READERS LETTERS
READERS LETTERS
Variable fert rates in the UKpipeline
After spending the first 24 years of my life in the UK gaining an agricultural education and working on different farms before moving to the USA, I was intrigued by the comments about precision application by Andy Offer (Arable, Nov 19).
Variable rate fertiliser application in the UK, has never really gained the momentum I expected it would over the past few years, and Andy Offers statement "the application of inputs using yield map data and agronomic software is some way off", probably did not inspire many people towards experimenting with it.
He did admit that there was "undoubtedly scope" to adjust inputs, but I feel his view may be missing one of the practical points, that has improved significantly the economics of farming in my area of the USA. That is the commercial utilisation of yield mapping and combined use of variable rate nutrient application technology.
Take, for example, if Mr Offer had an open and flat 20ha wheat field today that originally comprised four, equal-sized 5ha fields a few years ago, each with different crops, crop yields and rotations. Would he fertilise the whole 20ha block the same every year?
From his comments, I think he would, but I firmly believe that yield increases and subsequent cost reductions may be available from yield mapping and fertilising based on crop removal alone. This concept is relatively simple and commercially marketed and, as long as spatial soil tests are available to ensure low yields are not caused by low fertility, is there a reason to fertilise low-yielding areas the same as high-producing regions, Mr Offer?
As farm sizes continue to increase, more UK growers will be able to justify the associated yield mapping and software systems to be able to adopt this technology and to subsequently reduce their costs of production similar in concept to many regions within the USA.
Phil Needham
Kentucky, USA.Info@opticrop.com
GMOs a threat to land values
I note that SCIMAC is inviting selected farmers to host GM trials on their farms. I wonder if these farmers are aware of a recent poll of members of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors that has unfortunately not received much coverage in the farming Press.
The gist of the poll is that 58% thought that the growing of GM crops would affect the value of land (25% believed it would not), 43% thought that the growing of GM crops would affect the value of neighbouring land (32% did not). 89% would ask about the GM history of site when conducting a valuation and 83% would take into consideration the issue of GM cropping when conducting a Red Book Valuation.
Farmers who choose to host GM trials are putting the value of their land at risk, they are also putting the value of their neighbours land at risk.
Compensation for loss of land value is not available from the government or from the biotech companies.
The full RICS report is available on their web site and if farmers send me a SAE I will return a GM fact sheet.
Peter Lundgren
White Home Farm, Branston Fen, Lincoln.
Truckers face raw deal as well
I have read with interest the recent articles about rejected loads of grain. But spare a thought for the haulage contractor.
How about this: On Wed at 7am – my lorry loaded feed wheat at Stratford-on-Avon and tipped at Sharpness – no problem.
At 12 noon it arrived at a farm near Cirencester to pick up a load of milling wheat which unfortunately took 1.5hr to load. At 4pm it arrived at a mill near Wellingborough where the driver was told to "clear off". The mill closed at 3.30pm. With no overnight bag or food, the driver asked if he could leave the trailer to save bringing it back to our yard. Again he was told to "clear off and leave the trailer on the side of the road". The driver brought the load back to our yard near Kenilworth, Warks.
He arrived back at the mill on Thur, at 6.30am. At 9.20am the load was rejected, resampled and rejected again because of low hagberg. At 11.15am he was still waiting for a telephone call for redirections. The driver was then told the load had been accepted. At 12 noon the lorry was empty – 24hr after loading began.
We are regularly kept waiting 2hr and, at times, up to 4hr. Why do some mills think they have the divine right to hold lorries up as long as possible? Do they not understand that with vehicle overheads as they are, we need to keep moving?
I wonder how long this can go on or whether any haulage contractors will be prepared to move grain in the future.
Graham Smith
Burton Green Farm, Hob Lane, Burton Green, Kenilworth, Warks.
Passport idea simply brilliant
As I sit here in the candle light with no electricity, having just lit the gas with a leaflet about reducing power costs; it seems a good time to contemplate the extraordinary workings of MAAF.
Incidentally I am intrigued how the electricity company send just enough power down the line to keep the economy seven meter ticking and presumably the ministry computers on standby.
However, these retention period dates for cattle CIDs are a nightmare resulting in innocent little farmers like me incurring the full wrath of the mighty ministry for moving a beast 12 hr before the critical time. I have a brilliant plan which would save the ministry thousands of pounds in red ink, send farmers stress levels plummeting and save the NHS millions in treatment for depression.
The scheme would mirror that of taxing a car with all retention periods starting on the first day of the month, irrespective of when the application for premium was made. The passport would then carry a colour coded label with the months of the retention period clearly marked. So simple!
Power has just been restored, the Norweb is spared any disruption fees and the ministry computers can churn out another batch of prosecutions!
Eric Horn
Slack House Farm, Gilsland, Carlisle.
Agriculture is fighting back
Wesley Abbey should know better than to try to halt the demonstrations in the south west (News, Oct 22).
I would have thought that he might realise that British agriculture is fighting for its existence, and that all farmers should fight against the bureaucracy that is bedevilling us with whatever is available to us.
I support those who live near to ports and make their presence felt in an attempt to stop the import of French goods in this one-sided political food war. After all their food is often sub-standard; French beef being fed on sewage sludge is a good example.
My grandfather used to say that you could teach a pig anything but that you would never educate it. I think Mr Abbey and the government should take note.
W Chrystal
Wingate Grange Farm, Wingate, Co Durham.
SVD outbreaks not our fault
With reference to the farmer who asked: "Who should pay for the BSE fiasco?" (Letters, Nov 19), I would like to say that pig farmers went through all this with the outbreak of SVD. We were blamed for all the trouble it caused by the Press, MAFF and the government.
We were told that we were not cooking our swill properly and hence the new regulations were invoked to make sure that our waste food was cooked to a standard. We had to have clean and dirty sides in our cooking plants and MAFF vets to supervise our plants and to check the cooking tanks to make sure that the food was cooked properly.
During the outbreaks the pig farmers were sending recommendations up to NFU headquarters for all bag feed to carry a notice of what the bags contained. We never won that one, and consequently contaminated food was still being fed to breeding stock, weaners, and cattle.
That coincided with the governments withdrawal of cooking regulations controlling the meat and bonemeal industry.
Nobody will admit to the cause of SVD or BSE, but as a former waste food feeder, and with the unanimous support of all NFU Middlesex branch members, I am convinced farmers were not the cause of the outbreaks of SVD.
During the past 10 years I have pursued past prime ministers and farm ministers to find out why we were being blamed, with no satisfaction. At last MAFF has admitted that pig farmers were not to blame for the outbreaks of SVD.
Contaminated food was the sole cause of all outbreaks of SVD and BSE. It was caused by the governments alteration to the rules for the meat and bonemeal industry, and farmers should seek compensation.
Come on, NFU, organise something positive for your old members.
W J * Woodley
Spurlands End Farm, Spurlands End Road, Great Kingshill, Nr High Wycombe, Bucks.
Claim pig prices on rise rubbish
I simply cannot believe that Ross Buckland, the chief executive of Unigate, had the audacity to state that one of the main reasons for Unigates profit fall was falling UK pig numbers and rising UK pig prices (Business, Nov 12). Any pig farmer who sells to them has had his price cut by more than £6/pig in the past seven weeks.
If Mr Buckland is correct and I should have had a price rise please will he send me a cheque as soon as possible so I can pay my feed bill and get some more feed for my pigs. I wont hold my breath in anticipation of its arrival.
The only thing pig farmers can do now is to persuade shoppers to buy British by talking to them at the supermarkets. We can only hope that the real shortage of high quality British pig meat actually forces our prices to rise. I hear that the MLC and NPA has leaflets available to hand out to shoppers so I urge everyone to get out there and make a difference.
F Henley
Green Farm, Southfield Lane, Seaton Ross, York.
Tesco spells out pig policy
I would like to make Tescos position on stall- and tether-free pigmeat clear (News, Nov 12).
Tesco currently sells more British pork by volume than any other retailer. We were the first retailer to go stall- and tether-free in own label fresh pigmeat in 1997. We announced in July last year that we were extending the ban to all imported own brand fresh pigmeat. This has now been achieved and is subject to regular independent auditing and traceability checks.
Since then Tesco has worked towards establishing a level playing field for producers by requesting that all branded suppliers source from stall- and tether-free systems.
At the same time Tesco is maintaining its commitment to expanding the market for British pigmeat products through in-store promotion and new product innovation.
We were happy to co-operate with CIWFs survey. We look forward to seeing the results of a similar exercise within the catering industry – which now accounts for nearly 50% of UK meat consumption according to MLC figures – to determine its support for welfare-friendly pigmeat.
Steve Murrells.
Tesco meat category manager, Tesco House, Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Herts.
UK bacon off Somerfield shelf
With reference to Gloria Canolls comments about Somerfield backing British farmers (Letters, Nov 19), I discovered in my local Somerfield that I could find no British bacon rashers. I had been buying these for 13 years for my bed-and-breakfast business. The assistant just shrugged when I asked where they were and he could not tell me when there had been a change of policy.
I wrote to the manager of the Newport branch, then to the managing director in Whitchurch, Bristol.
To date I have had no reply to any of my letters.
Sheila Hodgson
Cheverton Farm, Shorwell, Newport, Isle of Wight.
Tell Sainsbury home truths
Regarding Angela Sugdens comments about French milk in Sainsbury (Letters, Nov 26), why dont we support her by writing to the chairman of Sainsbury or bring it to the attention of the manager when visiting the store?
If everybody, as a farmer or consumer, supported this perhaps something would be done. Lets get off our butts and support her initiative.
Shirley Turnham
New Bungalow, Astwell New Park Farm, Syresham, Brackley, Northants.
Worm work is well under way
The article "Breed to battle worms" (Livestock, Nov 12) implies that little or no research into genetic resistance to nematodes is under way in the UK. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are halfway through a three-year research project in conjunction with the Roslin Institute, Glasgow Veterinary School and the MLC to incorporate genetic resistance to nematodes into our breeding programmes.
Glasgow has identified a specific gene (MHC) in Scottish Blackface lambs which has a major influence on faecal egg count. The objectives of the project are to calculate the variation among lambs in faecal egg count and estimate the heritability of the trait to see if the beneficial alleles in the Blackface exist in terminal sire breeds and to calculate the advantages of additional measurements, such as antibody response, as predictors of resistance.
The research also aims to estimate the genetic relationship between resistance and productivity, in our case growth rates and muscularity. This is one of three Link collaborative research projects with which we are concerned, working closely with research institutes. One of the others, with the Suffolk and Charollais sire reference schemes also involved, is the computer tomograph programme to give extremely accurate predictions of body composition in the live lamb. This should be in use within the reference schemes next year.
Our contribution to these projects is a genetically linked population of 7000 ewes and their performance recorded progeny.
There is no doubt that the ability to breed resistance to nematodes should prove of immense benefit throughout the industry, not only to counter drug resistance, but to allay consumer worries over chemical residues.
Peter Johnson
Secretary Texel Sire Reference Scheme, Chandlers Cote, Addingham, Yorks.
Caution over trial results
Mr Dadd is quite correct (Letters, Nov 12) to point out the danger of reading too much into the results from a single trial. The data shown was from part of a three-year HGCA-funded project, which is being carried out at four sites under contrasting conditions, to examine alternative strategies for managing second wheats.
He is also right to highlight the importance of knowing the full trial details for proper interpretation, something which ARC believes very strongly in. Although these were not included in this article, which was not specifically about the project, all the factors mentioned are of course being assessed.
I am slightly confused by his references to low ear counts, because no ear number data was included anywhere in the article. However, I can confirm that, at about 400 ears/sq m, they were fairly typical for the situation, and that take-all was a major determinant of yield.
S M Knight
Arable Research Centres, Shuttleworth, Biggleswade, Beds.
Banish the word fat for ever
The article Under the Hammer (Stock and Sales, Nov 19) refers twice to fat lambs.
I would have thought that you should be encouraging producers to produce what the consumer wants and what they certainly do not want is fat lambs.
As alternatives, how about tenderlean or roasting as the consumer friendly prefix to lamb?
Brian Maller
Manor Gardens, Saxmundham, Suffolk.
HGCA vital as unbiased voice
You are wrong to suggest the HGCA should work with the trade to establish a united message (Opinion, Nov 19).
The HGCA survey is valuable because it is independent. Establishing a united message would destroy that independence.
If the HGCA gets it wrong it can be castigated and must improve its methodology, but has it got it wrong this time? Im not convinced it has, early HGCA survey results contained caveats as to poorer results to follow and the final results look plausible.
Mark Button
Arable manager, Dengie Crops, Hall Road, Asheldham, Southminster, Essex.