Mrs Down's Diary

Friends who had decided to be self sufficient and crush their own oil seed rape in order to fuel a burner have realised that it is more economic to sell the oil seed rape and buy fuel oil because the price of oil seed rape has soared so high. And they were trying to be so green.

We are cutting back on stock this year because of the appalling returns on lambs, but at least we grow barley for the herd and roll our own feed in the barley crusher.

Neighbors have bitten the bullet and decided to pack up pig farming for good. At best pig farming is an act of faith by a supreme optimist, but at worst, when as now the price of meal is so high and the job threatened by imports, there seems to be no immediate improvements to prices and plenty of movement restrictions, such as those imposed by the blue tongue outbreak.

With these movement restrictions, you can move stock, with the appropriate licences of course, within the restricted zone. My friend, Helen, who has a lonely boar at home, was offered a sow from the dispersed herd, as long as she had completed the correct paperwork and had a trailer to collect the animal.

Now moving a pig is no easy matter. You cannot usher them along in sheep/cow fashion. Trying to move one pig on its own needs military style precision.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette December 5