Aftermath of FMD not yet buried

Doubtless the occupants of Nos 10 & 11 Downing Street will be hoping that time will heal the wounds but this doesn't appear to be happening a the moment.

We, as auctioneers, have just paid an advance fee to join the UK Rural Business Campaign which will give DEFRA 14 days to respond to a Notice of Intent to sue for compensation. We are just one of 2,500 businesses that have so far joined in the action and these range from farmers to a London steakhouse chain which lost £3m last year.

We may be batting our heads against the proverbial brick wall but someone has to make this Government realise they cannot continue to ride roughshod over the rural community.

The Chancellor's statement conspicuously failed to make any reference to the continuing problems of the countryside following FMD and don't forget previous years of diminishing financial returns.

Sadly there was nothing in Gordon Brown's budget to give any encouragement to the farming industry and, in fact, the biggest impact will be the 1pc increase in National Insurance contributions which farmers will have to pay, not only for themselves but also for anyone employed by them.

The lack of any rural reference gave a positive kick in the midriff for Sir Donald Curry and his Report on the Future of Food & Farming, which had looked forward to an investment of £500m for implementation. We were all expecting something towards Curry's recommendations but it appears this has been completely sidelined by the Chancellor.

DEFRA has also come badly out of the budget and forecast spending for them is headed downwards. Margaret Beckett weakly tried to defend her colleague by saying that earlier Government announcements had demonstrated its commitment to take forward the Curry Report - time will tell!

With the UK Government refusing to have a proper public inquiry into the FMD crisis, we all had high hopes for the investigation set up by the European Parliament under Robert Sturdy's guidance.

Last week's four-day visit to northern England should have presented an opportunity for full and open discussion at meetings with those affected; but in the event the 30-strong committee of MEPs were forced to hold only one public meeting and even then speakers were selected.

The Labour element on the committee have battled to manipulate the situation, leaving many other MEPs "shocked and disappointed at the political manipulation of the committee." The only open meeting was at Gretna, held on a Thursday afternoon, with the remainder of the visit taken up with invited people addressing the committee.

We can just hope some good comes out of it.

Cattle dealers have provided the catalyst for trading livestock in Ireland for many years and they have been increasingly dissatisfied with their Government's refusal to lift a 30-day movement ban on animals that are bought in markets. That, say the dealers, is destroying their business and talks with the Government to reach a compromise have broken down.

This week, the dealers introduced a boycott of doing any business at the live auctions which will rapidly lead to a breakdown in the chain.

I have to say a similar situation exists on this side of St George's Channel but unfortunately we are not yet in as militant a mood to deal with it.

There are continued outbreaks of the deadly pig disease, swine fever, in Germany and Spain. The EC has placed export bans on live pigs from the affected areas but our concern must be the possibility of contaminated meat coming into this country through our wide-open ports and airports.

It is known and accepted that there is a huge illegal trade in meat being smuggled into Britain because of lax border controls; and although Margaret Beckett has said she will look at the problem, nothing has yet been put in place.

It is nonsense that we cannot immediately introduce available technology to trace meat products in luggage.

I see that 88 markets within Great Britain are now reporting market prices and that there were nearly 5,000 fat cattle sold through the auction ring last week. Although encouraging, we need to keep it in perspective as current figures represent only 28pc of the throughput volume for the corresponding period of 2000. At this level, markets are not viable and if farmers want them to remain they need more support.

GM Research on the Rack - Field research on GM crops has virtually come to a halt in Europe with only 88 trials last year compared to 1,500 in the United States. I am sure some environmentalists will perceive this as a victory but the reality is that the world markets will turn more towards America for the benefits of GM technology and Europe will be left behind.

Cancer Agent in Chicken Imports - Traces of a banned cancer-causing drug have been detected in some batches of chicken imported from Thailand and Brazil. Although banned for food-producing animals in Europe, the drug Nitrofuran is still permitted in China ands South-east Asia. I find it sad that supermarkets have to stoop to supplying us with such a product.

Big Drop in BSE Cases - BSE in the UK dropped by about 30pc last year; and the latest report highlights that 63pc of UK herds with adult breeding cattle have never had a case of BSE. Although we still have the highest number of known cases in Europe, Finland with 271 and France with 242 are creeping up.

Tuesday saw a respectable show of 54 cattle and 1,800 sheep sold in the market with a total clearance.

Trade for cattle is a bit fragile at the moment with a lot of competition from imported meat at silly prices. It is essential that we all make an effort to enquire where the meat comes from, whether we are buying it in a shop or in a restaurant, because if we don't we are going to be swamped with tonnes of foreign meat just dumped on our shores.

The overall cattle average was 90p/kilo which was not too bad considering that there were quite a number of Friesian cattle. The best of the clean cattle was a heifer from David Ulliott making 104p/kilo and amongst the bulls, Roland Mason ruled with a top of 112p/kilo for a superb Belgian Blue bull. The breaking-up Friesians were well sold, making from 75-85p.

Spring lamb prices were slightly better, averaging 134p/kilo up to a top of 147p for some smart lambs from Huttons Ambo Estate. Hoggs were also better than expected with an overall average of 97p/kilo and a top of 110p for a pen from John Wilson of Nunnington. There were 250 cull ewes which averaged £42/head up to £63 for E W Jackson of Grindale.

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Updated: 09:29 Thursday, April 25, 2002