By Tom Woolman, customer service manager, Annyalla Chicks
I’m sure you will all be looking forward to the Pig and Poultry Fair as much as I am. I still talk to people who don’t know that it is happening, which I find quite incredible seeing how much is spent on promoting the event in this magazine and elsewhere.
It always a good opportunity to see farm staff off site for once, usually trying to grab as many freebies as they can, and why shouldn’t they? When you work on farm perks are few and far between. Some free pens and a squishy chicken from the show shouldn’t be dismissed. It’s also a great reminder of all of the people I have worked with over the years. Of course sometimes you see somebody that you don’t wish to see again but then you can always show a sudden interest in the nearest stand and wait for them to pass.
I don’t want to dwell on the exploits of a certain orange crackpot in the Middle East. I was heartened to hear in a headline on 16th April that a government risk assessment had highlighted shortages of pork and poultry as a possible consequence of longer term disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. We certainly don’t want to return to those CO² shortages we experienced in 2022 – I’m glad that it has been flagged by government and hope that things don’t get to that stage again.
Change is in the air with 2Agriculture at the moment, with a restructure and a number of new roles. It will be interesting to see how things pan out and I wish all the best to those involved. Change can be unsettling but it can also be a great opportunity, for what one of my previous colleagues wryly described as ‘young, thrusting types.’ Or anyone of any age who fancies a bit of a challenge, for that matter.
At home, the lambs have been born and one particularly woolly lamb has been rejected by his mother. He is now doing well on the bottle and the children have called him Fluffy. My nightmare has now become a reality, as at some point I will try to turn Fluffy into a lamb burger and risk the breakup of family order.