Food for Thought

Farmers Weekly is holding out for a hero. We have joined forces with the NFU to seek a farming champion. As part of the 2007 Farmers Weekly Awards, we are looking for someone worthy of the title NFU Farming Champion.

We know that farmers are resourceful - but how about this?

A Chinese farmer has managed to fashion a solar-powered shower out of a hose pipe and a collection of beer bottles!

Farmers Weekly's Local Food is Miles Better campaign may have come to an end, but does its legacy live on?

Local food is now so sexy that the major supermarkets are falling over themselves to shout about their different offerings. In the past week, Tesco and Waitrose have both launched major advertising campaigns.

The Tesco campaign centres on its 'localchoice' milk while Waitrose is highlighting that it is the only supermarket to limit its local food to a 30 mile radius.

Sainsbury's has also revealed that it is planning a British food promotion that features farmers and growers.

Posted by Poultry World editor, Richard Allison

The latest case of the low pathogenic H7N2 avian flu on a farm near St Helens, Lancashire, highlights the need for vigilance by poultry keepers when buying birds at markets.

Government vets have confirmed that the infected birds were purchased from the same market on the same day (7 May) as birds involved in the Welsh outbreak in May.

While the poultry industry breathes a sigh of relief that it's the low pathogenic virus, just image if it was the high pathogenic H5N1 strain. The virus would have spread over north Wales and northern England.

I have to congratulate all the farmers who took the time and effort to open their gates as part of Open Farm Sunday.

But are the numbers involved as good as they should be?

More than 400 farms took part in this year's initative which is extremely good considering the event - organised by LEAF - is only in its second year.

Yet we have an industry that is desperate for some positive PR and had a golden opportunity to generate some by inviting the public onto their farms to learn about what they do.

Makes me wonder why there weren't ten times the number taking part.

I have taken a call from a farmer asking if Farmers Weekly can get the national press to feature the rather interesting packaging on Tesco's Finest Shepherd's pie.

It's a shame that so far that hasn't happened - because it's something that consumers should be aware of.

For those of you who missed it in Friday's Farmers Weekly magazine, here it is:

(It says 'British' but the mince is from New Zealand).

Regular readers of this blog may have realised that I quite like my TV - which is why I quite enjoyed writing a story for FWi earlier this week about Lesley from Big Brother.

But I'm pleased to share with you that there is something come up in the next few weeks which might have a wider appeal to a farming audience.

According to Dairy UK, the BBC has produced an educational documentary focusing totally on milk.

"Ever wondered about milk" has been produced by the Open University, which has worked with Dairy UK, the Dairy Council, the NFU and MDC in researching the programme.

It will focus on the history of milk, dairy farming, milk processing, health and nutrition.

The show will be broadcast on BBC1 on 7 July at 11.30am.

Having just spent all of yesterday at the Cereals event, I am struck by how upbeat the mood is.

Last year growers were definitely in a better mood, but the doom-mungers were still there predicting it wouldn't last.

This year, however, with forward contracts for wheat in the 80s and 90s for the next three years, there really was a feeling that a corner might have been turned.

That certainly was the case among machinery manufacturers reporting long waiting lists for kit - one self-propelled sprayer company saying 18 months!

I've just heard - through FACE - about an artist who is travelling across Britain and painting farms as she goes. Her project, called Great British Farming, is being funded by Arts Council England

Georgina Barney, who was awarded a 1st class honours degree from Ruskin School of Fine Art at Oxford University, has spent the first half of the year travelling from farm to farm in order gather material for her portfolio.

"One of the reasons I started this project was that I saw a connection between art and farming," she said.

"It doesn't seem obvious at first but I've felt it to be confirmed by my experiences as well as by the fact that I've met a surprising number of artists from farming families.

"Farming can be stereotyped as a very hands on, physical and matter of fact profession while artists are thought of as contemplative and sensitive.

"But much of what farmers do is both scientific and creative - there's a lot of problem solving and entrepreneurship not unlike the work of an artist. Both farming and art demand independence, strong self motivation and bloody mindedness."

To read about Georgina's travels take a look at her Great British Farming Blog.

When I first heard that the British Egg Information Service had been banned from screening its famous 'Go to Work on an Egg Campaign', because eating eggs on a daily basis does not constitute a varied diet, I thought it was bit of a blow for the poultry industry.

But I am now starting to think it is actually a bit of coup.

The story has generated a mass of publicity for eggs - all of which is very positive. It has actually raised the profile of eggs in a way that screening the Hancock adverts probably wouldn't have managed.

Consumers recognise that the ruling is a bit of PC nonsense and a responding in a very mature way.

There's plenty being written about what is going to happen following the ISG's report into the effectiveness of badger culling but this is about the most sensible comment I have seen so far:

The single most important thing to come out of the RBCT dispersal trials is that the transmission of bTb from badgers to cattle appears at last to be accepted. That John Bourne has very effectively illustrated how not to cull the badgers responsible, is the point from which the debate must move on.

It comes from the Bovine TB blog, which I have mentioned before, but is well worth a look as it is written by a group of farmers all grappling with the disease in their herds.

One of the contributers to the FWi forums has raised a really interesting question about this weekend's Glastonbury festival. How on earth does dairy farmer and organiser Michael Eavis meet all DEFRA's rules on soil management when he has so many people on his farm at one time?

If there was one thing farmers talked about with real passion at the Royal Highland Show this year it was the parlous state of the sheep sector.

Against a backdrop of a largely positive feel at the show with most sectors more buoyant on the back of better prices, many in the Scottish sheep sector fail to reconcile the arguments put forward by supermarkets such as M & S supporting the need for imported lamb.

"They just won't sell hogs," one farmer I bumped into told me, while another was far from optimistic about the future prospects for the world lamb market.

It may seem a strange thing to say, but vast arrays of machinery at agricultural shows are becoming rarer and rarer.

Not so at the Royal Highland Show where all the major manufacturers were out in force. The RHS is after all very much a farmers show - no wonder Agco, JD and the rest reckon it's worth being there.

Not something you often see, but the BBC has a picture of a sheep sunning itself in a deck chair in Hyde Park (you will need to flick through to picture 5).

Fed up of stock being able to find any hole in the fence or hedge? Well how about a virtual barrier? I’ve picked up this interesting snippet which suggest that wireless fences could be the way forward. Fence boundaries are defined using a GPS system and a specially designed collar alerts the animal to the fact that it has reached the “fence”. A prototype of the system has now been successfully demonstrated on a herd of cattle in Australia.

I have just spoken to a farmer who tells me that 220 acres of his 250 acre farm in Worcestershire are currently under water because of flooding.

He’s not alone by any means, as the pictures coming into FWi at the moment clearly show.

A couple of nights ago EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel made a speech to a dairy conference in Brussels in which she praised the booming state of the EU dairy market.
"All too often in the past I've found myself defending policies in a given agricultural sector when prices were low and farmers were unhappy," she said.
"No one would claim that dairy prices are in difficulties at the moment. They have been riding so high that we have been able to set all dairy refunds at zero, for the first time since they were introduced."
As far as commodity markets are concerned, she is right. Skimmed milk powder is up 47% on last year to £2000/t, whole milk powder is up 53% to £2300/t. Butter is up 12% to £1900/t
But Mrs Fischer Boel is deluding herself if she thinks British dairy farmers are also "riding high".
Their prices are still stuck at around 19p/litre, meaning the average producer is still losing about 2.5p on every litre he produces.
Which begs the question, where is the profit from the booming dairy market going? Retailers do not appear to be raising their prices to consumers. Could it be that processors are pocketing the profits? What do you think?

Unlike is predecessor, David Miliband's move to the Foreign Office is a deserved promotion.

After the complete horlicks Margaret Beckett made of the job, Mr Miliband has shown an aptitude for rural issues and a willingness to drive through change. His task on the international stage will be a big one.

But how big? Solving problems in the Middle East might seem a relative breeze compared with dealing with thousands of disgruntled farmers waiting for unforgivably late SFP cheques.

The question now is who will be next in the hotseat at DEFRA and will they have the energy for the farming sector which Mr Miliband displayed?

It will need a skilled operator to ensure farming won't be worse off following Mr Miliband's move.

Problem is, I can't think who I'd want...

The man in charge of DEFRA is now Hilary Benn. But for me the real Mr Benn will always be: