Farm Diary

It's also open season on the Archbishop of Canterbury it seems, with the media lining up the guns.

Having failed to demonstrate that Rowan Williams actually said what the press wanted him to have said in order to cause uproar, weaken his position or get rid of him (as the most extreme and biased columnist would like), the charge by now is that he did not make himself clear.

Quite how clear one has to make oneself to get through to the baying mob is less than clear too. For the Archbishop to get into such trouble when commenting on an area that is not only difficult, but also precisely the sort of social and moral dilemma that he is so well positioned and equipped to discuss, whatever one's views, is disgraceful.

His language was complex and stretching, as befits his exalted position, but carefully chosen as the intellectually lazy found to their ultimate embarrassment.

We had a bit of a scare last week when a cow displayed 'Blue-tongue' symptoms (very ill with excessive salivation). The vet was called, but it turned out that she had diphtheria, which is very rare in a mature cow (usually found in calves).

She was treated, but with no improvement the next day, and due to the obvious distress she was in, I had her put down. The worst problem was that we could not keep her hydrated, the most important first line of attack for any illness, as the throat infection was too severe for us to pass a pipe down to her stomach. She drank very little of her own accord, and was unlikely to pull through.

The little Belgian Blue calf that was born several weeks prematurely with no hair to speak of, is now over four months old and still on milk! Calves are normally weaned off milk at around six weeks of age (providing they are eating 1kg of solid food), but 'Dwarfy' having survived against all odds is now a hefty calf, still on milk and consuming vast quantities of solid feed.

He is not being sold, as he is now a bit of a pet, and is a funny shape in any case; more like a pure bred Belgian Blue (probably why he did not go full term). He is fed on milk as there is some to spare, and he would tell you if he could that being treated like a veal calf ain't half bad!

We had our herd 'locomotion scored' the other day by our veterinary practice. I was delighted to see that we have improved lameness to the point where we are twice as good as the national average and better than the practice average.

Adrian has worked hard on lameness in the herd and it's good to see his work rewarded. We shall continue to improve in the coming months as we are determined to have as few lame cows as possible.

I was particularly please that cow comfort in the cubicles was commented on as very good; an important point in reducing lameness (cows lie down for longer if really comfortable). As cows and their welfare are often looked at from a human viewpoint, I wonder what the score would be if we 'locomotion scored' the village; say outside the village shop on a Sunday morning?

Talking of welfare, this can be tricky. We have just had our oldest cow in the herd operated on. 'Popeye' is fifteen years old, a good cow with average yields and again back in calf. She had a tumour in her eye, which was very painful, and looked a real mess. What to do? Operate and remove the eye, or put her down? We decided to operate, remove the eye and she how it went. I'm glad to say that she is fully recovered, calved again and all healed up with eyelid sewn over the cavity (eye socket). She seems to cope with one eye very well.

I suppose we should now rename her 'Nelson'?

The prediction made in a report last year by EU economists that a catastrophic surge in the cost of animal feed unless Europe changes its attitude towards imported genetically modified grain; is that much nearer reality.

The animal feed under dispute is imported mainly from USA, Brazil and Argentina, but the delay of two and a half years in EU approval of new varieties, means that more and more feed is unable to be imported as new varieties are being developed rapidly.

To make matters much worse, a 'zero-tolerance' approach over cross contamination, which means that a single grain of non-approved GM variety in a shipment can render it unfit for use, has meant that few shippers are going to take the risk of bringing in approved feed.

A further shift by American, Argentinian and Brazilian growers to non-approved new varieties would lead to soaring prices (over 600% according to the report 'Economic impact of unapproved GMO's on EU feed imports and livestock production).

Pig and poultry production would decline rapidly, with a significant increase in imported pig and poultry meat reared on '“ guess what '“ new variety GM feed. As farmers outside Europe increasingly turn to GM crop varieties for better yields, the speed of this transition is leaving the EU stranded with fewer sources of supply.

GMO technology is leaving Europe, concentrating its research and development in the USA, Canada Latin America, and now China and Asia. If the EU does not get a grip on this, these are the countries that we will export our livestock production to, as Europe will not be able to compete.

The government in the UK is panicking about inflation in the food sector as it is, and we have not yet corrected the years of food deflation that they relied so heavily on to counter the overall inflation levels in the economy; at the farmer's expense. Well they have not seen anything yet!

No one can stand in the way of this technology as it offers so much in terms of affordable food, solutions to climate change, hope for impoverished nations, huge medical possibilities etc: With so many countries embracing it with gusto, Europe, having lost its position as a leader in the development of GMO's, now has to chose between relaxing controls, or facing the possible ruination of its livestock industry, due to this problem coinciding with and therefore exacipating the global demand and very high prices of grain.

This ridiculous situation is made to look even worse as virtually every person in the EU is eating meat fed on imported GM maize and soya; every day. Meanwhile the livestock industry holds its breath with pigs and poultry in the front line.

This feature was published in the West Sussex Gazette on February 20. To read it first, buy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.