Will’s World: Reasons to be thankful for this farming life
© Richard Stanton Ever since our numerous daughters were very little, we’ve been asking them the same question every night before they go to sleep: “What are you thankful for today?”
Like most of the moderately successful things we’ve managed to implement and stick to as parents, it was the present Mrs Evans’s idea.
The thinking behind it was to teach them the value of finding happiness in everyday pleasures and activities, and not take anything for granted.
A good meal, time spent with friends, high marks for schoolwork, sporting success, a family walk round the farm, a sunny day – any of these fit the criteria.
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About the author
It’s a nightly reminder for them to appreciate the things they have in their lives, instead of focusing too much on the things they don’t.
We’re probably all guilty of the latter to an extent, especially in the fast-paced consumer society we live in.
Fertile minds
I think it’s probably also a useful mental health tool.
With everything that’s happening in the world of farming right now, not to mention increasingly horrifying world events, I’ve been trying to ask myself the question every day, too.
It’s easy to be consumed with worry and uncertainty about the future, and that hasn’t been helped by the months of wet weather we’ve had.
I’ve been fertilising our cereal crops this week. It’s a relief to be able to finally get on the fields to do the job, but it certainly hasn’t made for a joyous experience, with them looking the way they do.
We have got the last of the spring barley in the ground now, but I don’t hold out much hope that it’ll be anything special at this late stage.
Harvest 2024 certainly isn’t going to be a vintage one.
This comes on top of a recent rent increase, grain prices that are less exciting than the average Red Tractor inspection, and ever-rising input and machinery costs.
Furthermore, I’ve a strong feeling that despite the warm words and platitudes our political leaders regularly serve up to us, their actions (or lack of them) only indicate that farming’s being thrown to the wolves.
Future of farming
I often try to imagine what British agriculture will look like in the coming decades.
I’m a hopeless optimist about most things in life, but I can only see fewer and fewer of us being involved and able to make a full-time living from family farms, and that makes me feel very sad.
That’s why the question I ask is so important to remember.
Despite my melancholic mood, there are many things to smile about. I don’t have to commute to work and I love my job. It’s varied, interesting and challenging.
I’m fit and healthy. I’m part of an amazing community of people, who’ve all chosen to live this life less ordinary.
I’m never more than a few metres from nature – in the past few days I have heard a tawny owl hunting, seen several hares loping along tramlines, realised that a young elm tree I was convinced had died last summer is back in full leaf and, most pleasing of all, today I saw the curlews are back in their usual field.
Perhaps most importantly, those numerous daughters of whom we ask the question every night are lucky enough to be experiencing a farm childhood, surrounded by their family.
They, and us, have much to be thankful for indeed.