Well done for milk campaign

Congratulations on your campaign to reintroduce free school milk (Opinion, May 24). It is important that children have a required daily intake of calcium. Drinking milk is the healthiest and most natural way of providing this supplement and is essential to a childs diet.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats in the National Assemblys partnership government have successfully won the backing of assembly members to introduce free school milk up to seven years of age. As a party we are committed to extending it to older children.

Welsh Liberal Democrats also believe that the government must take a lead to make sure local food is supplied to schools, hospitals and other public institutions.

I wish you every success in your campaign.

Mick Bates

Welsh Liberal Democrats, 3 Park Street, Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Powys.

Can we learn from the US?

I was interested to read the article by your Europe editor, Philip Clarke, in which he attacked President Bush and the US government (Business, May 24).

Not only did the US save us from the previous attempt to create a united Europe by Adolph Hitler and his fascist chums, but it also saved us from the catastrophe of communism during the Cold War.

If President Bush decides to put American farmers and American business before other nations, who are we to complain, for surely that is, and should be, his prime concern?

If only our Prime Minister and his socialists did the same then perhaps we would not be drowning in this economic quagmire. Our crazy system of allowing the rest of the world to dump cheap and inferior produce onto our market place, resulting in the bankruptcy of our businesses and the loss of irreplaceable British jobs, is lunacy of the first order. We need a British leader, of the same calibre as Mr Bush, who will put the health of the British economy and the interests of its citizens before all others.

Dick Lindley

Birkwood Farm, Altofts.

The plight of our pensions

They tell us there are too many farmers, they tell us there is too much money being spent on the rural economy – but then we do have a uniquely urban-minded government so that is understandable. But its decision to renege on a manifesto promise and refuse to set up a farmers retirement scheme is too much.

It used to be that farmers depended on the value of the stock, machinery and, in the case of landowning farmers, the property and the land itself, to give them a pension fund on retirement. That doesnt apply any more because of this seemingly endless rural recession – you either sell your fields for a housing estate or you leave the countryside with nothing to live on.

Profits from farming have been lower than the amount the law says you need to live on for several years, so the notion that farmers should have been paying into a pension fund out their incomes is total nonsense. So when the election came round the party in power, and all other parties looking for the rural vote, agreed something would have to be done. Now DEFRA secretary Margaret Beckett has confirmed in a parliamentary written answer that there are no plans to introduce a farmers retirement scheme.

Not so funny when you come up to retirement with next to nothing to show for a lifes work. I think she needs reminding that her own parliamentary pension fund is the only one still carrying a growth guarantee.

Sue Doughty

7 Malvern Close, Woodley, Berks.

F&M:Not long enough stay…

On passing through the disinfect/cleanse procedure at our local cattle market, I questioned the DEFRA official as to what precautions would be taken with World Cup fans returning to England from an area of recent outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease.

After consulting with colleagues he returned to say that, in their opinion, England would not be there long enough to pick up any infection.

Trevor Mills

Stanton-by-Dale, Derbyshire.

No more fizz from French

If Harve Gaynard, Frances new interim farm minister, says he is not changing his position in the importation of British beef, then we must ban the consumption of champagne and French wine until he does!

Mrs J M Bourne

Digby House Farm, Digby Fen, Billinghay, Lincoln.

Imports are our problem

The future of farming in the UK is beset with one serious problem – imports.

The quantity of imports arriving in this country is devaluing our own produce, not just food but all manufactured items including cars and coal.

These low-cost, subsidised imports are not only pulling down the prices of home-produced food, the fuel used by aircraft, ships and lorries to transport it is causing major environmental problems.

Unless the volume of imports is reduced greatly, the environment will continue to suffer.

Martin Baul

The Cottage, Raventofts Farm, Bishop Thornton, Harrogate, N Yorks.

Pig waste feed risk fears

Is there a farmer near you or somebody in your village who feeds waste food from the local pub, school or restaurant to a few pigs? If there is, are you prepared to report them?

Highly regulated and registered swill feeders were made the scapegoats for foot-and-mouth disease and were forced out of business without compensation. What has happened to the waste that they were recycling to a very high standard? Has it gone to landfill sites where F&M infected meat is being picked over by vermin and carrion birds with the potential return disease to UK farms? Or is this waste going underground and being fed to pigs in your neighbourhood? Is it only a matter of time before F&M disease or swine fever pops up again, perhaps next door to you?

Robert Persey

Upcott Farm, Broadhembury, Honiton, Devon.

Productivity is real issue

Your correspondent David Evans (Letters, May 17) invites me to respond to David Richardsons fears (May 3) about removing milk quotas and calls for a reasoned debate on CAP reform.

All attempts to support dairy farming in the post-war period have failed to prevent a steady decline in the number of dairy farms. Declining farm numbers is the inevitable response to increasing productivity. Unless farmers are calling for an end – indeed a reversal – of productivity growth, they must accept the inevitability of fewer farmers within the Community. What makes milk quotas so invidious is that not only do they actually increase milk production costs, but they also hold back the more efficient producers who could easily expand production and in so doing reduce unit costs.

What, in effect, Mr Richardsons thinking amounts to is the expectation that the taxpayer should fund growing inefficiency. That is, farmings productivity growth should come to an end, while the rest of the economy will continue to depend on productivity growth for their rising living standards. In such a world, farm incomes could only be kept in line by ever larger handouts from the taxpayer. There is no prospect of this happening.

I heard similar arguments to Mr Richardsons made by potato farmers before the removal of their quotas. To my mind we now have a more efficient potato sector that is market-focused and doing as well, if not better, than when quotas existed. I am not advocating that milk quotas, indeed farm support, should be removed overnight. But current levels of support are unsustainable and it would be better for all concerned to plan against an announced phasing out of support over, say, 10 or so years.

Finally, your correspondent G Crisp (Letters, May 17) seems to think that I am unaware that he and his fellow farmers have been supporting consumers by enabling the average household food bill to fall. In fact that reduction is due to productivity growth – in all sectors of the economy, not just farming.

If farm support was phased out households would not only continue to benefit from the reduced cost of food, but also they would enjoy the additional benefit of not having to fund direct payments.

Sean Rickard

S.H.Rickard@Cranfield.ac.uk

Hard hitting action needed

How infuriating it was to read David Richardson saying he was fed up with being polite (Opinion, May 24). What planet has he been on?

May I remind him that post-BSE crisis 1996, many livestock farmers took action by blocking ports and picketing supermarket depots to highlight their plight.

But the hardest hitting action was the combined farmers and hauliers fuel protest. That struck at the heart of the economy. Above all, it has public support and sympathy.

Waving banners in front of smug politicians at shows would be far too little, too late.

Graham Ingham

18 Church Road, Kirkby Mallory, Leicester.

Wissington – weakest link

I recently went to British Sugars post campaign meeting for Wissington growers and was surprised more growers did not support the meeting.

On returning home I asked a number why they had not gone, and I was told that British Sugar had a monopoly and therefore it was a waste of time turning up.

The meeting was very informed and showed that British Sugar had put a great deal of time and money into solving the problems at Wissington, albeit that the further investment of more than £2m was still no guarantee that the factory could work at greater than 50% output throughout the campaign.

British Sugars parent ABF is looking at an operating profit for 24 weeks ending Mar 2, 2002 of £179m, up 13% on the same period last year. Many growers on the other hand are struggling to break even. Cå°oping with a factory that cannot work consistently at greater than 50% capacity this coming season, will be serious for British Sugar but a total disaster for many farmers.

The meeting placed great emphasis on risk. The risk being thrust upon the farmers, is not the risk of growing the crop, but the risk that British Sugar cannot process it efficiently.

We were also shown a series of graphs depicting amino nitrogen changes in the newer varieties; and different amino nitrogen levels at the different factories throughout the campaign. But the most worrying graph was the one comparing the different factory efficiency levels. It didnt show Wissington the worst affected, but Newark.

Wissington has always suffered a disproportionate amount of problems compared with other smaller factories. Perhaps there should be a graph depicting the management of factories?

Wissington, in the eyes of the grower, you are the weakest link.

Charlie Ward

Newton and Ward, Mill House, Love Lane, Sporle, Kings Lynn, Norfolk.

Bill fits needs of 21st century

Your report referring to government proposals for an Animal Rights Bill (News, May 17) has no basis in fact. This is a false interpretation by one Sunday journalist that seems to have been copied by others without any attempt to check with DEFRA whether this was true. This is how myths are established.

The government proposal, announced in February, is to modernise the 1911 Protection of Animals Act by merging 11 other dated pieces of animal welfare legislation into one new Bill fit for the needs of the 21st century. This proposal has attracted more than 200 responses by organisations and more than 2000 from the public with overwhelming support for the principle of a new Bill.

A new Bill does of course offer the possibility of including some new measures and we have been consulting on that. A wide range of suggestions has come forward, none of them relating to a Bill of Rights. An example is the possibility of closing some loopholes in the 1911 Act where some people, banned for life from keeping animals following cruelty convictions, have found ways around the ban. I do not believe there is anyone who would object to taking action on this.

In this country we are rightly proud that we give high priority to animal welfare. Legislation for farm animals has in fact left protection for domestic animals behind. This is a once in a generation opportunity for a major review and I make no apology for doing so.

Elliot Morley

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, DEFRA,

Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London.

&#8226 Two articles on this subject appeared in farmers weekly in recent weeks (News, May 17 and 24), neither of which were based on comments made by a Sunday journalist. DEFRAs views were incorporated in both stories; in the article of May 17 they took up almost half the copy. We also reported what the opposition and other key opinion formers were saying and consulted with many others including a DEFRA vet – EDITOR.

Come clean on TB, DEFRA

I am sure Martin Hancoxs letter "Cows are cause of bovine TB" (May 10) will produce some replies from farmers. I would also like to hear DEFRAs views.

If, as Mr Hancox says, it is and has been a bovine problem all along, shouldnt DEFRA be prepared to come clean?

A great deal of cash, which has been provided by us, should be accounted for. The badger issue has gone on for years. But has gassing in setts, or the policy of trapping and shooting, got us anywhere?

No one seems to know, and DEFRA refuses to have open meetings to enable farmers to ask for information.

How much longer can this go on, not just the cash issue, but the worry to farmers? They must live in fear. But if, as Mr Hancox says, the cause is cattle-to-cattle transmission, DEFRA should comment.

I would also like to know how near we are to a cattle vaccine and how do you arrive at a cost of £35,000 for each TB badger?

Pamela Dean

Brynella, Field Road, Whiteshill, Nr Stroud, Glos.

Bring back the young to farm

I endorse the Prince of Wales recent call for a way to develop a retirement scheme to allow older farmers to retire. The Princes comments confirm the findings of a survey carried out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants Farming and Rural Business Group that 40% of farmers do not have anyone to succeed them.

The survey revealed that continuing erosion of capital, falling profits and the lack of sustainable diversification, compounded by the adverse effect of foot-and-mouth, have presented the industry as an unattractive career for the younger farmer. Where there are young people in the family, most do not see a future in farming even if they have been in higher education involving agricultural subjects.

Those who were originally enthusiastic to continue with the family farm are often the younger people many of whom became disillusioned in their mid-20s and 30s and have now left the farming sector.

At present, where no retirement scheme exists, older farmers are tempted to hold on to their farm business at the expense of those in the family willing to take hold of the reins.

As the Prince rightly says, a way must be found to resolve the succession issue.

Aubrey Davies

Chairman, Farming & Rural Business Group, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Moorgate Place, London.

NFU left us high and dry

How much longer must dairy farmers wait for some accountability from the final board of the MMB, whose performance has proved to have been weak and incompetent?

Why did the NFU turn democracy on its head to support the introduction of a milk marketing concept on Nov 1, 1994? It has destroyed every grain of stability developed over the previous 60 years and left milk producers high and dry.

A E Durston

Middle Farm, West Horrington, Wells, Somerset.