There will be, if you catch them unguarded, the faintest trace of a smile on the faces of the British cereal farmers at next week?s Royal Show. The price of wheat has risen in the past year from £80 a tonne to about £130 a tonne (it costs between £65 and £80 a tonne to grow), thanks to a combination of drought in many grain-growing countries and the US diverting much of its farming land into manufacturing biofuel. Added to this, the recent rain has swelled the grain, and farmers are whispering that there may be a bumper harvest this year provided the rain soon stops and the sun comes out.
Farmers would do well to be positive over this. They did themselves no favours in the eyes of the public in the 1970s when they last made a lot of money and yet continued to whinge about their lot. This was disastrous for public perception of the industry. When things did go dreadfully wrong during the past decade, their cries fell on deaf ears. I will be praying for a good harvest as it makes such a difference to the wealth of the countryside and, hopefully, it will reverse the image of farming today.
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Canine muses: Lucian Freud's etchings of Pluto the whippet are among his most popular and expensive workIn the third edition of our limited series, we meet the dogs who've inspired some of our greatest artists.
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Maybach SL680: A modern motoring marvel from the marque that once catered for Maharajas and movie starsThe Maybach name has been attached to many of Germany's most luxurious cars over the last century — so does the latest iteration live up to the reputation? Simon de Burton got behind the wheel of the Mercedes-Maybach SL 680 — but only after a quick pronunciation lesson.
