Apologies for the following blatant piece of self promotion, but if you can't occasionally shout about yourself on your own blog, where else can you do it?
This weekend I'll be grabbing my rucksack and my rather nifty new walking pole and taking to the hills of Cumbria in aid of Cancer Research UK.
A team of nine of us, made up of family and friends, will be attempting to climb the three highest peaks in England, aiming to raise over £2000 in the process.
The three mountains in question are Scafell Pyke, Skiddaw and Helvelyn. Each is over 3000ft and I estimate the total walking time will be about 16 hours. Training has been somewhat sporadic, though my daily ascents of the 20 stories and 40 flights of stairs that make up "Farmers Weekly Towers" will hopefully help to some extent.
Why Cancer Research? Well, a number of people I've known over the years have succumbed to this horrible disease and I'm always keen to contribute towards fighting it.
Clearly many charities are struggling as the credit crunch bites into their income streams, so if anyone feels motivated to sponsor me, I'd been extremely grateful.
It only takes about five minutes. Just click here, gasp in awe at the beauty that is Striding Edge, then click on the sponsor us now tab to the right, where you'll be able to make a donation using your credit card.
Alternatively, you can email me a pledge and I'll contact you next week about payment.
Many thanks!
Phil
May 2009 Archives
News from Brussels that the EU Commission is planning to bring forward the delivery date for single farm payments should have received a rousing welcome.
In response to the ongoing dairy crisis - and no doubt influenced by the rowdy rabble clashing with police outside her office window - Mariann Fischer Boel has decided that up to 70% of the 2009 SFP should be paid out in October.
Even better, this money should be available to all SFP claimants in Europe, not just dairy farmers who are suffering the most.
It would have been better still if that money had been available now, to ease the current cash flow difficulties. But that would not be possible due to the fact that the EU's financial year does not actually start until October.
The move is welcome nonetheless, giving those dairy farmers who stay in business until next October something to look forward to.
But the commissioner's announcement has received only a muted welcome this side of the Channel - and that's because the chances of any English farmers benefitting from the move is about as likely as Gordon Brown winning the next election....
It doesn't take a lot to get French and German farmers out on to the streets - for some it is almost a national pastime.
But the scale of demonstrations in the European dairy sector, and the fact they have been going on for so many months, suggests the level of disgruntlement is running deeper than normal.
In France, for example, some 81 dairies have been blockaded and dairy farmers have threatened a national "milk strike" if an ongoing "mediation process" fails to deliver a meaningful lift in prices.
In Germany, meanwhile, six women have gone on hunger strike, while around 6000 dairy farmers took to the streets of Berlin to demand a national milk summit.
And this week the protest headed to Brussels, with a claimed 2000 farmers from 10 member states clashing with riot police outside the EU Council building, while farm ministers discussed the market situation.
It's easy to understand the source of their complaint. Milk prices in Europe have slumped to a 12-year low. The average EU price in February was 26 cents/litre (23.4p/litre) - down 25% in just 12 months...
One of the banes of modern journalism is the fact that the job has become almost exclusively office bound.
The bulk of information comes via e-mail or from the internet, followed up with phone calls.
It was therefore a refreshing change to get out for two days at the end of last week to help judge the Farmers Weekly Dairy Farmer of the Year Award - to be reacquainted with the sights, sounds and, indeed, the smells of real farming.
Everyone knows that dairy farming is going through a tough time, with falling prices, rising costs and all manner of political interference. But you wouldn't have guessed it walking around the farms of our three finalists.
There was very little complaining about the tough economic environment that besets the industry.
Instead, all three were focussed on running efficient businesses, getting the best from their cows and planning for future expansion.
All three had a clear grasp of their costs. All three had a clear vision of where they were taking their businesses. Most of all, all three were making sustainable profits and were convinced dairying has a bright future....
It's not often you get something for nothing, but that really is the offer from Herefordshire-based rural services company, 7Y.
The company is involved in a project called RE:think Energy, which is all about rolling out green technology in the Rural Regeneration Zone of the West Midlands.
The project, which is being co-ordinated by the Marches Energy Agency, aims to raise awareness about renewable energy technologies and provide grant funding for small-scale installations such as biomass boilers.
Within this process, 7Y has been charged with the job of conducting energy audits, providing a free assessment of a farm's current energy use and advising on how to improve it.
This is all very good news if you happen to farm in Herefordshire, Shropshire and even parts of Worcestershire - not so useful if you do not.
But there are still some important messages to emerge from 7Y that everyone should be thinking about.
The first is that on most farms, there are some very easy wins when it comes to energy cost savings. Lighting is an obvious one. Figures from 7Y show how a single low energy light bulb costing £3 can save over £15 in electricity usage over the course of a year...
NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren raises an interesting point in his recent News Release concerning the re-targeting of support to beef and sheep producers in the uplands.
He argues that topping up their single farm payments by slicing 10% off everyone else's is "flawed".
Since the SFP is decoupled from production, these producers would be under no obligation to keep any more beef or sheep - indeed they could keep less. Alternatively, they could just sell their entitlements.
"At worst, this could be seen politically and publicly as 'money for nothing' and it could actually accelerate the exodus from the industry," says Mr McLaren. "I don't know how the industry could justify those circumstances to itself, let alone the public."
It's a fair point, but it also shines a light on the entire issue of decoupled payments, what they are for and how sustainable they may be.
By definition they are no longer there to support production - though it can be argued that, without the single farm payment, many more people would quit the industry and production would tumble.....
The ongoing spat in Scotland over how best to support beef and sheep producers in vulnerable areas is a classic example of the tensions that can exist between single-interest and multi-interest lobby groups.
The issue has arisen because the Scottish government is consulting on whether or not to implement the "Article 68" provision of the CAP. This allows member states to take up to 10% from all farmers' SFPs and redirect the money to farmers in disadvantaged areas.
Rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead is keen to do just that, transferring about £47m to claimants in areas at "high risk" of land abandonment.
Understandably the National Beef Association and the National Sheep Association see this as a golden opportunity to get more money to their members and have welcomed the idea.
In contrast, NFU Scotland is vehemently opposed to this "robbing Peter to pay Paul" philosophy. It points out that arable and dairy farmers are also facing huge pressures, while lowland beef and sheep producers would also be net losers under the scheme.
Given that NFUS represents the whole spectrum of farming, it would be surprising to find it saying anything else.
Far be it from me to get embroiled in Scottish affairs. Fellow Farmers Weekly scribe and south-coast inhabitant Stephen Carr gave it a whirl the other day - and look what trouble it landed him in!
But I have to admit, the NFUS does seem to have some pretty credible arguments.
I was recently invited to a press conference in Brussels entitled "Who wants to be a farm subsidy millionaire?"
Run by pressure group farmsubsidy.org, it was the culmination of the first ever European Open Data Summit - "a three-day collaboration of journalists, analysts and campaigners committed to the task of exposing government data".
I'm sure it's a worthy cause, but I have to admit, it did not really inspire me to dust off the passport and get over to Brussels. Besides, the information is readily available on the farmsubsidy.org website.
It includes a list of the 710 beneficiaries of the CAP who got more than €1m in support in 2008 and an evaluation of how each member state is performing when it comes to transparency in farm subsidies.
From the data we learn that the biggest pay-out went to sugar company Italia Zuccheri at €140m - just one of 180 Italian beneficiaries to get more than €1m. Spain had the next biggest number of "subsidy millionaires" with 165, followed by France with 142.
I know I'm getting a bit long in the tooth when the issue of beef hormones and the long-running trade battle between the USA and the EU raises its head.
The issue kicked off in the early 1980s, at about the same time as I was studying agricultural economics at Reading University. In response to concerns about Italian men growing breasts from eating meat, Brussels banned a total of six hormones that at that time were being used in EU beef production.
By the time I started out in agricultural journalism a few years later, a ban had also been imposed on imports of hormone-treated beef, triggering a whole series of retaliatory measures by the USA and Canada.
This culminated in a lengthy legal challenge, with the WTO eventually ruling in 1998 that the EU was in the wrong since it had not carried out a proper scientific assessment.
But, instead of lifting its ban, the EU then set out to find the right science to back its claim. This prompted the USA and Canada to impose a new range of tariffs, targeting French cheeses and Italian hams in particular.
Further legal action ensued as the EU challenged the sanctions, though this process ground to a halt last November, when the WTO said it was unable to complete the investigation...
To the casual observer, it would seem all is well with British agriculture at the moment.
Figures presented by DEFRA at a seminar in York today (Wednesday), taken from the recently-published "Agriculture in the UK 2008" report, show how farm incomes increased by 42% in 2008 to £3.5bn. That gave an income per person engaged in farming of over £18,000.
Key events behind the increase were the boom in world commodity prices in the early part of last year, the weakness of sterling in the latter part of last year and the record grain harvest.
This bullish appearance is repeated in today's financial results from The Co-operative Group, which show that the farms department made a record £5.7m profit in 2008, more than double 2007's profit.
With sales of The Co-operative Farm's own products booming in Co-operative stores, the company is planning to double the size of its farming enterprise by 2011.
But the casual observer would be mistaken to think that this means British agriculture is booming.
For a start, UK farm income figures are still well below where they were in the 1970s and 1990s....
Tesco, it seems, has fewer admirers in the Irish farming community than it does in the British - and it's easy to understand why.
For Ireland's leading retailer has today (Tuesday 5 May) slashed prices in 11 stores in the Republic by a massive 22%, in a bid to stop consumers crossing the border into Northern Ireland to do their shopping.
There has been something of an exodus in recent months, as the slump in sterling and the cut in VAT to 15% have made shopping in the province very cost effective.
Tesco has lost out in this trend, as it does not have as strong a position north of the border as its rivals Sainsbury's and Asda.
A statement from Tesco Ireland's chief executive Tony Keohane said the price cuts in 11 Tesco stores just south of the border - which include milk, meat and vegetables - would "remove the need for consumers to travel".
It is understood that some of these price cuts have been funded by importing more products direct from the UK, taking advantage of the currency differential.
Tesco has also promised that the reductions will be extended to the whole of Ireland. For example, milk is being cut by 7% this week in all its Irish stores, fresh meat by an average 16% and poultry by an average 24%....
Normally I don't allow advertising on this blog. Several foreign exchange dealers and grain merchants have tried to slip in a plug in recent weeks. All have failed!
But I am prepared to make an exception just this once and include a few words about the latest edition of Farmland Market.
OK, it's produced by Farmers Weekly, so I'm not entirely impartial. But the latest edition is a bit special, marking the 35th anniversary of publication. What's more, it's been subject to a complete redesign, under the capable direction of my colleague Ian Ashbridge.
I have to admit, the magazine - which comes out twice a year and is something of "an industry bible" for those involved in the land sector - has not been top of my weekend reading list over the years. (Bike magazine and Trout Fisherman usually take precedence.)
But the new Farmland Market really does deserve a look, containing a variety of new content and a host of valuable statistics, along with a much smarter design.
The editorial includes a detailed look at the land market in 2008, what drove arable prices to £7000/acre and what caused them to ease off later in the year. There is detailed regional breakdown and analysis, a focus on forestry and an overview on the current state of agriculture.
To prove that the editorial team is on-the-ball...
