CHANGING
TIMES
st to
Far mers have needed to adju
erent circumstances and
diff
e
years and many practices hav
changing technology over the
changed.
been an increase in
Possibly the biggest change has
n of quad bikes.
machinery and the introductio
e rendered the traditional role
On some farms quad bikes hav
rs almost redundant. The size
of shepherds and farm laboure
use
meant that many farms now
and cost of the machinery has
e expensive
jobs rather than hav
contractors to carry out some
idle for much of the year.
machines lying
at
out to work but still help out
Many farmers’ wives now go
number of
is also an increasing
busy times like lambing. There
farms.
women running
the
These pictures show some of
nges.
cha
These cows ar
e lying on sand
, their
preferred bed
as it moulds to
their bodies
Milk kits
land are
Newton in Bow
se milk kits in
The
demise of the
n sight. The
now a forgotte
e 1990s meant
g Board in th
ilk small
Milk Marketin
economic to m
was no longer
that it
cted in bulk
w dairies colle
urns.
rds as the ne
he
than from ch
tanks rather
ad access to
Poor ro
meant
some farms
couldn’t
the tanker
get through.
Bringing in the first ever big
bales at
Halsteads
Robot Milker
ngly
This system is becoming increasi
ws a cow to be milked
popular and allo
have
at a time they choose, and to
constant access to food.
shed
Cows are no
w kept indoor
s and milked
times a day.
3
Farmers have
found that th
cows are happ
e
ier, they don’
t like being w
or too hot. T
et
hey have acce
ss to fresh air
day and mattr
all
esses to lie on
. It means th
we see far few
at
er cows grazin
g in fields now.
of far mers from the
In 2001 a small group
p
d a company to develo
Forest of Bowland for me
t locally
lk, ensuring tha
their own brand of mi
people,
lk could be sold to local
produced mi
m afar. By controlling
ht fro
instead of being broug
o
ttling of the milk and wh
the pasteurising and bo
rs a more
er the far me
it is sold to, they can off
e price for their milk.
competitiv
Farm machine
ry has grown
in size along
with the size of
the farms
Wrapping
bales in plastic
means they can be
ter
kept outside all win
‘Footcocks’ - Grass wa
s
heaped up after raking
to help to dry it.
Indoor lambing
...Now a fa
miliar sigh
t: “a quad
a young m
bike make
an old!” an
s an old m
d the sam
an young
e could be
and
said for th
e dog!
“Milk quotas became a
commodity [