IT was with a strange feeling of half-guilt that I gave the wisteria its second haircut on Monday, realising that I hadn't taken an August Bank Holiday off since 1957.

The weather is very kind at the moment, and as the harvesting days get shorter, everyone is rushing to gather in what are mainly disappointing yields.

Slaughterhouses always used to be open on bank holidays but, as successive EU directives impose more and more restrictions, they have nearly all opted out and as a consequence our collection centre was forced to operate on a Tuesday.

At the end of my testing 15-hour day, I listened to a debate on farming after foot and mouth, led by Kirsty Wark, on BBC Newsnight. There was general consensus that a production-driven farming industry needed to change, softening its intensive business face with more sensitivity to environmental issues.

The lady pig farmer was very sensible and combined with the NFU deputy president Tim Bennett to make a strong plea for a level playing field as the reforms were pushed through.

One of her major concerns was the iniquitous labelling rules which, with the blessing of the EC, allows meat from other countries to be heralded as "produced in the UK".

On the one hand, our farmers are forced to comply with the most stringent welfare regulations, provide compulsory traceability from birth to slaughterhouse and pushed down the Quality Assurance route; whilst on the other hand, supermarkets can buy cheap European meat and present it to the consumer as though it had come from this country.

I remember listening to Max Hilliard at a breakfast seminar where he openly admitted that the Danish or Dutch ham was taken out of its wrapping and given a new cloak of what is little more than deceit.

I found it quite outrageous, Tuesday night, when Stephen Hawkins, of Safeway, brushed aside this questionable activity and declared that "fiddling with labelling" would be of little use to the farmer.

The thrust of his recommendation was that the supply chain must be shortened from producer to consumer.

By that I presume he means that the supermarket giants see middle marketing men or groups as a threat and want to get direct control of individual farm producers.

Heaven help us!

The latest measures to control FMD in this area may appear a bit Draconian to those of us who have to live with constant inspection, disinfection and surveillance but they do seem, fingers crossed, to be working.

The Blue Zone, which is the core area around Thirsk and running down to York bypass, has been free of any confirmed cases for over three weeks.

There is no 'live to live movement' whatever and, whilst there will be some hardship as we head towards the end of the grazing season, the Blue Zone restrictions have been extended for a further two weeks up until, I believe, September 14.

Farther north, in Northumberland, the virus has struck viciously again and in an area around Hexham where there is almost wall-to-wall livestock.

After three months without a case, the new Hexham hotspot is the more perplexing and further cements the call for a proper public inquiry.

Many farmers in the area believe that it doesn't take "a brain of Britain to work out the link" with the footpaths being reopened three weeks ago in the area. For myself, I do wonder if the virus has not been active but unnoticed in some sheep flock running on the hills this summer because, as John Stringer points out, signs of FMD in sheep are difficult to spot and they do survive it.

Whatever the truth, I believe only a public inquiry would satisfy the demands of the whole countryside and we must all try to sign the petition that is now being drawn up to put pressure on the Government.

Lord Whitty has indicated that there will now be no livestock markets until the end of the year, and this throws an enormous amount of pressure upon us as auctioneers to provide a marketing bureau through which stock can be sold.

For the past few weeks, I have been talking about video-type auctions and work is going on behind the scenes to get these up and running by the end of September.

There is a desperate need for a co-operative venture between those parts of the country that need to sell stock and other areas which need to restock; and, on behalf of the auctioneers, I am sure we would want to act as the catalyst.

We will try and firm up on some ideas over the next few days and publish them to all customers.

During this harvest period, trade has been fairly even with an increasing shortage of good-shaped clean cattle, although bulls, remarkably, stay more plentiful.

'R' grade clean cattle are now running from 165-173p/kilo which is 2-3p up; and there is very little below 140p/kilo on the black & white front.

OTM cows are starting to move in some numbers and if you haven't got yours entered, please do so by ringing the help line for an entry form.

The Government's aid package to underpin sales of lamb appear to be unnecessary at the moment as numbers are definitely short with trade expected to rise.

We have been running at around 160p/kilo but this could lift to 165-170p in response to the market.

Pigs are always more difficult to sell in hot weather but we are still moving the same sort of numbers at similar prices with strong bacon pigs running from 98-105p/kilo and lighter quality pigs up to 112p/kilo.

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

I have never achieved sufficient success to warrant buying the Financial Times but my old friend, Graham Peacock, found an illuminating article in its nether regions which was devoted to a gory description of ritual pig killing.

The whole village turn out to witness the condemned porker being slain with a sharp knife amidst protesting squeals and floods of blood.

You may well be wondering what this horror story has to do with life in Britain but it was taking place in Galicia, part of north-west Spain and also part of the EC, and purportedly falling under the same rules as ourselves.

Is it not a little odd that our Meat & Hygiene Service is now populated with Spanish vets who rigidly enforce the strictest of welfare codes upon our slaughterhouse operators and yet in their own back yard quite unacceptable barbaric practices persist?

My last rather flippant ditty comes from 'Professor' John Botterill who claims to have found the answer to the hitherto inexplicable rapid spread of FMD - hedgehogs!

According to JB, hedgehogs are potential carriers of FMD and as to whether the spiky creatures completed the overland trip from Penrith to Hexham themselves or attached to the wheel of a car, the responsibility for the epidemic is unquestionable.

Next week the French are asking for a ban on hedgehog exports!

Updated: 10:01 Thursday, August 30, 2001