[Victorian Farmer]

normandy mary i did not realize you was in france so i will get you to forcast the wether this link will take you to a page               http://www.wetterzentrale.de/                 click on the second box dawn it will give you a GSF forcast this will take you till the 29 of october you click on this everey 2 days and its dead on forcast and you can see the cold in blue happey days .il do a long range for you

[NormandyMary]

Thanks so much VF you are a real star. I believe we have a few members who live in France so hopefully they will pick this up too. Meteo France were wrong again about today, its horrible with very heavy rain. Our farmers have had to work into the small hours of the morning to get the maize in. Its been very noisy with all the cutting equipment and the tractors with huge trailers attached. Now the cut fields are like mini lakes and our roads are extremely muddy.
Im actually looking forward to the colder weather to kill the bugs off and to freshen the air. I would much rather see to the animals when its cold and frosty rather than warm and wet.
 
Thanks again for looking after us this side of the channel VF.
 
Mary.

[Victorian Farmer]

thanks mary yes its been hard with the rain no summer ,We had a good start then it went dawn hill from april i said if i could fence the big field and have a new roof on the barn that would be christmas for me .well its all been done and i still have 300 lambs to sell .would like a new start in france i have no morgage and own the 2 houses and all stock tractor etc .iff the wether is as bad its not worth thinking of that .I do think the cold will come next week i just hope its not the winter started lamb for lunch so happey days iv put pictures where i live ,so have a look all the best.

[Ina]

Thanks so much VF you are a real star. I believe we have a few members who live in France so hopefully they will pick this up too. Meteo France were wrong again about today, its horrible with very heavy rain. Our farmers have had to work into the small hours of the morning to get the maize in. Its been very noisy with all the cutting equipment and the tractors with huge trailers attached. Now the cut fields are like mini lakes and our roads are extremely muddy.

Here it's the tatties that have been lifted in fields with standing water... I don't expect much for the quality of what they got out - but still better than letting it all rot. Can't be good for the soil, either.

[Womble]

Sorry folks, I think you've misunderstood what I was trying to ask.
 
I was commenting on this post:
 

Hi taz .... exbat hens are in short supply in Scotland .... I've had my name down for some .... for the best apart of 6 months ... it's due to the changes in the law over cage sizes .... hens are being kept for longer .....

I absolutely understand that costs are going up, and the weather means that production is also down (hey, don't I know it on both counts!). What I don't get is why the new cage sizes would mean farmers keeping their stock for longer?  Apart from using more sawdust (?), how does that affect the calculations?