You’ll get the bird at festive poultry sale (From Gazette & Herald)

You’ll get the bird at festive poultry sale

2:34pm Wednesday 21st December 2011 in Farming comment By James Stephenson

FLYING pigs are commonplace but who ever heard of an ostrich in a Christmas poultry sale?

On Friday at 11am all will be revealed when the Malton Christmas poultry goes under the auctioneer’s gavel.

It takes place in the cattle market and this year comprises nearly 800 birds, including turkeys, geese, ducks, chickens, pheasants, several partridges in pear trees and, uniquely, an ostrich.

Every bird has been produced in Ryedale and comes fresh from the farm, so if you haven’t yet got your Christmas lunch, visit the auction on Friday.

If you have already bought a turkey you can still come along and pop one in the freezer for later on in the year.

Sow oats for profit

AS the year ends with miserable demand and forecasts for both wheat and barley, it is those that sowed their oats this year that will have profited from a welcome premium. Prices remain strong following the smallest oat crop for the last five years and milling oats can make a £178/tonne.

Alongside this bit of good news, wheat and barley are bumbling along the bottom of the market at £135 to £140/tonne.

Oil seed rape is hovering about £340/tonne and beans are similar to oats £178/tonne.

Gazing into the crystal ball doesn’t give much comfort either as the news from Europe does nothing to lift the gloom.

As one reporter said, you may need another weather disaster to kick-start the market.

Marketing over Christmas

THE way Christmas falls this year, we are not going to miss a Tuesday market so we shall be operating on Tuesday, December 27, and Tuesday, January 3.

However, we will have no Friday market this week when the poultry sale is on nor next week in the face of new year, but we shall be back in business again on Friday, January 6.

Pilot badger cull

AFTER quite unacceptable delays and fence sitting, mainly by the last Government, it was announced last week that a controlled badger cull will be carried out in two pilot areas in England next year, probably in the early autumn.

Licences are to be issued by Natural England and the two pilot areas will be small-scale projects to demonstrate the safety, humaneness and effectiveness of culling badgers.

I have to say this a great victory for both common sense and our economy as TB has cost this country millions of pounds over the last 20 years as it has increased in ferocity.

For those not involved in making a living out of the countryside I would respectfully ask you to accept that a cull is unavoidable. There is an undoubted reservoir of TB within the wild badger population and this has to be controlled if we are going to retain a healthy cattle herd and equally a healthy wild population of badgers.

We are not on our own and similar problems arose in New Zealand where possums carried bovine TB and the disease was reduced by 90 per cent in 10 years through culling.

Australia eradicated TB by culling water buffalo and in Ireland the “Four Area Trials”

reduced TB by 60 per cent to 90 per cent.

No doubt others with more extreme views will take a different line and I understand the Badger Trust is consulting with its lawyers to take further legal action.

Advisory service

JIM Paice has announced a new simpler streamlined advisory service for farmers which will be launched in the new year.

It will be known as the Farming Advice Service (FAS) and will offer a one-stop shop to farmers wanting help on cross compliance, nutrient management, competitiveness and climate change adaptation.

Defra has been working with both the NFU and CLA to set up the new service.

A very Happy Christmas and New Year to anyone who has intentionally or by accident read this column in the past 12 months.

Market report

FORWARD 47 cattle, including 12 bulls and seven OTMs, 683 sheep, including 107 ewes, medium steers to 208p, A L Bosomworth, Thornton-le-Dale, ave 202.4p; medium heifers to 212p A L Bosomworth, Thornton-le-dale, ave 183.5p; heavy heifers to 238p, J and R Waind, Brawby, ave 196.9p; medium bulls to 191p, P Nesom, Wilton, ave 180p; heavy bulls to 205p, P Nesom, Wilton, ave 188p; stock bulls to 145p, S E Shields, Strensall, cows to 141p, ave 110.2p; T A Scaling, Sinnington, standard lambs to 207p (£78.50), G A Sutton, Wold Newton, ave 200.3p; medium lambs to 221p (90.50), G A Sutton, Wold Newton, ave 198.1p; heavy lambs to 208p (£98.50), M Ward and Son, Great Habton, ave 188.5p; overweight lambs to 183p (£100.50) M Ward and Son, Great Habton, ave 175.8p; ewes to £118, S Hunter, Hunmanby, ave £83.