On the road again

The number of stock trucks and furniture removal vans on the roads have been increasing in the build up to Gypsy weekend.

The dairy season starts on June 1. A lot of share milkers, dairy farm managers and workers change jobs with the season so the last weekend in May or first in June is when hundreds of people move home.

The upsurge in dairy conversions in areas previously dominated by sheep farms has changed communities and it is particularly noticeable at this time of year as people move in and out.

Schools can have a change of 20% or more in their roll as some pupils move in and others move out.

It’s disruptive for the school and the pupils.

A principal of a school with around 100 children on its roll, most of whom are from dairy farms, said children can lose up to a term of optimal learning when they change school and the more they change the more they lose.  Because of that a lot of families try to stay within their school catchment area when they change jobs so although they move house without their children having to change schools.

Frequent changes in population make it harder to retain community focus, especially when houses are scattered. Those of us who stay put know each other and even if we can go weeks or even months without seeing each other, we can still call on each other without excuses.

It’s much harder for the gypsies so one of the permanent neighbours and I decided we’d have a district social after gypsy weekend last year.

The only date which suited us both was in July, then something cropped up which meant it didn’t suit then calving and lambing started then . . .  and so here we are a year and many of the people who moved in will be moving out again and we still haven’t had that welcome social.

Maybe this year.