ON Tuesday morning we had our first introductory webinar to the new CAP Information Service (CAPIS) along with some 200 other agents around the country who were logged in.

In case there is another dinosaur like myself amongst readers of this column, I should explain that a “webinar” is similar to a “seminar”, but it is set up on the computer with slides that are introduced by one of the DEFRA team.There is a voice facility coming through the computer or down the telephone; and there is the facility to ask questions live.

This new service has its sights set as all singing and dancing but the main driver will be the forecasted savings of £1.36 billion. Here is a flavour of what to expect:-

• Controlled Introduction - After a long succession of computer system failures, DEFRA has wisely decided this time to introduce CAPIS on a phased basis.

The first release was made in August to a select few and this latest phase is targeted at the agents who deal with, or advice on, the bulk of applications and are seen as critical to the systems success.

The final release to our farmer clients will be early in the New Year.

• Registration - I have a strange foreboding that the initial requirements for registration, and verification of one’s identity, will become a major hurdle past which a lot will not get without help.

You can only verify your identity through one of the certified companies who carry out the procedure and there are multiple questions to answer.

Once you have completed registration you will be allocated a customer reference number and this will then enable you to access the service or to authorise your agent to do so.

• Personal and business details - you can now check on line all your personal and business details.

• Confirm Land - Again, after registration you can check and update the land use on your holding, which will include the availability of maps in varying forms such as OS sheets and aerial photography.

You can add features and parcel names and even ineligible features can be drawn onto the maps.

At any stage you can introduce information on “land cover” which distinguishes arable from grassland etc., and “land use” which specifies what crop is growing in each field.

• Single Contact Centre – DEFRA are proposing just a single contact centre in Workington for everyone to email or call so all their eggs will be in a Lancashire basket.

We have another webinar in a fortnights time when more detail will be thrust upon us.

In the meantime I think that unless you are extremely computer literate, you will be well advised to take advice.

 

BADGER CULL COSTS

Last week DEFRA published the costs of last year’s pilot badger culls which equated to £3000

per head and inevitably the Badger Trust are leaping up and down claiming that another £3.5

million was spent on policing.

It is interesting to analyse these costs and to note the vast bulk of the money has gone on monitors

to satisfy the demands of the Badger Trust; and police to protect to the contractors from the Animal Rights extremists. Of a ghastly grand total of £10 million, over 90% has been spent on monitoring

procedures and police.

The 2014 cull has seen no independent monitoring and less police presence. Everyone in our agricultural industry accepts that doing nothing is not an option and I keep harking back to the situation 25 years ago where TB in this country was almost eradicated and there was still plenty of badgers in our countryside.

The problem has arisen since badgers became protected and their population has exploded, with

 

FRYUP TO CHANGE ITS NAME!

This is a quite bizarre story about the Animal Rights Group Peta who decided to launch an attack on our own North York Moors village near Whitby because they think its name is synonymous with our farmers breakfast of sausage, bacon, black pudding and eggs!

Peta has put in a request to North Yorks County Council to change the name of the village to Vegan Fryup which will consist of faux bacon, veggie sausages, tofu eggs, toast with dairy free margarine, and tea with soya milk.

From the various quotes in the Press, locals have not been impressed – Steve Stonehouse is reported to have said “there is nothing wrong with being a vegan just don’t ram it down other people’s throats”.

To a more extreme quote from another anonymous donor, “I wouldn’t eat any of that muck”

The name Fryup is nothing to do with cooking but derives from Frige-Hop in which Frige was an Anglo Saxon goddess, and Hop meant a small valley.

 

DUTCH SHIP NETS A QUARTER OF UK FISH QUOTA

The EC repeatedly does nothing to endear itself to the average UK citizen and this latest revelation does raise the blood pressure.

For 40 years our fisherman have been battling with foreign trespassers taking away their fish stocks and their living.

With an authoritarian directive, the EU created quotas and our industry was disappointed with its allocation.

More recently, the situation has gone from serious to farcical with the EU insisting that European fishing vessels have access to these quotas; and all they have to show is “a clear economic link” to this country.

Presently, 43% of England’s fishing quota is held by foreign businesses and 23% is dealt with through one Dutch fishing boat operating out of Hull, landing its catch in Amsterdam.

At the other end of the fishy spectrum, the small British boats that make up 80% of our English fleet, have just 4% of the quota.

Looks like another win win situation for somebody but not us!