Farmers Guardian articles from April 2006

Farmers Guardian archives from April 2006

Row looms over part payment demands.
April 7, 2006... A ROW is looming between Government and industry over the issue of part payments to farmers, after it became apparent the Single Payment crisis could drag on until the autumn. Farming organisations this week demanded immediate part payments...

Beef exports set to resume on May 3.
April 7, 2006... Defra gives official date for lifting of ban By Barry Alston BEEF exports to the continent are set to resume on Wednesday, May 3, Defra confirmed this week. This is the first time the department has officially named a likely date...

Pig producers in price protest.
April 7, 2006... PIG PRODUCERS were planning to block distribution centres belonging to Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys last night in protest over prices. Around 40 farmers from the North Yorkshire region were expected to take part. The protests follow last...

Tenancy amendments offer more freedom.
April 7, 2006... THE tenanted sector should be revitalised with long-awaited proposals to amend the two main acts, under which tenancies are effected, having been laid before Parliament. The changes are expected to be in place for Michaelmas tenancies. ...

Outbreak simulation.
April 7, 2006... A `real time' desk-top simulation of an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu - `Exercise Hawthorn' - aimed at testing communications between various Government departments and regional disease control centres, has been launched by Defra....

Campaign to freeze rates.
April 7, 2006... NFU East Anglia is spearheading a campaign to encourage Defra to freeze current modulation rates. At a meeting on Monday the regional board passed a resolution to keep modulation at the current level, as members believed that with the...

New venue announced for Smithfield Show.
April 7, 2006... THE new venue for the Royal Smithfield Show is to be the Bath and West Showground at Shepton Mallet, Somerset. It was confirmed this week that the 2006 show will go ahead at the beginning of December as planned and there is an ongoing...

Cashflow crisis revealed in `bleak' farming report.
April 7, 2006... LATE SPS payments have contributed to a cash crisis within the farming sector, a Government report has revealed this week. Defra's annual report on the farming sector showed that the cashflow from farming fell by 72 per cent in 2005 to #800...

Store distribution centres targeted in price protest plan.
April 7, 2006... PIG producers were planning to block distribution centres belonging to Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's on Thursday night in protest over prices. Around 40 farmers from the North Yorkshire region were expected to take part. The protests...

Pig leaflet pulled from school use.
April 7, 2006... A misleading leaflet giving incorrect information about pig farming has been withdrawn from school use following complaints from the Farmers Union of Wales. "I am delighted that the leaflet has been withdrawn because the inaccurate...

`Family' farm traditions under threat - NFRU.
April 7, 2006... THE traditional model of farms remaining under family control may be dying out, a major survey conducted by the National Farm Research Unit (NFRU) has suggested. While an average of 65 per cent of farmers expect their farms to continue...

Extension granted for entitlement transfer deadline.
April 7, 2006... LORD Bach has granted an 11th hour extension to the deadline for transferring entitlements. The Minister announced at the end of last week that the minimum notification period for farmers to inform the RPA of entitlement transfers was...

Kendall unconvinced RPA changes will make a difference.
April 7, 2006... NFU president, Peter Kendall, visited the RPA's Reading headquarters this week to see for himself how promised improvements were affecting the validation of farmers' SPS claims. After being shown the link between mapping and Single Payment...

Ministers under pressure as Cameron calls for Bach to go.
April 7, 2006... CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron has called on Lord Bach to resign over the Single Payment fiasco. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Cameron said Lord Bach's position was difficult to defend after he issued a statement in January assuring...

LAA in call for compulsory annual TB testing.
April 7, 2006... A CALL for a compulsory annual TB test for all herds in England has been made by the Livestock Auctioneers' Association. At present the country is split into those areas under one, two, three or four-year testing regimes. The LAA said...

IN BRIEF: Keep calm, urges RPA.
April 7, 2006... Keep calm! That is the advice the NFU is giving to its members on the new customer-based system the RPA is employing to deal with claims. It means a single RPA person will be looking at individual SPS claims in their entirety. They may ring the...

IN BRIEF: Online guide.
April 7, 2006... The RPA has published an online guide for Single Payment Scheme customers to help explain their entitlement statements. The new `entitlements calculator' allows farmers to check the information given in their statement about the value of...

IN BRIEF: Student support.
April 7, 2006... Farmers may or may not be reassured to know that sixth formers are being drafted in to the RPA's office in Northallerton to help ease the payment backlog. Schoolchildren are working evenings as part of the `twilight shifts' that have been...

IN BRIEF: Inquiry extended.
April 7, 2006... Recent developments in the Single Payment Scheme crisis are to be investigated by MPs. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published an interim report on the RPA in January, which was heavily critical of the agency and Ministers....

IN BRIEF: Bach recruits the bank.
April 7, 2006... Lord Bach has put out a joint statement with the banking industry that seeks to assure farmers they will receive the support of banks during this difficult period. The Minister and RPA officials met the Bankers' Association and...

Farmer sues Beckett over late payment.
April 7, 2006... A SOMERSET beef farmer has launched a court action against Margaret Beckett over Defra's failure to pay him his Single Payment on time. Paul Bateman filed a claim at his local small claims court this week over the payment of over #2,000 he...

NFUS national reserve setback.
April 7, 2006... NFU Scotland has hit out at the Scottish Executive as it emerged that farmers north of the border will not be paid national reserve allowances until after the balance on their original single payment has been received. National reserve...

NFU Cymru asks for part payments.
April 7, 2006... NFU Cymru is asking the Welsh Assembly to look at making a part payment of the Single Payment Scheme to the minority of Welsh farmers who have yet to receive their money. Although it has congratulated the Assembly for its outstanding...

`Consultation' on GM co-existence ends in battle between lobby groups.
April 7, 2006... IT was billed as a consultation on co-existence between GM and non-GM crops - but inevitably this week's showpiece Austrian EU presidency conference turned into a battle between the pro and anti GM lobbies. Once again the Commission was...

Apply for waste exemptions.
April 7, 2006... THE Environment agency has produced an exemptions application pack ahead of the new waste regulations coming into force on May 15. Under the regulations farmers will no longer be able to dispose of waste by burning or dumping on-farm. All...

MHS strike action averted - for now.
April 7, 2006... THE prospect of serious disruption to the meat industry in the run-up to Easter was averted this week when a five-day strike by Meat Hygiene staff was deferred. The threat of strike action has not gone away, however. Unison, the union that...

Defra target 7,000 for paperless applications.
April 7, 2006... MORE than 200 farmers have already signed up to Defra's new web-based application service, the Whole Farm Approach. After a three-month trial period, the online system Defra hope will eventually replace all paper correspondence with...

Gangmasters Licensing Authority open for business.
April 7, 2006... THE Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) opened for licence applications this week. According to legislation passed by Parliament last month, licences must be held by anyone supplying labourers to work in agriculture or food processing...

New scheme helps veterinary nurses add to their qualification.
April 7, 2006... A NEW scheme devised by the Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority (AMTRA) and Harper Adams University College has made it possible for veterinary nurses to add to their VN qualification by becoming a C-SQP, a Suitably Qualified Person...

The Single Payment debacle - conspiracy or major cock-up?
April 7, 2006... In Ireland they have a line of cynicism that reflects the dependency of farmers on EU payments: "The worst threat to Irish farmers is not foot- and-mouth disease, but a postal strike." Many English farmers must feel they can adapt this for...

OPINION: The bigger picture.
April 7, 2006... The Single Payment crisis has dominated the farming agenda in recent weeks. That is not surprising given that it is a tale of gross Government incompetence and one that is having a profound impact on industry activity and morale. But the...

Green light for new rural bodies.
April 7, 2006... A GOVERNMENT proposal to create two new countryside bodies has been given the go-ahead by the House of Lords. The Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act will see the creation of Natural England and the Commission for Rural Communities in...

Producers hit by scrapie scheme still eligible for support.
April 7, 2006... EC agrees to Welsh Assembly request for derogation THE European Commission has agreed to the Welsh Assembly Government's request for derogation to allow producers affected by the Compulsory Scrapie Flocks Scheme to remain eligible for Tir...

TB find in sheep raises traceability concerns.
April 7, 2006... BOVINE TB has been found in a sheep sold into a Worcester market in October last year, it has emerged. The incident has raised concerns about traceability as the State Veterinary Service (SVS) has so far been unable to trace the animal back...

Science cannot underpin cull decision - Royal Society.
April 7, 2006... THE Government would have to base its policy for badger culling on social, economic and political considerations, rather than science, according to the UK's most respected scientific establishment. The Royal Society said this week that the...

Appointment: Bruce Wilson-North.
April 7, 2006... THE director-general of the Country Land and Business Association, Bruce Wilson-North, died on Tuesday night. Mr Wilson-North, who had worked in industry for over 25 years before joining the CLA as East Midlands regional director in 2002, was...

Farmer claims diet is behind TB prevention.
April 7, 2006... A GLOUCESTERSHIRE farmer says he has prevented TB outbreaks on his farm through changing his animal's maize diet. After going down with TB in 1999, the disease has not returned to Dick Roper's farm near Cirencester despite 13 surrounding...

Where does our food come from and do we have a future?
April 7, 2006... The Women's Food and Farming Union conference debated the key issue of where our food comes from. ALISTAIR DRIVER reports from Stratford. THE question `where does our food come from?' means everything to UK farmers today. The UK is just 60...

Priority: Keeping farm afloat.
April 7, 2006... CASE STUDY 2 Andrew Brown, Weldon House Farm, south Rutland. IN the coming weeks, Andrew Brown had planned to extend a community forest that has benefited the local community and wildlife since he planted it on his land two years ago....

Sinking further into debt.
April 7, 2006... Much has been made of the political rumblings over the Rural Payment Agency's bodged handling of the Single Payment, but how is it affecting the industry on the ground? NICK YATES spoke to two farmers and their suppliers to find out the effects...

Huge strain on the overdraft.
April 7, 2006... THE Single Payment was the biggest reason farmers were giving for paying late, said Ray Spendiff, managing director of agricultural merchants Kent Wool Growers. With around #50,000 in outstanding payments owed by 5,500 customers, farmers'...

Worst time for feed supplier.
April 7, 2006... FOR Manor Farm Feeds, the cashflow crisis suffered by customers like Andrew Brown could not have come at a worse time. March is the month in which the feed supplier experiences its highest negative cashflow, with large sums of money being...

`Farmer for a day' tourism.
April 7, 2006... A NORTH West farm has taken the plunge into tourism by allowing visitors to literally muck in with what the farmer normally gets up to during the course of a day's work. Gorstage Green Farm, Northwich, Cheshire, is becoming one of the...

Cold weather hits lambs and calves.
April 7, 2006... A LATE start to spring has brought problems for lambing and calving across England. Extreme snow, rain and cold weather over the past month in northern England has coincided with the start of the lambing season. Farmers have been...

Recycling plant expands.
April 7, 2006... BRITISH Polythene Industries (BPI) has announced a #2million investment at its farm plastic recycling facility in Dumfries for the installation of a second wash plant. The new plant, which is due to be commissioned in June this year, will...

Water extraction deadline extended.
April 7, 2006... THE decision to extend the period in which Scottish farmers can register water abstraction activities until April 27 has been welcomed by NFU Scotland. The extension, announced by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, will allow...

New pack to feed start-up food and drink businesses.
April 7, 2006... LOCAL producers considering setting up a new food or drink business in Sussex can draw on a new support pack. Produced by Taste of Sussex, the pack contains practical advice on legal requirements, and contact details for the relevant...

Calf rearing contest dates.
April 7, 2006... FOR the 16th year, entries are being sought for the annual Wales YFC calf rearing competition, which is run in conjunction with NatWest. A slight change has been made this year with the creation of a novice class for any member who has...

Second successive overall win for Ian - and Belhelvie JAC.
April 7, 2006... FOR the second year in a row, Belhelvie JAC young farmer Ian Thomson lifted the overall championship in a show of overwintered cattle at Thainstone Centre, Aberdeenshire. The show and sale was the culmination of the 2005/06 young farmers...

Pickervance family's awards in Blackpool and District competitions.
April 7, 2006... TAKING four of the top awards at this year's Blackpool and District Dairy Farmers Association annual award ceremony were Harry and Christine Pickervance who, with their son Thomas, farm at Roseacre Hall Farm, Roseacre, Lancashire. The...

Producing high quality suckled calves attracting premium prices.
April 7, 2006... The production of high quality suckled calves to be sold at premium prices is the aim of Northumberland farmer Malcolm Telfer. He finds the Blonde-sired calf out of the Belgian Blue cross dam ideal for his system. NEIL RYDER paid a visit. ...

End to the frustrations of form filling?
April 7, 2006... BARRY ALSTON reports on the new hand-held technology that could relieve the pain of tracking animal movement. IT could well be that livestock farmers across Britain and further afield will no longer need to fill in forms or use a computer...

Cutting tiers in marketing chain seemed only option.
April 7, 2006... More and more primary producers are opting for direct selling. BARRY ALSTON reports from two new farm-to-plate ventures in North Wales. IT did not take Huw and Sandra Williams long to realise that getting a reasonable living from the...

Farm shop venture at Chirk Castle will benefit tenants and graziers.
April 7, 2006... OPENING its doors to the public for the first time tomorrow will be a brand new farm shop at the National Trust's 700-year-old Chirk Castle, between Wrexham and Oswestry. Visitors will be tempted with high quality, local seasonal produce...

New feeding regime will help claw back lost support cash.
April 7, 2006... The options facing northern beef producers under the Single Payment Scheme were spelt out at a farm open day in Northumberland. JENNIFER MACKENZIE reports. A NEW feeding regime, which allows more accurate costings to be made, is one of a...

Representing the arable angle.
April 7, 2006... The line-up of NFU officers in the North of England is dominated by livestock and mixed farmers. Allan Coxon, vice-chairman of Durham and North Riding, is different in being a pure arable farmer. NEIL RYDER met him on his farm overlooking...

Qualifying for ELS.
April 7, 2006... So far about 650 Entry Level Schemes covering around 101,000 hectares are up and running in the North East of England, but there are many more farmers in the region who would qualify for their scheme with little or no change in their farms and...

Cereal disease control: High risk of wheat eyespot.
April 7, 2006... THE risk of eyespot infections in winter wheat crops is high this season, plant pathologists are predicting. "We have already had conducive winter weather for the disease to spread, and high levels of eyespot seen in 2005 also increase the...

Cereal disease control: Value option for cereal fungicide.
April 7, 2006... A NEW cereal fungicide launched as a value-for-money option in response to current farm economics has a place within disease control programmes this year, according to a leading agronomist. Cherokee provides high doses of the older triazole...

Spray timing `essential' for effective disease control.
April 7, 2006... GETTING fungicide spray timings and intervals right is essential for good disease control. Link spray timings to leaf emergence, not calendar date and do not allow spray intervals to extend beyond four weeks. That is the message from...

Soil compaction warning.
April 7, 2006... GROWERS planning to begin potato planting over the next month should ensure sub-surface compaction caused by plough panning and traffic is alleviated before bed preparations begin. That is the advice from machinery manufacturers Sumo, who...

Be flexible for a tough spring.
April 7, 2006... WHEAT growers across the country will have to plan their spring spraying with particular care, and as much tank-mixing flexibility as possible, this season if they are to avoid problems from what promises to be one of the most difficult springs...

Three-week extension on Atlantis after cold spell.
April 7, 2006... CEREAL growers under pressure to control grass weeds following the delayed start to the spring season have been granted a three-week usage extension on the herbicide Atlantis (iodosulfuron+mesosulfuron), say Bayer CropScience. The...

Beet crops drilled in south.
April 7, 2006... DRILLING conditions for sugar beet have been generally good in the south and most growers have been able to get the majority, if not all, of their crop in, says the British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO). Further north, soil conditions...

Check for leaf spot now in year of high infection.
April 7, 2006... NOW is the time to check for light leaf spot infection in winter oilseed rape crops and, according to Dr Neal Evans of Rothamsted Research, the risk of infection this year is much higher than the last two years. Speaking last week at a...

Go back to `proven' system, says specialist.
April 7, 2006... Growers can be lured into a false sense of security, warns Dr Peter Werner. Nabim should return to its system of `proven and not proven' for new wheat varieties with breadmaking potential, said independent variety specialist Richard...

Potatoes ranked by wireworm threat.
April 7, 2006... NEW WORK at Scottish Agronomy and SCRI is starting to establish the first ever ranking of potato varieties' susceptibility to wireworm feeding damage. With wireworm now a widespread problem in arable areas, Scottish Agronomy's Eric...

Retailing his own milk to win customers and profit.
April 7, 2006... Reluctant to risk a lot of money expanding his dairy herd, James Hague found another way to increase his profit margin - retailing his own milk. ROSALIND PASMORE met the man who is taking customers away from the supermarkets. James Hague...

COUNTRY VIEW: An hour in the April garden.
April 7, 2006... There is much to enjoy about the April garden, but first take time to look, writes PAUL PEACOCK. "APRIL showers bring May flowers." Well, I don't know much about that, the April garden is so full of delights in its own right. The...

COUNTRY VIEW: Plant of the month: The humble bright daffodil.
April 7, 2006... You can almost hear the other wonderful plants tut-tutting because of my choice; there are plenty of them just as pretty, just as breathtaking, in a sparse half-asleep landscape. The snowdrop is possibly more delicate, the crocus is just as...

COUNTRY VIEW: Top talent at Mauchline YFC.
April 7, 2006... A variety performance with a miners' strike theme won first place and the Wiseman cystal thistle trophy for Mauchline YFC in Scottish Young Farmers West Region talent spot competition. `It's the pits' was produced by Janice Steel and...

COUNTRY VIEW: Charitable challenge.
April 7, 2006... NINE members of Retford YFC, Nottinghamshire, raised #2,250 for local emergency services by completing the Three Peaks Challenge. They presented #1,750 to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Air Ambulance and #500 to the Five Villages First...

COUNTRY VIEW: Auctioneer to run marathon for charity.
April 7, 2006... AUCTIONEER Willie McCulloch of Lawrie and Symington, Lanark, is hoping to raise #2,000 - or more -for the Anthony Nolan Trust by running this year's London Marathon. "I've already worn out one pair of running shoes training," says the 47-...

COUNTRY VIEW: SWRI celebrate 85 years of business at exhibition.
April 7, 2006... EIGHTY-five years of the Ayrshire Federation of SWRI (Scottish Women's Rural Institutes) were celebrated at a two-day heritage exhibition at the Grand Hall, Kilmarnock and a book recording its progress was launched. Around 1,000 visitors...

COUNTRY VIEW: Pantomine prize for Builth Wells YFC.
April 7, 2006... BUILTH Wells YFC, Brecknock, claimed Wales glory - and a place in the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs' pantomime final in Blackpool - when members took to the stage for the all-Wales round of the competition. With `Sing a song...

COUNTRY VIEW: MP insight.
April 7, 2006... ANN Widdecombe gave 800 Worcestershire WI members an insight into life as an MP and as an author when she addressed the federation's spring council meeting in Malvern. County chairman Chris Marriott also welcomed speaker Chloe Lees of the...

National Holstein Show 2006: Long live the long-lived Holstein.
April 7, 2006... THE UK Holstein is under attack in some quarters because of decreasing herd life and increased health issues. Is longevity a breed problem, or have our breeding policies left management regimes struggling to keep up? There is plenty of...

Research into bluetongue.
April 7, 2006... SCIENTISTS studying the animal disease, bluetongue, are asking farmers for assistance to help them understand the distribution of the potential carriers - certain species of culicoides biting midges. Although it has not been recorded in the...

Buyers galore.
April 7, 2006... RECORD crowds converged on Thirsk Auction Mart, Yorkshire, on Saturday for the special sale of vintage and bygone machinery and equipment held alongside the monthly collective sale of machinery and fur and feather. "We were overawed and...

MACHINERY: Modern machinery is king at Dorset dispersal sale.
April 7, 2006... THE executors of the late Frank Martin had a dispersal sale of agricultural and construction machinery with registered buyers coming from Wales, Ireland, and the surrounding area. Most of the kit on sale at Sturminster Newton, Dorset, was...

MACHINERY: Scholarship of real Claas.
April 7, 2006... CLAAS has established a scholarship for agricultural engineering students in an agreement with Harper Adams University College. The scholarship will be awarded to an Agricultural Engineering or Agricultural Engineering Marketing and...

MACHINERY: Mayer and Kverneland agreement to distribute feeder range.
April 7, 2006... GERMAN firm Mayer has signed a distribution agreement with the Kverneland Group for the SiloKing range of vertical diet feeders, which until now was imported by Bonhill Marketing. The 5cu/m to 40cu/m capacity range includes single, twin and...

MACHINERY: Mobile bale moisture check.
April 7, 2006... IT is now possible to check the moisture content of square bales on the move. The Profitable Farming Company has introduced a #918 system for the New Holland BB range of square balers. A star wheel is located on the top of the bale chamber...

MACHINERY: Twose front end loaders.
April 7, 2006... TWOSE is set to launch three new product ranges for 2006, with front end loaders being the first of these. There are two ranges with parallel levelling or without. The non- parallel lift range is suited to tractors between 40hp and 95hp...