Tis the season to be jolly, Fallon, Alan, Helen, Lillian; Deck the Hall with boughs of Holly, Lily, Will and Jill, Tilly Button. Celebrate Christmas with The Archers!

[PseudoBadger]

Thanks to SmallLegsOrSmallEggs for this thread title way back in November!

Lillian "I feel as though Ruth has come back from NZ as herself and hopefully we can forget all the contrivance ..."

Totally makes sense and I suspect you have been listening a lot longer than I have!

Has anybody linked to Nancy Banks Smith recently? I seem to have missed several months, so here are some links for others similarly afflicted. For recent listeners, you could do worse than use these as a quick way to get up to speed!

July

August

September

October

November

December

We're due another one on Tuesday!

Also:

The Archers at 65 - Behind The Scenes BBC blog article by Graeme Harvey (agricultural editor, wrote last week's scripts) and audio interview with SOC explaining rationale behind 65th anniversary episode. Cast picture at the top for those who like to avoid such things. Audio ends with full version of Barwick Green!

NBS, talking about swearing on TA:
"Considering the perfectly frightful things that happen in Ambridge, its 65-year clean record is quite remarkable. When Freda Fry disappeared beneath the waves this year, she uttered no word that would be unacceptable before the watershed."

An in-joke and a pun. Excellent!

SOC: "[TA] has become a document of on-going social history which is, perhaps, about who we used to be as a nation, who we are now and where we think we are going."

Pretentious twonk. And he speaks with a forked tongue: he says soothing things to placate middle England then does something entirely opposite.

Getting bored with spring milking now (& so is David).

New parlour.... She's right! They'll need more cows though
🐮🐮🐮🐮

So, I'm confused. I thought Daveed wanted to get rid of the herd...

I'm confused too ...

This constant opposition-ing is so formulaic - it's as if someone has swallowed an introduction to scriptwriting book. They put the contrary words in his mouth and we have to scrabble behind trying to discern the motive for said behaviour.

Very funny hearing Ruth and Jill so fizzy - would love to know what they've taken.

I think the gist of it is:

Brookfield is not making enough money from the dairy herd as they have been running it.

David's answer to this was to get rid of the dairy herd and do something else with the land.

Ruth's answer is to sell the current herd, buy a different breed, calve in the spring rather than the autumn and keep the new cows outside most of the year so they eat mostly grass. This will mean they can produce milk a lot more cheaply than they are doing at the moment. They will produce a lot less milk overall but it will be far more profitable.

Is that right, dfw?

That's not what I'm confused about.

It's David's reaction. He ought to be pleased.

I think his nose is out of joint because he's been railroaded into this. Also, he is a bit of a worrier.

I think David just needs a bit more time to get his head round it - and when Ruth first brought it up, there was an implication they'd be looking at the figures (because Pip will go over them forensically), before making a final decision. And now it's all round the village as a done deal, when in his head, they're still looking at the possibilities.

Coo coo says Jill. I just think woodpigeon when I hear the old bird cooing left right & centre

Massive BOOP for DairyFarmersWife It's brilliant having someone whose field of expertise is cows.

GaspOde as I understand it they will be producing Guernsey (or was it Jersey?) milk which they'll sell at a higher price than what they were getting for their ordinary milk.

Niche, artisan...it fits in with the current desire for specialist foodstuffs. Maybe David will grow a big beard and Waitrose magazine will do a feature on him.

I repeat my stance: he speaks with a forked tongue.
He gives the impression that the anniversary episode is going to be typical soap drama ... but then delivers peace & goodwill to all men. Except that P&G seems to have lasted for 24 hours ... before David has to invent a something-and-nothing to be angsty about; he and Ruth seem to have swapped characters.

I thought it was generic milk that sells for less but the cows require less input so the costs are lower!

Always confused when they talk farming...

he and Ruth seem to have swapped characters I was just thinking the same thing.

Happy New Year thread lovelies :)

I completely agree with Lilian about Ruth's personality transplant being about her returning to the person she used to be before she went all Pruddah on us.

And I can't remember who linked to this blog originally but it made me snigger today- ambridgeobserver.blogspot.co.uk/ particularly this bit: But David’s face was mottled now with rage. ‘Sell the herd! How could you! That was MY idea!’ Turning on his heel, he stomped out of the kitchen. :o :o

And DS wants to know why Pip sounds just like Clara out of Dr Who.

Just popping in to say that counting all these threads as started by Pseudo in April 2013, this is the 39,656th post, and that means we are less than a week away from the 40,000th post - quite a milestone, I think. Who will it be?

Surely the 40,000th post will be from the truly lovely Olivia MN to announce the brand new Archers Topic?

Awh thanks toldmy I kind of enjoy explaining it

Haven't heard quite all of tonight but can understand David's reticence. After all its not that long since they were talking upping sticks, followed by robotic parlours (or vice versa?). It would be nice of they could follow through on a business decision before the whole village got to hear about it, for once. It seemsout of character for Jill to spill the beans, I can understand saying Ruth had come back buoyed up and with new ideas bit surely it's a bit early to tell everyone the new, not yet agreed, business strategy?

DadDadDad if not Pseudo then someone who can claim they have lurked since the first of 40,000 posts perhaps?

Cutted not really niche, but slightly specialised. In NZ farmers are paid on milk solids rather than litres. So the butterfat and protein portion of a litre of milk, in kilograms. This is because a large proportion of the milk they produce is turned into milk powder or butter and cheese. In the UK we are usually paid in litres. There is a minimum standard for the bf and protein, and some contracts pay better if your bf and/or protein is above a certain level. There are also contracts that use milk for cheese, butter,etc which pay better but they Aren't necessarily niche. Dairy crest, for example, produce cheese from farms in Devon and Cornwall, called Davidstow.

The main emphasis of the change of system that Ruth is advocating is the reduced cost of production, since it is the only bit we really have control over.

Gruach I always thought the topic title 'Radio Addicts' was a very thinly disguised cover for MN's version of the website Archer's Addicts anyway.

It's not as if there are any other (as) significant threads in the topic.
It kind of goes, in a cyclical fashion - Archer's Spoilers, Cabin Pressure, Isn't Chris Evans Annoying...erm... The Archers again.