At the market: All fair for both weather and trade

My first impression was that it hadn't been quite as buoyant a trade as expected but perhaps that was because of the fewer people about and I was allocated the Mule and Masham section which has fallen from favour in recent years.

For over 50 years, Brian Wilkinson has been attending the annual Fair and his detailed averages go back into the mists of time.

The Millennium has seen Brian introduce new systems which provide us with sales figures virtually as we go and by the end of the day it was apparent that this year's Fair had done marginally better than last year in most departments.

I will just give you a brief rundown of the averages and chief prices:

RAMS & RAM LAMBS

The highest price Suffolk was shown by Ian Clubley and made 500 guineas; the highest priced Texel was shown by Doug Jewitt and made 350 guineas: the best Charollais came from Charles & Valerie Marwood and made 320 guineas.

SUFFOLK GIMMERS

A total of 1,680 Suffolk gimmer shearlings averaged £57 up to a top of £72 for a nice pen from Peter Caley. There were a further 1,079 Suffolk ewes in this section which made up to £49.50 for a pen from W Butler.

MULES & MASHAMS

There was a total of 2,374 Mules & Mashams on offer. The gimmer shearlings averaged £39 and made up to £61 for a pen from David Wadsworth. The top price Masham shearlings made £43 bred by AW Richardson.

STORE LAMBS

A total of 4,056 store lambs went through the ring and were all sold to average £27/head. The best pen of lambs came from Keith Chapman and made £34.50/head.

The verdict on the day was that trade had been slightly better than expected and that seems to have been the trend around the sheep fairs this autumn in North Yorkshire.

Don't forget the last opportunity of the season comes this Saturday at Pickering.

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I do despair of our media and their continuous efforts to retain viewers and readers with revelations of doubtful provenance; and the latest was Sunday night's programme on BSE on Channel 4.

Sombre, dramatic background music helped focus on the dark theme of the documentary which was full of black conjecture and little fact.

I really wish they would let the matter rest and allow us to get back to normallity. The truth is that by the end of September we have had 747 confirmed cases of BSE which means that by the end of the year we shall have had less than 1000 cases in 12 months and this compares to 1000 cases per week when the disease was at its height in 1992.

Everything is on course for eradicating the disease totally and current scientific forecasts are that there could be only around 80 cases in the year 2002.

The Food Standard Agency has just reviewed BSE controls, concluding that they are working and recommending that the current precautionary approach be retained for the immediate future.

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Another item on the Food Standard Agency's agenda was meant to be the setting up of an independent appeals system for the Meat Hygiene Service.

Up to now, the MHS officers have behaved in a quite unacceptably autocratic manner, dispensing penalties to farmers, auctioneers, butchers and hauliers like confetti.

I have been fighting a case for an elderly spinster since January 1999 when one of her bulls lost its tag on the way to the abattoir and, despite it being the only animal without a tag in the slaughterhouse that day and all the documentation being correct, the animal was thrown in the bin and no payment was made whatever.

The FSA have not been hasty in making progress but are trying to tiptoe through the backlog of complaints that have to be resolved.

In my Yorkshire case, they are now suggesting that we have a retired Circuit Judge and a fairly complex procedure ending in a public hearing which cannot cost less than several thousand pounds when all that is at stake is a mere £500.

But our case is small beer compared to the investigation that is about to commence into the Mead Webber fiasco.

The Mead Webber abattoir kill thousands of sheep and were in fact good customers of ours.

Over a period of 5 years, their plant had been inspected by 16 different vets and its hygiene score, between 75-80, placed it amongst the best abattoirs in the country.

Suddenly, a new contract vet appears on the scene, not only down grading the hygiene assessment but also making a series of costly demands for improvements.

The abattoir owners tried to appeal but the MHS establishment inevitably backed the decision of its staff, never believing that their judgement could be questioned.

The abattoir owners are staunchly independent operators, perhaps on the fiery side of volatile, and closed the business down at a week's notice.

I now see that the investigation panel will comprise a QC and former Chief Legal Adviser to the Office of Fair Trading, a retired veterinary surgeon and past President of the British Cattle Veterinary Association, and a former slaughter house owner and past President of the National Federation of Meat Traders.

What this will cost is anybody's guess but I hope it leads to justice and to the MHS acknowledging ever so slightly that they operate in a democracy..

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On the pig front, the swine fever outbreak in East Anglia amazingly seems to have been contained in that region although a 15th case was confirmed last week.

At long last, the Government has now agreed to increase its compensation package to farmers affected within the restriction zones rather than just the farmers who have had confirmed infection.

Previously you may remember they offered £35/pig to all producers which represented about 40-50% of the value of the animals.

Now Nick Brown has held out the prospect of a further £15/pig provided the industry matches this figure.

More generally, despite lower supplies, the large processors have decided to reduce the contract price paid to producers. It doesn't seem economic sense that this should happen but then the UK pig market is dominated by very few buyers which distorts economic principles.

It is hard to find anyone who speaks up for the Malton Foods trading strategy and now there are rumours that even its bosses at Unigate would rather be rid. We watch with interest and little sympathy.

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The Monday/Tuesday markets saw quite small shows of stock forward.

We had 180 cattle of which 80 were young bulls and I thought we had a very respectable trade with most Continentals making around 95p/kilo; and up to a top of 110p for a nice middle weight produced by Mervin Blacklock.

Alice Thompson had the best heavy weight at 108p/kilo.

In relation, the black and white bulls seemed dearer still and there was very little under 80p this week and the best Friesian would make 90p.

There were exactly 100 clean cattle and demand was good for cattle with flesh and the overall average of 94p/kilo supports the strong trade in the market at the moment.

The best priced steer came from B & J A Gray at 118p and the dearest Intervention-type steer was from Miss P Gibson at 104p/kilo.

As in recent weeks, the retail butcher heifers stole the show with George Marwood producing a heavy weight to make 131p and a middle weight to make 130p/kilo.

The 673 sheep also faced a better climate with averages at 80p/kilo throughout.

The top price of 87p was achieve by J E Teasdale.

We had 250 pigs on both days which averaged 76p/kilo. Monday's top was 82.5p achieved by Geoff Webster and on Tuesday H W Ward & Sons made 84p/kilo.

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Unfortunately, the Tuesday market was highlighted by the escape of a Limousin steer which had freakishly managed to back into the gate catch, opening it with its rump.

On behalf of the owner and the market operators, we apologise for the damage done. Please could any enquirers contact either Michael Harrison or Charlie Breese at the auctioneers offices in the first instance.