READERS LETTERS
READERS LETTERS
Walston has never had to struggle
The way Oliver Walston strutted about his farm bragging about his wealth in the first of his BBC2 series Against The Grain would lead any self-respecting farmer to reach for the bucket.
Sadly, he missed the crucial point in that he failed to illustrate who was being subsidised, the farmer or the consumer. After World War Two, differential payments were paid to farmers in order to minimise food costs to consumers. These payments, together with the European financial assistance to farmers, spawned the common agricultural policy.
By his own admission, Mr Walston last year lost £20,000 and without subsidies would have lost £200,000. He should not have lost that amount compared with many of his neighbours; proving he is either a bad farmer or a bad money manager or probably both. But then he has never had to struggle because daddy left him the lot.
It is essential that we maintain the smaller unit family farm. Our problems in this country are urban and we must encourage the re-establishment of rural communities preferably involved in agriculture in whatever farm.
The family farm is the embryo of the future rural economy. The power that exists in Brussels has the ability to achieve this.
Let Mr Walston and his ilk, who sit on small-scale neighbours fences like vultures waiting for them to go bust, be a target for modulation. Perhaps Squire Walston would have been wiser to have maintained his old farmsteadings, keeping them to let to young farmers, rather than collect his £200,000 from a city mogul. Time will tell.
E * England
Manor House Farm, Jericho Lane, East Halton, Immingham, East Yorks.
Two hours TV time is wasted
Having just watched Oliver Walston on the television showing off his magnificent machinery and large prairie farm, I feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with the public relations department in farming if we cannot find a less smug spokesperson.
His attitude appears to be: "Im all right Jack because Ive got a large arable farm of 2000 acres which I inherited and anyway people actually pay me money to pontificate on farming so I make even more money than you poor suckers trying to get by on 100 acres." In fact, even the real prairie farmers in America with their "Freedom to Farm" and their considerably lower input costs are finding that they cannot survive without subsidies.
It would have been much more interesting to hear more from the dairy farmer in Cornwall. Unfortunately Mr Walston is much more articulate that the average farmer which means, I suspect, that during the course of his programmes other peoples views will not get much of an airing. That is a shame as it is not often that farming has two hours of prime time television to put its case to the public.
S W Yorke
Lower Wield Farm, Alresford, Hampshire.
Privileged put you off cereal
I hesitate to write about Oliver Walston because it is obvious that he wants to be the centre of attention bearing in mind his series Against the Grain on BBC2.
Is the future of farming to be for the privileged few who sit on their backsides during harvest, with their feet on a desk? That vision is enough to put the woman on the Clapham omnibus right off her breakfast cereal!
Norma Bryson
Church Farm, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Rugby, Warks.
Pompous and selfish Oliver
I have just watched the programme on BBC2 Against the Grain. I cant help thinking what a pompous and selfish old coot Oliver Walston proves himself to be. He would also appear to be very short-sighted.
He made no mention of the rent bill or mortgage that he has to pay, so I assume he has none. What a nice position to be in. If he was on the bottom rung of the farming ladder and trying to move upwards, he would have a rather different opinion.
I started in 1997 with just 20 cows which I didnt inherit. I also have to pay rent. It would appear, therefore, that in Mr Walstons opinion, Im on a loser straight away.
I missed out on the extra help from our New Labour government because I started too late, according to government compensation policies.
I, along with hundreds of stock farmers, even pay for the products which Oliver Walston chops behind his combine. If farming is so profitable for him, it is largely due to the opportunities that he had in the good times. With such good foundations, and a measure of government assistance, he has had the opportunity to build himself a promising empire.
I am glad to have the opportunity to farm my 24 cows, 15 store cattle and 86 sheep. And, with a measure of help from Brussels, perhaps I too might see a glimpse of some good times.
D W Greenow
1 Sufton Lane, Mordiford, Herefordshire.
Radio debate of total bias
How typical of the BBCs metropolitan bias was a Boxing Day discussion on the Today programme about the environment. This was led by Anna Ford and featured environment minister Michael Meacher and speakers from Friends of the Earth and the Green Party.
The minister was congratulated on his performance after which Labours record was criticised from the left-wing perspective of those in the studio. Further complaints were aired about the absence of so-called right-to-roam legislation and there was even a plug for reform of the voting system.
With no countervailing viewpoint, the result was as tedious as it was predictable. Incidentally, listener confidence in the programmes political impartiality is rather undermined when one recalls that Ms Ford entered the political arena a few months ago when she gave her personal endorsement to New Labour in the Radio Times.
Is it too much to hope that the Today programme editors will even things up by inviting comments from Mr Meachers Conservative opposite number, together with spokesmen from the Countryside Alliance and the Country Landowners Association?
Colin Smith
The Villa, Cemetery Road, Gillingham, Dorset.
How can I stop hare coursing?
Hare coursing – what can we do about it? We suffer hare coursers virtually every weekend. Is there anything we can do to stop them? We have tried phoning the police but by the time they arrive, the coursers are far away. Neither do the police seem interested.
Apparently these people are not breaking the law until they let their dogs off their leads. They do this only for a short time when they happen to spot a hare. I have heard of people putting trip wires up, but I dont like the idea of hurting the dogs. We would be grateful for any ideas.
Lincs farmer
Name and address supplied.
Euro threatens our sovereignty
David Richardson declares he has much to learn about the introduction of the euro (Dec 18). He does indeed.
Economic and monetary union has been forced through by European leaders not for financial benefit but for political reasons. It is one vast financial experiment and despite Mr Richardson describing the loss of sovereignty as a Tory hangover, it is the biggest ever threat to British democracy. What happens when a new EU directive comes out which harms the British farming industry?
Can British farmers go to parliament and ask for it to be changed? Of course not, parliament is obeying orders from Brussels. What would happen if farmers go to Brussels? They are told new directives are for the benefit of all 15 member states and tough that they do not suit the more efficient British farmers. Brussels cannot change the rules to suit the minority. Imagine that also happening in fiscal terms.
Most farmers will probably be hit hard by Britains entry into EMU. John Redwood warned recently that an entry rate of 2.95DM to the £ would disadvantage us greatly. If we complain, we would be told to accept it as other nations could not pick and chose their rates on entry.
Then there is taxation. My sleep is disrupted by nightmares of Oscar Lafontaine. British taxes will have to rise as we are one of the least taxed nations in Europe. If there is a levelling out of taxes as some pundits believe, then our taxes will have to level out upwards.
Unlike Mr Richardson, I have been studying the euro for some years and I am convinced we should say no thanks. If we join, and cant sack the unelected and secretive bankers in Frankfurt who set interest rates to suit the Franco-German axis, we cannot ditch our new levels of high taxation. That means our parliament will be a powerless shell rubber stamping orders from the Commission. Then we will realise sovereignty was something to have treasured; not squandered on a fiscal experiment.
Derek Bennett
53 Daisy Bank Crescent, Walsall, West Midlands.
Auctioneers must fight back
Last month livestock markets throughout the country held their annual Christmas fatstock shows. At these events, auctioneers take the opportunity to thank producers and buyers for their support during the past year and to ask for their continued support during the coming year.
Last year, more than ever before, auctioneers, expressed concern at the reduced number of fatstock, particularly beef, that is being sold through livestock markets. More producers are switching to selling their stock direct to the slaughterhouses on the deadweight basis. These producers have an obvious reason for doing so and auctioneers who continuously criticise them will not get anywhere. They should realise that, compared with selling direct to a slaughterhouse, selling through a live market involves two additional links in the chain between farmgate and plate and both have to be paid for by producers.
Auctioneers have a battle on their hands. For their own benefit and the long term future of the live fatstock auction markets, every auctioneer in the country should take note of John Davies, the mid-Wales livestock farmer and FW Farmer Focus contributor: "The way we sell our livestock needs to be improved. Markets are essential but they need to become centres of excellence, always looking to improve the service provided and to add value." (Farmer Focus, Dec 18).
Those markets that have not already done so should remove their old fashioned dial-type scales. They weigh the cattle in increments of 5kg and depend entirely on the auctioneers eyes to read them. That is difficult when an animal is restless and means this method of weighing is open to discrepancies. In fact producers lose a few kg on each sale.
Such scales should be replaced with electronic digital scales to show the weight on a screen. Beef cattle sold dead weight are weighed to the nearest 0.5kg so beef cattle sold liveweight should be weighed to the nearest 1kg.
Any other ideas to improve live fatstock auction markets?
F J Williams
Berthlwyd Uchaf Farm, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire.
Abandon £, abandon UK
No matter how many clever reasons are presented by David Richardson, as to why we should abandon the British £ in favour of the new Mickey Mouse currency, the euro, an undeniable fact remains. Abandoning the £ would mean forfeiting the right of the democratically elected UK government to rule our own country.
Power would apparently pass from Whitehall to the unelected Eurocrats operating the new European central bank. The real rulers of Great Britain would be the paymasters of the EU – the all powerful German Bundestag.
If we were mad enough to adopt this lunatic policy, we would have helped to create a United States of Europe, which is, in all but name the Fourth Reich.
Dick Lindley
Birkwood Farm, Altofts, Normanton, W Yorks.
Poisonings may tie our hands
I have every sympathy with the two readers who wrote (Letters, Dec 18) about their dogs eating slug pellets from the bag. I understand their wish to warn other readers about the danger.
I assume they know that agrochemicals should be kept in a locked chemical store. The problem is that these two incidents will, added to the number of poisonings caused by agrochemicals, be used by the green lobby to tie our hands in the future.
The sooner all those using agrochemicals followed this basic requirement the better for our industry.
Charles Tassell
Church Farm, Ulcombe, Maidstone, Kent. Ctass@cix.compulink.co.uk
Please, Mr Gill, stay neutral
The letter from Dr Julian Lewis MP (Dec 18), outlining public hostility to British entry into Economic and Monetary Union, is instructive and persuasive.
I hope the opinion poll figures mentioned by Dr Lewis will have been noted by Ben Gill who, using his position as NFU president, recently put his name to a pro-EMU advertisement in the Financial Times. As The Times pointed out the next day this advertisement was "as mendacious as it was misguided". Only in the small print was it admitted that the signatories had signed "in a personal capacity".
It appears that Mr Gill could be reprimanded for playing politics in preference to reflecting the real views of NFU members who are as divided on this matter as any other part of the society.
We shall see more pro-EMU propaganda initiatives in the coming months. If so, I hope Mr Gill will refrain from attaching to them the authority of the NFU in order to bolster their spurious credibility. If he cannot do this, he will surely be asked to consider his position.
Claire Ford
18, Balsam Park, Wincanton, Somerset.
NFU aiming for efficient NVZs
May I address two issues raised in Mr Moncktons Talking Point (Dec 18). First, alterations in the Nitrate Directive in the nitrate section of the Drinking Water Directive require a commission proposal or unanimity among members states. The NFU has vigorously explored the possibility of these developments, but, even in the face of substantial scientific evidence which favours a higher control limit, we have to accept they will not happen for some years.
Second, Mr Monckton claims the UK government has acted earlier than it might have and, therefore, should compensate its producers. There are two problems with that claim: First the EU Commission considers the UK has acted at the latest possible date, and second, even if the UK government has acted early it would not have offered compensation, especially as the prime obligation imposed on farmers is simply to meet the codes of good agricultural practice.
The NFUs priority on NVZs, is to improve the way they are being implemented.
None of us should waste time and effort tilting at windmills when we need to progress so many other matters such as the end of the nitrate sensitive areas scheme.
A W D Pexton
NFU, Agriculture House, 164 Shaftsbury Avenue, London.
Green lobby put up smoke screen
Geoffrey Hollis critics (Letters, Dec 18) give insight into the mental universe inhabited by the organic lobby where everything is perceived. Of course farming uses energy – more since the burning ban – but less than some industries.
Any source of heat and pressure can be used to make ammonia from the air, the same air incidentally used by clovers. There is evidence from history as to where muck and magic farming leads. The famine of 1918 in Australia and Germany was caused not by the blockade, as used to be thought, but by the huge demand for nitric acid for explosives leaving nothing for fertilisers.
If there are no good herbicides available, the only other way to try to kill weeds is pass after pass of tractor wheels damaging the soil and wasting fuel.
Why is there all this fuss about OPs when they have been poured on millions of heads and used by gardeners for years, without harm, except in agriculture in parts of the UK?
Why are the only pollutants in water agricultural when millions of homes are on mains drainage? What goes in must come out, and there is a conspiracy of silence. The truth is that the organic phenomenon is only kept going by a verbal smoke screen preventing logical thought.
G G A Crisp
Le Mesnil de Benneville, 14240 Cahagnes, France.
Dont complain about our lot
We thank you for your invitation (Leader, Dec. 25) to express our views about farming topics. You are to be congratulated for your unbiased selection of letters for publication.
One of the most honest and factual letters last year was from the Suffolk farming family (Nov 18), who like ourselves, do not wish to partake in the excessive complaining witnessed during recent years.
No doubt, making exaggerated and inaccurate claims to support their campaign for more taxpayers support for some sectors will ultimately discredit the farming industry.
We farm fewer acres than the average holding in East Anglia but thanks to the generous level of area aid payments and set-aside, we are still in reasonable profit. Profits are of course down on 95 and 96, by about 50% but it should be remembered profits in those two years were 150% up on earlier years. In those two years, unlike many farmers, we were not tempted to spend on expensive machinery which was not strictly necessary. Equally we did not buy over-priced land, which was, and is, over-inflated by the sale proceeds of development land, chasing capital gains tax roll-over relief.
Nick Brown and his MAFF officials are not there to arrange handouts at taxpayers expense to perpetuate unjustifiable levels of farm profits. Especially not to the pig producers who have only themselves to blame for overproduction.
Milk producers, even with the enormous advantage of milk quotas, still blame everyone but themselves for not being competent to exploit the situation by working co-operatively.
Currently, farmers are receiving potato prices at double the level of 1997 so are they offering to sell at lower prices to the supermarkets? Its time to stop whining and whingeing and be more realistic
Norfolk farming family
Name and address supplied.
Refuse to have sewage on land
I write regarding the new law about sewage which is no longer allowed to be dumped in the sea. When I used it 30 years ago, I did not consider it to be of much value as it was diluted by too many detergents and washing chemicals.
I suggest all farmers should join together and refuse to have it on their land, unless paid for the privilege of taking it by authorities, water boards, or councils. If it is so good, why not use it on the parks and gardens, golf courses etc? They could have the smell as well then.
R A Goodban
Spratling Farm, Manston, Isle of Thanet, Ramsgate, Kent.
Farm costs up with assurance
Your Leader of Dec 18 supported the Assured Combinable Crops Scheme. I suggest you think again. ACCS aims to protect against future food scares. It not only fails to do this but it is an impossible mission.
ACCS requires spreaders and sprayers to be checked regularly yet simply turning the steering wheel causes massive variation in application rate across the boom. (A 24m sprayer turning on a 12m radius results in a difference of 9500% between inner and outer jets). That coupled with the inevitable overlap means that all headlands must be excluded along with areas around any obstacles if you wish to assure grain.
Birds and rodents must be kept out of grain stores lest they contaminate the top layer of grain. It has yet to be explained how they can be excluded from the fields where they could contaminate 100% of the crop.
Lights in grain stores must have plastic covers yet the most likely time for a bulb to be smashed is when it is being changed and the cover removed. Total nonsense.
The biggest howler is the requirement for the chemical store to be bunded. However desirable this may be, it has no effect whatsoever on the quality of grain produced and is less likely to be the cause of pollution than, for example, chemicals being spilt during filling. It is purely political. If someones grain is not good enough because his storage of chemicals might cause pollution, then surely producers who risk causing death and injury by speeding in their cars should also be excluded. Likewise the wife batterer, the person making a late VAT return or any felon you care to think of.
ACCS increases costs to its participants without giving any increased returns. Non participants feel compelled to join least they suffer a price penalty. Merchants use it as an excuse to reduce prices and all in the name of an impossible cause.
J B Randle
Church Farm, Fletching, Uckfield, E Sussex.
ACCS will help remove cowboys
Many critics of the assured combinable crops scheme have featured in these columns, but most have failed to recognise that our crops are grown for food whether for humans or animals. Has our industry learned nothing from recent food scares?
We must take a more professional approach to how we operate and, in particular, to quality assurance. As egg producers dealing with retailers and consumers, we were victims of perhaps the first food scare, salmonella in eggs. So we are aware of the power of the media when used against us.
We all know of farms with inadequate grain stores infested with rodents and birds, the grain covered in dust and droppings. And we certainly do not want that grain in our poultry feeds.
Yes, it costs money to join ACCS and some parts seem unnecessary. But the scheme is reasonable and workable and its independent running and verification should give it credibility to buyers and consumers. It should help to remove cowboy growers whose grain is a disgrace and to improve our industrys products and reputation.
Alan Turner
Pintail Nest, Winton, Northallerton, North Yorks.
All farmers do their best
More than a dozen readers letters were published in your issue of Dec 18 and not one mentioned supermarkets – let alone their profits (currently averaging 6.1% net).
And then I spotted the cause of this apparent omission. One of your readers summed it up in one sentence. "Agriculture has four major problems: Over-supply, the worst public image ever, intensive environmentally damaging practices and animal welfare questions."
I agree with the first reason, but organic farmers should stop shooting the whole industry in the foot by quoting the third and fourth alleged problems, which achieves merely the said public image problem!
All farmers do far, far more to preserve the environment and employ higher animal welfare systems than was the case 10 or even five years ago. But too many organic growers seem determined to advance their cause by criticising in public the majority of conscientious, conventional farmers.
Whether intensively farmed or not, UK farmers produce the best food in the world. Safeway buyers have sourced from the UK providing our standards can be met for years and we are glad other multiples have now also adopted this idea. In 1998, 85% of all the food and drink sold in all our 483 stores was sourced, grown and manufactured in the UK.
Sadly, we share the same frustration as organic farmers Tim and Jo Budden. As the first supermarket to sell organics in 1981, we have also had to import up to 70% of the organic fruit and vegetables we sell. But lets keep the rise in organic sales in perspective. It is from a minuscule base; £100m organic sales in 1993 compared with grocery sales then of £70bn. £260m organic last year compares with grocerys £86.8bn. Organics add an extra dimension to customer choice; they are also "not solutions, as the public recognises".
Tony Combes
Public affairs manager, Safeway.