Free-Range Living

'Micro --- macro'

'Small as in 'micro' --------'

A cold but sunny week (good for solar energy production) in early March right now, with some 'heavy pruning' of hedges grown too high under way, with the help of a good ol' boy -'the man who can'- and his scything chainsaw, leaving some useful wood for woodstove burning next year, and loads of debris for burning and making into woodash potash fertiliser for the veg growing area. February was quite a cold month here on the organic eco micro-holding (small smallholding) in the UK midlands, with plenty of evidence of hungry wildlife, particularly birds. Never seen so many buzzards about - on hedge tops in trees and sitting on the big field of 'new seeds' (grass) opposite the cottage. The 'gorgeous gang' of long-tailed tits too have been about more this year visiting the bird feeders several times a day, along with sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, chaffinches, blackbirds, thrushes, and of course, the two or three regular friendly resident robins. These bright cold days, though, have given some pleasant early sunsets -----

The colder weather has seen the woodstove and the smaller front room fire get through a fair bit of wood, which fortunately looks as though will last out the winter. Much of the bigger wood is bought in April/May time and stored in the 'logs-istics' centre over summer to dry thoroughly, and the 'smaller' wood, (much of it coming free this year from a house renovation next door), useful to mix with the bigger stuff and for the front room fire, has been sawn at once-a-week intervals courtesy of the small electric sawbench, often powered by home-produced power even in winter when solar production can be surprisingly good if the sun's out.  The other home-produced heat unit installed at the start of the winter, the air-source heat pump, has also proved to be a valuable addition to the self-reliance armoury, again often being run by solar produced energy, then pumping 'free heat' into the kitchen and day living-room - can't be too bad - and cooling the planet too ---?

Good time of year with plenty to look forward to, with 'seasonal growing stirrings' already felt, resulting in the layer of woodash and the two layers of two-year-old compost going on half of the veg growing ground during February. Seasonal growing activity gives good variety to life, along with the satisfaction of creating, with nature's help, something useful and life giving, and if used fresh, generally pretty tasty. The broad been seed's already in, under glass, along with early peas, and tomato, celery, lettuce and onion plants are hopefully 'surviving and thriving' under bubble plastic down in the paddock glass house. Bring it on ----

Animal welfare in reverse ---- ?

  What seems to be something of an anomaly is occuring in the UK currently in that on the one hand animal production systems are being made more 'animal friendly' with moves such as banning cages for egg production, crates for farrowing sows and animal welfare awareness at a generally higher level, yet on the other hand there appears to be an agenda to bring into the UK giant 'factory' dairy units with the cows kept indoors all or most of the time, mostly denying these animals opportunity to follow any natural behaviour patterns. Such patterns are quite well known in the UK because a few years ago a grazing system called 'set stocking' came into practice in which cows could range over all their grazing area as opposed to being rationed to a small amount daily behind fences -a more competitive system. The 'freerange' cows then exhibited natural 'roam grazing' characteristics and were noticeably more relaxed. The 'new' cows in the herd, called 'first calf heifers', being smaller and less bold than big bulky older cows, were then bullyed less and thrived better, particularly in terms of both giving a good milk yield but also achieving the body growth they needed to make, then resulting them performing better in their subsequent second lactation. As herds then were made up, broadly speaking, of 50% first and second calving cows, the impact on overall herd results could be considerable.

'Feeling for animals ----- ?'

One of the difficulties which those concerned for animal welfare face seems to be that the concern stems from the feeling that man shouldn't be nakedly exploiting her/his fellow animals, but rather should be respecting them and their needs, running production systems which allow animals opportunity to follow natural behaviour patterns. In modern times of head-based 'scientific rationality' and economics based 'head logic', 'feelings' can then at times get short shrift, too easily 'written off' - ? Maybe a quote from Linda Tucker's book  'The Mystery of the White Lions' can help to illustrate  :

'------ the problem with the scientifically-minded ---- what they call 'reason' and 'right thinking', is not rational at all; it's simply the rationalisation of the 'spiritually flat earth' of their own inner world. Since they experience nothing transcendant or divine, they deduce there is nothing, which is actually just negative credulity, not science'.
                                                                                                                       ( John Anthony West )

Martin Clunes, well-known UK actor and preseenter of TV series 'Man and Beast' is also for 'symbiotic' relationships :

' Mutual need and respect should form the basis of the relationship between man and beast'

No less a peson than the world-renowned scientist, Albert Einstein, warned about 'too much head focus' :

'We should take care not to make the intellect our God; it has of course powerful muscles, but no personality'

'Soddy's Farm' (cont.) -------

One farm, though, which definitely brought 'feelings for animals' into play, was the case study farm mentioned in last month's piece - 'Soddy's Farm - where all the various animals received special care (and nutrition), which, in tems of animal health and productivity, paid off over the longer-term. The farmer, though, did have reservations about keeping the huge retired boar pig, Soddy himself, after his working life was over, which though, ultimately proved to be unfounded :

 This is the continuing un-tall tale of a small, mainly grass 'unspecialised' farm in the near-forgotten area of west Dorset/east Devon, on which cows, heifers, pigs, sheep, beef cattle, fowl and some goats were kept, all with a high standard of care and nutrition by J and D, and their three children. Soddy himself was the 'meet-er and greet-er' to anyone driving into the farmyard, a giant white boar, with freerun of the farm ( a 'freeranger'(!)), and although it could be unnerving arriving for the first time, Soddy was in fact the essence of friendliness and aimiablity. He'd grown too large and heavy to continue serving the sows and was destined erm, for the chop, only for J and the children to stage a revolt which reprieved him, still, though, leaving D with concerns re having to support an ' unproductive' animal on the farm, and especially one as big as Soddy. Boars do grow big in older age but with the generous feeding regime on the farm, Soddy had grown truly enormous.

' Yes', said D, 'it's true - I was the one with the reservations about keeping him, about him being 'unproductive. Looking back, I should have known better, though. One night I was going to the loo downstairs just after midnight and happened to glance out of the front door window, suddenly spotting two shadowy figures in the moonlight. 'Hold up', I thought, 'those varmints aren't up to much good', when suddenly there was a right commotion. It was Soddy, charging out from his pen - i've never seen him move so fast - and heading straight for the intruders, thirty yards or so away. Well, you've never seen two guys move so fast to get away, shrieking as they went. It often gives me a chuckle- just imagine, suddenly they had this huge ghostly white apparition out of the moonlight charging straight at them- they must have felt it was old Nick himself after them as they ran! Oh, dear, still makes me laugh! But, Soddy knew, didn't he - he knew for sure they were up to no good, and he took action! I wonder how many times he might have saved us like that? Extra treats for sure that morning for him, and a new title - 'Head of Security'! And here was me thinking he was unproductive - good ol' Soddy!

Maybe it's not surprising what animals might be capable of, especially when they're respected and cared for as they were at this special place, and not factory-ised, brutalised and competitivised   - ?

 And, who knows, maybe the same could hold good for the human animal - ?

'Large v. small ----- ?'

Large firms are not renowned as being fans of 'small', who, because 'small' can't gain 'economies of scale' (the 'large firm modern war-cry'), they then see as 'inefficient' and 'uneconomic', which some have said represents too narrow 'head' focus and lacks 'heart' input - ? Maybe, though, they do suffer the limitation of too narrow an outlook, considering only the single-dimensioned economic factor, then missing factors such as social, environmental and personal/individual - needed to be taken into account to get good 'balance' - ? If dairying becomes a series of huge factory type installations, the negative impact on, for instance, rural communities could be considerable. There would be a loss of small firm independent operators replaced by 'wage slaves' employed now by big concerns - then bringing a reduction in independence within the nation and a further concentration of 'large' operation. The idea that 'large' operation is inherently more efficient than 'small' is questionable too - to facilitate large, investments in infrastructure at various stages have to be made, adding to what could already be already higher overhead costs (labour and mechanisation). Maybe, though, 'large' and 'economies of scale' are inevitably championed by the large -and powerful - concerns in their own interests --- ?

Back along -----when 'small' was relevant - ?

Many small Uk dairy producers have already been 'squeezed out' by lowered milk prices which some see as the play by 'large' to facilitate future large-scale production units. When, back in the 1930's, small farmers faced lowered prices from powerful large-scale milk buyers, the government stepped in to help the smaller guys, creating a cooperative producer organisation to then be able to counter the power of the buyers, which broadly speaking worked until it was disbanded a few years ago  ( maybe in preparation for a 'large' takeover of the industry - ?). Maybe, too, government should again be doing more to protect the smaller operations, particularly now the 'free market' seems to have become 'the free-for-all' market full of large predators seemingly intent on 'feeding' on the small - ? (mis-selling insurances to individuals and small firms, reported 'pension robbing' via hidden financial charges, oligopolistic (few large, powerful suppliers) energy suppliers 'bullying'the market, mis-quoting energy deals, and so forth).  

Rural idyll ------

One couple in the north UK midlands who found that general cultural conditions weren't particularly suiting them, 'opted out' to a smallholding self-sufficient style of life, also growing organic-style vegetables which they sold one day a week at a simple weekly market in a local small town. They lived this simple lifestyle for several decades before retiring, with a low level of cash economy and officially classed as 'below the poverty line', which illustrates the limitations of general classifications, for they lived a lifestyle which for them was rich in satisfactions. They lived out-of-the-way in a beautiful, peaceful rural retreat, they organised their own work (more of a 'labour of love'), they had no demanding higher managements to stress them, they enjoyed good and on-going direct social contact with their customers - their's proved to be a healthy lifestyle, and they had very few problems or stresses generally to deal with. True they didn't have too much flash stuff or go on too many luxury holidays, but then, they didn't need to - they were already 'happy bunnies'.