April 2009 - Fools Game?

As we traditionally begin April with fun and games for the fools amongst us, I can't help but feel that little bit optimistic for the coming 'brighter' months. There's just something about spring that cheers me up after what seemed a very long winter.

The fact that, according to the so-called experts, our farming industry has the potential to lead the economy as a whole out of recession certainly grabs my attention!

It's not often one reads anything positive about farming in the media these days, so it was refreshing to find an upbeat perspective in The Economist magazine's Business section this week, pointing out the essential role agriculture plays in feeding a fast growing world population and the good investment opportunities that are available.

It was also a little bewildering to see a story about the beginning of the lambing season in the middle of the nightly news bulletin. I thought we were in the middle of an economic crisis? What was a bit of fluff about new-born lambs going to do to help?

But it worked a treat. As we drown in daily deluges of bad news, a piece that showed that life does in fact go on, was just what the doctor ordered. Farms all over the country must seem like little havens from the doom and gloom at the moment. It's not that life is without its worries on a farm, financially or otherwise. Far from it!

But it's only by living and working in the countryside that you get to experience the little things that nature does at this time of the year that are so uplifting.

It's only when you've been squelching around in muck for the last 6 months that you can appreciate the firmness that has come into the ground in the last few weeks. It's only when you rely on grass to feed your animals that you notice the slight yellow tinge of pastures giving way to a heartier green. It's only when you've waited weeks to get out into the fields that you can appreciate the shine of the plough-boards as it works its way through the earth.

The first stirrings of spring are the perfect antidote for those of us wrapped up in the woes of the world. Suddenly it's a pleasure to be out and about at 6am to see the sun get into gear. New-born animals demand assistance regardless of what the Dow Jones is doing.

Isn't it nice to feel that farming has one up on so many other parts of the economy again? There were times during the boom when it felt like farming was slowly but surely becoming irrelevant to the rest of our turbo-charged, go-getter society. The real action was in financial services, retail and IT.

Since then we've seen the likes of Royal Bank of Scotland evaporate from the stock market, while companies with deep roots in farming hold their own. Car sales have plummeted by 70% - tractor sales are down by less than half that. Dole queues mushroom - farming numbers remain steady.

Nobody's suggesting that farming is an easy option, or a fool's game! But it's still there, still paying and has a lot more going for it right now than most of what you'll catch on the Ten o'clock news!