Opinion 15/04/05
Royal comes back to its roots
News that the Royal Show is to refocus on farming will be welcomed by everyone who wants an annual event showcasing the best of British agriculture. Hopefully, the changes will deliver what farmers need: A place to review new products, receive impartial advice on products and services while enjoying a great day out. It will also provide an opportunity to promote all that”s best about our industry to non-farming visitors. farmers weekly, backed by its sister titles Crops and Poultry World, is proud to have been selected as the media sponsor of this event for the next three years. We look forward to working with organisers Haymarket Land Events and to reporting what promises to become once more Britain”s premier annual farming event.
News, p8
Learn from Rover”s woes
MG Rover and UK lamb producers may appear to have little in common. One produces cars, or rather did, while the others produce meat. But UK lamb finishers could learn a lot from MG Rover”s apparent demise. Fail to produce what the market wants and your business will disappear. With the single farm payment, producing precisely what the market wants has become even more important. So why are 31% of UK lambs still too fat for the mainstream trade? It costs producers money to put fat on a carcass and it costs processors money to trim it off. Picking lambs for slaughter is a skill which every sheep producer, whether selling 50 lambs or 5000, would do well to hone.
Your guide in the SFP labyrinth
Nobody likes form-filling but, with so much at stake, getting your single farm payment claim right is vital. If only it were that simple – DEFRA”s initial guidance notes had serious shortcomings and the RPA”s phone helpline has been chaotic. But these issues are now being addressed, we are assured. Even though the onus is on government to provide easily accessible and understandable information, there is still much farmers can do to help themselves – many returned forms have had signatures missing, for example. And farmers weekly is there to help. Every week until the May 16 deadline we will answer your queries and cut through the SFP fog, both in the magazine and on our website. Check out our News and Business sections this week for invaluable information to benefit your business.
Bio-beds protect groundwater
Contain and degrade. It”s a prevention policy for potential point-source pesticide pollution that makes much sense. Bio-beds, used to filter pesticides through plants, are practical and a relatively cheap way of demonstrating responsible disposal of crop protection agrochemicals in farmyards. Three years of ADAS on-farm research proves they work. And the Environment Agency appears to be warming to the idea. All that”s needed now is agreement on what to do with the cleansed water emerging from the lined beds. The EA”s view is that without a groundwater authorisation it must be re-used. ADAS work suggests otherwise.
You can win this time-saving kit
Time and manpower have probably never been at such a premium on most farms as they are now. So any machine that can accomplish more than one job is a definite boon. A good example is Taarup”s 856 chopper feeder. It can chop silage and hay for feeding and chop and blow straw for bedding. The good news is that one FW reader can win this 16,000 machine in our competition.