MRS DOWN'S DIARY

Not only did we have to find someone to make sure the stock was cared for and arrange respite care for my mother-in-law, we also had to ensure that our Jack Russell terrier, Bud, got his medication on time.

Although he is nearly 13 years old, he has never ailed, so to suddenly discover that his recent wheezing and panting is as a result of an enlarged heart plus "stonking heart murmur" came as quite a shock.

I suppose we all wish for immortality for our pets as well as our relatives. With the commercial stock, an inevitability about their life cycle does distance you from their mortality; less so for pets.

John is recovering fast from his operation and chaffing to get on the tractor and stuck into some land work.

The returns for wheat are spurring him on to get as much drilled as possible. What a turn-round in prices. Doom and gloom for the past ten years and then suddenly, whoosh, prices have rocketed because of world demand and even rose 20 in a single week, with the dizzy heights of 200 per tonne being mentioned.

We wish. The merchants are all doom and gloom but that has not stopped them predicting and charging very high prices for seed corn.

Around our table at the silver wedding celebration, reactions to the rise in prices were mixed. One man whose land was run as a commercial shoot bemoaned the high cost of wheat for his birds. A dairy farmer, whilst pleased (although circumspect) at rises in the milk price, saw a knock-on cost in higher-priced feed rations for the cattle.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette September 12