David's Digest

Two stories I have read in newspapers this weekend led to the headline above.

The first was about a proposal from German greens in the EU Parliament that coagulant rat poisons should be banned across the Union. This was the same group, you may remember, that succeeded in drastically cutting the number of agro-chemicals available to European farmers on the grounds that they contained traces of dangerous substances. They want to get rid of rat poison for the same reason - and probably because they think the poisons are cruel to rats.

It is such a nonsensical proposal that it is difficult to believe it is serious. But sadly it is. And apparently it stands a good chance of being made law. If it does, we can expect the entire Continent to be over-run by rats and for diseases like The Plague, which is spread by the dreadful creatures to appear again. Who knows what other epidemics might occur and where such a policy might lead?  

Its almost enough to make me advocate leaving the EU.

The other bit of nonsense emanates from an institution much closer to home. An academic at the University of East Anglia, which is only about four miles from here, has put forward the view that watching wildlife and filming animals about their business is immoral and should not be allowed to continue. He even condemns programmes like those made by David Attenborough because he believes them to be "an invasion of the animals privacy".

And this is a professor whose salary is presumably paid by the state which in turn gets the money from taxpayers and who spends his time teaching and influencing young people.

There is something sadly wrong in a society that allows, encourages and indeed pays the salaries of such individuals only for them to put forward ideas like those above that belong in the mad house. Moreover, in times past that's where they would have been put. Isn't it time we stopped being polite about such so called political correctness and identified its perpetrators as potentially dangerous members of society? 

Having complained about the lack of rain this spring I should, I suppose, admit that we have now had enough to do some good. Not enough to make up the deficit by any means but the many hours of light rain over the weekend, from Saturday morning through to Sunday morning and several showers since have delivered sufficient water to soak the soil and reach down to the roots of spring drilled crops.

The sugar beet and peas on this farm look much better than they did a week ago and the wheat has darkened to a healthier colour having got hold of the last dollup of nitrogen applied last week.

We got our beet in early this year and the last lot of heavy rain in early April ensured they all germinated. We have the best plant stand for a few years, I'm pleased to say, and most fields look pretty good with 6 to 8 leaved seedlings throughout. The peas were, perhaps, put in a little too early and where there were moist patches in some fields do not look too happy. But most look promising - always assuming we can keep the pigeons away.

What we need now is more rain and a significant rise in temperature. Then we might be able to look forward to some decent yields.

On a number of farms across France last week members of the Farmers Weekly study tour noticed holly boughs hanging from beams in buildings housing Charolais cattle and milking goats. Curiously we asked why they were there.

Oh, that's how we stop ringworm affecting the animals, we were told. If we don't hang up a fresh bough in each building in the autumn ringworm will break out.

Is it a superstition or an old wives tale? Who knows? Only one member of our party had heard of the practice before. To the rest of us it was an entirely new idea. But I predict there may be a few holly boughs hung in cattle sheds across the UK next autumn - just in case it works.

It was a Bank Holiday in France last weekend. (Not everything is co-ordinated across the EU!) The Farmers Weekly Farm Study Tour arrived in Paris from points south on the Sunday and we had all day Monday to explore that elegant city.

OK, we appreciated the architecture, the layout of the boulevards, the feeling that someone had actually sat down and planned the place many years ago rather than simply adding bits on the edges whenever it needed to grow as in so many cities - even London, dare I suggest.

But the highlight for most of us British farmers was what went on in the Champs Elysee all day Sunday and Monday. French Young Farmers (not the same as our YFC but a much more political organisation involving all farmers under the age of 35) had persuaded the Paris authorities to close the magnificent street to traffic from Saturday night until Tuesday morning.

They worked through the night on Saturday to fill that huge space with every kind of farm crop and livestock found in France (and again through Monday night to clear it all up, incidentally). The crops had been planted and pre grown in cut down pallet boxes and lined up together stretched across the street. There was wheat, barley, oats, triticale, lupins, peas, potatoes, sugar beet and so on. And I'm not just talking about individual boxes of each. There were whole plots adding up to perhaps fifty boxes of each crop.

There were forest trees, fruit trees, vines, and every other crop commercially cultivated in the country. Between the crop plots were pens of cattle of all the many French breeds, sheep, goats and pigs, each with a group of young farmers in appropriate matching Tshirts to explain to consumers what they were looking at and to promote French agriculture to French people.

I have seldom seen such and impressive spectacle and was reminded of the exhibitions British farmers mounted in Hyde Park in the 1980's, except that this was in the centre of the city and so different from the eight lanes of traffic that normally inhabit the street.

The budget for the event, I was told, was Euro4.2million, two thirds of which came from sponsors such as machinery manufacturers, fertiliser and chemical firms, banks, breed societies and the other institutions of French farming. The other two thirds was expected to come from the sale of the produce to visitors and from the huge farmers market which formed part of the event.

Whether they made up the difference from the crowd I don't know. But given that the affair attracted an estimated million people on each of the two days I can't think they had too much trouble. Just think of it - two million consumers crowding into a normally busy street in temperatures of over 30degrees C, all keen to learn where their food came from. It was truly magnificent PR.

It left me wondering if we can't do something similar. How about closing The Mall for a Bank Holiday Weekend and mounting a British version of the Champs Elysee extravaganza? They close it for the London Marathon so why not for British agriculture? The Mall is not as wide or as long as the French street so should not cost as much to fill. And surely we could find a few £millions from around our industry to fund it together with a few thousand farmers (and Young Farmer) volunteers to put it together.

Yes, it would be a lot of work but wouldn't it be worth it, especially now we don't have a Royal Show? Anyway, that's my challenge and I very much hope someone takes it up. I have the name of the Paris mastermind if anyone is interested and I gather he's keen to repeat the exercise in other capital cities. So, what are you waiting for?