Food for Thought

Having just returned from a very enjoyable, but all too short, stay on a friend’s dairy farm in north Cornwall I can’t help thinking that there must be a market in alternative holidays for city folk.

Those hard working city people (you know the type stockbroker, analyst or oil trader) suffer heaps of stress from counting all those zeros. Well what could be more relaxing then fetching the cows in or turning grass for silage – that’s all I did and it fitted in well with walks along the cliff-top to take pictures and trips to attractions such as the Eden Project.

Yesterday an agronomist rang me to see whether I could find out the price for oilseed rape 25 years ago in 1982 for a presentation he is giving next week.

Luckily we have most, if not all, old copies of FW hiding in cupboards in the office – a fact I only found out yesterday – so finding the spot price wasn’t too difficult. Want to know what it was? £265/t – probably because no where near as much was grown 25 years ago.

Interestingly, feed wheat on that day was trading at £108/t, milling £114/t. Being an anorak for figures, and after discovering how easy to search our back catalogue is, I did a quick check of prices for every five years since then. It doesn’t half show the volatility of the past 25 years!

See price table below.

It's been astonishing to watch cereals prices accelerate in quite the spectacular way they have in recent months.

Of course there was a good case for some strengthening in values. Global stocks are at an all-time low, America is throwing up bioethanol factories like they're going out of fashion. And a series of weather problems have pared down harvest not just in the UK and Europe, but in Canada, Australia and elsewhere.

Posted by Farmers Weekly livestock editor, Jonathan Long

So, a number of biosecurity breaches at the Institute for Animal Health, Pirbright, are to blame for last month’s outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Surrey.

My immediate response is simply “tell us something we didn’t already know”. According to the BBC, the two reports due today highlight five key breaches and outline a possible means for the virus being transferred out of the site, but does that really move things further forward?

Well in all honesty probably not, after all we already knew the Pirbright site was the source of the outbreak and that both the IAH and Merial labs had handled the virus in the weeks prior to the outbreak.

However, in outlining the likely route of transmission, the reports will, undoubtedly, leave many people questioning the quality of the facilities at Pirbright. No one is questioning the quality of the work being done there, but it is obviously being done in outdated poorly maintained buildings.

Posting by Poultry World editor Richard Allison

Why do we buy eggs by the dozen?

I was set thinking about this today after seeing a news piece on the United Broilers Association (UBA) plan’s to sell eggs on a per kg basis in the Philippines.

Currently they have a similar system as in the UK of selling egg in boxes of small, medium and large.

It states that this move comes due to the sudden increase in the price of corn (maize), the main ingredient for poultry feed.

UBA president Jojie San Diego says: “Everybody’s buying vegetables by the kilo. So why not eggs?"

So this set me thinking whether the UK egg sector would have anything to gain with such a move in the UK. One thing it would do is to standardise pricing and farmers could gain more.

The Farmers Weekly Harvest Highlights picture gallery contains an amazing array of photos which has been sent in by readers.

But I was still a little surprised to come across this picture of England football captain John Terry which has been sent in by Chris Woodall of Epsom in Surrey.

He said:"The farm has an airstrip and a helicopter pad and as we are close to Cobham where the Chelsea team train and live they come and use the helipad when they need it

"JT was in on Thursday to go up to Liverpool for a sponsors' thing and I got the photo when he came back.

"Bit of a contrast to seeing me working in the fields, crossing paths with him in the farmyard. Sadly he didn't want to help out!"

The anger and incredulity that farmers will feel following the publication of the reports detailing the findings of two investigations into the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is understandable: the blame for the 2007 outbreak lies squarely with the Institute for Animal Health and its tight-fisted sponsors at DEFRA.

While it is evident that a clash of cultures exists between IAH and Merial and the two clearly don’t get along, it is the complacency, under-funding, mis-management and a conflict of interests on DEFRA’s part that explain the cause of the outbreak.

The government was informed four years ago that the site was in a state of dilapidation, and as licensor DEFRA understood the potentially risky nature of the work being performed there. But by allowing a dispute between the IAH and Merial as to who was responsible for the site and its infrastructure to go unresolved it was deferring the cost of investment. But as regulator, it was unacceptably negligent in its responsibility to intervene and resolve this important issue.

The two reports, however, do at least clarify the matter: the site is owned by the IAH and it was the IAH that failed to ensure the contractors it commissioned adhered to basic biosecurity protocols that could have prevented the virus from being spread.

Calls for compensation therefore – especially for those farmers who lost their stock – are understandable.

DEFRA has set up a control zone around a new suspect case of foot-and-mouth in Surrey.

This is the news that farmers really didn't want - things are only just getting back to normal. If the case is confirmed and another national movement ban comes into place then it will be a nightmare.

The announcement that there is a suspect case of foot-and-mouth on a farm near Egham in Surrey has a different feel to some of the previous suspect cases we have seen.

The fact that cattle are to be pre-emptively slaughtered suggests that there are grounds for thinking that really is another case of the disease. Some of the suspect cases last month were not culled as a precuation.

Another strange feature of the case is that is in quite a built up area - although when you look at the map more closely it is in quite close proximity to Great Windsor Park. Given that there are large numbers of deer running around close by could this be a possible source of the disease?

Gut wrenching, that's the only way I can describe this latest outbreak of foot and mouth. While the last outbreak in early August made life difficult, this one will make life next to impossible.

With sheep breeding sales kicking off again this week I was due to have sheep at two markets tomorrow in a bid to playn catch up and finally earn some money this year. Now don't get me wrong, I'm only small-scale compared to many, but even so I now face the very real possibility of losing up to £3000 of income, some of which has already been deferred from sales due to take place in early August.

Here's a transcript of the latest Conservative press release on the Foot and Mouth Crisis:

Shadow Environment Secretary, Peter Ainsworth said:

"If this is what happens when Gordon Brown takes personal control of a crisis, he's better off out of it.”

A classic example of petty, political point scoring. No wonder more and more people are turned off by politics.

If the Tories want to gain some credibility, how about coming up with some practical solutions and measures...

Farmers Weekly's team of journalists is tiny compared with the big news organisations like the BBC and Sky and the national papers.

So it is really nice to see Farmers Weekly Interactive getting the first interview with Robert Lawrence, the farmer at the centre of the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Surrey.

Nice work by FW reporter Emily Padfield.

Foot-and-mouth is casting a dark shadow over farming at the moment. But there is some good news on the horizon. Saturday (22 Sept) marks the start of British Food Fortnight which is an initiative that grows year by year and has had considerable impact in promoting British food to retailers and the food service sector.

Here are some of this year's highlights:

Attracted by the 34% sales increases that the event generates, Morrisons, Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and Somerfield are all expected to be running British promotions during the Fortnight.

A mass of British food promotions and in-store tastings are planned in Budgens, independents and even some petrol forecourt stores. And the public is being invited to ‘Taste British Gold’ with free tastings of speciality foods in over 500 delicatessens.

Five of the largest food service organisations (ARAMARK, Compass Group, Sodexho, Brakes and 3663), four major pub groups (Mitchells & Butler, Punch Taverns, Enterprise Inns and Marston’s Pub Company), three of the main tourism organisations (National Trust, Youth Hostel Association and VisitBritain) and the leading catering association (British Hospitality & Restaurant Association) are all taking part. Together they represent over 20,000 pubs and 42,000 restaurants so there will be an abundance of British food on menus during the Fortnight.

7,500 Compass food service units are being given a dedicated intranet site on why it is important to source British food and 1,000 of their largest units as well as their ‘Choice Sandwich’ range will all feature classic British food during the event.

700 Sodexho restaurants are running special British menus with dishes such as Roast British Lamb, Braised British Beef and British Beef Hot Pot.

Brakes is introducing 12 new British products for the Fortnight including British Beef Mince, British Diced Beef & Kidney, Toad in the Hole, British Diced Braising Steak, British Autumnal Seasonal Roasting Vegetable Mix and Romney Marsh Peas; has launched a new ‘Best of British’ website for its customers in time for the Fortnight; and is offering £50 of ingredients to chefs going into schools to teach children about British food.

Retailers and caterers are joining forces as part of the Fortnight’s initiative to teach children about the delights of British food. 60 Budgens’ stores are supplying their local schools with 100 aprons plus locally-sourced ingredients so that their pupils can take part in the national food celebrations; and 50 ARAMARK chefs will be giving cooking lessons in their local schools. Many will be involving their clients, who are some of the UK’s biggest organisations, in the process: Nationwide, J P Morgan Chase, Dell, Boots, Barclays and Nissan are all taking part by offering the use of their catering facilities or even giving children the chance to produce food for the employees’ menu!

I’ve seen some big sugar beet but this one has to be the biggest! As you might be able to make out from the mountains in the picture it wasn’t grown in the UK. No, this is beet growing South African style.

Their sugar beet crops in Fish River Valley on the Eastern Cape grow for between nine and 14 months, according to Mike Hendrikse, who sent me the picture. His team started growing beet around ten years ago, first for sugar processing, and now, after discovering that was not going to be economic, to supply an ethanol plant.

This year, they have harvested 150ha of commercial beet, planted to verify a feasibility study that predicted yields of at least 95t/ha. “In the four areas we planted we improved on those predictions comfortably,” Mike reports.

And not only that sugar levels were well in excess of 20%! Apparently their cool winter evenings and warm days suit the growth of beet and promote the accumulation of sugar. You’re telling me….!

For more information see here

When it comes to biosecurity, the French are taking no chances.
I have just spent a weekend in Normandy with my French journo friend Franck, getting a few miles under the wheels of my bike before the autumn gives way to winter.

I was due to travel over with Brittany Ferries on the Friday evening and was somewhat surprised, not to mention impressed, to get a text message from the French operator the day before reminding me that, "following the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth, meat and dairy products should not be taken out of the UK".
Given this attention to detail, it was no surprise that the disinfection mats were already in evidence on arrival in France, and my French friend was quick to ask whether I had been anywhere near a farm in recent days (I hadn't)
It was also no surprise to find no such security on my return two days later to Portsmouth. I was able to sail though customs without so much as a sniff at the smelly Liverot cheese that was making itself rather obvious in one of my paniers, or a squirt of disinfectant on my well-travelled tyres.

A new campaign has just launched called Label My Food. It acknowledges that supermarkets are actually ahead of the game when it comes to labelling and the big problem comes when you eat out of the home.

How do you know what you are being served in restaurants, pubs, cafes and take-aways?

The campaign has been started to help people who want more information because they have welfare concerns, allergies or are vegans etc. But it will also help people who want to support British farmers.

You don't have to be a Belgian detective with a funny moustache* to guess who's been buying most of the new machinery in the last four or five years. Yes, it's contractors and bigger farmers, plus those acquisitive types who who have taken on the farm next door.

One of our Barometer farmers tells me that he has "the distinct feeling that the chemical industry is inflating prices on the back of the wheat market".

We've also been told that a well known seed dressing was temporarily unavailable at the end of last week.

What's your experience? Are the prices you've been quoted any higher than last year's, and if so by how by how much? Have you found it hard to get hold of anything you need yet?

This morning's "provisional decision" from the Office of Fair Trading that supermarkets and dairy processors have colluded to fix retail dairy prices has triggered a mixed reaction from interested parties.
These fall roughly into two camps - the "I told you so" camp (farmers and opposition politicians) and the "nothing to do with me" camp (supermarkets and dairy processors).
Not surprisingly, this latter group of campers is eager to paint themselves as whiter than white, dismissing any suggestion that they could ever talk to each other.
But a close inspection of their assorted Press Releases issued to deny the OFT's allegations suggests otherwise.
Almost without exception the supermarkets and processors point out that prices were only raised in 2002 and 2003 to increase the return to farmers. (The fact this did not happen and it was retailers and dairies who benefited is overlooked.)
They also all point out that "the OFTcannot decide if the law has been broken until the interested parties have responded" (or words to that effect).
The similarity in the Press Releases is quite remarkable. Could it be mere coincidence? Or is there something more sinister afoot? Perhaps someone should investigate....

Could 2007 get any worse for the livestock sector? First avian flu, then foot-and-mouth and now bluetongue.

There will be regular updates on the Farmers Weekly forums.

Yesterday's announcement of movement rule relaxations is a welcome relief for the livestock sector, but will come as cold comfort for many with the lamb trade currently in freefall and store sheep buyers reluctant to buy lambs, let alone pay sensible prices.

For those farmers outside either the foot and mouth risk area or the bluetongue control zone life can return to some kind of normality, stock can be moved between farms and many of the animals trapped with little fodder will be able to head to better grazings, provided of course buyers can be found for them.

The combination of bluetongue disease and the Labour Party Conference is proving a rich seam of humour for political commentators and cartoonists.

Guido Fawkes carried a cartoon yesterday which takes a poke at Gordon Brown's recent meeting with Baroness Thatcher.

Similarly, Sky's political correspondent Adam Boulton has quoted DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn's dad Tony Benn as saying: "Bluetongue disease? I thought that was Margaret Thatcher's speeches..."

Funny? You decide.

Remember the Tesco Shepherd's Pie that had 'British' all over the packaging but was made of New Zealand mince?

Well, we just had a press release from NFU Cymru which says they found the same problem with some lamb shanks in its 'Finest' range and after applying some pressure the supermarket has agreed to reband the packaging.

But wait for the explanation...

NFU Cymru said: “Once this matter was brought to our attention, we immediately contacted Trading Standards asking them to look into the misleading labelling of the product. Tesco has since stated that the lamb was part of a range of products labelled ‘British’ in reference to the way it is prepared, in the same way as pasta would be labelled ‘Italian’, and should not be taken as indication that the ingredients are in fact British."

What a ridiculous statement.

Post from FW's arable editor Robert Harris:

Brussels’ decision to approve zero set-aside for this autumn and next spring’s drillings is no real surprise.

But at least the official rubber stamp removes any lingering uncertainty and will allow those growers who wish to return their fields to production to push on in good time and establish the crop of their choice.

Officials, and indeed our own farming leaders, deserve credit for speeding the process along.

The quick decision is an attempt to boost cereal production; indeed, EU ministers hope it will climb by 10m tonnes next harvest, easing the tight feel to the market.

But, with the market having already factored this in, don’t expect prices to ease on the back of this ruling.

Meanwhile, longer-term decisions about the set-aside’s future will kick off in late November as part of the CAP Health Check. Watch this space.

By Andrew Shirley
Farmers Weekly's flabbergasted Business Editor

Everybody wants to be environmentally friendly these days, but DEFRA seems to have finally lost the plot.

It is planning a series of "roadmaps" to identify ways to make the various sectors of farming greener and has just released some draft proposals for dairying.

So far so good, we all need to do our bit for global warming and the like.

But, inexplicably, these proposals include a huge switch by consumers to UHT (longlife) milk and a 60% cut in methane emmissions by dairy cows.

At the moment only 5% of milk consumed in the UK is UHT, but DEFRA reckons that could be increased to 90% by 2020.

Apparently DEFRA did a blind tasting and people couldn't tell the difference. Rubbish.

I don't know about you but I can't stand the taste of longlife milk and certainly won't be bullied into giving up my fresh and tasty pinta.

It would also open the door to imported UHT milk from Eastern Europe where farmers have much lower costs.

And I'm not even sure how it would save the environment. Granted, it wouldn't need to be transported in refrigerated lorries, but it would still have to go in the fridge once opened.

But that won't matter because if DEFRA has its way we'll have to slaughter most of our dairy herd anyway to cut methane emmissions to the levels its happy with.

Thankfully, these are draft proposals and the NFU and Dairy UK has united to rubbish them. But what on earth made DEFRA think anybody would take them seriously?

What they have done is outraged the industry. But maybe that was DEFRA's aim.

Perhaps by suggesting such whacky and ridiculous ideas to begin with they think the sector will jump to embrace anything that sounds vaguely reasonable.

The final report is due in November. Hopefully it will container some slightly saner proposals.

Looking back through old copies of Farmers Weekly magazine is endlessly fascinating. There are some stories that don't seem to change (we are writing similar versions now to ones which appeared 40 years ago).

But I spotted this snippet in a 1967 issue that did make me smile bearing in mind how important farm tourism is in the south west...

Farmers Weekly’s sister magazine Poultry World once appeared on the legendary TV show Have I Got News For You as part of the guest publication round. I’m led to believe that the star headline was "Slim chicks lay better", which went down very well with the audience, for some reason.

This has got me thinking about how some of the headlines in FW could be interpreted if given the HIGNFY treatment. How about this one from a 1985 issue?

'Captive bolt – no better way to die'

Personally, I’ve always fancied going in my sleep…