Embracing Change

Just ahead of the new season, farmers’ attention focuses on the Oxford farming conferences. So is it just the landscape that’s going green? asks Tim Field

- Tim Field

THE torpor of a sleeping countryside is broken and the new growing season dawning. Green tinges appear as the hawthorn leaves unfurl, while the white highlights of a frosty morning are replaced by unmistakable puffs of cottonwool as the blackthorn bravely bursts into flower; beneath the hedgerows, snowdrops are superseded by primroses.

The winter crops of oil seed rape, wheat, beans, oats or barley have all provided the terrestrial dwellers with a green blanket for the harsher winter months and now attention turns to the spring crops. Cover crops are destroyed with chemistry, machinery, hungry livestock or a combination of any of the above, in preparation for a seedbed and the new season’s drillings. For some, calving and lambing is already underway and the newborn livestock will soon benefit from the flush of grass growth as daylight gets longer, more intense and a sunny day rewards us with a hint of warmth in the air.