Page 21 - The Farming Years proof

CHAPTER SIX
Farming with hay in mind
So, there we were in 1975 with my knowledge of farming limited to my activities 28 years ago. I found that the Ministry of Agricul- ture published a series of booklets on divisions of farming such as haymaking. This was a great help in our initial activities.
I attempted to assess our situation as you would a business – hope- fully, to be pro table. We had the 13 acre top eld that John Bil- lows had sown with Italian rye grass for making superior horse hay. John, no doubt, was hoping to get a superior price for this hay.
one of the 3 acre elds on the hill had its top-soil removed to be used on development areas locally. John was turning his assets into quick money, regardless. The eld being in an ironstone area now had broken ironstone on the surface limiting any form of seri- ous agricultural activity. We cleared the stones on several Sundays by a team of daughters and boyfriends coming to Sunday lunch and afterwards doing stone picking with a tractor and trailer. Fun- nily enough, they kept coming, but Sylvia’s Sunday lunches were very good!
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