'Blue zone' allows vaccinations to continue

There is just about enough moisture to keep things going, but it is very finely balanced and Wimbledon needs to live up to its tradition of heavy downpours.

The Cereal Event takes place in Royston this week, and that normally brings some rain. Apart from washing the car, planning barbecues and pretending to cut some hay, I don't know what else to do in order to make it rain.

The cows are very happy grazing, although a little hot during the day, and we are cutting the pasture behind them now that they are on the second round of grazing, to re-establish the height at two inches, cutting the un-grazed tufts.

The old mower finally gave up the ghost last year, and we have a 'mulching' topper on demonstration, to see if it will do the job.

This needs quite a lot of horsepower to drive it, but does seem to assist in the process of decomposing, which means the cuttings are not lying on top of the grass for too long.

The drawback is that it doesn't ride along the ground like a mower, and the cutting height is not quite as accurate as a result.

The 'bio-digester' has not worked for the past week, as the engine is being repaired. The turbo-charger was carefully removed last week, quite a job involving three winches, as it weighs a quarter of a tonne and is located in a tricky position; and it would cost 43,000 to replace if we broke it.

On inspection, it seems to be fine, with only the oil seals to replace. I hope that the engine is running again by the time you read this, and I am no longer flaring the gas.

We cut down the feed going into the towers to minimise the gas produced and the cost, which meant that I could cope fairly easily with flaring it, adjusting the flare during the day as required.

Thanks to farmer's efforts in the UK, especially on the 'front-line' in the South East, we now have a change in status on 'Blue-tongue' disease.

Unlike our neighbouring countries, we are no longer in a 'protection zone' (PZ); a new 'blue-zone' has been awarded to the UK, which makes importation of cattle more difficult.

A 'blue zone', unlike a 'bluetongue-free' status allow us to continue to vaccinate our cattle and sheep, which is very important, as the vaccine is a relative cheap insurance premium, when one considers the devastating effect of this disease.

The industry has been pressing for this change in status for some time in order to recognize the work done by farmers in keeping this disease at bay, but more importantly to protect our stock, currently put at risk by imports of potentially infected cattle.

Defra's latest study into UK agriculture has shown that this country would be one of the worst affected in Europe if the CAP and its payments to farmers were to be scrapped. Despite this, Defra insist that its policy of calling for the withdrawal of all subsidies would continue.

Defra sees increased competitiveness as the solution to British agriculture, and whilst I do not disagree with that; indeed I do not know of one farmer who would not rather earn his living from the market, but due to retail pressure and low prices it seems unlikely that it will happen soon.

The markets factor in CAP payments already, therefore prices would have to increase if we are to keep our agriculture production alive in this country.

I addressed the WI Annual General Meeting last week, which was held in Cardiff. I had no idea of the sheer scale of their AGM until I turned up. Around 5000 women, dressed to the nines, coiffured to within an inch of their lives, and looking extremely intimidating, were all in the International Arena at Cardiff.

My job on the day was to speak in favour of their motion, calling for better food labelling, clearly stating country of origin on all food.

The Food Standards Agency were to speak against, but gave their apologies just two days before, citing that as the new coalition government were broadly in favour of better labeling, they did not need to attend.

Not only was this extremely bad form and very rude, but it shows once again how out of touch the FSA really is; you do not snub the WI and get away with it - ask Tony Blair.

This gave the audience more time to grill me, and boy, do they know their subject. I had questions coming at me from all directions, and I fielded them as best I could, taking a swipe at the FSA as often as possible.

Luckily, after our joint campaign on better milk prices for farmers four years ago, I have good links with the hierarchy of the WI, and they are friendly, progressive and very effective. I look forward to working with them again very soon.

n I see that Britain's premier scientific institution is being forced to review its statements on climate change.

The Royal Society has appointed a panel to rewrite the institution's official position on global warming after a rebellion by members who questioned human contribution to rising temperatures.

The society has conceded that it needs to correct previous statements and said '˜Any public perception that the science is somehow fully settled is wholly incorrect - there is always room for new observations, theories and measurements'.

This very much contradicts previous President, Lord May, who once said '˜The debate on climate change is over'.

Why is this important? I believe that science is under real pressure in all areas at present, and credibility is everything.

Scientists need funding, and there is no doubt that in the past, scare tactics have been used by institutions in many different areas, in order to frighten politicians (a very easy thing to do) into funding further research.

In the climate change debate, intimidation has also been widely used to bully those who have doubts about the science. Global warming has been a very high yielding cash-cow, and it is telling that the '˜rebels' in The Royal Society, are fellows who are either retired or past the stage where careers can be put at risk by being labelled a '˜flat-earther' or denier, when claiming that the science is not settled.

Lord Rees the Society's president, admitted to differing views among Fellows, but has promised that the new guide will be '˜based on expert views backed up by sound scientific science'.

Farm

Diary

by Gwyn Jones

'˜In the climate change debate,

intimidation has been widely used'