David's Digest

Congratulations to Farmers Weekly for spearheading the campaign to "Save Our Sprays". It is,of course, unbelievable that the EU could come up with proposals to ban most of the crop protection products we use on farms at a time like this. But common sense is in short supply in Brussels, it seems, so we must do all we can to muster public opinion to point out to MEP's and Commissioners how daft and dangerous their plans are.

Indeed it is vital that consumers are pursuaded to join on our side as well. If the group of organisations that have grouped together to try to reverse the proposals can spread their message to those who buy what we produce, with the undoubted fact that if it went ahead the price of food would rise even higher and that even the availability of food might be at risk, we might gain some powerful allies.

There are those in politics and farming who say there's no need to worry; that the proposals will never come to fruition and even if they do only a handful of products will be lost. To my mind that attitude is far too relaxed. It is not what the draft legislation says. Until this threat to our production and our livelihood is removed we must take it seriously and fight it all the way. So, support the FW petition, for the good of your customers as much as yourself.

The Wayland Show is south west Norfolk's local one day show. It was held yesterday (Sunday) and attracted an estimated 10,000 people, which isn't bad for an event in a field on a showery day, Maybe the showers helped, in fact. They stopped combines from working and enabled farmers and farm workers who might have been otherwise employed to join in the fun.

This years success, however, is even more gratifying for the organisers who have had a couple of difficult years. In 2006 the ground was so dry it was considered a fire risk and the whole event was cancelled. Last year Foot & Mouth disease broke out in the south east of England the day before the event and all cattle, sheep and pig entries had to be cancelled at the last minute.

But what a good show of livestock this year. If I were cynical I would suggest there were almost as many entries forward as at the Royal Show. Certainly they provided a spectacle for those who attended and a nice touch was the bagpiper playing beside the ring while the Highlanders were being judged. 

There was a food hall featuring local produce (and a few other things) lots of craft and trade stands (I ordered a flying hawk thats supposed to frighten pigeons on rape fields from one of them) and a full ring programme. It was an old fashioned, local, community, agricultural show. And those of us who attended enjoyed it very much indeed. 

Grower power, as expressed by around 300 of them representing some 14% of the national crop, who attended a meeting near Peterborough last month, forced British Sugar to re-open price negotiations with the NFU for 2009. The result has been a grudging £1/t increase in the contract offer plus a further £1/t transport allowance.

This shows that if farmers stick together in sufficient numbers they can influence what buyers pay them for commodities. But whether this paltry improvement will persuade growers to reverse the decisions many had made not to grow the crop again, only time will tell. For it barely recognises the real increases in the costs of growing beet and certainly does not cover them.

Only those growers on top grade land who can produce 75 to 80t/ha on a regular basis will find the British Sugar attractive. And only then because the value of some alternative crops has come down recently. Growers on grade 3 land who can only manage 60t/ha in a good year are unlikely to be swayed by British Sugar's "largesse". Who knows where that leaves this country's domestic sugar industry?

I grew up in an era when wheat was seldom fit to combine until at least the fourth week in August. So its not in my nature or part of my history to panic about lack of harvest progress well before the middle of the month. But earlier ripening varieties, climate change and sky high energy costs are making me very uneasy.

Harvest 2008 started pretty well. We got most of the respectable yielding rape into the barn at under 9% moisture, thereby keeping drying costs to a minimum. But then the weather changed. The last 25% of our rape is still out there blowing (and doubtless shelling out) in the wind between periods of rain.

Even more worrying - most of the wheat, which we haven't started yet, is fit to combine. Or at least it would be if it were dry enough. Patches of dark ears are appearing across some fields, indicating septoria that will reduce yields and quality. And if you look hard enough you can already find grains growing in some ears caused by a combination of ripeness and the warm moist weather.

A harvest that, a couple of weeks ago, looked quite promising has very quickly changed into one in which we will have to snatch crops whenever the combine will work and then face horrendous drying costs to salvage what quality we can. In fact its beginning to feel like last year all over again - unless, of course, the forecasters are wrong and we get three weeks of scorching weather from now on. Wouldn't that be nice. 

There can be no doubt that Prince Charles is sincere and means well. His generous support of farming charities and small farmers in particular bears witness to the fact and our industry must be grateful for that. But when it comes to matters scientific and practical he confuses his costly lifestyle choice with the reality faced by most other people. And he is guided in his statements on such matters by a small but influential bunch of friends.

His recent outburst against GM crops was clearly inspired by such friends who doubtless believe what they tell him but whose rationale is already being found to be flawed. After only a few months of higher food prices many consumers who were previously prepared to pay a sizeable premium for organic food are deserting it in droves. Fashion in food will only stand a limited amount of pressure, it seems, and that limit has been reached for many. Perhaps they are also getting the message that organic farming cannot feed the world.

But Charles is not completely wrong. While holding the opposite view on the potential, indeed necessity, of GM crop varieties that may be able to tolerate the challenges of climate change, I share his concern that the developments are dominated by huge international conglomerates who will doubtless exploit their monopoly positions whenever possible. To counteract this potential abuse of economic power it seems to me there is an urgent need for governments to increase their investment in GM research to ensure outcomes are for the public good, not just the shareholders of big corporations. 

The Prince would do far more to help mankind if he promoted that idea than he is by calling for all such scientific progress to be banned.

A farming friend sent  me the following email over the weekend. Neither he nor I wish it to be thought of as a slur on any religion. But it does seem to fit current climatic aberations that are playing havoc with harvest.

In deference to The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Commission for Political Correctness it has just been announced that weather conditions in the UK may no longer be referred to as "The British Weather".

In future it should be referred to as "Muslim Weather" - partly Sunni but mostly Shi'ite.

I'm sitting here in my office with rain, once again, splashing against the window thinking forward to when we drill the oil seed rape. We should start next week, of course, if we want optimum establishment and yields. But less than half the acres we hope to drill are, as yet, cleared of standing wheat. And most of that land which has been combined still has swathes of wet straw lying across it - saved rather than chopped as a favour to a neighbour.

But I have been listening to the weather forecast for the week ahead and it sounds better than we've had for ages. So I am becoming a bit more optimistic that we may soon have a few uninterrupted days of harvesting and that rape drilling may not be delayed for too long.

Which brings me to the perrennial, perpetual and I believe worsening problem of how to control the ever increasing number of pigeons that will certainly want to graze the crop as soon as it emerges. Regular readers of these blogs will be aware of my paranoia about pigeons and the time I spent last winter - from September to April really - chasing the pests off our crops. And I know well that those frustrations are shared by many.

I've ordered a couple of flying model hawks; I've increased the number of rotating balls with giant eyes that worked with limited success last year; and I've already reconciled myself to the need to let off more (expensive) rockets and place more bangers of various kinds across the rape fields. But all they will do (if I'm lucky) is frighten the pigeons for a few days each. What would be far better would be a more permanent solution that involved a significant reduction in the pigeon population.

I was therefore thrilled to read in yesterdays Telegraph that a contraceptive pill for pigeons called OvoControl has been developed in America.