Fiona Goodyear

Salisbury girl love my City. Being polite costs nothing!

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

Two hundred of the thousand acres at Diddly Squat grew nothing at all this year. That was a decision taken in advance, on a spreadsheet. Wheat or barley on that ground was a guaranteed loss before the drill left the shed, so Jeremy Clarkson left it bare and explained why in his Sun column this week.

One line from it went everywhere. Farmers have reached the point where it is quite simply impossible to make money from growing food. Every paper carried that sentence, and every paper stopped there.

The list underneath it did not get printed anywhere.

Because he went on to set out what two hundred acres of good English ground could do instead of feeding anyone, and there were four items on it.

- Rent it to a global agri-company growing crops for anaerobic digesters.
- Cover it in solar panels.
- Put a data centre on it.
- Sell the farm to a Chinese company for a multistorey high-intensity piggery.

Every one of those pays. The only use of that land which reliably loses money is the one that puts food on a British plate. He added that he was not being ridiculous, and that anybody in 1926 would have laughed you out of the room for suggesting the factories would be gone by 2026.

Now the bit with a date on it.

From 1 January 2027 the UK's carbon border tax applies to imported fertiliser. The Treasury's own costings put the take at £140 million in 2027-28, rising to £180 million the year after. Estimates of the hit run from around £33 a tonne to £75, which is a fifth to a quarter added to the largest input bill an arable farm carries. The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers has warned that a typical 500 acre cereals farm could be down as much as £70,000 once fertiliser and fuel costs land.

So the fertiliser that grows the wheat gets taxed on a known date, in writing, by a government that says out loud it wants food security.

Nobody in Whitehall has ever signed a policy to stop Britain growing food. They have signed a great many that make every alternative pay better, which arrives at the same field.

And understand whose field this is. Diddly Squat has a television crew, a farm shop with a queue down the lane, a pub, a lager brand, a bestselling book every autumn and one of the best land agents in the country. It is the most commercially advantaged thousand acres in Britain, and two hundred of them were left bare this year because putting seed in them was the losing move.

Every arable farmer in England is doing that same sum this autumn. Almost none of them have a production company to cover the difference.

Those two hundred acres have not gone out of production. They are waiting to hear which industry wants them more than you do.

[PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE @Protect_Wldlife]

PLEASE RT…..

🚨WITNESS APPEAL – TEIGNMOUTH / SHALDON BEACH 🚨

This took place earlier today (27th July) at Shaldon Beach, Teignmouth, Devon.

A member of the public reports seeing the man in the photo below pick up his dog and throw him against a stone wall multiple times. The witness states he then pinned the dog to the ground and punched him repeatedly, while the woman with him stood by and watched.

According to the witness, this happened because the dog didn’t recall immediately and the man got his jeans wet retrieving him.

If you recognise this man or the woman with him, please get in touch with the OP via the link below. .

😡 Please share — this dog needs to be protected.

https://t.co/hkVcKyI8JB

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

The last overseas shearers Britain intends to let in are on the fells right now, working out the final weeks of their leave.

The door shut on 30 June. No vote, no debate, no announcement, just a date passing quietly in a summer when everyone was looking elsewhere. Those still working the Borders this week are here on leave that expires on 1 October, and when they fly out that is the end of it.

Understand what is walking out.

Six New Zealanders spent three months in one Northumberland valley last year and sheared nearly 90,000 sheep. Fifteen thousand head each, across farms from the Scottish Borders down to County Durham. They have been coming into Coquetdale for over thirty years. Since 2011 a concession has let up to 75 of them in each spring, and between them they take the wool off one and a half to two million British sheep in a window a few weeks long.

The Home Office rejected the application on 2 February. Twenty-six days of farmers writing to their MPs got it reinstated on 10 March for one final year, with a line about the sector having had fourteen years to train British workers and now being expected to transition to domestic labour.

Here is what that sentence is standing on. British Wool trains over 800 people a year, most of those courses are basic level, and most of the people on them are sheep farmers learning to do their own flock. Training was never the bottleneck. A top shearer clears a ewe in two or three minutes, calm hands, no panic in the animal, hundreds a day for weeks on end, and reaching that standard takes years of conditioning and a place in a global trade that follows the season around the planet.

Fourteen million breeding ewes. A few weeks to do them all. A sheep left in fleece gets eaten alive by maggots, so the job is not optional and the date is not negotiable.

Next spring those farms make phone calls that nobody answers.

Seventy-five shearers, once a year, and a government that could not find room for them.

[Alexandra @Alexandr4Denman]

Devon and Cornwall police are keen to speak to anyone with information over a 81 lambs going missing , they are marked with red and number with black and green dye marks , the farmer said he noticed a massive drop in numbers one day whilst out to feed them on his farm in Kenn near Exeter
The farmer said the missing livestock are Suffolks, Charollais and Texels and crosses between these breeds and would be considered larger than most commercial lambs.
Anyone with information, relevant dashcam footage, CCTV, or who witnessed anything unusual is asked to contact Devon & Cornwall Police on 101 or via the force website here, quoting reference 50260193233.
PLEASE SHARE ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE IN THE AREA AND CAN ALERT OTHER FARMERS !

.

[Steve Perkins @Perky_43]

🚨 STOLEN GOATS – HEARTBREAKING THEFT IN RAINHAM, EAST LONDON 🚨

Two much‑loved Golden Guernsey goats — Maggie and Maple — were snatched overnight from Peel Stable, Mereborough Road, #rainham, sometime between 9pm Saturday 18 July and 7.30am Sunday 19 July.

A 40–50cm hole was cut through the barbed‑wire fence, then tied back to hide it.

Someone chased these goats around their field, dragged them through that hole, and took them.

Maple suffers from serious seizures and has only just finished medication. Without the right care, she is at real risk.

Their owner is devastated.

The goats were bottle‑fed from 10 weeks old, raised alongside the family’s horses, pony, ducks, chickens, cats, dogs — they are family, not livestock.

If you live near Mereborough Road, Rainham, check your CCTV, Ring doorbells, dashcams, or anything that might show suspicious activity between 9pm Saturday and 7.30am Sunday.

A £1,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to their safe return.

📩 Contact: [email protected]
📞 Or report directly to Kent Police by calling 01634 792209, and quoting 19-1342.

Earlier this month, staff at Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats told local paper KentOnline how they had been left heartbroken after Taco the goat was stolen overnight.

CCTV showed four men stealing him from the site in Boughton Monchelsea, near Maidstone, on July 4.

Seven baby goats were also stolen from their pen at Christmas Tree Farm in Cudham Road, Downe, on June 23. The animals were about four to five weeks old at the time.

🐐 PLEASE SHARE THIS POST

https://t.co/QNikMAK8mP

See also: https://t.co/VhVeCtFN5D

Source UKACF.

[Fiona Goodyear @GoodyearFiona]

@RingGo_parking afternoon trying to pay for parking in 77511 Salisbury Railway Station from 15.40 - 15.55 as usual taxi’s using 20 min bays had to park in “to pay “ no wallet how do I retrospectively pay ? Thanks

[Rt Hon Nigel Evans @nigelmp]

This is nothing short of Brilliant by Ann……. Sit back and follow the straightness of the compass that will always land you on solid ground. Thank you Ann and rest in Peace whilst your legacy lives on. X

[Case Bradford @Casebradford]

Erling Haaland makes a great point here as he picks up his raw milk, honey, and beef from a local farm

Farmers should be famous like athletes

Unfortunately people are addicted to eating slop and watching dudes play with balls

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

This year the Home Office moved to stop expert sheep shearers from Australia and New Zealand coming to shear British sheep.

The people who keep the animals comfortable were declared surplus to requirements.

For over a decade, around 75 of the best shearers on earth have flown in each spring on a simple visa concession. In a few brutal weeks they take the wool off up to two million sheep.

A top shearer clears a ewe in two or three minutes. Hundreds a day. Calm hands, no panic in the animal. It is a global trade and a young body's game, and Britain has never grown enough of its own.

The official line? Fourteen years to train Britons, so the door is closing.

Here is what that tidy sentence ignores. A sheep must be shorn every year or she overheats, cannot move properly, and gets eaten alive by flies and maggots. Shearing on time is welfare, plain and simple, written into law and into the animal's own skin.

So a government that lectures farmers without pause about welfare has quietly made the most basic welfare task harder to carry out. After the outcry they allowed one "final" year. Then the experts are gone for good.

A sector already losing money on every fleece, already burning wool it cannot sell, now told it cannot even get the people in to take the wool off.

You could be forgiven for thinking somebody wants the British sheep gone.

[Fiona Goodyear @GoodyearFiona]

@sharrond62 Try Stinky Stuff (they have a www) brilliant for skin issues

[Fiona Goodyear @GoodyearFiona]

@protodanielle Oh dear young Morgan you are quite pretty

[Kiera Diss @KieraDiss]

Disgraced slaughterhouse, HARTSHEAD MEATS LTD, has been spotted making deliveries at a nearby SERVICE STATION.

The premises in Mossley, Manchester, has been the subject of mass protests over illegal non-stun practices, including Kosher and Halal.

So they’re making sneaky drops.

[Clive Bailye @TWBFarms]

#Lichfield #Burntwood #Hammerwich area - keep an eye out for this white van, caught on camera stealing from our farm today - plates are false

please RT to warn others 👍

[James Melville 🚜 @JamesMelville]

On this day in history, 32 years ago…

John Smith, the Labour Party leader, was 55 years old when he died from a heart attack on May 12, 1994.

He once said:

“People in Britain today are angry: not just disappointed, not just disillusioned, but angry. They are angry at the state of Britain; angry at the total absence of leadership; angry at the absence of vision; angry at the hypocrisy and double standards; and they are angry at the incessant incompetence of a Government they no longer respect and increasingly despise.”

And tragically, his words of wisdom (aimed against the Tory government) could equally apply to Keir Starmer’s government of today.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

We're nearly there 96,353 and counting. Do your thing internet.

As for that vacuous act of futility that is govt's response?

The Sewage Campaign Network has asked for a right to reply, we want to be able to write to the very same people govt did shredding their nonsense response.

Sign now, sign today.

[Fiona Goodyear @GoodyearFiona]

@SW_Help Please do DM it is very well deserved

[Fiona Goodyear @GoodyearFiona]

@SW_Help outstanding job by Andover station staff (Tracey and Tony) managing the crowded platform after 09.21 Salisbury - Waterloo 11/4 was caped both members of staff walking the platform keeping us all informed #bootsontheground great human touch making the difference

[Mark Williamson @markrwilliamson]

Four alpacas killed in dog attack which left two others with facial injuries.

Cambs Police seized the two dogs at Wisbech St Mary and an investigation is under way.

Sorry I know this is an upsetting image. 1/2

[Fiona Goodyear @GoodyearFiona]

@VinnieSull1van @Britains___Pubs Lived in the building next door oh happy happy days

[Hampshire Chronicle @hantschronicle]

Salmon fishing suspended on River Test as fish levels reach 'critically low levels' https://t.co/eRFLJ9tbf2