Archive Article: 2001/06/01
Illegal meat import rules not enforced
David Handley refers to my support for a ban on illegal meat imports (Letters, May 4). The very fact that these imports are illegal should mean that they are prevented from being imported into the UK. The problem isnt the legality or otherwise of imports, its the application of resources to prevent illegal imports that appears to be sadly lacking.
In response to his question: Why has it taken so long for the NFU to come to this conclusion? It is quite simple. We were trying to energise a system that we recognised had faults, long before Farmers For Action was invented.
The difficulty over the years has been that government is far more interested in stopping the traffic of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, rather than use its resources to stop what it saw as the small problem of illegal meat imports.
Farm minister Nick Brown says hes listening and looking at import controls. Its time for him to put into practice what we all know, the controls that are in place must be made to work; where there are loopholes they must be filled and new controls put in place to stop the obvious abuses.
Michael Seals
Chairman NFU Food Standards Committee, Hall Farm, Sutton-on-the-Hill, Ashbourne, Derbyshire.
Meat trade may not be forgiven
Owing to foot-and-mouth restrictions we were unable to move or sell sheep that were away on winter grazing on a dairy farm.
Changes introduced in late April now allow movement direct to an abattoir within the same infected area. After considerable difficulty and help form our local auctioneers, we managed to find a slot at an abattoir in Wales.
On May 2, 105 tegs were moved under licence direct to the abattoir, the base price was to be £2/kg dwt up to a weight of 21.5kg.
When the returns arrived two weeks later, we were horrified to find that despite the fact the average carcass weight was 21.38kg, the abattoir had managed to manipulate the price down to an average 162p/kg, before deductions, which added up to £2.82 a head.
The deductions included: MLC levy 0.63p, t/wash 0.025p, classification 0.15p, residue 0.27p, auctioneers commission £1 and transport 0.75p.
That left us with £32.60 a head or £1.52/kg.
Compare that with the identical quality tegs sold on Feb 15 through our local market at Kington, which fetched £52 a head at 41.5kg lwt. Or even more interestingly, our last 50 cull ewes sold on May 7 which returned £34 a head.
Is there any wonder so many farmers distrust the meat trade, when you get treated like this? We all know that it is in the driving seat at the moment because livestock markets cannot operate under F&M restrictions. But if the trade continues to take advantage of us, then it will never be forgiven by the livestock farmers of this country for taking advantage at a time when we have no alternative marketing outlet.
The sooner the auction markets are up and running again, the sooner farmers will have the chance to get a fair deal again.
David Williams
Upper Womaston Farm, Walton, Presteigne, Powys.
Oppose ruinous quarantine rule
Farmers reeling from the effects of foot-and-mouth are just beginning to realise that there is a new threat to their existence in the form of a new regulation that will close their businesses for 20 days at a time.
This will have a disastrous effect on all livestock farmers and will result in the total closure of livestock markets as we know them.
Can we afford to let this happen? No.
The experts have suggested that when an animal is brought on to a holding that the whole farm should be quarantined for 20 days, to limit the spread of any future outbreak of F&M. The idea is completely unworkable and would bring most livestock businesses to a halt.
These Draconian measures are a knee-jerk reaction to the terrible situation we have seen over the past three weeks. In a modern age when we have movements of people and vehicles across the countryside, it is unlikely that bringing animals to a standstill alone will stop the spread of disease. Animal movements are just one element of biosecurity. It has been suggested that each farm has a quarantine area, but the same weakness applies.
These new regulations are said to be based on the existing rules applied to pigs. But pigs are still marketed every week and without ear-tags to identify the farm of origin. Whereas cattle and sheep have traded through markets and are fully traceable from the farm.
This is the first time that all livestock markets across the country have been closed due to disease since they first started in the 16th century. Markets are a vital part of the infrastructure of the livestock industry offering competition and fair trading.
It is time now to say No to this latest imposition. All farmers should write to MAFF and inform all prospective parliamentary candidates.
David Edwards
Haynall Villa, Little Hereford, Ludlow, Shropshire.
Its MAFF that should be culled
Electioneering is now in full swing and one hears, with depressing regularity, stories of vets, slaughter crews and other individuals involved with the foot-and-mouth outbreak, being intimidated by MAFF officials, to prevent them speaking out against the ministry and its actions.
Perhaps now is the time to establish an impartial body or individual to whom people, who have suffered from such heavy handedness, can write. Those letters and accounts of peoples experiences, could then be produced, unadulterated, at the public inquiry into this F&M outbreak.
I do believe that if MAFF is controlling the outbreak figures, it is playing a very dangerous game, because farmers attitudes towards their on-farm biosecurity is, quite naturally, becoming more and more lax, as they see the official figures falling.
MAFF (Ministry of misinformation and facts and figures) is seriously spinning itself out of control and is becoming a dangerously infected TB (Tony Blair) area. It should be culled forthwith.
Neville Brentnall
Yew Tree Farm, Wrexham Road, Hope, Flintshire.
Rural ministry the last straw
The proposal to create a Ministry of Rural Affairs is happening at an opportunistic time. But if NFU president Ben Gill permits this to happen I will resign my membership.
I dont mind if MAFF is abolished, but to allow it to be merged into an environment agency is a disaster. Farming should be treated as a business, not a local authority, otherwise farmers risk becoming a load of park-keepers.
Mr Gill should recognise that this government is engineering a social policy to create a state-run farming industry. Please get farming under the umbrella of the department of industry where we can get on with life.
NFU please wake up and see beyond foot-and-mouth.
Richard Milligan Manby
UserR8897@aol.com
Light up the sky with protest
Because we have an election date, June 7, I believe all farmers and country lovers should take the chance to make a visual protest about the negligence of the countryside by politicians, of all parties, over a number of years.
My suggestion is that at 8pm on June 6, we should all light a bonfire as a reminder of the devastation caused to our beautiful countryside by the F&M outbreaks, and to pay homage to those who have lost their stock. The outbreak was not caused by farmers, but by the negligence of authority; the details of how to control it were laid down in the Northumberland report more than 30 years ago, and what was the response of government and the civil service? Delay, refusal to commit sufficient funds and resources to clamp down on the outbreaks immediately, followed by a holocaust of Biblical proportions.
So, please, everyone light a fire – we want thousands of them – to show how angry we are. Burn up your old manifestos, all the election literature, the broken promises, the useless regulations. Send up a rocket, set off your bangers, but let us be seen to make a protest, and to send a message that we will not be ignored in the future.
And then go out and vote – that is a democracy, after all.
Bruce Wilkinson
Netherdyke, Glapthorn, Peterborough.Brucewilkinson@tinyworld.co.uk
F&M questions unanswered
I write as foot-and-mouth disease destroys more and more livestock, ruining farm and tourist trade in its wake. Support industries, agricultural co-operatives and small grass roots merchants and their sales people cannot go on farm for fear of spreading the F&M virus. This situation results in a cash-flow crisis and people losing their livelihoods and what does the government do? It holds an election.
Well, there are many questions left unanswered that we in agriculture want answered preferably by public inquiry. Holding an election wont make them go away, Mr Blair. The questions include:
*Where did the F&M infection come from?
*Why did the government make inquiries on availability of railway sleepers and other "burn" timber, and have F&M posters made as far back as November 2000?
*Why were UK visitors to New Zealand put through footbath and sprays over Christmas and New Year and told that F&M was about to break out in the UK?
*Why was the virus Pan Asian type "O" at Porton Down or Pirbright?
*Why did MAFF make inquiries of the availability of F&M vaccine in early February 2001?
*When did the government know there was likely to be an F&M outbreak?
These are but a few questions we need answering, Mr Blair and you wont be able to punch you way out of the answers either.
F&M may have faded from the media headlines like a famine in Africa, but how long will it be before there are food shortages here? We already import milk and flour. Our young farmers are emigrating to Australia and Canada, driven out by government policy and bureaucracy.
Who will the public and the politicians blame if there is no bread in the shops? Answer: The farmers.
George John
Parc Gilfach, Llangynog, Carmarthen.
Prescott punch hardly counts
Why shouldnt John Prescott punch a farmer? (News, May 25) After all, this government have already ripped their hearts out, kicked their feet from under them, taken away their living and, in some cases, driven them to take their own lives. So, a punch on the jaw is all thats left.
What else is it going to throw? Hens are probably the only livestock left on some farms producing anything, including satisfaction when their eggs are left on the face of politicians.
Carol Welch
80 Dudley Wood Road, Dudley, West Midlands.
Early cull may have saved flock
I write this letter while in quarantine following the slaughter of our entire flock of 1356 ewes and more than 2000 lambs.
We were contiguous to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth on Mar 22. After daily contact with MAFF (mostly unsuccessful) our animals were finally slaughtered on Apr 2, a total of 11 days, not 48 hours as we are all led to believe and reassured is happening. It was during slaughtering that F&M was discovered in some lambs. This could have obviously been avoided had we been culled earlier. Our contiguous neighbours are now waiting to hear from MAFF as to what will happen with their stock, and so it snowballs.
We are obviously devastated and we await the departure of the carcasses, which, we have been told, could be another 10 days.
It is here that I begin a Body of Opinion.
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybodys job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody would not do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
With our recent experiences of MAFF, this just sums them up. Does Everybody, Somebody, Anybody or Nobody agree?
Anna May
Springfield Farm, Marwood, Barnstaple, North Devon.
Obstacles on planning road
I suggest the biggest obstacle in obtaining planning consent for redundant farm buildings is the attitude of the county councils highways departments (Features, May 11). These will probably claim that more traffic will be generated after conversions.
The way to defeat this is two-fold. Ask the Road Safety Officer for details of any accidents along your stretch of road. There may be none. Record existing traffic movements, milk tanker, herd movements, feed lorries, etc, in your diary for a week. Contrast that with perhaps a few transit vans that may be involved in new enterprises.
It is hard for the highwaymen to hypothesise against recorded facts. A working farm invariably generates considerably more and wider traffic than the average six-man joinery firm. It is all a matter of degree.
David Patten
Merry Marketing, 11 Overlands, North Curry, Taunton, Somerset.
Effects of F&M still being felt
MAFF were culling more sheep on the Isle of Sheppey over the first bank holiday weekend. Apparently these animals were shown to have positive antibodies to foot-and-mouth when blood tested. However, because they did not show any clinical signs of the disease, they do not get entered as a confirmed case on the MAFF statistics. Consequently everyone is led to believe that the disease is going away when it is still very much around.
Caroline Cooper
cowstead@supanet.com
Why not close Scots border?
You report in your columns (News, May 18) that colorado beetles have been found at a port in Scotland.
Wouldnt it be a good idea to close the border?
S J Donaldson
The Gables, Cooden Close, Bromley, Kent.
Why are jetters being ignored?
I am writing in response to your article (Livestock, May 4) on jetters. I have one and I find it frustrating that there are probably 100 machines in the UK but no licensed products.
I understand that there are suitable products available in Australia and New Zealand which would work well here. But because there are better margins to be made from the pour-on products and the profusion of red tape, they are unable to be used in the UK.
At a time of low returns, it would be a good opportunity to make such products available to a market which has grown over the years.
The jetting system has many advantages and provides a fast, highly efficient and easy application of chemicals for ecto-parasite control in sheep.
Guy Lister
Dean Court Farm, Westwell, Ashford, Kent.
WHD success led to BASP
The British Association of Seed Producers was successfully launched recently.
But I would like to point out that it is not, and never has been, the official policy of BASP to suggest that breeders in this country are involved in an illegal cartelistic behaviour.
I would be grateful if the British Society of Plant Breeders would accept that this must be seen as a misrepresentation and we look forward to working closely with the society in our common aim to promote British-produced certified seed, and the benefits of British-bred genetic material, from which all farmers are able to benefit.
We are concerned with the trend that European companies are taking British seed production into Europe and marketing the commercial grades back into this country.
That cannot be a sound basis for British agriculture to form a sound traceable system for our food production, and would not encourage the industry to use our seed production specialists in this country.
farmers weekly (Opinion, May 4) said the BASP should be confident enough to leave the image of WHD Seed Growers behind.
It is only because of the success of WHD and the careful stewardship of its officers, that this new, more relevant and high profile organisation is able to be in a position from which to lead the British seeds industry forward.
David Buttle
British Association of Seed Producers, Unit 5, Old Dairy Court, Burcot Farm, East Stratton, Winchester, Hants.