[Womble]

As smallholders, we often envy our large-scale farming neighbours. But there is something you probably have in abundance, which they now sadly lack; bailer twine.

Take James, for instance. He farms twelvety acres in rural Stirlingshire, but the bailer twine holding his gates and fences together is now over five years old and has been tied and untied so many times that it is falling apart. "In the old days we had more bags of the stuff than we ever knew what to do with" said James. "But now all our hay is in big bales, we never get any at all. It's becoming a real problem."

But here is where YOU can help. Saving your surplus used bailer twine and donating it to a farmer could mean the difference between their tups staying where they put them and dozens of unwanted pregnancies.

Every little helps:

• One string a week could keep gates closed throughout an entire farm.
• One string a month could tie ill-fitting sheep hurdles together, preventing many heated arguments.
• Even a one-off donation of a single string could keep a farmer's trousers up for an entire year.

Thank you for reading this important message. Please, reach out to your local farmers and ask them if they need any of your surplus bailer twine. You might be surprised at the response.



This was a charity broadcast from Womble, and is not to be taken entirely seriously. Well, maybe it is - I was surprised too!

[Fleecewife]

Oh    that's why my neighbours' gates are always hanging open, or is it their trousers?  We use jute twine which is probably beneath them.

[chrismahon]

One of the first things we bought here from the local Agri-merchant was two bundles of blue bailing twine (you can't buy one). We had nearly run out and it wasn't being dumped. Here they have very large round straw bales wrapped in a red white and blue net. Yes, very useful, particularly when our friends son's belt broke and his trousers ended up around his ankles. Then we had to tie up the boundary fencing because the neighbour's cattle prefer our grass! But with 1000 metres of the stuff we will never use it all. Unfortunately a 2000 mile round trip isn't practical for donations.

[Kiran]

I can almost ready your post in the voice of a Christmas charity appeal 

[Backinwellies]

Think its time I stored what is left of my baler twine ...... will be worth a forture in a few years .....  could even make more money  than my smallholding 

[Rosemary]

We took a fence out at the weekend - we're adding the fence posts to our pension fund 

[Womble]

Ooooh, look at you with a pension!

The other day, a friend said "well, at least you guys will be able to survive on eggs".

I had to tell her that there aren't any between October and February  .

I can almost ready your post in the voice of a Christmas charity appeal 

Only almost? 

[Backinwellies]

The other day, a friend said "well, at least you guys will be able to survive on eggs".

I had to tell her that there aren't any between October and February  .

What is the problem you could diet from Oct to Feb every year 

[mab]

I tend to suffer from the opposite sort of bailer twine crisis:-


Whenever i open a bale i always  very carefully remove two pieces of twine and deposit them in the spare twine sack in the lean-to, where the sheep/dogs/chickens/cows/cats/pony don't go. In spite of this i invariably find it gets everywhere! It's in the yard, the garage, the garden, the field - when i muck out the barn the pitchfork won't lift - cos theres bailer twine in the muck!   


There must be a supernatural explanation as there's no normal way for it to escape its sack.


On the other hand, if i need to repair something, there's always a bit of twine nearby.

[doganjo]

I tend to suffer from the opposite sort of bailer twine crisis:-


Whenever i open a bale i always  very carefully remove two pieces of twine and deposit them in the spare twine sack in the lean-to, where the sheep/dogs/chickens/cows/cats/pony don't go. In spite of this i invariably find it gets everywhere! It's in the yard, the garage, the garden, the field - when i muck out the barn the pitchfork won't lift - cos theres bailer twine in the muck!   


There must be a supernatural explanation as there's no normal way for it to escape its sack.


On the other hand, if i need to repair something, there's always a bit of twine nearby.

IT BREEDS