All Saints', Wrington 
Being a farmer today
Alison Clark

ALISON CLARK

Sheep Farmer aged 26 - Court Farm, Wrington Alison is the seventh generation of her family to live and work there

Growing up on Court Farm was great - riding across fields on tractors - staying up late to help hay-making - naming the pet lambs - making dens in the hay when it was all gathered in before the rains came the next day! We had no thought then of the responsibility that would come with a farm or the hours that farmers have to put in !

When BSE hit in 1996 we sold our beef cattle and started breed-ing sheep. The average price for a lamb then was £65. The farm used to make enough money to support our family. Now Mum has to go to work in Bristol while we mow lots of lawns and cut lots of hedges to bring in enough money to support the farm.

The lambing year starts in July/August when we put the rams in with the ewes. 5 months later it all begins to happen, normally in time to bring a new-born lamb into Church for the "Crib Service" on Christmas Eve. We lamb in the sheds because the fox will take them if we leave them out in the fields.

The lambs are with us for 4-5 months, then they go. This year we had 314 lambs, mostly twins, with four sets of triplets. We normally feed one of the triplets by hand as the ewe only has enough milk for two lambs.

This morning Dad and Tim are loading 138 lambs for meat**. We receive £45 for an average lamb. The price is low because there is no export due to 'Foot and Mouth'. So our lambs are competing in the Supermarkets against New Zealand lamb, which is cheaper to import. Last year we got £55 per lamb as there was less New Zealand lamb.

In Tesco's a lamb's leg sells for £18. We get £45 for a whole lamb. When you add on our costs of hay, straw, vaccines, feed, it's the supermarkets who win.

This has a huge effect on farmers physically and mentally, with some in debt and others just calling it a day !

So why do we do it ? In January to March, when Wrington is asleep - it is the middle of the night and you're in a warm shed of straw helping newborn lambs into the world — there is no better feeling.

They all seem to lamb at night when it's peaceful! The lambs are up and drinking within two minutes. The next day they are playing in the shed with the other lambs. When it's sunny they go out in the fields for a few hours. While the mums munch on the grass you get a huge gang of 20 or 30 lambs running up and down the hedge, jumping and kicking their legs in the air. There really is no better sight. That is why we do our job!
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** The 138 lambs that Ali's father sent for meat while she was talking in church fetched about £5,700, or around £41,30 per animal. That is around £20.00 per animal less than they would have expected had it not been for tlie FMD outbreak-a loss to the family on that sale alone of around £2,500.

This is directly related to the flooding of the UK market with meat, since they are unable to export their meat, where fresh shoulder of lamb fetches a premium price. And yet, despite the Government's clear cuIpability in the current FMD outbreak, the Clark family will receive. not one penny of compensation for this very serious loss of income,_ with more losses to come in the future, alongside ever increasing costs.

Another thing that really rankles with AH is the stealing of their "quad-bikes". They have now lost two of these essential pieces of equipment. As a result she has to push all the animal feed across two or three muddy fields in a wheelbarrow — not a lot of fun in the wind and the rain! NO WONDER so many farmers are asking if it is all worth it, and how much longer they can continue with so much aggravation for so little return.