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One of the many changes to UK farmers, as a consequence of BREXIT, was the phasing-out of the direct subsidy payments of the Common Agricultural Policy and their replacement with the Sustainable Farming Incentive. The SFI rewards farmers who do things like improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, and contribute to climate change mitigation.
Andrea had received SFI funds for many projects, from rebuilding drystone walls to enhancing field margins and reducing slurry run-off. Several of her neighbours had been funded to take similar measures to prevent animal waste from entering watercourses.
An important aspect of the funding is to demonstrate the improvement that it enables, using a variety of measures, not least of which is the water quality of rivers and streams. Farmers can request water quality monitoring equipment so that they can provide data to the government about the water courses in their area and hence about the effectiveness of their actions and of the funding; Andrea had done just this.
So, it was now time to do some water quality monitoring in the river that skirted her land, and Andrea was determined to make this task more fun than chore. She wore her Ilse Jacobsen one-piece waterproof suit, with leChameau waders, and beneath it she had on a pair of leather trousers and a PVC shirt. Of course, she knew she was going to get completely soaked – she could never go wading in the river without doing so – but she wanted to see just how much water quality monitoring she could do before temptation had the better of her and the inevitable happened.
The first few samples were easy, ankle deep water, perhaps knee deep at the most. She even knelt down to take one sample with the water level only an inch from the tops of her waders. But she stayed dry. As she worked her way upstream the water got gradually deeper and on a couple of occasions she felt a little coldness spread down her legs as it trickled over the rims of her waders.
With the requisite 12 samples collected and accompanying readings of solids, conductivity and temperature, she took the bag of monitoring kit off her shoulder and placed it on the bank. She could feel squelching around her feet inside her waders, her army-issue knee-high SealSkinz socks were wet on the outside, but being totally waterproof her feet remained dry. And that would never do!
And so, the fun part of water quality monitoring began. She ventured deeper into the water, her waders slowly filled, and she began to feel the water rising-up her legs inside the leather trousers. Some water trickled into her socks, and it felt great. When the water level inside her suit reached her hips, she removed her waders and the one-piece waterproof, and swam around in the river in her leather trousers and PVC top. It was very cool and refreshing.
She pulled the waders back on for the walk home, taking one final dip before she set off, and wondering how many other farmers had so much fun monitoring the water quality of their rivers and streams…
