The price of barley straw 2

Listeners to Radio 4 Saturday Farming Today Omnibus edition were regaled by tales of shortages all over the place.  A combination of more straw being sent to biomass heating plants, the hard winter pushing up demand by farmers, and horticulturists needing more for strawberry beds.  Anyway, the long and the short of it is, that it is in extremely short supply.

We were thinking of doing a trip to East Anglia to get some as it isn’t produced in Wales – sheep country you understand.  We are not in urgent need of it, just planning ahead.  Hay and Brecon Farmers gave us a phone number, so Sandie rang, and hey presto!  Only large bales available, but we can cope with that, so off we go to “The Pales”, an International World Heritage site about three miles North East of Crossgates.  After a farmer named Andrew who hasn’t increased the price to match supply and demand, which our usual man has.  Price has gone from £2.50 to £5.00 in as many seconds.

Wrong place!  What you can’t see is that the incline is roughly 45 degrees and the track is uneven concrete – traction in the snow, which has just started.

Right place!  Pip in the front, lovely dog that Sandie wants to take home!

And the views!  With the tops covered in snow.  Andrew – the farmer, asks where we live.  “You must live near Mark Davies?”  “Yes”, says Sandie, (wife) “Jan is my best mate!”.  “Oh I know Jan, went to school with her, she’s 12 months younger than me”.

This type of conversation goes on a number of times, and points out the interconnectedness of things in Wales.  More than that, Jan is a Hundred House girl, and it transpires that Andrew’s Grandparents were Hundred House people.

Anyway, back to the cottage with one large bale and six small bales of hay.

We now have approximately 50 small bales of straw, which is about two months supply if we use it carefully.