EURO BRIEFS
EURO BRIEFS
uBRUSSELS has turned down a request from Ireland to be allowed to graze set-aside land and take a cut of hay or silage. The request had been made to offset the effects of an exceptionally wet summer, which has led to big fodder shortages and jeopardised animal welfare. The commission has already rejected a similar request from Austria, which has been suffering drought.
uNORTH-EAST Italy has been hit by one of the worst hail storms in living memory, according to wire service reports, with extensive damage done to the regions maize, grape, olive and fruit crops. Damage to crops is put in the "tens of millions of ks".
uIRISH Farmers Association leader, John Dillon, together with members of his sheep committee, has returned his sheep registration documents to the Dublin department of agriculture in protest at the "bureaucratic nightmare being imposed on Irish sheep farmers". The IFA has proposed using dispatch documents as the basis for registration, rather than duplicating the information in a separate register and conducting an annual reconciliation.
uOVER 300 Charolais cattle producers blockaded a Carrefour hypermarket in the French town of Nivers last weekend in protest at the falling price of beef, say wire service reports. Despite two years of talks with retailers, prices and farm revenues had collapsed, said a farm union official. Yet the hypermarkets continued to stock foreign meat coming from countries and systems with no origin and quality guarantees. *