Farm Diary - Nov 11 2009

Some of the sunny days are glorious, highlighting the magnificent colours as the sun filters though the branches, showing off the vivid array of greens, yellows, reds and brown.

The leaves are hanging on very well considering that they have had a severe battering in the last week or two, but it can't last much longer and there is always the danger that if a big storm materialized, that the leverage would cause severe damage. With virtually no frost around, the grass is still growing, but the clay is now softening up as it soaks up the water.

n Calf passports are being delayed by the wretched postal strike, and it is causing quite a few problems. The service from BCMS (British Cattle Movement Service) is pretty flaky to start with, and the delay in delivery of passports means that our calf shed is full, as we wait each day for the post-lady (who gives us excellent service) to see if we can sell some calves. We sell more and more of our calves locally, as national shortages increases demand, and it is rather nice to have the contact with our neighbouring farmers.

n We are now producing some better quality gas from the AD plant, as the temperature of the substrate in the first tower increases. We now have 64% methane content, and the flare burns fiercely, with all the jets bright red as the flame roars away.

The Hydrogen Sulphate is still far too high for us to start the engine as it would attack the lubricating oil, and we are awaiting instructions to start the de-sulphurisation plant; but other than that we are ready to press the button. The tower is now 32 degrees and we are told that by the time it gets to 38 degrees, we will be ready to go. It's been a long time and we are well behind schedule, but we have all started believing since flaring the gas; it has changed everything. It is the best patio-heater you have ever seen!

n The interest in Anaerobic Digestion is now huge, but I see that a group of animal rights activists (VIVA) are protesting over plans to use waste food from supermarkets to produce green electricity.

Retailers generate around 1.6 million tonnes of food waste a year, with food manufacturers a further 4.1 million tonnes and restaurants and other outlets another 3 million tonnes.

Whilst I agree that everything possible should be done to cut waste and looking at these figures there must be huge scope to do just that, producing green electricity rather than sending it to landfill has to be a sensible move. VIVA realizes that there will be meat products in there, and that is the basis for their objection; 'Non-meat eaters would be horrified to know that their electricity was being produced by this method' they said.

n Moving on, I am delighted to say that the British public has again showed that it has vastly more common sense and better judgment than government give us credit for (certainly better judgment than politicians themselves!), and we have all totally ignored healthy-eating labels, and got slimmer anyway!

New research has now shown that based on the latest figures, a 30 year rise in child obesity has been reversed. This is very good news for everyone other than the Food Standard Agency, because their 'traffic light' system, which has been thoroughly discredited by scientists and experts in the field, had not come into force, and the Nutrient Profiling Model was not in use during this time.

More bad news for the FSA as studies show that consumers take no notice of their 'traffic light' system; indeed they positively ignore the advice which is wonderful. Researchers tracked ready meal and sandwich sales at various venues, for a month before and a month after the introduction of the labeling, and found no significant difference; indeed the healthiest two sandwiches experienced the sharpest sales drop of any product.

The report's co-author Professor Rayner (Oxford University) was previously an advocate of the traffic light system, and had set out to confirm the FSA's own findings, suggesting traffic lights had beneficial effects, but was only able to do this by being 'selective' with the data!

I suggest that the public at large take exception to government's 'big brother' approach to our daily lives, and that they quite rightly take exception to being told what to eat, proving at the same time that there is no need for such schemes and better things could be done with taxpayer's money.

n Turning to Europe, I'm off again to Brussels this week where the High Level Group are meeting to talk about the supply chain and contracts in particular. Having got the French on side, things are looking up and indeed President Sarkozy himself in a speech last week said 'The absence of contractual relations in the dairy chain bears witness to a growing and unacceptable imbalance between producers and processors. Can we accept that a producer who works without counting the hours between January 1st and 31st doesn't know the price of his work until 10th of February?'

The Agriculture Commissioner Marian Fischer Boel referred last week to the 'magic trick!' Consumers finding that although their wallets were considerably lighter after a trip to the supermarket, switching on the TV to see farmers protesting at the low prices they were being paid. 'The share of money paid in the shop did not materialize on the farm, it disappeared as if by magic; we therefore must do what we can to boost the farmer's bargaining power in the supply chain' she said.

We do at least have powerful allies in Europe as the mood swings towards tackling the sheer abuse of power that is taking place. As NFU National Dairy Board Chairman I have written to every major player in the dairy supply chain asking for information on retail tenders for milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products, as we were tasked to do so by the EFRA Committee following our evidence into the Dairy Farmers of Britain Co-op enquiry.

As expected, no contracts, no details and no information is forthcoming due to verbal agreements being the norm, and fear; fear of being delisted as a supplier. I hope that will also send a message to the Government when they read our detailed submission.