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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rev Virginia Luckett

The financial challenges of Harvest

Good morning and welcome.

Having moved only five Harvest seasons ago, from a densely populated built up part of London out to rural West Dorset, I'm just beginning to understand the ebb and flow of the farming year; helped by a couple of local farming families who have taken me under their wing as their ex-towny vicar, to teach me some of their ways.

Their families have farmed this land for generations. Whether through experience or science they know every contour of their land, every ditch and spring, and the qualities of the soil in each of their fields.

Intimate and deep knowledge of the natural landscape, a landscape much admired by thousands of visitors every summer. Pocket handkerchiefs of green pasture on the soft hills of Dorset feeding livestock, or golden with maize or corn for the winter feed, or filled with wildflowers buzzing with insects. Stunningly beautiful; all I can see from the windows of my home.

Even I, with my fledgling knowledge, can see how hard the farming life is and can appreciate that it's a vocation, like a calling to the land, as hard and demanding as any other vocation and increasingly difficult to fill.

I too am beginning to appreciate the challenges associated with the changing climate, the cost and supply of feed, fertiliser, red diesel and bio fuels and the sale price of milk, beef and lamb. Even though in my community there is a great deal of stoicism and trust that things ‘will come right’, I feel the undercurrent of tension and I pray.

So today as Harvest time is here, I pray for safety and success for all our farming communities. May you all be blessed with a good Harvest.

Amen.

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