Farming decisions – tractors or oxen
The announcement of the bold MyFarm project at our very own Cambridge based Wimpole farm was greeted with a resounding cheer in our offices. The launch was a media coup, placing Wimpole firmly on the map with a wholesome marketing initiative which will also generate a tidy little sum of additional income for the farm.
We know that one in four children under the age of 16 thinks bacon comes from sheep, 29% think that oats grow on trees, and 17% of both children and adults think that eggs are an ingredient of bread (the Daily Mail and others in 2010). So, what better way to re-connect Brits with the origins of food than by turning them into back-seat-farmers, running a 2,500 acre farm, without getting one speck of mud or muck on their lily-white hands?!
The idea was sparked by the success of on-line gaming sensation FarmVille, played by nearly 45 million ‘farm managers’ across the globe on Facebook. Wimpole’s new managers will be making twelve major decisions about the farm throughout the year relating to things like weather conditions and crop prices. The farm is a National Trust property, so the fruits of its new volunteer managers’ labour will be on display to 137,000 visitors each year.
Since 2008 Wimpole has been undergoing organic conversion and, with fuel prices hitting agriculture across the country, it remains to be seen whether the new managers will follow the example of farmers in Wisconsin, who have ditched their tractors in favour of traditional oxen (The Times, 9th May). Cambridgeshire’s flat countryside mirrors that of Wisconsin and could be ideal for oxen and horse-drawn farming. So, this could be the first decision of this year’s allocated twelve already made, with the ‘phut-phut’ of tractors soon to be replaced with ‘gee up’ and ‘whooooo’ from the fields of Wimpole?