Warning over beef subsidy payments (From Gazette & Herald)

Warning over beef subsidy payments

DEFRA is once again contriving to create a situation where subsidy payments to farmers are either delayed or in some cases rejected altogether and we need to be aware of this, together with a possible solution.

My neighbour Ron Wardell told me that he hadn't received the Beef Premium on a batch of cattle purchased at York because the vendor had failed to send in his postcards and this is repeated up and down the country. In a lot of cases, it is not the claimant that is a fault but is nevertheless being made to pay for the sins of others.

The Rural Payment Agency's (RPA) instructions are unbending and it says that the discovery of incorrect record keeping will mean loss of income to the farmer.

Most of you will know that you can look up on the Cattle Tracing Service (CTS) website the stock that is held on your holding at any particular time but beware of two things:

This will only confirm what BCMS thinks it has on your holding on that day. This record will in itself need checking against the numbers on your farm as a starter.

The RPA will be harking back to previous dates and transactions over the last 12 months and a snapshot of the BCMS record on a particular day will be of no avail to you.

One suggested answer is that we should write to BCMS at Workington and ask them for printed records of all our individual movements over the past 12 months.

This can then be compared with our own farm records and corrections made.

That should be bingo, or at least until the next hurdle is dreamed up by Whitehall.

20-day rule decision imminent

At the risk of being extremely boring, I have to report that Lord Witless Whitty is in danger of making a decision in favour of farmers over the 20-day rule!

The minister is faced with total opposition from all sides of industry to this quite impractical regulation, although I am sad to report that Radio 4 backed the official line against the farmer.

The other morning, I woke up to the strains of Susannah Simon chastising farmers for flouting the laws of the land and moving stock outside of the 20-day regulations; whereas the real truth is that this law is an ass and quite incapable of implementation.

A statement is expected in days and I just hope that the dead legs at DEFRA haven't persuaded the minister to include a provision that requires all animals coming onto a farm to be inspected by a vet.

The expense would be just one more nail in the coffin of livestock producers and we all need to be aware of what has happened in the past four years of New Labour rule.

According to the official June census carried out each year, the percentage drop in the breeding herd between 1998 and 2002 is as follows:

Dairy herd -9pc

Beef breeding herd -15pc

Sheep flock -17pc

Pig breeding herd -29pc

In terms of four legs in our countryside, there are 4,343,000 fewer animals.

Such a creeping depletion of a national asset makes pretty grim statistics.

Bonfire of DEFRA mandarins

It is a sad fact that the DEFRA leadership and their policies have managed to alienate the vast majority of their farmer customers and now they are going to have to justify their position.

A formal assessment panel will review the performance of up to 500 senior management staff in the department and the sadistic bandwagon riders have been polishing their crystal balls, estimating that 15-20pc of jobs will go.

Much to my satisfaction, a key aim of DEFRA's new strategy is to focus on the way staff communicate with external stakeholders, such as farmers.

To universal disbelief, Lucian Hudson, the director of communications, said: "The review will help ensure we are customer-focused and deliver what people want."

What a sea-change in the ministry for the countryside.

Rush for countryside access

The Countryside and Rights Of Way (CROW) Act is being rushed along with indecent haste in some parts of the country and we ought to be forewarned.

Whereas I am all in favour of everyone having access to the countryside along controlled routes, I do not believe it is either desirable or practical to live with the general licence to roam that is proposed in many cases.

A little village in Cheshire reports that the enthusiastic mappers put 270 fields as "open access" on the draft plan and this would have gone through if it had not been for united opposition presented by those who have to work on the land.

By doing so, the number of fields now to be used as "public play areas" have been reduced to 12.

The Countryside Agency wants to get open access implemented as quickly as possible rather than waiting until the proposed date in 2005.

When mapping gets to this area, we do need to be on our guard.

Valuer's presidential pride

It may be a little self-indulgent but I am very proud this year to be closely associated with the presidents of our two local associations for professional agricultural valuers.

The North Yorkshire body has elected Philip Place, who has deserved the honour for the many years of dedicated service he has given to the farming community.

Edward Stephenson, my nephew, was elected to head the East Riding association and he is the fifth generation of our family to take up the post.

Congratulations and best wishes to them both.

Marketing news

After the euphoric spending spree at Christmas, traditionally the meat trade slips around the third week of January.

This year, beef started to slide over the past ten days and there are signs that lamb will have a blip; but the pig trade marches on to new heights, led by the live market, however small it may be.

The auction and spot pig market have forced a rapid re-appraisal of contract prices by Malton and others but you can rest assured that without prompting it wouldn't have happened!

Tuesday's market saw 99 cattle, including 20 bulls, 723 sheep including 157 ewes.

Steers lightweight to 97p/kilo, E Dodsworth & Son, Harome, ave 94.6p/kilo; medium to 97p/kilo, E Dodsworth & Son, Harome, ave 92.1p/kilo; heavyweights to 95p/kilo A J Rooke, Harome, ave 87.6p/kilo. Others to 92p/kilo, ave 86.5p/kilo.

Heifers lightweights to 107p/kilo, D Sunley, Nawton, ave 103.2p/kilo; medium to 124p/kilo, G I Marwood, Harome, ave 100.8p/kilo; heavyweights to 129p/kilo, G I Marwood, Harome, ave 97.6p/kilo.

Bulls lightweights to 101p/kilo, R Holtby, Leavening, ave 93.2p/kilo; heavyweights to 102p/kilo, F Sellars, Pickering, ave 92.8p/kilo; black and white bulls to 87p/kilo, M A Welford, Weaverthorpe, ave 77.8p/kilo.

Sheep standard to 122.3p/kilo, D Earnshaw, Salton, ave 115.03p/kilo; medium to 124.3p/kilo, A M Bower, Wykeham, ave 116.08p/kilo; heavy 124.5p/kilo, A Chapman, Folkton, ave 111.82p/kilo; overweights 110.1p/kilo, G M Midgley, Uncleby, ave 109.6p/kilo. Ewes to £66, S Mason, Butterwick, ave £46.00.

Updated: 11:12 Wednesday, January 22, 2003