Friday 7 February 2014

Fire

A couple of days ago a farmer quite near to us (three or four miles away) lost his entire stock of straw for the rest of the Winter to a disastrous fire.   It is the fear of farmers everywhere because straw (and hay too of course) is so inflammable.

Rumour has it that the straw was ignited by a spark from the straw chopper which was chopping straw for adding to the evening feed.   The farmer was, apparently, quite close at hand but had to move his livestock - he is both a dairy and a beef farmer and all the stock were too close to the straw for comfort.

Whatever the reasons and outcome, the fact remains that he is now without straw for the rest of the Winter and will -hopefully- have to buy in new supplies.   Straw is used for bedding down the cattle (at this time of the year they are all inside) and is also chopped and added to various other ingredients in a balanced feed.  By this time of the year there is not a lot of it about.

Farming is always a risky business as those farmers in Somerset know only too well - more rain and strong winds forecast down there throughout the weekend and again early next week.   Will it never end?

19 comments:

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Wow, Pat. When I saw the title of your post, my heart just sank. I am deeply thankful no life was lost, not even the barn, I guess. But the extra expense during these hard times. What a bummer. Hope you are well and enjoy the weekend. Hop over to my blog and see Miss Josephine (Wednesday's post.)

MorningAJ said...

A moment of carelessness can cost so much. Although damp straw can go up by itself, can't it?

George said...

So sorry to hear about the fire, Pat. It sounds like it could have been worse, however. At least there appears to be no loss of life or structures.

Cloudia said...

You bring us right round to reality!


Thank you - and best wishes to ALL the farmers.



ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral

=^..^= <3

Terry and Linda said...

Fire is just the worst of things! I'm glad he was able to save his herd and I hope his buildings, but losing part of his feed is not good at all!!!

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
*♥´¨) ¸.-´¸.-♥´¨) Happy Valentine’s Day¸.-♥¨) (¸.-` ♥♥´¨

Dartford Warbler said...

Winter is hard enough for a livestock farmer without the added stresses of fire or flood. I do hope your neighbour can find more straw to last out the winter.

the veg artist said...

I have been watching the flooding situation with great sadness. I know enough to know the implications of having to move stock, that somehow they have to be fed, cows have to be milked, that losing grown or bought in winter feed is a disaster. I'm afraid that the stresses involved will be too much for some, even if they could somehow recover financially. Having a home flooded must be terrible, but farming these days is a high-money business, something that politicians just do not seem to grasp.

Cro Magnon said...

Oh dear. When briefly living in Shropshire there was a series of local farm fires.... they caught the idiot, and locked him away!

mumasu said...

Poor man, I hope he is able to buy in some straw.

Heather said...

Poor man - what a disaster. Glad no people or animals were harmed.
We seem to have escaped the bad storm which was forecast for last night - unless it hasn't reached us yet of course. There is still more bad weather to come next week I believe - no let up in sight. It's as though autumn has stretched into and through our winter months and winter comes in what was once spring. We've hardly had any frost down here this 'winter'.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for the sympathy expressed - farmers are going through a bit of a crisis, what with floods and now a fire. Luckily we are carrying on well - can't get on the land, it is too wet, but nothing is spoiling. Just waiting for the first celandine to appear.

Rachel Phillips said...

Very bad luck. The price of straw has come down in Norfolk just recently and there is straw to be had. He will have to import some.

Tom Stephenson said...

With all this water, he was probably not expecting fire.

Linda Metcalf said...

There is a thing that I find very interesting in the Amish community. When a family has a disaster like the one you write about all the other families join forces and donate to the family with the loss. I remember one family lost 8 pigs so the others who raised pigs all donated one of theirs to get him going again. This would also work with straw.

Gwil W said...

I well remember the fire at Windsor Castle and how Andrew "bravely rescued the paintings". Turned out they had no insurance. Expected the community to club together and foot the bill.

angryparsnip said...

I am so glad the the farmer and the live stock were saved. Sorry to hear about the straw.
I have lived through a fire and lost everything (but the children) so I can understand. I hope he survives this wet winter

cheers, parsnip

Crafty Green Poet said...

how awful, but at least it wasn't worse

John Going Gently said...

More rain and gales here right now pat............
Awful x

The Weaver of Grass said...

Rain and yet more rain - keep dry everyone here in the UK. Those in the US desperately short of rain - hope we can send some of ours over soon but at present the wind seems to all be blowing the wrong way.

Thanks for contributing.