Wretched Whitty cuts OTM price (From Gazette & Herald)

Wretched Whitty cuts OTM price

WE have come to expect poor treatment from this Government, but the arrogant disdain with which witless Whitty has cut OTM payments by 20pc, really takes the biscuit.

As far as I can see, what he cynically calls discussions started on March 19 with an announcement that in nine days' time, DEFRA would be asking the EU beef management committee to cut the UK payment for OTMS cattle by 20pc.

To my lay readers, this means around £60 will be arbitrarily deducted from the price of slaughtering cattle over 30 months of age and for which we have no alternative market because the Government has decreed they must all be rendered down outside of the food chain.

The cuts are to be implemented from the middle of April and will cause a lot of needless pain amongst livestock farmers.

Those with suckler herds are in the impossible position of being in the middle of a retention period which means that they cannot sell their cows without losing suckler cow premium and, in any case, most will be in-calf awaiting the spring calving period.

What is even more infuriating is that the reasons given by Lord Whitty appear to be little more than "lies, damned lies".

He claims that the cut will bring the UK into line with other EU member states where prices have fallen in recent years.

One can make statistics support any argument, but recent evidence over the past 12 months certainly doesn't indicate that we are above our European neighbours.

In 2002, for example, the UK rate of 50p per live kilogramme was below the average in other EU countries in every single month.

Even the most recent snapshot, on March 8, shows the following comparable liveweight prices:

UK 50p/kilo

Ireland 54p/kilo

Denmark 57p/kilo

Germany 58p/kilo

France (inevitably!) 67p/kilo

Everyone is complaining that it is a dirty underhand trick, camouflaging the Treasury's objective to dip into our funds whenever possible.

However, it seems as though the cuts will be steam-rollered through and pressure on abattoirs to kill OTM cattle this next two weeks will be severe. Cow numbers at York jumped from 30 to 70 on Monday and this is likely to be repeated across the board.

If you have some cows that want to go, please give us as much notice as you can.

My Whenby correspondent, Christopher Pitt, has discovered a flaw in the IACS printouts that have arrived this last few days.

This year, the 'Field Data Printout' sheet lists all the fields in the ascending order of their OS map reference numbers. One would naturally assume these to be correct, as they have been taken from our returns last year.

Christopher found that one of his fields had been omitted altogether during the transposition, so check carefully.

Thank you Christopher for flagging up the problem and perhaps it's an opportunity to issue a penalty notice to DEFRA!

Last Wednesday night, Richard Farnsworth invited me to go with Rob Hicks and Richard Pearson to the excellent members evening of the Driffield Agricultural Society where they invite an eminent speaker to address them on topical issues.

This year, Sir Don Curry took the platform to give us an update on his mission to implement the proposals of his own Curry Report.

The fulcrum of his policy is to give more power to the five regions of the UK, which is all very laudable, provided that there is proper representation for those of us earning a living in the countryside and that the new regional bodies have some teeth.

To try and get some structure into his plans and some collaboration between the various links in the chain, he has set up various quasi-government organisations:

The English Farming & Food Partnership, charged with supporting projects of a co-operative nature;

The Food Chain Centre, dealing more directly with the meat scene, primarily through the MLC and the Red Meat Forum;

The Assured Food Standards Agency, to bring together all the various assured schemes under one umbrella.

Touching on the agri- environmental schemes which have been funded by creaming off money from our subsidies, Sir Don is implementing a review of these which, in some cases, spend over 30pc of their income on administration costs.

He would like to see a pyramid principle followed, whereby participating farmers could join in at any level and receive increasing reward according to their commitment.

During the ensuing discussion, Derek Lamplaugh voiced the scepticism of the audience about supermarket power and Sir Don had to admit that he had persuaded them to contribute £1m to supporting his new organisations.

This left some of us wondering how much influence they would now exert.

Last Thursday, after selling cattle at York, I dashed across to Northallerton to join a DEFRA workshop intended to produce ideas for a ten-year national plan on animal health and welfare.

There was a good cross-section there, with a lot of vets and two auctioneers, Robert Whitelock of Hexham and myself.

As ever, it's an excuse for the emission of hot air and there were the inevitable fairly meaningless generalisations on better communication and education.

However, there did seem to be total consensus that there is now a great chasm between the agricultural industry and its ministry department, DEFRA.

Everyone agreed that there has to be a bridging of the gap and, taking the cue from Don Curry's programme, regional independence for the various DEFRA offices is being recommended. It is hoped by this method that we shall get closer to those policing our industry.

In addition, there was complete agreement on the need for better border control, without which any animal health plan can be sunk without trace in the sandwich box of a passenger flying in from the African continent.

Forward on Tuesday were 101 cattle including 23 bulls; 3,339 sheep including 1,116 ewes.

Steers - light to 106p from D J Sunley, Nawton; medium to 114p from J L Gray, Grindale (ave 101.02p). Heifers - med to 122p from G I Marwood, Harome (95.03p), heavy to 140p from G I Marwood (102.1p). Bulls - med to 111p from A Thornton, East Lutton (99.1p), heavy to 103p from Marwood Bros, Settrington (96.5p), black and white bulls to 87p from W Smith, Salton.

Lambs - med to 151.7p from S & M Craven, Melbourne (150.05p), heavy to 145.3p from R M Teasedale, Scagglethorpe (139.9p). Hoggets - light to 130p from L R Wilson, Rudstone (130p), med to 134.8p from E Woodmancey & Son, Yatts (125.8). Hoggs - med to 135.3p from A Cousins & Sons, Kirbymoorside (125.8p), heavy to 128.1p from T M Abram, Westow (119.1p), overweights to 121.6p from L W Aconley & Sons, East Cawthorne (111.7p). Ewes to £97 from N Hall & Son, Easingwold (£64.53).

Updated: 16:15 Wednesday, March 26, 2003