First Michaelmas video sale for sheep

Thus the annual tradition of holding a Michaelmas Fair in the town will not be broken, although the arrangements for the sale of some 6,000 head will be pretty novel to most of us.

- The sale is scheduled for a 10am start but those purchasers wanting to preview the sheep can arrive earlier and look at them on computer screens quite separately.

- The entry will comprise an excellent selection of breeding sheep from all the usual Michaelmas vendors. The order of sale will be slightly different in that first will come the gimmer shearlings followed by breeding ewes then store lambs and, finally, tups.

- The saleroom itself will be the main area of the clubhouse in which we shall have a 6ft screen for displaying a short piece of film on each lot.

- We shall offer the lots in the usual way with the exception that most will be sold with the purchaser having the option to cut. For example, if a vendor has 200 gimmers on offer, then the purchaser will have the right to take all the sheep or a "cut" of them. He may only want 50 and these will not be drawn but merely run off at the time of collection.

Because of the movement controls, there may be minimum cut numbers announced at the time of sale.

- Payment terms on the day will be the same so bring your cheque books. We shall hold the cheques until collection is confirmed.

- Because of the movement controls all sales will be subject to collection within a three-week period from the auction day; and I have to say that it is the interpretation and implementation of the autumn movement rules that are the biggest stumbling block.

Charlie Breese and Keith Warters have put in a lot of hours filming around Ryedale in their new Hollywood role and entry to the premiere at the rugby club will be totally free! The auctioneers have made best efforts to get a sale up and running. Somehow, we all have to keep our livestock business alive if there is going to be an industry at all left next spring.

Please come along and support and if you have any queries ring the help lines.

MOVEMENT CONTROL SHAMBLES

Having praised the success of the blue box regime which stemmed the flare-up of cases in North Yorkshire, I have little but apprehension as the new rules for autumn movement are introduced this week. The source of the trouble seems to be the Government's disillusionment with the former MAFF advisers and its increasing reliance upon the scientific-based advice from Professor King whom, I reluctantly admit, matriculated at my Cambridge College, although with greater academic honour.

The impact of scientific rather than practical proposals has produced a fairly unworkable cocktail of measures which Devonians are calling a "complete shambles".

The main problem areas are going to be felt with sheep:

- For a start, all sheep can only move once before going to slaughter. It is not entirely clear what this means but the worst and most problematical scenario is that if you have breeding ewes or lambs wintering away from the main farm, then they have to go straight to slaughter from that point and cannot return to base.

- In high risk areas, which we are, a farmer selling sheep can do so to only three declared destinations and no more within 14 days of a negative blood test.

Any vendor with substantial numbers of sheep to move is unlikely to be able to find purchasers of large enough numbers to do so in the first phase of blood testing.

Owners of breeding ewes in this position may well have to consider tupping their remaining flock before offering them for sale.

- Blood testing is yet another wild card in this obstacle course. DEFRA has, with a not unsurprising lack of wisdom, decided that it will, for reasons best known to itself, not use local veterinary surgeons to take the blood tests. As a consequence, it is only DEFRA vets who will be involved and they are clearly limited in number and I expect will soon be swamped by applications.

Bearing in mind that DEFRA has warned they will respond to applications within 2-5 weeks; and that results will take 7-14 days; and that you only have 14 days in which to move the sheep thereafter; the whole process elongates to create the shambles predicted by the Devon farming fraternity.

We are making every effort to try and soften the edges of these draconian rules but brick walls and head butting are pretty joyless occupations.

HASKINS AGAINST LIVESTOCK MARKETS

As an Irishman in charge of a British food distribution company, it was hardly surprising that Lord Haskins last week expressed grave reservations about the future of the livestock markets. He said that lots and lots of little markets was a stupid idea; and that farmers would be much better advised to co-operate and organise themselves.

There is no doubt that we shall all have to reappraise the livestock marketing structure over this next six months and hope that we can put in place a strategy that will serve the farming industry and the country to best advantage.

This will involve change and I believe that auctioneers generally occupy an unique position of trust which will enable them to assist setting up marketing organisations.

Things will never be the same again and we will probably have a mixture of both live and dead weight marketing on offer, but my main and over-riding hope is that the farming fraternity see fit to utilise the expertise of the auctioneers rather than set up farmer-directed cooperatives which have a very mixed track record in this country.

Before Lord Haskins makes up his mind completely on the obituary for livestock auctions, I would suggest he casts an eye back at his old country where Irish farmers are at their wits end, having lost most of their auction markets, and are now firmly under the control of the meat companies.

SINISTER TALES FROM THE UNDERGROWTH

I have only one story this week which perhaps reflects a rather sinister agenda for this whole FMD crisis. An inquisitive farmer whose stock was compulsorily culled had to give over details of his bank account to DEFRA so that compensation could be paid direct.

All the correspondence coming to the farm was under DEFRA's headed paper but he thought he would just see from whence the money had come. His enquiries at the bank revealed that the funds had come from Brussels under the heading "EU Livestock Reduction Fund". I thought it was a rather sinister revelation.

MARKETING SERVICE

Regrettably, there is not much good news on the marketing front this week and I put it down to the traditional autumn flush combined with the almost impossible movement controls being introduced.

Because it is so difficult to get livestock moved between farms, many producers are selling direct to slaughter even though their animals may not be fit.

The consequence is that the abattoirs are double flooded with entries; we rang a Welsh abattoir this week to see if we could move a load of lambs despite the distance only to be told that they were at full capacity killing 25,000 per week, but even then were turning away a further 3,000 lambs per day that were being offered to them.

Last week, 150-160p/kilo was achievable but this has melted away and the price currently is 135-145p/kilo.

Ewe trade is equally difficult and, if you can find a place, around 75p/kilo is the average.

The prospects for cattle are not too rosy with all prices dropping a few pennies. Down country, I understand that 'R' grade quality is running around 158-160p/kilo, but up here we can manage 160-166p/kilo whilst in Scotland they are a further 10p ahead of us if you can get there.

There are more bulls about than anticipated and places are difficult to find, although we are managing to do so.

The OTM situation is perhaps better than expected and we are clearing quite a lot of the backlog. Anyone with entries please ring Malton or York.

The pig market, whilst being the most stable of the species, is not exciting. Bacon pigs are making from 95p upwards with the best of the lightweight porkers at around 104p.

Help us to help you and ring our helplines at Malton on (01653) 697820/692151 and York on (01904) 489731.

Updated: 09:21 Thursday, September 27, 2001