The sugar beet harvester has rolled away into the sunset and we no longer wake up to this inspirational screensaver (feel free to download):

The last sugar beet lorry left the farm a couple of weeks ago, clearing the yard for the final time. Next year, we will be able to walk straight across the yard, siginificantly lowering the number of steps required to circumnavigate the beet heap. Imagine what we can achieve with all that extra energy! Without a doubt, the cows will miss their Christmas sugar beet treats, but we will not miss hauling tarpaulins, scraping the road by hand, nor the verbal abuse we, the harvesters and hauliers received whilst working day and night to keep the road clean.

Special thanks to Mr Brooks' and Mr Hogger's teams for patiently sticking with small farmers like us, we will miss their annual visits to Lower Dairy Farm.

But fear not for the future of sugar beet sans Farmer Humph, we've passed the baton to future Dorset Beet Oligarch and Chairman of the NFU Sugar Board, Oscar. Sadly he's declined the generous offer of our Standen Rapide Tanker, Mk 2.

Should anyone else require the perfect first harvester, do contact us otherwise Dad may be tempted to keep it forever.

Whilst the Standen wheels itself off to sugar beet fields new/in the sky, we're distracting Farmer Humph with an exciting farm re-modelling. To ease the pressure on the old farmyard system, we have just completed the footings of a new cow barn. Updating the farmyard unit will allow us space to work on existing buildings, mend tractors and most importantly become gloriously fat (like arable farmers) with an easier management system and no beet heaps to walk round or clamber over. More Horkesley Pork Pie anyone?