Grudging progress on movement rules (From Gazette & Herald)

Grudging progress on movement rules

DESPITE total opposition from the farming fraternity, Lord Witless Whitty is determined to maintain the six-day rule on the movement of animals.

A Government-sponsored cost benefit analysis on movement standstills has been completed and findings indicate that a six-day standstill can only be justified if large outbreaks of disease occur more than once every 12 years.

As an island, the UK, like New Zealand, should be able to more than guarantee this period of sustained health; and the Government's pathetic attempts at import control seemed to be about the only stumbling block.

On the strength of it, Lord Whitty has confirmed the six-day rule is here to stay. With the continuing pressure from the industry, he has reluctantly made one or two concessions which will ease trading this autumn.

From August 1 to November 30, breeding rams and bulls will be allowed to leave farms that are under a six-day standstill to go to a market, so long as they have been placed in DEFRA-approved isolation for six days beforehand.

This is going to make the trading of bulls and tups earlier this autumn, but there is now an urgency for breeders to get an isolation facility agreed with DEFRA. The early Malton Sheep Sale will be held at the market on Friday, August 1.

Stock will be allowed to stop in markets up to 48 hours, which is a major concession and should cover most eventualities. There are occasions when cattle and sheep cannot, for one reason or another, be picked up on the day of sale and the earlier proposals were for this to be banned. Thankfully, DEFRA has bowed to market pressure.

In its earlier proposals, the Government was looking at banning any long journeys for livestock, but now its is reviewing some sort of licence scheme instead which will probably be another bureaucratic nightmare.

As to on farm inspections and the presence of vets at markets, these matters are still under discussion.

My real concern is that decisions which affect our every-day working lives are being made by people who have no experience of or affinity with our industry.

The ban on burying livestock on farms officially came in to force last Tuesday, July 1, but up to press time, the Government was still dragging its feet about the introduction of a national fallen stock collection scheme.

As expected, Lord Whitty is blaming the poor take-up among farmers, but many are questioning the validity of the statistics used.

Apparently, the DEFRA list of livestock producers is unreliable and includes many who have gone out of livestock altogether or only have a handful of stock.

The most telling data is that the vast majority of large animal producers have voted in favour of the national scheme, but that doesn't seem to count with our minister!

He is now considering increasing the proposed charges to farmers, which will further disadvantage our competitiveness compared to other European states which pay for their disposal out of central funds.

Meanwhile, you will be relieved to hear that his Lordship is promising to adopt "a light touch" to implementing the regulations.

Does any one know where that leaves us?

The Food Standards Agency has now completed its investigation into the benefit or necessity of retaining the OTM scheme in its current form, which is costing the country around £360m per year.

The other alternative is to go for testing all the older cattle for BSE, and this latter proposal has been made possible by the huge drop in confirmed cases of BSE from 55,000 in 1993 down to some 300 so far this year.

The public health concern is that variant CJD may be a risk, but most realistic estimates show that the proposed alternative testing regime could mean less that one additional CJD case over the next 60 years; although how one gets less than a single case is a mystery for the layman! I feel the decision is going to be made to bring the current OTM scheme to a close within the next 12 months and we must prepare ourselves for it.

The danger is that the extra meat brought on to the market could amount to 25pc of current volumes and decimate the beef trade which has just got going again after FMD.

Watch out for Thursday's news reports.

Gordon Flintoft, of Glaisdale, seems to have been making sticks forever and is even older than me.

I remember Gordon producing two wonderful shepherd's crooks, with white rose decoration, which Cleveland Bay members presented to the Duke and Duchess of York at a demonstration at Hovingham Hall; and that was many moons ago.

Last week, at the Royal Show, he calmly took the championship and his total winnings in the earlier classes amounted to six firsts, four seconds, a third and a fourth place.

Now there's an achievement to be proud of.

On the arable side, David Sheppard reports that the mid-term review settlement has turned out to be less of a "fudge" than expected.

The major change, to delay the whole thing to January 1, 2005, gives farmers two more harvests under the existing regime and more time to plan their arable cropping.

The option to decouple only 75pc of arable production will not be taken up by the UK, which means that we at last know what the rules of the game are going to be in the future.

Even Sir Ben Gill is sounding reasonably upbeat about the agreement.

Another piece of good news is the announcement of the green rate for sterling for this year's arable aid payments, which will be at 70.4p against the euro. This effectively means that UK farmers will receive 9pc more than last year.

Grain prices are remaining pretty firm for the coming harvest, but we certainly don't want a repeat of the early July rain when the combines start to roll.

Seventy mm of rain fell in Bossall, last Tuesday, and if this is repeated in early August there will be a lot of poor-quality, flat wheat crops.

There's an interesting sale of surplus tractors and equipment, at Rectory Farm, Thwing, Driffield, on Saturday, July 12, with collectors items, stone troughs, etc, together with stock requisites and surplus equipment.

Tuesday's market saw 60 cattle, including 19 bulls; 704 sheep, including 94 ewes.

Light steers to 113p/kilo from G D Warters & Son, Flixton (ave 111.4p), medium steers to 111p/kilo from G D Warters & Son (95.3p), heavy steers to 98p from D B Wass, Sinnington (92.05p).

Light heifers to 101p from M Fargher, Bulmer (96.5p), med heifers to 134p from G I Marwood, Harome (104.5p), heavy heifers to 136p from G I Marwood (104.6p).

Light bulls to 102p from D Sunley, Nawton (97.5p), medium bulls to 109p from P M Allen, Great Barugh (96.7p), heavy bulls to 100p from C Beal, Yedingham (94.6p), black and white bulls to 83p from C Leckonby, Pockley (81.5p).

Standard lambs to 133.3p from F D Scruton, Foxholes (122.1p), med lambs to 137.5p from D Midgley, Kirby Underdale (120.34p), heavy lambs to 129.3p from J T Stubbings, Helperthorpe (120.85p).

Ewes to £60.20 (£56.77).

Updated: 10:25 Wednesday, July 09, 2003