Egg producers need neighbours to act (From Gazette & Herald)

Egg producers need neighbours to act

3:54pm Wednesday 11th January 2012 in Farming comment By James Stephenson

AS from January 1, there has been a total ban on the use of the infamous battery cage which has been replaced by new “enriched cages” allowing the birds more space and features like perches and nesting boxes.

As usual the UK has complied and invested an estimated £400 million to upgrade the egg producing systems.

Once again our industry is hit seriously below the belt by 14 member states who have ignored the deadline and these countries include such near neighbours as France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Portugal and Spain. It is an absolute disgrace and they are quite rightly facing legal action.

In the meantime about one billion illegal eggs will continue to be produced each month and sold in to the European market including the UK.

Our problem is that while it is relatively easy to audit the chain of eggs sold in their shells, it is not so simple to trace processed eggs sold as liquid, dried or frozen.

There must be a case for our implementing a total ban on egg products from Europe until other countries comply.

Badger cull

After years of costly and unreasonable delay brought about by legal and often illegal threats of direct action, Defra will this month select two pilot areas of about 300 sq km for culling badgers in TB hotspots.

There is no shortage of applicants and at least five expressions of interest have been made on behalf of farmer groups in areas where they are really suffering from massive TB problems.

If the two pilots are successful then a further ten locations will be selected later in the year; and it is only when we get into this second phase that there will be any real effect on trying to halt the spread of the disease.

One of the obstacles has been Defra’s suggestion that the cost to farmers will be about £1.45 million per pilot area but the NFU has a very different view.

Their price formula shows that a farmer with 200 acres and 200 cattle would pay less than £1,000 for the entire four-year culling operation; and this will not deter anyone from joining the scheme.

Another major problem to be faced is the spectre of illegal interference by animal rights extremists who will have been encouraged by the RSPCA releasing their antibadger cull Christmas song based upon the 12 days of Christmas.

In the song RSPCA staff sing about 12 “furry badgers” being shot and ending up with a large line of “one vaccination being still unused”.

It is a worry that Natural England, which has the power and duty to issue the culling licences, is proposing to publish the areas on its website to invite public comment.

This invitation is bureaucratic nonsense and the exact location of the culling areas should be a matter of confidentiality. If not, the cost of the police operation could be astronomical.

As it is, Labour’s spokesman, Mary Creagh, is calling for a large presence of armed police as “people will be walking around the countryside with firearms”.

Let us hope a bit of commonsense prevails.

Clean animals

EBLEX, which is the Government quango looking after beef and lamb production, is urging producers to clean their animals that are going for slaughter in accordance with the regulations.

They point out at this time of year especially, the cleanliness of stock presented at abattoirs becomes an increasing issue and that there are real risks for public health and the consumer perception of meat.

I am not sure I agree with EBLEX about where the responsibility lies; and having been to New Zealand I witnessed all their cattle coming to the abattoir being hosed down with a pressure washer before going down the slaughter line.

I tend to think that this should be the safest and most logical point for cleaning down the animals and the responsibility should lie with the abattoir; but I would be interested to hear other views.