Martin and his wife Debbie moved from Derbyshire to La Vieille Cour, Loire-Atlantique, France, in 1990. They farm 50ha and run 28 French Prim Holsteins. One of our best cows dropped dead walking up the track to the milking parlour, then the contractorwho drills our maize ploughed the land on Monday and was due to drill Tuesday, but he was run into by a lorry on route to us and will not be able to drill until Friday, No rain now for nine weeks, frosts every morning and north east winds that are continually drying out everything. We have one week's grazing left and the bare pastures are burning up. The cows have the run of the farm and unless we get rain, and plenty of it quickly, 1997 could be a disaster year. Cereal crops are dying and anyone lucky enough to make grass silage have seen yields of 1t DM/ha. But then with a drop of rain all could change.
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