READERS LETTERS
READERS LETTERS
Answers to those F&M questions
The bitter disappointment of failing to obtain a public inquiry into foot-and-mouth should not deflect from the urgent need to substantiate the source of this epidemic. We also need to learn how it was able to develop into the most disgraceful episode in the countryside in living memory.
Perhaps the government and DEFRA wish the truth never to be known. But if they want to pass the financial burden on to farmers, it is even more important that the outbreak should be investigated either by a public inquiry or some other means.
The case against Bobby Waugh, formerly of Burncastle Farm, highlighted the fact that this was the first farm on which the disease was reported. But it was also made clear that this was not the source of the epidemic.
Several important questions remain to be answered. How was this disease carried to Burncastle Farm? Has a full scale investigation been made at the near-by municipal tip at Throckley? Why was no full scale cleansing of Burncastle Farm undertaken for nine months after the infection?
Why was Mr Waugh requested to sign the Official Secrets Act as a condition of being given finance to clean his farm? Were experiments using F&M carried out near Newcastle-upon-Tyne before the disease outbreak?
If such experimentation was taking place, where was that done and why?
Was the strain of F&M the same as that taken from Porton Down six months previously? Where is the proof that the source of this disease was imported meat and, if so, where did it come from?
Many farmers and rural business managers who saw their businesses devastated last year want the answers.
The government has lost the confidence of many people living in rural areas and the manner in which they now wish to forget what happened is a disgrace.
Arnold Pennant
Nant Gwilym, Tremeirchion, St Asaph, Denbighshire.
Keen to avoid an inquiry
What an excellent letter (May 31) from Mr Burbage, Calvadnack Farm, Carnmenellis, Redruth, Cornwall, about the need for a public inquiry into foot-and-mouth.
It would explain many things including the frantic fear of sheep movements and the apparent lack of concern about the import of new foot-and-mouth virus. Clearly the government is desperate to avoid any public inquiry which would be extremely useful in combating any future outbreak.
Maureen Coombs
Mendip Charollais, Three Tuns Farm, Emborough, Bath, Somerset.
UKASTA cool – of course…
I write regarding your article "Cool reception for NFU grain contract model" (News, May 24). Of course, there is a cool reception from UKASTA. There would be, wouldnt there?
But the reception from cereal farmers is going to be just the opposite. Thanks to all the hard work put in by people like Guy Smith, arable farmers are beginning to recognise his vital role.
Guy has lit the fuse. To their credit, Richard Butler and his team are coming up with the goods. The message to all grain growers is that this is only the start. Watch out for further moves to get us out of the impossible position we are in, with our input prices decided by the opposition and our output prices likewise.
All cereal farmers should obtain a copy of the new NFU contract, read it, understand it and use it.
Henry Rose
Evans Farm, Whepstead, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Promote NFU grain policy
Regarding your article on the NFU grain contract (News, May 24), why do you seem so negative about the work the NFU does for its members? The grain trade is hardly going to jump for joy at the prospect of farmers having more transparency in the way they trade grain. The new grain contract should be promoted wherever possible. As far as the posters are concerned, why highlight a problem which is dubious, when these posters could help to educate the public about the crops we grow?
Robert Tesseyman
Spellow Grange, Staveley, Knaresborough, N Yorks.
In animals best interest
Following the publication of John M Barkers letter (May 24), I would like to stress the calf in question that the RSPCA inspector was called to attend was very sick. In its collapsed state it needed medical attention or "euthanasing".
As Mr Barker has also been informed, our standard procedure is to try to contact owners of any animal in distress. But on this occasion, bearing in mind it was 11.30 pm and given the severity of the situation, it was felt that the animal needed immediate veterinary attention. Any delay while we tried to discover Mr Barkers contact details would have prolonged the calfs distress and further jeopardised its chance of survival.
The RSPCA acts in the best interests of a suffering animal, often under very difficult circumstances. On this occasion we sincerely regret the death of Mr Barkers calf. But we simply acted in the animals best interest on the advice of a vet, who was present with the inspector on site.
Ann Grain
Head of press, RSPCA, Wilberforce Way, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex.
Who do you complain to?
I would like to reply to John Barkers letter (May 24) about his experiences with the RSPCA. Have many farmers had similar experiences? Who do we complain to – our MPs, local councils or other bodies?
I have had similar experiences of the stress caused to sheep that have been chased to exhaustion only to die later. This is cruelty at its worst, carried out by adult humans; the footprints in the wet ground prove it. No one contacts you, so you do not know who to complain to.
Give some people a uniform or a badge and they think they are above the law, and we are supposed to live in a free country.
It is not only the cruelty that is imposed on the animals, but the stress that is imposed on the family. We all think a lot of our stock. To think that people can do this to animals is disgusting, whoever they are.
S J Morris
1 Stapley Cottages, Churchstanton, Taunton, Devon.
EU is against UK interests
It is difficult to know which of the opening statements in Robert Perseys Talking Point (May 24) invites greater derision: That the CAP needs fundamental reform, or that the Conservative Party is the natural party of the countryside.
The former statement because it has been a self-evident truism for the past quarter of a century. And the latter because it was the Conservative Party that signed us up to every imbecility the EU threw at us, if only because, like any government of the day, it had no choice.
More alarming is how Tories like Mr Persey still misunderstand the origins, purpose and ambitions of the EU under its Franco-German godfathers. Everything Mr Persey envisages, from individual countries becoming centres of excellence to small family farms providing for local needs, are inimical to a system that chef dorchestre President Chirac has decreed may not even be discussed before 2006.
Just as the country as a whole can never realise its potential while constrained by the EU, so British farming will continue its decline into the minor supporting role Brussels eventually ordains for it. The stubborn refusal of starry-eyed individuals like Mr Persey and of career-seeking opportunists like the Tories DEFRA shadow minister, Peter Ainsworth, to see the elephant in the room promotes our national decline.
Tony Stone
1 Home Park, Oxted, Surrey.
Whither fresh spud eating?
I, like many others in the potato industry, including growers, merchants and packers, am becoming alarmed at the rapid decline in fresh potato consumption. The decision by many to clear cold stores for stockfeed is testament to this decline.
What alarms me more is that there seems to be insufficient activity and lack of will by the British Potato Council to address this problem. It seems the BPC is content to accept the mindset that processed product is the future and that the current under-funded and highly targeted generic potato promotion is sufficient.
The BPC cannot alter changing consumer habits towards ready-meals and daylong grazing. But it could more aggressively promote fresh potatoes, against rice and pasta, to a far larger audience.
The BPC is keen to promote itself to the industry. The best promotion would be for the industry to be able to see an obvious and ambitious promotional strategy working on its behalf.
Only modern, innovative, and often-controversial advertising will put a tray of bakers into the trolley of a generation of younger convenience-orientated consumers.
The current R&D spend of £1.2m would serve farmers and the industry far better if spent on Jamie Oliver and 30 seconds of prime time rather than helping us to produce more of what is becoming un needed.
It would be unfair to suggest that a fraction of the £1m spent on the collation and dissemination of largely irrelevant statistics charting the decline of the industry would be better spent on better media relations.
Where were the Press releases countering the recent fried potato "food scare"?
Come on BPC. Forget the politics. Expand objective 3.1 of your five-year corporate plan and sell what is a great healthy product.
John Stevenson
High Trees, High Roding, Dunmow, Essex.
Tories no way a rural Party
The Talking Point (May 24) from Robert Persey, who is writing presumably on behalf of the Conservative Party, underlines the fact that no salvation for farmers is to be found in that direction.
The article is not significant for what it says, but for what it does not say. In particular, huge losses are being suffered by producers due to the high value of sterling against the k.
That amounts to at least 2p/litre for milk, proportionately the same for other products. He mentions the disparity between what the country pays to CAP and what farmers get back, but not the fact that Mrs Thatcher is mainly responsible. She negotiated the appalling deal.
The Conservatives are the Party of the City, not the countryside. And it is the Conservatives alone who have currently made themselves unelectable.
Geoffrey Crisp
Woodside Farm, Privett, Alton, Hants.
Mars bar test failed again
Crop consultant chairman Allen Scobie says farmers need improvements in yield and quality to offset grain price reductions (Cereals 2002, May 31). Growers have always needed those two benefits. The trouble is every other farmer in the world wants them too. If others copy, which they always do, all it does is flood an already saturated market. That is why Allen Scobies advice failed the Mars bar test.
In 1947, when a 65g Mars cost 1.8p, my 3t/ha of Squareheads Master feed wheat (at £29/t including subsidy) was worth 4833 Mars bars.
Yet today, a 9t/ha crop of Malacca (£76/t plus £210 aid) at £894/ha, will only buy 2794 65g Mars bars at 32p each.
The reason UK and EU farmers migrate to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but their farmers never return the compliment, is because at harvest, they know it wont rain. We know that it will.
George Scales
Scales Farms, Cobblers Pieces, Abbess Roding, Ongar, Essex.
Young farmers fleeing nest
I write regarding the announcement that, owing to the wet weather in America, a large quantity of maize had not been sown and that the shortfall in production could lead to a shortage in wheat supplies and a better than anticipated price. The news made me greatly worried about the present governments policy towards farming.
Due to low or non-existent profits, the age of farmers has increased dramatically with fit young men going to work in alternative occupations or emigrating. I know of several northern farmers sons who have chosen this option, ironically in some cases to produce food for export to Britain.
If our young farmers leave, where will we find the expertise and energy to increase production if crops go wrong in other parts of the world?
Tom Ashton
Ashton Hall Farm, Tontine Road, UpHolland, Wigan, Lancs.
Throw him out of farming
I think a certain pig farmer has brought disgrace to UK farming. He should be thrown out of anything to do with any farming association.
The public will think many of us are the same if we are not careful. It should be made public that the farming industry have disowned him. He is not one of us. I am ashamed he ever was allowed to keep stock. I am 66 and have been farming all my life.
D E Partridge
www.turkeysdirect.co.uk
Access-friendly food labels?
A TV programme recently highlighted the strength of feeling that John Rees, farming near Llanelli, held against ramblers.
In my experience, such farmers are extremely rare. There can be direct benefits, apart from goodwill, from permitting justified access. On numerous occasions, for example, I have been able to report sheep or lambs in distress. To enhance this direct beneficial link, might I suggest an "access-friendly" food label on appropriate Welsh products, for all farms where there are recognised good relationships between ramblers and landowners?
Consumers find such labels helpful when they are based on the approval of an appropriate independent organisation, even though farmers might groan at the need to achieve yet another one. The mark would need to be regarded only as an interim measure. Soon enough, the entire Welsh farming community will become walker friendly, in its own best interests if for no broader reason.
My thanks are due to all those who have created those excellent permissive paths that one sometimes stumbles across so unexpectedly, in England as well as in Wales.
Helen Woodley
11 Junction Avenue, Bath, Somerset.
The culprit of TB spread is…
First, there was Mrs Burtons letter (April 26) "Are Vets spreading TB?" Then, there was Mr Hancoxs contribution "Rats spread TB" (Letters, May 10). Also Dr E King takes every opportunity to promote her propaganda to exonerate badgers in the spread of TB in cattle. It is a diversionary tactic to divert attention away from the badger as the culprit.
Those in the Badger Group are unprepared to acknowledge that badgers have TB. Infected badgers excrete massive numbers of bacteria in their saliva and urine, for up to three years, contaminating the environment. When these badgers are ill they enter farm buildings for an easier source of food coming into closer contact with stock.
All the evidence suggests that it is beyond reasonable doubt that badgers act as a reservoir of infection for cattle. In New Zealand, opposums play the same role. In that country they are ruthlessly culled.
In the 1960s, after I had tested a herd and any reactors had been slaughtered, the herd remained clear for up to 40 years.
The Badger Group claims that badgers are territorial. That is hardly supported by the video showing over 70 badgers feeding in a maize silage pit.
Since badgers became a protected species their number has increased significantly. It cannot be in their own interest to have high levels of infection. Why it is acceptable to slaughter thousands of cattle, of all ages, annually but unacceptable to cull the guilty badger? It appears that the Badger Group has an inordinate amount of influence over those with power. Unless the balance is corrected and action taken, the incubating catastrophe will, in the near future, spiral out of control. The long-term effect for cattle farmers will be far greater than foot-and-mouth.
D J B Denny
205 Henwick Road, Worcester.
Marts not ID weak link
I was quoted (Livestock, May 31) as saying: "Auction marts should be taking a lead in electronic identification." I did not say that marts are the weak link in electronic ID uptake.
I listened with pain to Lord Whitty giving his Blairite views at Beef 2002. A farmer asked him why he could not get a good price for his beasts and mentioned the foreign beef allowed access to the UK. Lord Whittys response showed a total disregard for the facts.
The UK markets I supply can analyse millions of records in seconds and locate ideal buyers for stock. They can tell when store cattle sold will mature for final sale and which abattoir is most appropriate. They can link with the governments cattle tracing system to gather verified data for farmers and advertise it on www.auctionmarts.com
Auctioneers are the ideal catalyst to achieve a reasonable price. They are the only provider of real and open competition. To prefer a system that allows abattoirs to choose their prices and tell farmers what they are beggars belief.
The government seems to mistakenly believe that EID is technically unworkable. Carlisle mart has proved it can work. Many firms have entered the market with products that do not operate successfully and have lead to the incorrect view that EID does not work. I have seen a proper EID reader reading every type of tag and bolus at the same time.
It does work and could provide a big benefit to the industry and help auctioneers to provide an even better service.
To the angry young man at Beef 2002, I say: Go to market. And to Mrs Beckett, I say: Stop obstructing markets with unworkable dross and help the auctioneers to do the job as only they can.
David Jones
Chief Executive Newline ASP David@newline.uk.com
Traditional ways to budget
A retired farmer asked me why farm managers nowadays spent so much time budgeting. When he was farming key costs were related to the value of key outputs.
For example, he said that he would expect to pay as much for a tup as he would receive from the sale of 10 gimmers, and a tonne of nitrogen fertiliser would cost the same as a tonne of wheat. It reminded me of the rule of thumb we used for the price of Scottish potato seed being the value of two tonnes of ware potatoes. And during the farm tour following Beef 2002, the host farmer told us that he would reckon a beef bull would cost the same as 12 finished cattle. May I invite your readers to let me know of the rules of thumb they used (and still use) for budgeting. I would like compare them across the UK and check how reliable they are – and whether they still hold good today.
Jeremy Franks
Department of Agriculture, University of Newcastle, King George VI Building, Newcastle upon Tyne. J.R.Franks@ncl.ac.uk
Healthier for school milk
I always lamented the abolition of free school milk. It was a retrograde step.
The proof of this statement is simple. Look at those men who enjoyed, or if not, profited by it in both health and size. They are on the whole bigger and healthier men than their parents and grandparents. I first noticed it in my own family and then in others. It will be interesting to see if those denied it are as big and well developed.
But look around. The proof is before your eyes. The cost was trivial.
Rev. W E Cowling
14 Ashleigh Drive, Beeford, East Yorks.
Criticise self before others!
Geoffrey Holliss Talking Point (May 3) challenges the accuracy of relatively unimportant information put out by the RSPB and the Soil Association. It is widely accepted that since World War II, intensive farming has had a dramatic effect on the countryside and wildlife as a whole. Farmers have done what was asked of them by politicians supposedly in the interests of the general public.
Mr Hollis held senior posts in MAFF which advised, informed, cajoled, researched, regulated and more-or-less controlled the development of British agriculture over the past 50 years. Before he nit-picks the activities of other organisations, he should turn his mind to putting right some of the substantial wrongs for which he and his colleagues at MAFF were responsible.
R J Winfield
Independent consultant, Organic Farming and Conservation, Church Cottage, Wolverton, Tadley, Hampshire.
List of benefits in NIAB trials
Peter Schofields comments on the value of NIAB maize trials (Livestock, May 3) could leave farmers asking why buy varieties from the Descriptive List?
At Advanta Seeds we believe it is in their interest to do so, because NIAB is the only independent source of information on forage maize in the UK. NIAB tests about 150 varieties a year, with breeders contributing about £200,000 to the cost. Where else in this country could farmers expect this level of testing for free?
As the largest maize breeder in the UK we invest heavily in our own trials to select varieties to enter into the NIAB system. We could stop there and ask farmers to place their faith in our results. Instead Advanta varieties are independently tested by NIAB against substantial competition delivering reliable, valuable information to maize growers.
The system is not flawed. The Maize Growers Association has been extensively involved with NIAB and BSPB to make improvements to the testing system. Those include: Harvesting early and medium early varieties on separate dates, providing farmers with a truer indication of yield and dry matter content for their area.
Adding two new trials sites in the north, highlighting varieties that can be reliably grown in marginal areas or poor growing seasons.
Improving feeding information on starch and ME, making it possible to select high starch varieties to maximise rumen productivity and, hence, milk yields.
In 2002, 11 major maize breeders had the confidence to have their varieties tested against stiff competition in NIAB independent trials. Only two companies decided not to participate – Pioneer and, now, Nickerson.
Tim Richmond
Maize product manager, Advanta Seeds UK.
Carlisle is so handy for IoW
Where is the Isle of Wight? We, who live here, know that it is situated in the southernmost part of England, separated from Southampton and Portsmouth by The Solent.
DEFRA and Rural Payments Agency inform us that our processing site is Carlisle. Our MP is still awaiting a reply from Margaret Beckett as to why our processing point was moved from Reading, which is quite a bit nearer to the island. Should she ever deign to reply, we would be pleased to let you know why DEFRA thinks that the Isle of Wight is near Cumbria. I did inform our local NFU office of this fact but they showed little interest – perhaps because we are no longer members.
Lesley Abraham
Kite Hill Farm, Wootton Bridge, Isle of Wight.