully organic since the mid nineties but we are having doubts as to the viability of remaining as fully registered organic farmers when we need to renew our annual certification next year.
The certification process requires detailed and accurate records of all farming activities and as I get older I feel the record keeping becomes more of a burden. The annual renewal of certification costs money too!
When the U.K. economy was in borrow and spend mode the demand for organic produce was growing consistently. Now that the harsh realities of a much tougher economic situation have become apparent then the demand for organic produce has declined significantly. On our own farm this has resulted in most of the beef cattle being sold into the conventional farm market.The same is true of organic pigs, but we still have a few sows, even a new litter of piglets this week! The organic potato market has shrunk and the big yields of potatoes harvested last year have resulted in organic potatoes that are surplus to requirements.
One of our main customers was a company manrketing boxes of organic produce direct to the customer. Unfortunately their claims to look after their suppliers have proved to be without substance and they have not met their commitments when we have grown potatoes specifically for their market. Their claims that they keep their suppliers well informed and treat them with respect cannot be believed when they cannot return telephone calls.
It would seem to be rather foolish to continue running the farm to produce products with declining market share. Any business consultants would advise us to cease unprofitable activities and concentrate our efforts on aspects of the enterprise that are profitable.
We have about nine months to work out a future strategy for the farm, maybe we will continue to farm as we do now, but without being part of the "organic" brand. We will soon be sowing some of the wild flower and grass strips alongside the Escley brook. These help create greater diversity for wildlife and a physical barrier to stop soil erosion off cultivated slopes. We shall also be planting some areas of wild bird seed mixture which next winter and spring should help provide a valuable food supply for the wild birds. The target species are the Yellow Hammer, Corn Bunting and Linnet.

The birds and the bees !

The swallows arrived a couple of weeks ago, they live mainly on the insect life around the farm and I suspect that they will be struggling for food as the night temperatures are still very low and we do not see many insects for this time of year. There are lots of birds actively making nests,one very smmall bird is nesting in the edge of the slate roof above our bedroom,the nesting frenzy seems to be over and now they are quietly sitting on their eggs. The pheasants are wandering around in pairs and if they are on the country lanes they seem to have a total disregard for their own safety.The males are resplendant in their spring plumage and the poor females look very dowdy, a definite case for the inequality tribunal!

It must be getting warmer as we have had a couple of very large bumble bees buzzing around in the house windows recently.I like to carefully usher them back into the great outdoors.They always seem so cumbersome in flight.

Yesterday I saw a pair of large adult hares tying to hide themselves in a field that has been recently grazed by a large number of sheep.After a while they spotted me and loped off to the nearest hedgerow for cover. The hare population is very low in this area so we only spot them occassionaly.

We had our annual organic inspection on Friday so last week was spent assembling most of the required data. As usual ther were a few areas where our preparation was inadequate,and we now have thirty days to provide the further information that was requested..The inspection was very thorough as it should be and the inspector was a very competent gentleman.