WHEN I go outside there is a wonderful morning chorus of wild birds and that lovely colour of grass growing.
It seems incredible that I must already think of searching for the battery charger to try and persuade the lawn mower that winter is over.
All this and the daffodils have yet to bloom, while fading snowdrops are already disappearing into freshly grown grass.
All this was so different seven years when the government announced the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).
It is not for me to harp on and on about something which happened so long ago, but it was to be FMD more than anything else which was to bring an end my lifetime in farming.
I did not need a lot of persuading that this would not be a good career for my son to follow in my foot tracks.
But I was to become fairly well acquainted with this disaster by the end. Having been initially admonished by the local auctioneer for visiting Anglesey to see just what was going on, it was actually just after Christmas that I was to visit the source, or supposed source, for the first time.
I had been given a tip-off that the pig farm was not the original source of the outbreak, but it was not far away.
Carcasses of slaughtered pigs and cattle are
cremated at Burnside farm, Northumberland, in 2001.
But was it the real source of Britain's FMD outbreak?
The day was short and I lost my way circumnavigating Newcastle airport, but without realising it I had identified what I believe was the true source.
It was miles away from the pig farm and the only way the virus could have arrived at the pig farm was by motor car with someone carrying it.
Fascinated by this discovery I became more adventurous and in the end became more involved in the social problems amongst the Cumbria’s farming community.
In those days I was a responsible farmer and under no circumstances did I wish to spread this virus. But I was to realise that we had all been well hoodwinked by the government and MAFF (Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food).
MAFF was quickly abolished after this fiasco because ministers feared it would be taken to court. In its place has arisen DEFRA and several other government agencies.
Now we have bird flu in eastern England, and I do not believe what DEFRA or the Meat Hygene Service or the Food Standards Agency would like us to believe.
Science has one distinct and definite answer and is not the result of the opinions of eminently titled scientists or what government politicians would like you to believe.
Fortunately FMD was seven years ago and however badly the government handled it, the outbreak had to end some time.
The present day finds me in a lovely warm office away from the cold and mud which is so much modern farming.
That reminds me, I must go and feed my few remaining sheep. But even they are on reduced rations this year because of this wonderful dose of early spring weather.
