Archive Article: 2001/09/14

14 September 2001

Weighbridge levies must be resisted

The recent suggestion (Talking Point, Aug 10) that we should refuse to pay the iniquitous weighbridge charge levied on every load of grain deserves all our support.

It has obviously touched a raw nerve as Paul Rooke, UKASTA policy director tries to justify the practice with meaningless waffle (Letters, Aug 31). We have a 50ft 50t Weights and Measures approved weighbridge, but we still have to pay weighbridge charges when loads get to their destination.

Why should that be? When any bulk load that arrives on farm, be it chalk, sand or gravel, fertiliser or fuel, we accept the vendors weights. Why should our grain merchant not accept ours? Obviously, it has become a lucrative earner in its own right. We know that an annual service charge is about £1000, depreciation is negligible, and a persons time is not consequential.

A small mill might take 10 loads a day, five days a week, say 2500 loads a year. With that little to do, the weighbridge attendant could, presumably, spend part of his or her time doing something else. Nevertheless, at £75 per load, that would bring in £18,750/year.

A large mill might take up to 10 times as many loads. Here the attendant might be expected to be full time but, with an income of up to £190,000/year, the mill could afford that.

What possible excuse can there be for threatening to increase these charges other than blatant profiteering? We are fools if we agree to pay.

R P Headley

Tile Lodge Farm, Hoath Road, Hoath, Canterbury, Kent.

ACCS rates are outrageous

While perusing your excellent web-site FWi, I was interested to read the report concerning the new rates to be charged by Assured Combinable Crops Scheme. I could not help but be amazed at the new charges which they are preparing to levy on small cereal farmers who, although unable to obtain the advantages of economy of scale available to large agribusinesses, are being hammered into the ground. They have to pay the outrageous charge of £3.50/ha for accreditation if they farm 30ha of cereals compared with 70p/ha for the large producer with 250ha of cereals. I have asked the creator of this assurance scheme, NFU if it plans to speak out on behalf of small farmers who are also its members. So far a deafening silence has been the only response. If small producers, who are subscription-paying NFU members want to complain about the unfairness of these charges, it would be advisable to write to either president Ben Gill or the chairman of the cereals committee, Richard Butler.

It would also be interesting to know to which assurance scheme those German grain producers belonged who have been selling grain into the UK, fraudulently pretending it to be organically produced. The incident underlies the belief, held by those of us who are not ACCS members, that no foreign produce will ever be up to the standards of our own first-class British produce, assured or not.

Dick Lindley

Birkwood Farm, Altofts, Normanton, West Yorks.

Haskins view on meat slurry?

It is with surprise that I note the silence observed by Lord Haskins on the subject of mechanically recovered meat in the food chain and potential links to new variant CJD. Surely, as the chairman of Northern Foods and the government advisor on the future of British agriculture, he would be well placed to contribute to the debate.

Produced, apparently, by blasting fragments of waste material from animal bones to produce a tasteless slurry, mechanically recovered meat acts as a cheap filling for pies and burgers but presents an unacceptable level of risk to consumers. Could it be that Northern Foods has profited by the use of this substance? Brands incorporated within the company include Bowyers, Pork Farms, Matthew Walker, Dalepak and Batchelors.

Lord Haskins neither confirms nor denies involvement. But reports from the governments Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee suggest the 25% of companies approached for information have refused to co-operate with their inquiries, even after several years of effort by SEAC. The British Meat Manufacturers Association recently refused to answer questions on the BBC Radio 4s Today programme. Many companies are also claiming that the relevant information has been lost due to management changes.

Is Northern Foods one of these companies afraid of the repercussions? Lord Haskins silence on this subject contrasts with his well reported and outspoken attacks on the British agricultural industry.

The agricultural industry has undergone tortuous change since the onset of the BSE crisis in order to minimise further risk to consumers. The malpractice of certain food processors, however, remains shrouded in mystery. The ultimate irony is that one of the potential perpetrators of this malpractice is now advising the government on the "restructuring" of the rural economy.

S E Dewes

18 Mellowdew Road, Wyken, Coventry.

Farmers wrongly take the blame

Farmers are bearing the brunt of the blame for this governments inadequate handling of foot-and-mouth disease. There has been much in the Press about farmers cashing in, making their fortunes, deliberately spreading the disease and claiming compensation.

Little is reported about MAFF and now DEFRAs spending. Officials and vets stay in top hotels, they have new cars, mobile phones, expenses and stress money. It is farming families that have suffered the stress.

Every farmer has lived in fear since F&M was confirmed in the Essex abattoir. Everyday there has been dread on every livestock farm. For some, their worst nightmares came true. With it came the trauma of seeing all that has been built up, sometimes through generations, torn apart.

We farm in Northumberland and thankfully our stock has so far been spared. Many of our family and friends were not so fortunate. Their experiences can only be described as harrowing.

As if having your animals destroyed was not enough, the cruel and uncaring way in which many were killed, then left lying as a constant reminder, has caused many people much grief. Nearly everyone who had stock taken have a horrifying tale to tell: Animals shot in the open by slaughtermen, animals buried alive or forgotten and left in pens only to be found later barely alive, the wrong farm being culled. The list is endless.

Every countryside business has experienced hardship. Our countryside has never been in such a fragile state. If it is to recover we need a full public inquiry.

Many questions need to be answered. How did this disease arrive? What went wrong in the governments crisis management? Valuable lessons must be learnt from this tragedy that has affected so many lives.

Judith Hart

Ulgham Broom Farm, Ulgham, Morpeth, Northumberland.

DEFRA staff & families suffer

I am married to an animal health officer who is employed by DEFRA and works in Bury St Edmunds. Since March this year, he has been on detached duty in Carlisle where he works as a senior animal health officer managing a team and responsible for cleansing and disinfecting a patch of Cumbria.

I am writing to point out that it is not only the rural community which is directly affected by F&M, but also DEFRA employees and their families. We have three children under the age of seven, and my husband works away for between three to five weeks at a time returning for one week. During that week, if he doesnt wish to take annual leave, he is expected to return to his normal job in the Bury St Edmunds office. During his week at home he has to try to get all the frustrations he faces off his chest, while trying to deal with three excited children and one tired and fed up (that he has been away so long) wife.

Please spare a thought for all who are caught up in this terrible mess.

Lesley Standring

10 Heath Road, Norton, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Parting shot or new attack?

Seventeen new cases of foot-and-mouth in Northumberland; the county where it all started. Is this a blip on the tail of the epidemic, or is it the start of the second lap?

Phillip Bromwell

Rheld Farm, Crickhowell, Powys.

No hiding place from the truth

Far from farmers having knowingly spread foot-and-mouth as alleged by the governments scurrilous spinmaster-generals department, there is a widespread perception that the outbreak was deliberately started and spread by Mr Blairs government on the instructions of its Brussels masters.

The aim was to drastically reduce the burden on the CAP budget of our large sheep population. The government deliberately failed to order early army action and to ring vaccinate as advised by the real experts. It wanted to be sure that a sufficient number sheep and sheep farming businesses would be destroyed.

The perception is that F&M was deliberately introduced into south Wales as long ago as last September, that the disease was transferred in exported sheep to Germany and Belgium but its incidence there was hushed up on EU orders. MAFF and the UK government knew what was going on and were preparing funeral pyres last November onwards to ensure that the disease was spread downwind.

The government fears that if a public inquiry is held, personnel from Porton Down and ex-MAFF will be subpoenaed to testify as to their role. Now that the Human Rights Act is in force, the Official Secrets Act will not shield the government. The OSA exists to protect national security not to serve as a shield for acts of incompetence, negligence and deliberate sabotage by government. When the government is exposed to public scrutiny, it will be exposed to the force of criminal law. In that situation, it is questionable if even this government will be able to remain in office.

Unfortunately, that will be no cause for much celebration, since democracy in Britain has reached such a low ebb that there is patently no opposition worthy of office.

Stuart Pattison

Church Lane, Calstock, Cornwall.

Is farming past being rebuilt?

It is more than six months since the first case of foot-and-mouth and rural Britain is not out of danger yet. I will never forget all the sad stories and photographs about farmers and F&M published in the newspapers and broadcast on television.

It fills me with tears when I think of all the pain it has caused farmers and others who did their part in slaughtering so many animals in order to keep F&M under control. When we finally get rid of this terrible disease, it worries me that because so much damage has been done to farming, the politicians will not be able to rebuild the industry and promote British food.

Whoever gets this job will need courage for it will be like climbing Mount Everest. The public is fed up with farmers problems. It is difficult to trust governments, especially this Labour one. It doesnt use common sense when it imports meat from countries that have had F&M. Moreover British farmers are very successful in producing more than enough meat.

In all walks of life there are bad apples and when the pressure is on to make a living, some people take short cuts. That is when problems occur.

I dont know how best to deal with these people. I do know that for the future of rural Britain, there will be many changes in the industry as a result of F&M. Not only the government, but all of us need better judgment and lots of common sense.

Jim Braid,

Croft House, Bridgend, Perth.

North and south confusion

Your article (Machinery, Aug 17) on the Cotswold Machinery Ring said that the most northern area we covered was South Worcestershire. In fact, we cover South Staffordshire, all of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and parts of North Wiltshire. Our telephone number is 0870 7401890. We can be contacted at The Cotswold Machinery Ring Ltd, Freepost SWC3677, Moreton-in-Marsh, GL56 9ZZ.

Paul Hussell

paul@cmr.org.uk

Time to lobby for bio-diesel

I have recently taken an interest in the bio-diesel debate and have a new Audi A2 which will run without modification on bio-diesel. I am surprised that this so called green government is so keen to tax road users out of existence and fine speeding motorists when it is economically viable to do so.

We have a farming crisis and a rural economy desperate for a cash-rich society to help it reduce reliance on subsidies.

What better solution than to push the bio-diesel lobby to meet the needs of the nation by getting bio-diesel to the market within two years?

Small production units could be set up to let rural communities have access to an economic product in a location where commercial petrochemical

companies find it expensive to deliver. Small farmers and growers should be encouraged to set up small processing plants to pump prime the need for the product.

As diesel vehicles are now in the ascendancy, so the pressure from users for alternative fuels to LPG and the electric car will grow rapidly.

Graham Owen

grahamowen@orange.net

Thatching straw can make cash

On average, forecast yields are usually lower, and estimated costs are always higher than the pre-harvest guesses. This year they were even further out, which, even the 25% grain price increase, doesnt cover. But, like Marie Skinner (Talking Point, Aug 24) with her sugar beet, we also have a profitable crop to help shoulder the break-crop losses.

25 years ago, we switched from potatoes to thatching straw. To start with, it was like escaping from being taken hostage and landing in quicksand. Anything more than a Scotch mist or force 2 winds, knocks the long straw over and renders it useless. This year we lost 37ha but still managed to harvest 1543 round bales. They sell for £330/t plus VAT. However, if area payments cease, which looks very likely, we will have to drop the practice of delivering to new customers via the Roller.

George Scales

Cobblers Pieces, Abbess Roding, Ongar, Essex.

Wolves after sugar beet

Your In Brief item (Business, Aug 24) reports a questionable situation regarding the price of sugar beet as farmers face a severe winter crisis.

Cargill Banks, a monopoly organisation, has announced a £13/t increase in the price of sugar beet pellets. Already these are at a falsely high price, due to a large increase a year or two ago, on the grounds that the price should be more in line with other feeds, rather than remaining at a cost plus basis.

In times of crisis there are always wolves who move in to take advantage of the victims. Sugar beet is a valuable sheep feed which farmers will need to buy to keep the surplus stock they are forced to retain. Citrus pulp is not a feed that cows or sheep would voluntarily eat; it needs to be disguised in mixtures.

What puzzles me is the existence of a monopoly that controls the major part of the world grain trade and now expands further into the seed trade, having the right to control prices. But farmers, under the WTO free trade regulations, pay a fixed price on inputs. And they are not allowed to control the price of their produce to cover costs of production.

Our previous government signed away farmers rights to such control.

It is amazing that Milk Marque was disbanded on the grounds of being a monopoly while world monopolies like Cargill Banks are accepted. Obviously there are separate rules for the really big boys.

Jose MacDonald

Farming and Livestock Concern UK, Penlan Fach, Llangain, Carmarthen.

In the name of charity

Now that farmings future is to be trusted to a committee containing single interest charities like the RSPB, it suggests that its high profile, costly PR and continual lobbying of MPs, here and in Brussels over the years, has paid off.

The unseemly rush of New Labour, to jump on the environmentally friendly, conservation caravan and get into bed with very wealthy registered charities, could suggest that further scrutiny by the Charities Commission might prove rewarding.

The picture of farming being controlled by single issue power groups, intent on feathering their own nests, will paint a gloomy future for farming or any of its inter-related industries.

The deviousness of this charity combined with Labours urban green-wellied evangelists, fully illustrates their intended manipulation of farming and the countryside for their own ends. All farmers now know that this anti-farming duet, are both chirping from the same hymn sheet.

Simon Bennett Evans

Glanrhyd, Llangurig, Llanidloes, Powys.