I WAS hovering near the coffee pot and the Aga on a typical British summer Sunday morning, when Radio 4 broadcast its in-depth investigation into the FMD crisis.

For the next half hour or so we were treated to a string of damning statements from eye-witnesses who had played key roles in trying to control the disease.

There was the chairman of Longtown market, a Scottish slaughterman, Alan Richardson, veterinary officer, scientists and a host of others who in turn gave their evidence as to what had really gone on. Here are a few of the comments made:

- If the Government had taken action to control the movement of stock two days earlier than it did, then the size of the outbreak would have been half what it turned out to be. In other words the delay doubled the penalty.

- Three days after the first confirmed case, MAFF turned up at Longtown market, on Monday February 26, and were given all the documentation relating to every sheep and its movement from the market in the previous week. One month later, the market got a telephone call from MAFF asking for the same information again, although they have since denied that they lost the original paperwork.

- One buyer of sheep from Longtown market on the fatal day in question was not contacted by MAFF for four months.

- One Longtown drover, despite asking the question, was not advised to keep away from stock. He was a part-time milkman and his cow herd was the first to go down with the disease and be slaughtered.

- A Scottish slaughterman wanting equipment had to ask the vet who then reported to Dumfries and then to Ayr, on to Edinburgh, and finally to London. The decision-making chain was endless.

- At one farm with rotting carcasses, the vets had asked for a pit to be dug, but the Environment Agency turned up and refused to allow it. They next organised a pyre for burning but the fire brigade rejected that as a fire hazard and the consequence was that the infected heap stayed for days whilst the bureaucrats debated.

- The contiguous cull policy came in for a lot of criticism and it was suggested that this programme was hijacked by the scientific committee who produced mathematical models which in turn led to a gross overkill of animals.

For example, in Gloucestershire, after the 24-hour slaughter policy was introduced, there were 76 premises which vets suspected on visual examination as having the disease, which impacted upon a further 346 farms being taken out as contiguous; and yet after laboratory tests, only 13 were confirmed. The livestock on over 400 farms were destroyed to satisfy a scientific model!

- The biggest pit dug in the country was at Great Orton, in Cumbria, where the Government paid six times the value of the land for the area acquired and the legacy is a 15-year maintenance responsibility which is estimated to cost £35m.

- Excessive payments agreed by panicky and inexperienced officials came under fire; and apparently over 40pc of the claims made by contractors cannot be substantiated as even being done.

This catalogue of disasters was punctuated with defensive and unbelievable comments from Elliot Morley who, to my mind, is a totally political animal with little knowledge of agriculture and an underlying dislike for those who work in our industry.

Last week, for example, we would all be particularly perplexed and upset by his offensive hypocritical remarks following the detention of a Yorkshire sow at a Leicester abattoir suspected of FMD.

Mr Morley shamelessly sought to discredit pig producers by accusing them of appalling lax standards and failing to have an ear tag in the sow in question.

His remarks were clearly targeted at the lay and uninformed electorate but I have done a little research and as far as I can see there is no regulation which requires sows to be tagged when they leave a farm and any such identification is purely for management purposes.

There may be a case for sows to be tagged before movement but at present we are the innocent victims yet again of political incompetence.

On the other hand, what are Mr Morley and the Mistress Beckett doing about imports of illegal meat for which they do have direct responsibility and about which they prevaricate but do sweet fanny adams.

Its been a week of catchy weather and many haymakers will be blessing the invention of plastic bags. Here are a few items that may interest you from the past seven days.

- French U turn on lamb - After a lot of what I suspect will have been heated discussion, the French agriculture minister announced last week that they have postponed their proposals to introduce unilateral regulations for the removal of the spinal cord from all imported lambs over six months of age. Two years ago was the last time we had a proper exchange of sheep meat with France and in that year it was worth more than £155m to the UK.

On the beef front however, France has been given a final warning by the EU to end its ban or the matter will be referred back to the European Court of Justice.

- Scheme to purchase Sheep Quota - The government has announced its intention to switch support from breeding ewe subsidies to a support for restructuring the industry in line with the Curry Report. This means that next year they will be aiming to reduce sheep numbers in historically-overgrazed areas by encouraging extensification in uplands and improving the marketing of better quality sheep.

Under the scheme currently proposed, the government will purchase sheep quota from producers who in return will be required to undertake lower stocking levels. The scheme is being operated by tender and it is intended that applications will be open in the autumn so that offers can be dealt with before the close of the next quota trading period.

- Suckler cow rates - The Suckler Cow Premium Scheme opened on July 1 and claim forms have been sent to all producers. The closing date is Friday, December 6 and before then trading can take place in what is likely to be a buoyant market.

The premium rate for 2002 is £120.17/per unit and there is possibly an additional payment of £22 from the Beef National envelope forthcoming.

Beware that the government doesn't take the same type of action as proposed with the sheep and seek to cut numbers.

A week on Saturday, July 13, sees another unique occasion, with Roland Mason's dispersal sale of his prize winning Belgian Blue herd. Boulton & Cooper will be having the sale at Roland's farm, Grange Farm, Wold Newton and it will comprise approximately 100 head of marvellous pedigree stock.

The Wold Newton herd is flushed with "Royal success", having just won the Senior Bull Championship with Wold Newton Rambo, which is Lot 96 in the sale, and 15 heifers are in calf to him.

For further details contact Philip Place at the Boulton & Cooper office at Malton (01653) 692151.

Tuesday's market brought 60 cattle into the auction ring with a top price of 120p/kilo for a marvellous heifer from Bridget Raby of Longwood Farm, Nawton.

The best bull of the day was produced by John Bulmer and made 113p/kilo and the star steer came from Mark Bulmer at 117p/kilo.

Even the breaking up cattle were a good trade with the odd Friesian making over 90p/kilo. With a trade like this in the live ring it is really time for a bit more support if we are going to keep the market going.

There were almost 700 sheep with the lamb trade just about holding up to average 113p/kilo. Top price of the day went to Robert Holtby from Leavening with a pen making £55.80.

Cull ewes averaged £38 per head up to a top of £56 from John Hird of Hackness.

Updated: 09:01 Thursday, July 04, 2002