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Location: Blogs Three blind cows....
Posted by: Stevie	8/29/2007
The grass is green, the birds are singing and the puddles are not as common as they were a few days ago. You have to be thankful for living in a beautiful part of the world like Cumbria, even when all hell breaks loose like it has this year. Another of the wettest years on record, poor grass growth and then the FMD spectre reappeared, but I would like to think we have come through the worst, and re-emerged better people for the experience, a real character builder. My name is Steve Pattinson, a Cumbrian dairy farmer from above the Roman Wall, stuck in the mud in no mans land, or Rievers country as it has been traditionally known. My wife Claire and I, along with 3 kids and the anchor (dad) run a small traditional family farm in Roadhead near Bewcastle in the top north east corner of Cumbria. Kinkry Hill farm takes in about 150 acres spread over a large area with fields here and there as we can get our hands on them. This is still a very traditional area, virtually untouched by external forces if you discount DEFRA, and pride and passion are the drivers of the day. Three blind cows.... Now we are introduced it is time for the obligatory rant. My opinion is that Cumbria produces some of the best (and by that I mean tasty and flavoursome) food available today because it is still farmed in a traditional way, manure is used to benefit the land and pesticide and fertiliser use is at a minimum. These are essential tools properly used, if it were not for these modern aids then we would not be able to feed the 60% of the population we currently claim, of this island of 60 million potential customers. Great moves forward have been made to reconnect with the consumer and build brands, but I think we have a lot more to do before we get to the same levels that our EU neighbours have achieved. Cumbria has a great untapped external image that larger groups could ride on the back of, and market to a much wider field. I sell my milk to a national farmer owned co-op and have done for many years, and it is only now that moves are being made to get Cumbrian branded milk into supermarkets, but I have not yet seen it. We have a Dutchman wanting to build a Cumbrian cheese factory now and we can only hope that this will help to further promote the brand that is Cumbrian. This year we had our first family holiday since 2001, not because we were suddenly able to afford it, but we just had to. It takes a long time to engineer a gap when we can all leave together, but it was well worth it. Ironically the last overseas break was to Austria in 2001, the last time we saw FMD. This year we tried Slovenia, and headed to a small mountain resort called Kranskja Gora in the north west. Picture perfect and very family friendly, good food and frothy beer. Tourism is their main income and livestock numbers in this region are very low. One of my other roles is co-ordinator and webmaster for www.pentalk.org, a role I have had for over 6 years now. Pentalk has done so much for the farming community in Cumbria, supplying over 1000 PC's into farm offices as well as local classes on how to use this evil machine, and guidance on how it could benefit their business. It has won many regional and national awards and I am very proud of my involvement in this unique scheme. We are about to start calving most of our cows now so that will be the end of the lay in.'s (6.15am) and early finishes. All hands on deck from here on in! Stevie.

Comments (1)

Re: Introducing three blind cows....

By admin on 8/29/2007

It’s really great that you are blogging on the site Steve, I look forward to more stories. I'm sure it will be a bit of an eye opener for our readers about dairy farming in Cumbria. I have to say even with a child under one I sure wouldn't regard 6:15 as a lie in!

I really appreciate you contributing, as for the title of the blog, I set it up for you based on the picture you sent entitled "Three blind cows"....! - Martin