David's Digest

First, my apologies for absence. What with two days of vermin control this week together with two days in Brussels catching up on the CAP Health Check and other issues (of which more in FW next week) there hasn't been much time to blog.

I went to Brussels with a small party organised by Peter Fane of Eurinco, the EU agricultural consultancy. The group I travelled with went by Eurostar from St Pancras station (what an impressive building) to Brussels Midi. The journey took one hour and fifty minutes and was very smooth and comfortable. We had breakfast on the train (which was not the highlight of the trip) and arrived fresh and ready to tackle the CAP.

The return trip was just as swift and I doubt if any of those I travelled with will ever consider flying to Brussels again. There are, of course in these troubled times, security checks before boarding the train. But they are reasonable and quick and there is none of the time consuming waiting around that there is at airports. There's a chance to see the farming beside the line (even if it is going past the window at 150mph or whatever) and you are delivered straight to the centre of town. Its taken too long to get it going but now it is, I for one am a fan.

In Brussels last week I was anxious to update myself on the progress of the EU's planned changes to pesticides policy. You may remember that a few months ago we were warned we could be forced to leave wide unsprayed headlands, notify neighbours whenever we got the sprayer out and accept much tighter restrictions on the use of chemicals.

Then, a few weeks ago, news filtered out that the most stringent of these proposals had been rejected and that we could probably live with what was left. What was the real situation, I wondered? For I was aware that the proposals had still not completed their complicated process of ratification.

Well, as I now understand the situation, National Action Plans to limit pesticide use and to improve application are still part of the proposed legislation. Here in the UK, of course, we have the Voluntary Initiative which covers the same areas. The likelihood, I am told, is that this will become compulsory.

The much wider unsprayed field boundaries originally called for have disappeared but the banning of all "hazardous" substances is still there. This would mean that a safety factor of 2000 to 1 would be ignored if such a substance is contained within the product and would, for instance, rule out such sprays as Mancazeb and Gluphosinate.

At a most enjoyable Christmas lunch provide by Dow AgroSciences yesterday a group of us were told about a relatively new and growing threat to crop farmers. According to the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) counterfeit chemicals, mostly made in China where there are some 2,700 spray producers, are finding their way, via various routes but often through the Ukraine to western Europe.

It has been estimated that between 5% and 7% of the ag chems on sale across the EU and by implication, Britain are fake. They should not be confused with so called "black can" products that are usually genuine out of patent sprays that can often be bought cheaper than branded products. The fakes might not even be the products they claim to be; they may be a dilute version of the product; they may be some other liquid or powder altogether; they will almost certainly not have legal labels or safety instructions meaning that the user has no redress if crops or personnel are harmed.

I wince every time I write out a cheque for ag chems and try to keep the costs under strict control. Having always dealt with reputable suppliers I am not aware that we have ever been offered such products but if this is a growing problem I shall, in future, kerb my enthusiasm for a cheap deal if I have any suspicion I am buying counterfeits. The risks are too great.

I have just read a report that Lord Rooker has said the government is fed up with paying out millions of pounds each year to compensate livestock farmers whose animals get TB, or words to that effect. Further, that farmers will soon have to stand all the costs of TB themselves.

Old and cynical as I am I can hardly believe it. That a government whose inaction because of fear of badger groups and public opinion could drop such a bombshell into the lap of the livestock industry beggars belief. And to do so only a few days after Sir David King, the governments excellent chief scientist, came out with a report that stated clearly there could be no effective control of TB in the national herd until badger numbers are drastically reduced.

Presumably Rooker was told to soften up the industry for such a move because of the budget cuts being imposed on DEFRA, a department that has messed up almost everything it has touched and whose staff bonuses and pensions remain unaffected.

I can only record how unjust I think this proposal is and hope it is withdrawn. For the only related initiative farmers might welcome paying for would be to cull the badgers. Meanwhile, if Rookers plan goes ahead it will drive even more vital UK food producers out of business.

In mid November we had a wonderful crop of holly berries on several trees around the farm. Right, I thought. I'll cut a few sprigs for Christmas, because if we get frosts and I leave it until late December the birds will have eaten all the berries. I tied up my bunch with baler twine and hung it on a nail in the coal shed out of the way of berry eaters.

I've noticed as I've been driving and walking around the Norfolk countryside in recent days that holly trees have been stripped bare. And I've smiled contentedly and congratulated myself on my foresight. Until I went into the coal shed this morning to collect the holly for my family to use for decoration, that is.

There have been a few periods of rain but most of the last five or six weeks have been pretty dry and there's been little humidity in the air. So when I took down my carefully preserved sprigs, both leaves and berries were rather dry and wrinkled. It wasn't quite what I was expecting and it won't look as welcoming as I had hoped at the time of my good intentions. Next year I shall try to leave cutting the holly until a bit closer to Christmas and hope the birds delay their feast until I've done it.

But at least we've got some red berries even if they do look like an elderly Santa's nose. Those who didn't think ahead may not have any at all.

James and Barbara Nelstrop, originally from Lincolnshire, have pushed out the boundaries throughout their farming lives. In Australia they developed irrigation systems for dry land. When they returned to England they bought one of the lightest land farms in Norfolk and used their antipodean experience to install a series of centre pivot irrigators - the first in the UK. Then James won a Nuffield Scholarship to study Russian farming and later established a farming enterprise at Kaliningrad on the Polish border. Back in Britain they decided to set up an organic farm and also a building business to be run by their son Andrew. Their latest, and some might say maddest, venture is a whisky distillery just off the A11 near Thetford in Norfolk.

Named the St George's Distillery, it was designed and built (by Andrew) in 2005. Investment so far is in the region of £2m and as each day passes and more barrels of spirit (its not allowed to call it whisky until it has matured for at least three years) move into the bonded store beside the distillery that investment grows a little more. James concedes that it will be 2012 before they can hope to see a return on their money but that year theirs will be the only English whisky on the market as visitors come here for the Olympics and he has high hopes than many of them will want to drink and or take home a memento of their visit.

Meanwhile he and his four distillery employees are processing a tonne of best Norfolk malting barley each day into three 220 litre barrels. The barrels have all been used before, for sherry, or bourbon or some other liquor, which adds taste and assists in maturing the spirit. But if the spirit is of poor quality to start with there's not much that can be done to make it into best whisky.

For about forty years my wife Lorna and I have, a few days before Christmas, invited friends to our house to get them ready for the Holyday. The party is always very informal with friends of all ages, including young children, arriving and leaving according to any other engagements they may have, during the evening. We usually cater for between 50 and 70. This year (last Saturday evening, in fact) several people had colds or had other activities to attend to so the numbers were at the lower end of our estimate.

There are four main elements to the party. The first is a hot mulled wine, called Krambambuli, that I have made at every one of these annual get-togethers. It came from a cookery book Lorna bought in Switzerland many years ago when we went there for a ski holiday. It has stood the test of time and for anyone who would like to try it I repeat the recipe below.

The second essential element is a quantity of game pies that Lorna makes from birds I have brought home from various "vermin control" days I have enjoyed during the autumn. Slices of it go down very well. The third element expected by our guests is carol singing, with Lorna or another of our talented regulars at the piano. And the fourth is the nativity tableau that Lorna creates in the garage every year so that guests can see it as they arrive and leave.

People say it puts them in the mood for Christmas. I do hope so. And if you'd like to try that mulled wine recipe please turn to the next page.

Having spent a few very enjoyable days shooting pheasants (vermin control!) over the last few weeks I was pleased to receive as a Christmas present a book on shooting by sporting expert Mike Swan. I should say at the outset that I am not one of those sportsmen who look for a huge bag. A modest number of birds combined with the maximum amount of banter and fun in beautiful countryside ending with a pleasant meal with fellow guns is my ideal.

Perhaps because of this relaxed attitude I had not appreciated, until I opened my new book, some of the things that I should have about the main quarry I had been aiming at. Well, Mike Evans has helped to reduce my ignorance.

Pheasants represent about 70% of all the game killed in Britain each year, apparently. It is well known that they came originally from as far away as China and other countries in the Far East. What is not so clear is how they came to Britain. The Romans were known to have reared them in captivity for the table two thousand years ago but there is no proof they brought them to this country. It is more likely, according to Mike Evans, that they were brought from France by the Normans about a thousand years ago.