I AM sorry if the ongoing saga is getting tedious but despite Lord Whitty's belated announcement that markets could open from last Monday, February 11, I am afraid there will be relatively few that are willing and able to do so.

Some of the problems we have yet to overcome are set out below and I hope that our clients on both sides of the book will be patient.

The worst, and least comprehensible, regulation is one which does not class our fatstock markets as a slaughter point. The consequence is that any farmer who has had stock moved onto his farm in the past 20 days cannot come to market.

In Scotland, this is totally different in that fat markets are separately designated as slaughter points and therefore are unaffected by the 20-day rule.

Until this is altered we really are going to struggle.

Most markets will have a list of works deemed necessary by DEFRA to comply with the new licensing rules and these inevitably take time.

We are hard at work in the cattle shed at Malton taking out the now-banned wooden material and painting up the iron work. Nevertheless it takes time and will need a second inspection to progress matters. Having got over the inspection procedure, we need to complete the application document which will run to over 50 pages; and which will specify such important functions as to who is in charge of boot washing and car registration numbers.

I am afraid it is no laughing matter but will take a lot of negotiation.

The Whitty grand statement is pretty hollow and I would suggest that we could be trying to get a licence for a collection centre initially before returning to full auction services.

Please keep ringing for further information but the week commencing February 25 is our first target.

Before Christmas, pig prices were running at around 105-115p per kilo but in the new year, trade has slipped drastically and last week the national average was under 90p per kilo which is at least 10p below the cost of production.

The National Pig Association has launched "Operation Survival" with the assistance of MLC and Ladies in Pigs. In an attempt to boost prices they are going to try a four-pronged attack on the market place. A direct approach to retail chief executives to identify British pork in the supermarkets and allow our shoppers to make a choice. An investigation into the dumping of foreign imports.

A request to the Government to demonstrate genuine commitment to the UK pig industry over the next few difficult months. A promotion campaign for British pork.

There are dire warnings that the pig herd in this country could be halved this year and this would have pretty disastrous consequences for cereal producers, bearing in mind that pig rations are made up of around 60pc home-grown corn.

Better drilling conditions last autumn encouraged around 25pc higher plantings of wheat, which will lift our UK acreage to 2.1m hectares. It doesn't take a blind man to see that we are going to have a large export surplus to dispose of and the more so if pig prices do not recover.

According to some forecasters there is a chink of light across the Atlantic where US plantings are at their lowest level since 1971. As their 16.6m hectares dwarfs our own production, any US decrease is going to leave an opening for us on the world market.

It's all a bit hypothetical for me and I would much prefer to see a strong livestock industry in this country consuming its own cereals.

I have quite a few bits of news this week Hunting ban in Scotland. By the time you read this column the anti-hunting brigade will have condemned thousands of mammals and birds to a slow, lingering death in the jaws of the fox whom they perceive as worthy of some sort of protection. I fear the signs are not too good this side of the border and, meanwhile, the rest of the world thinks we're crackers to demolish a national asset. Clarissa and the York Butchers. At the Butchers Shrove Tuesday Feast, a carniverous congregation devoured a wonderful baron of beef produced by Richard Horner of Kilburn; afterwards we listened to tales from the countryside courtesy of Clarissa Dickson-Wright.

She really is larger than life and has committed herself to a rural crusade to save that endangered species, the British countryman. She immediately endeared herself to the company by announcing at the start of her speech that her two favourite things were beef and Yorkshire!

After leaving us she was setting off at 6am to go and demonstrate in the Scottish Borders in a final but fairly hopeless attempt to thwart the hunting bill. Important Auctioneers Meeting. On Saturday, I go to Coventry to a convention of auctioneers who are launching a new concept for transmitting market information. Initially it will focus on livestock and a network of computers around the country with the ability to exchange information on movement, farm assured data, prices and the like.

The system is called Farmstock and I believe it is the way forward. David's Baby Boy. Congratulations to David Lindley and his wife Rachel who have just had their first baby - a bouncing boy called Tom.

There are still signs of cracks in the trade and no one is particularly optimistic at the moment.

The lack of cattle numbers seems to be holding prices together in that section but many wholesalers would dearly love to pull it back a notch or two.

Currently, R grade cattle are still making from 170-180p per kilo with a premium for the U grade. Breaking up cattle are not quite as sharp, with prices running from 140p to 155p per kilo.

Sheep trade has not taken off quite as expected and is stuttering somewhat at the wrong time of year. Prices are still holding certainly at 210-220p per kilo. Ewe trade is good and as I said last week now is the time to sell a few if you have them.

There is little to say about pigs except they are a bad trade with baconers making from 85-92p per kilo and the best lightweights can scrape from 95-100p per kilo.

Help us to help you and phone our helplines at Malton on (01653) 697820/692151 and York on (01904) 489731

Updated: 11:08 Thursday, February 14, 2002