Archive Article: 2000/08/18
18 August 2000
CBA- doing nothing not an option
Henry Fells proposal (Talking Point, July 28) for a Confederation of British Agriculture merits farmers support, given the inability of our current trade associations to work constructively together and make any real headway on the industrys behalf.
We must though recognise that UK agriculture is only one of several different business sectors within the rural economy. Therefore, a Confederation of British Rural Industry, with Henry Fells CBA as one of its constituents, might prove even more effective.
I too believe we can help ourselves by focusing on the commercial as distinct from political perspective of the debate. Doing nothing is no longer an option open to us. The sooner the leaders of our current trade associations take the initiative and bite the bullet the better.
J R Townshend
Chief executive, Velcourt Group, Melbury Sampford, Dorchester, Dorset.
Resistant sires for BSE control?
I note that it is now agreed that scrapie is controlled by breeding only from resistant stock. Is there any reason why BSE cannot be controlled by using only resistant sire lines?
R Slade
Roboan House, Dauntsey, Chippenham, Wilts.
Big thanks to an embattled NFU
I would like to thank NFU members, staff and farmers for their letters of sympathy and support over the past weeks, and apologise for not replying personally to each. It is a tribute to Richard that over £4000 has been donated to the Brain Tumour Foundation for which I thank you all.
The NFU is always criticised for not doing enough for our farmers. But over the past five months I know how hard the office holder team has worked and will continue to work on our behalf, and we need to give them our support as a united union.
Helen Watson Jones
Fernhill.
Compensation claim outrage
You will be aware of the national outrage that Paul Langmead has caused by his stupid claim for compensation for damage to a 4-acre field. I have just read the article by Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The Mail on Sunday entitled "Heartless and greedy… why farmers reap this harvest of hate".
He goes on to remind us that farmers are always whining and holding their hands out. Surely Mr Langmead was aware of the repercussions for himself and sadly the whole of farming business?
It did seem as though the painfully slow campaign instigated by the NFU to convince the public to support British farmers was beginning to have some effect. Mr Langmeads thoughtlessness has cost the industry dearly.
Please cant we all learn a lesson and think before we antagonise any section of the community however small both locally and nationally.
R Thomas
Oaklands College, Oaklands Campus, Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts.
Stop pandering to Euro wishes
Your Letters section (Aug 4) was an eye opener. I counted five anti-EU letters and not a single one in favour. If that is representative of farming opinion, and I suspect it is, it shows how ineffective the years of campaigning by the NFU has been in trying to flog the industry this dead horse.
Farming is in the worst recession in living memory. Older farmers have assured me the present crisis is worse than the 1930s. At least then, they had hope, we dont even have that. I am inclined to agree with Betty Henderson (Letters, Aug 4) that there is a hidden agenda either by this government or by Europe to finish off the British agricultural industry.
Farmers arent daft. They can see CAP has failed on every count and has done so comprehensively. Not only has it failed producers, it has also failed consumers, taxpayers and the nation. The sooner we leave this corporatist soviet the better. Then maybe British government ministers can run our affairs in the best interest of the British people instead of constantly trying to please European politicians and their bureaucrats.
John S Pearson
Adderstone Mains, Belford, Northumberland.
Politicians hold key to Europe
I notice every week many letters expressing the anti-European stance and the dread of joining the single currency.
As everyone is aware we have been promised a referendum on the single currency. From past experience I would be more worried about the leaders who are for and against joining. It is more likely to be won or lost, depending on your view, in relation to whom the majority feel comfortable with in the pre-referendum debate and not the merits of the cases for and against.
Councillor W Lodge
Nags Fold Farm, Pity Me, Durham.
ACCS, thanks for nothing!
After paying my ACCS subscription, I recorded treatment dates, weather, temperature, moisture, fertiliser, agrochemicals, varieties, field numbers, sprayer and spreader calibrations, vermin bait points and cleaning of grain containers. I would now like to thank ACCS for its little sticker which I have now put onto my post-harvest declaration form.
It has made the world of difference to my financial situation and attracted the princely sum of £58/t for 45t of Regina barley with 13.5% moisture. ACCS should not expect a Christmas card.
P Roberts
Preston Montford Farm, Montford Bridge, Shrewsbury, Shrops.
Technology has the upper hand
Although agreeing with much of what * Shutkever writes (Letters, Aug 4), the comparison between farmers and carmakers to which he objects is the direct result of the oft-repeated claim that farming is a business like any other and the country is farmers factory floor.
Society has always affirmed that as agriculture deals with all forms of life, it should be governed by different principles from those imposed on other industries. Until that is recognised, the outlook for farming is bleak indeed, with technology gaining mastery over every aspect.
J Bower
The Farm and Food Society, 4 Willifield Way, London.
Shocking and appalling TV
I write after watching the second part of Channel 4s Dying Breed programme because I was shocked at the appalling sights I saw. Not only were farmers up to their eyes in debt but the farm minister got others to lie about his whereabouts and avoided uncomfortable questions from people he is supposed to represent. He was forced to agree to a meeting by the presence of the TV cameras and admitted he did not know that European pig farmers were using methods banned in this country by his government. In fact, he didnt seem to know anything about the real problems we are facing.
Even worse was the sight of Ben Gill telling a man, who owed the bank £100,000, that when he stopped Nick Browns car: "It didnt help and the minister was upset by it." He also said that the NFU could not take direct action because it was not a union but a trade association and it would be against the law.
Why have we all been paying our hard-earned money all these years? Were all going to lose our land if nobody does anything.
Supporters of Richard Haddock have a right to say: "I told you so" and anybody who saw this programme would agree.
I shall watch the last episode with interest to see if Ben Gill comes out in a better light. If not he should consider stepping aside for somebody who has more of a stomach for a fight. Alternatively, many farmers like myself will start to think our subs would be better used by the Farmers For Action than the NFU.
M W Fisher
Ivy House Farm, Stoke Golding, Nuneaton.
Grid system can irrigate Britain
I was interested to read the article "Drought worry despite rains" (News, June 9). I do believe that the worry is correctly placed.
One would assume that Tim Jolly being in the Brecklands would not have been falling over himself in the late 60s and70s to drain every acre of land whether or not the government of the day was paying for it. But the result is that water drains off of the land so fast that some of it has to be pumped over the sea walls to get rid of it. All of that mad rush to cash in has lowered the water tables in many areas.
We were taught at school that ditches and water courses in the British Isles were for drainage not irrigation but I see no reason why with a little thought and ingenuity that situation could not be reversed or at least modified to retain some of the water.
The real problem is of course much greater but readily solved. It is only about 850 miles from Lands End to John OGroats and that is a very short distance in modern terms to put in a grid pipe system for the whole of the mainland. It would cause the water companies minor problems with varying water quality but that is all. The rather silly Frank Dobson said in the run-up to the last election that burying pipes for a grid system was too expensive. They dont have to be buried; modern insulation means that they could be above ground and could easily run alongside the motorways. The government took enough money away from the utilities which would pay easily for a grid system. They will only fritter the money away instead of using it to create employment on something worthwhile.
C.S. Wright
69 Galleywood Rd, Chelmsford, Essex.
Farmer minority gives bad name
I must write following the recent defeat of the pig farmers in the High Courts (News, Aug 4). Once again a loud minority in the farming industry is pleading poverty in the hope of gaining public sympathy.
If these people arent capable of running an efficient business, why the heck should the rest of us taxpayers have to subsidise them? My family have worked hard over the years to make our farm provide a living. When I read the farming press I see the same old sob stories. Were all feeling the pinch not just the pig producers.
Show some backbone, and stop whingeing for goodness sake. The farming industry doesnt need the constant moaning of these people to further tarnish our image in the eyes of the public.
D Stubbs
Burton Hole Farm, Mill Hill, Middx.
GM trials need to be completed
Henry Fell (Letters, July 21) asks what scientific evidence the Conservative Party would like to see before approving the commercial planting of GM crops in Britain.
The answer lies in the reports of one of the specialist committees referred to by Mr Fell. The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee recommended: "Government must make it absolutely clear that commercial growing will not be permitted without adequate information from farm scale trials." I share that view and for that reason I am anxious that the trial programme should be completed without disruption.
The same committee also stated: "The governments research programme should also take into account the concerns of organisations such as English Nature." I share that view and English Nature, the governments statutory adviser on nature conservation, supplied the Science and Technology Committee with an extensive list of the research projects it believes needs to be undertaken.
The Conservative Party believes it would irresponsible to ignore these views. However, we draw a distinction between the environmental risks of growing GM crops where the available scientific evidence points clearly to unanswered questions and the health consequences of eating food containing GM ingredients where the available scientific evidence does not indicate the existence of unacceptable risks. Unfortunately, Mr Fells letter muddles these two different issues in the same way as the Prime Minister often seems to do.
T Yeo
Shadow farm minister House of Commons, London.
Is Safeway very stupid or clever?
Concerning your article Brown Fury at OFT milk price warning (News, Aug 4), Safeway has either been very stupid – or very clever.
Safeway said that it would be willing to increase retail milk prices and pass the proceeds back to farmers, provided other retailers did the same. It doesnt matter what Safeway and the others were going to do with the increased revenue from higher milk prices in their shops. They could have been giving it to charity for all it mattered to the OFT.
The only thing that counts is that they were going to increase milk prices in agreement with other supermarkets. That constitutes anti-competitive practice under competition law. The OFTs response was entirely predictable and absolutely correct. Safeway should have known this and I find it difficult to believe that it didnt. What Safeway has done is to tell Farmers For Action that: "Wed love to help but the nasty old OFT wont let us.".
If Safeway really wanted to help, it could have increased milk prices in its stores and put up a notice telling customers why it did so. Does it really think that a penny a litre on its milk price is going to cause customers to desert them in droves?
I think that farmers must wait for the Competition Commissions report on retailer-supplier relationships rather than rely on handouts from the retailers. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, someone said.
Roger Dean
5 Drummer Lodge, Kinloch Street, London.
Buying groups hidden prices
Much is said about buying groups particulary their ability to help cut costs. Feed companies, for example, can offer cheaper cake or straights because they can use spare capacity.
But I doubt if feed companies would want to tender to new buying groups and they would also be wary of increases in size of existing buying groups. If that is true, is it fair to other farmers, if they have to pay to carry buying groups?
FUW announced recently it had negotiated half price phone calls for all members. That is an excellent idea as it helps a large number of farmers, not just those in buying groups. Perhaps cheaper phone calls, electricity and water could be negotiated?
Before that happens, we have to face the fact that the NFU Mutual offers cheaper insurance to farmers in buying groups. Most farmers dont realise that since farmers in buying groups are forbidden to tell others about the prices they pay for goods and services and the NFU Mutual does not advertise the fact.
So before it follows lead of the FUW, the NFU needs to sort out the NFU Mutual and prevent it from offering different rates for buying groups.
There is scope for more buying at discount within the co-operative structures and trade organisations.
Stephen Tuck
Highgate Farm, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Wilts.
Tax adds £25/t to nitrogen cost
Like many other farmers, I am amazed by the introduction of a tax on lower-priced nitrogen fertiliser from outside the EU which is making us pay an extra £25/t for our nitrogen.
How are we to compete at world prices when our inputs are made artificially higher? Or how about the EU imposing taxes on lower-priced non-EU food such as meat, dairy products and fruit to prevent dumping?
I urge our farming leaders to tackle this issue urgently and farmers to hold off agreeing deals on nitrogen. What other industry buys and pays for raw materials eight months before they need it?
S Furnival
Honeychild Manor Farm, St Mary in the Marsh, Romney Marsh, Kent.
Press for early ear tag review
I have been contacted by a farmer in my constituency regarding problems due to the double ear tagging of his cattle.
He told me the large yellow ear tags brought in following the BSE crisis can rip the ears of calves and cause suffering. As the rules currently stand, if a tag rips the ear of a cow and comes off, another tag has to immediately be inserted.
I wrote to Commissioner Byrne, who is responsible for the tagging system, and he has said he will review the current system at the end of 2001 and is not aware that the tags do cause unnecessary suffering.
I would appreciate if any farmer experiencing similar problems could write to me. Your name will be kept confidential and if there are others who feel the system is cruel, I am happy to lend my support to try to gain an earlier review by the Commission.
Mrs L McAvan MEP
79 High Street, Wath-upon-Dearne, Rotherham, South Yorks. linda.mcavan@virgin.net