Organic aid upped
Challenge to MMC
IN an extraordinary outburst on the second day of the show Christine Gwyther, the Welsh Assemblys farm minister, pledged to try to kill the MMC report on Milk Marque.
During an impromptu Press conference after discussions with co-op director Roger Evans, she said her talks with many people and organisations had convinced her that the report was fundamentally flawed and must not go unchallenged.
She rejected its claim that Milk Marque was creating higher consumer prices when UK farmgate prices were, in fact, the lowest in Europe.
"Second, it ignores the fact that co-operatives throughout Europe are far, far larger than Milk Marque and have a far greater share of the market," said Ms Gwyther. "It appears there is one rule for Europe and another law for Britain. We cannot have that and I am challenging it."
She would press for cross-Party support from assembly members for total rejection of the report. In the unlikely event that this was not forthcoming, she would continue a personal campaign with Westminster politicians.
Later she conveyed Welsh milk producers fury about the report to farm minister Nick Brown, who made a low key visit to the event. He said she had presented the case very vigorously, but he emphasised his responsibility to all sectors of the dairy industry.
"My message to Milk Marque and the processors is that I would like co-operative working in the dairy industry, so the vagaries of agricultural cycles are evened out and processors can make a living for the work they put in and the capital they have invested. But milk producers also have to get a living and get a fair price," said Mr Brown.
He would listen carefully to the views of everyone involved and convey all the information to the responsible minister, but could not interfere in the working of another government department.
While some sceptics suggested that vegetarian Ms Gwyther was using her opposition to build bridges with farmers, her stand was well received.
Farmers Union of Wales spokesman Alan Morris said the generally sympathetic attitude of Mr Brown and very positive views of Ms Gwyther had lifted producers spirits.
"Anything the national assembly can do to bury this unbelievably inaccurate and unfair report will be welcomed by thousands of Welsh farmers," Mr Morris said.
This years Royal Welsh
Show attracted fewer
visitors than usual, but
there were ministers
and Welsh Assembly
members galore touring
the showground, where,
as always there was
plenty to see and do.
Robert Davies and
Shelley Wright report
End ban call by ferry men
FARMERS Ferry directors want the beef-on-the-bone ban lifted as soon as possible to allow live British cattle to be shipped to the Continent where, they say, there are willing buyers.
Company secretary David Owen told a show Press conference there was tremendous demand in Europe for weaned calves, especially heifers. With the demise of the calf processing scheme, exports offered farmers an outlet for animals that might otherwise have to be slaughtered at birth.
The directors submitted their ideas to MAFF earlier this week and are awaiting a response. They believe that if the bone-in beef ban is lifted then the UK government can work with the EU Commission to allow live exports to resume.
But they stressed they are not promoting the export of calves for rearing in veal crates. Instead, the demand is for six-month-old animals which will be finished on maize-based systems.
Mr Owen reported that by Aug 14, the first anniversary of Farmers Ferrys maiden voyage, 800,000 sheep would have been exported to European markets. That, he said, was worth about £30m to UK farmers.
Along with chairman Terry Bayliss, Mr Owen urged more to contribute to the venture. So far, about 6000 UK producers have donated cash.
"Its clear that British livestock has tremendous potential and commands a premium price," Mr Bayliss said. "But developing new business takes time and money and we urge the thousands of farmers who have not yet joined to become members."
The majority of UK producers had contributed nothing and were riding on the backs of those who had. That was unfair, said Mr Bayliss.
Influencing policy
FARMERS can change future agricultural policy in Wales, according to the chairman of the National Assemblys agriculture committee.
Ieuan Wyn Jones told a Royal Welsh Show press conference that producers could influence spending priorities and the way resources are allocated by responding to a new consultative document.
Farming for the Future highlights the economics of the farming crisis and asks for suggestions on a range of policy issues.
"The National Assembly is about partnership and inclusive politics working together for the good of Wales. By issuing this document so quickly the assembly is showing the importance it attaches to the issues facing agriculture.
"What we need is a vision that combines economic viability with the need to sustain rural communities and enhance the countryside," said Mr Jones.
Figures in the document show that while agricultures share of Welsh gross domestic product is 1.8%, this falls to less than 0.1% when direct and indirect subsidies are deducted.
Alun Michael, assembly First Secretary, promised that farming and food would be at the heart of economic development, but he warned that there was no magic wand to wish away the industrys deeply rooted problems.
Landowners to the barricades
LANDOWNERS leaders will "go to the barricades" in order to defend peoples right to hunt with hounds.
But despite the strong words on the opening day of the show, Anthony Bosanquet, deputy president of the Country Landowners Association, immediately clarified that his choice of phrase in no way meant that the CLA would encourage civil disobedience.
The governments intention to outlaw hunting was another example of a threat to civil liberties.
"A huge number of jobs are also involved, but we focus mainly on the right of an individual to choose – and that is a matter which the CLA would go to the barricades on."
Mr Bosanquet, however, then said he used the term figuratively. "Im certainly not talking about civil unrest," he insisted.
On the governments plan to introduce a statutory right to roam, Mr Bosanquet again re-iterated the CLAs belief that the idea was flawed. "We have no open access deficit in Wales. Voluntary, managed access has worked in Wales and could continue to do so," he said.
He warned of potential conflict if government legislation, which would open almost 75% of the Welsh countryside to walkers, was introduced.
And the prospect of the legal right of access being applied to wooded areas, river banks and lake and pond sides, in addition to mountains, moors, heath and downs, was a "creeping nightmare" for many landowners and managers.
Countryside Alliance holds
hunting demo
CHRISTINE Gwyther, the Welsh Assemblys farm minister, has further incensed farmers by declaring herself anti-hunting.
Her admission was condemned by the Countryside Alliance, which organised a march around the Royal Welsh showground on Monday involving around 400 hunting supporters.
At one point the demonstrators tried to hang a life sized cut-out of the Prime Minister dressed in hunting pink from a crude noose fashioned from a flagpole rope outside the National Assembly pavilion.
Stewards persuaded hard line militants to stop because they risked alienating the public, but the makeshift noose remained in clear view of Alun Michael, assembly First Secretary, as he held a press conference.
On police advice Mr Michael refused to address the crowd but he and Ms Gwyther met representatives in private, where they agreed to listen to the views of people who supported hunting with dogs. But Ms Gwyther made her personal opposition to hunting clear.
Later Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Plaid Cymrus agricultural spokesman, demanded her resignation claiming her vegetarianism and lack of understanding of countryside people and issues made her job untenable.
Organic aid upped
AID available for organic conversion in Wales has been increased from £228,000 to £1m.
Welsh Assembly farm minister Christine Gwyther said the new money would allow about 6000ha (14,826 acres) of land to go into conversion this year.
She also said that £810,000 had been awarded to the Associated Co-operative Creameries plant at Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, to aid a £2.7m processing and marketing project.