Year One

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Before the pandemic hit, Modern Farmer spoke to farmers who had completed their first year of farming and were gearing up for their second season. They told us about some of their biggest challenges, how they overcame them, and why it was all worth it in the end. Here are some of their stories, which we’re sharing in a series in the hope they can help those thinking about quitting their desk job to jump into farming.  For new farmers, simply making the decision to start a farm can be one of the hardest steps to take. It’s no secret that farming is incredibly tough work, and there’s a lot of risk involved in quitting a steady job to launchContinue Reading

Year One: Start Small

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When it comes to farming, it’s important to start small. There is a lot to learn about growing food, and gradually building up your farm can help your learning curve. Dallas Robinson knows this well. The new farmer didn’t grow to the scale she planned to this year, partly due to the pandemic, but also because the soil on her farm was compacted, and wouldn’t work for her crop plan. She originally planned to grow on a quarter of an acre, but has instead planted cover crops on a much smaller area. Robinson ended up building some raised beds by hand to be able to start growing vegetables this season.  It isn’t quite what she intended, but she says startingContinue Reading

Why so many women still take their husband's last name

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Pexels Our names lie at the heart of our identity. But in Britain nearly all married women – almost 90% in a 2016 survey – abandon their original surname and take their husband’s. The survey found that even most of the youngest married women – those aged 18–34 – chose to do so. Some women, incorrectly, even imagine it is a legal requirement. Most countries in western Europe and the US follow the same pattern. This change in women’s identity, by taking a husband’s name, has emerged from patriarchal history where wives had no surname except “wife of X”. The wife was the husband’s possession and right up to the late 19th-century, women in England ceded all property and parentalContinue Reading

The Conversation

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It’s not known exactly how many NHS workers have died from COVID-19, but in England the death toll has passed 300. That so many NHS staff have tragically died as a result of caring for people with COVID-19, shows the risks healthcare workers face as part of their job. But not only do doctors and nurses have to contend with higher risk of contracting disease, reports also indicate that many healthcare staff are facing verbal threats and physical abuse from patients. Violence and aggression towards NHS staff has been a problem for some time. And research seems to indicate that many hospital workers have simply resigned themselves to patient violence and aggression being a daily reality. Our research with mentalContinue Reading

Mutating coronavirus: what it means for all of us

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An important milestone in the fight against COVID-19 came in early January 2020, when the entire viral genome of the novel coronavirus that causes the disease was sequenced for the first time. Since then, the full coronavirus genome, taken from thousands of infected patients around the globe, has been sequenced. This vast bank of genome sequences is an important resource. Particularly as viruses such as coronavirus have a high mutation rate, with the genome sequence varying up to 0.02%. This may sound low, but considering the human genome varies by only 0.001% between individuals, it’s clear the virus mutates much faster than we do and can quickly evolve. Sequencing the coronavirus at different points in time can tell us howContinue Reading

Crystalyx Extra High Energy 1 (1)

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New research highlights the importance of ensuring ewes are in appropriate condition at tupping, increasing the size of the lamb crop.  The research at Aberystwyth University confirms the benefits of supplementing ewes with Crystalyx blocks at grass to achieve both target body condition and adequate trace minerals supply. “AHDB data shows that ewes maintaining better body condition in mid-pregnancy, between tupping and scanning, typically have more lambs at scanning,” comments Crystalyx Technical Director Dr Cliff Lister.  “To ensure ewes hit the target score of 3.5 for lowland breeds, it is important to make it a priority and to manage it proactively.” He says over fat or thin ewes never perform well with many of them taking longer to come onContinue Reading

Varying crop conditions cause wheat and barley price fluctuations

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This year’s UK harvest is expected to have a smaller wheat crop and a larger barley crop compared to the previous year, according to AHDB. The domestic grain market has seen both wheat and barley prices fluctuate during June as UK crop conditions have been varied, with some regions, such as South West England, receiving large volumes of rainfall during June, helping crops in many areas improve after the extremely dry spring. Other regions continue to feel the impacts of the dry spring and wet winter which is limiting crop potential. AHDB analysts Alex Cook and Charlie Reeve predict that looking forward for UK barley prices, it is likely that market will remain pressured throughout the autumn due to a large springContinue Reading

Coronavirus, nursing and war: action that followed national conflict can help guide the UK now

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The language of war is often used around COVID-19. While this is often decried as unhelpful, in the field of nursing there are in fact similarities. When the second word war began, the UK had a massive shortage of nurses, which led to a surge in recruitment of an extra 30,000-70,000 to deal with air raid casualties. The country was also short of some 40,000 nurses before the current coronavirus outbreak. This is only counting vacancies, and is not a calculation of population-based demand. Increasing the number of nurses today has been possible through the emergency COVID-19 legislation and the establishment of a temporary register by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Essentially, this has meant calling upon nursing reserves, replicatingContinue Reading