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| STREET FARM 2000 AD The old Roman Fosse Way runs across Street Farm for about a mile, which gives it it's name. One of the fields it goes across is called Stoneyfield, we have added the "e", because Stony, like Street, means a stone-made Roman way. The soil is medium loam and classed Grade 3. With a capping of flint machinery costs are high and so the saying "a plough share an acre". The Hebditch family have farmed Street Farm since 1951 and have seen enormous changes in agriculture in the Parish, as well as nationwide. It is a mixed farm of about 350 acres, plus 35 acres of woodland. A closed herd of 140 Friesan and Ayrshire cows are milked. Dairy replacements and 50-60 store cattle are reared annually. 80 to 100 acres of wheat and barley are grown for sale and 35 acres of forage maize grown for silage. There were two full time employees, but my grandson left recently because of the uncertain future in the industry. Nearly all the farming operations are carried out with our own machinery and labour. Contracting is used when specialist equipment is needed. There is an abundance of wild-life on the farm as well as small areas left for nature to take it's course. Three small, independent herd of deer are resident, as well as badgers, foxes and birds of all descriptions. Buzzards are so plentiful they are tending to be in small flocks rather than in pairs. The environment is well cared for. There are just a handfull of farmers and farmworkers in the Parish to-day. Farm cottages and village houses now increasingly belong to the urban influx. Fewer and fewer people really understand how the countryside works. Farmers are threatened by pressure groups and rural terrorists. Cofidence is at an all time low. Farming is in it's biggest recession for seventy years with all sectors severely affected. Profitablity is negligible and investment underfunded. The fall in farm gate prices and the demise of agriculture as we have known it, is mainly due to the power the Supermarkets wield in the market place. Agricultural controls, quotas on farm production etc., are controlled from Brussels. Britain, unlike it's Continental Partners, rigidly enforce all regulations. With a politically unsympathetic Government to farming because of the very few M.Ps. who have any knowledge of the countryside, we are severly disadvantaged in comparison to other members of the Community. |
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