IACS deadline May 15

On the one hand, if the farmer breaches the rules by even the smallest degree penalties are immediately imposed; and tales are legion of excessive punishment being dealt out for human error and innocent mistakes.

However, DEFRA, Brussels and Whitehall have immunity from such frailty and their ommisions come and go without so much as an apology. For example, there was no remission for the 2001 IACS deadline and yet payment of the Arable Area Aid was delayed by months, in some cases at a time when farmers desperately needed the cash.

It is very much a case of "Do as I say and not as I do".

You may be interested to know that those words were originally ascribed to another rebel against the establishment, John Selden, who was an erudite historian and politician in the first half of the 17th century, which took him through the Civil Wars and the execution of Charles I.

In those days, he campaigned against the divine right of the Church to impose the payment of tithes upon the common people and, later on, he helped to draw up the Petition of Right which landed him in the Tower.

Times don't change, do they?

The message of the moment is to get your IACS application in before next Wednesday. Don't forget that you need one of your BCMS stickers to put on Annex A so that the bar code can be read.

This year, for the first time, you can submit the application electronically through your computer, but be warned that it is taking a lot more time, often twice as long, to deal with and the DEFRA portal is not always working.

Anyone wanting some help, please get in touch with your professional advisers.

Government efforts to identify a means for helping the Treasury avoid future disease control costs and compensation payments are beginning to focus on a levy-style tax system, part funded by farmers.

This latest scheme follows on from the earlier Whitehall proposal to impose compulsory insurance but this foundered because insurance companies were distinctly unenthusiastic about offering cover against an unpredictable cost hazard as potentially expensive as an FMD epidemic.

Huge questions have to be asked about the whole principle of collecting and managing such a fund. It is not difficult to foresee the problems in apportioning the levy rate between the species; and how would payments from the fund be administered?

Most of all, it is the inequity of the proposal which offends me as it totally avoids the issue of Governmental responsibility for the outbreak of the disease in the first place.

If there was any sort of control at our ports of entry we could have prevented many of the epidemics in recent years and this we must keep pressing for.

The army chief, Brigadier Alex Birtwhistle, who was in charge of the culling operation in Cumbria, has laid much of the blame upon the Government for not having a contingency plan in place to deal with the crisis.

Some of the brigadier's revelations to the inquiry team at Kendal are appalling:

- The army was not involved until a month after the first case was confirmed and by this time the disease was out of control.

- The delay between diagnosis and slaughter was running at 4-5 days.

- There was an absence of resources such as trucks, slaughter men and guns which led to a backlog of carcasses lying on the ground.

- At one point, up to 100,000 carcasses were waiting for disposal, with some remaining on the ground for up to three weeks.

The brigadier's critical comments come at the same time as a report to the European inquiry which shows that the UK had not put forward a proper contingency strategy to deal with a disaster; and this despite the fact that Brussels had asked for such a plan as far back as 1990.

It is further worrying that the Scientific Veterinary Committee issued a confidential report in 1999 warning that the risk of foot and mouth was extraordinarily high and advising member states to take additional measures to prevent an outbreak.

The more information that is drip-fed in the aftermath of FMD, the more scandalous does the Government decision not to hold a public inquiry become.

- Branded Meat - there has been a surge of interest in locally-branded meats and the Government is supporting local produce through initiatives such as the Countryside Agency's "Eat the View" slogan. Now would seem an ideal time to brand Yorkshire meat as such and we need to address the means of achieving this by differentiating our product from the norm to make people want to eat it.

- PMWS Action - this severe post-weaning wasting disease has affected weaners and growing pigs in this country for the last four years, having again been imported from the continent. It leads to high mortality rates, of up to 20pc, and is causing economic problems for many producers.

Last week there was a meeting of all the major European pig-producing countries in Brussels in an effort to take joint action to tackle this devastating disease.

- Quotas - DEFRA has published a report on "Life After Quotas" which specifically deals with the world of milk production should quotas be removed in 2010. They forecast the price of milk falling to around 15p/litre which is, in their view, the unsubsidized world price; and DEFRA envisages the countryside with fewer but very much larger milk producers.

- Paddy & Mick Joke - finally, a touch of levity, from anywhere in Europe, where Paddy and Mick were both made redundant and went to the Employment Office. When Paddy was asked about his occupation he said: "I'm a panty stitcher - I sew the elastic onto ladies pants." The lady clerk found this job to be unskilled and gave him EUR45 per week Unemployment Benefit.

Next in the queue was Mick who declared that he was a diesel fitter and, being a skilled job, he was given EUR90 per week.

When Paddy found out he was furious and stormed back into the office for an explanation. The clerk confirmed that panty stitchers were unskilled whereas diesel fitters were skilled labour.

"What skill?" yelled Paddy. "I sew the elastic onto the panties; Mick puts them over his head and says: "Yep, dese'l fit 'er"!"

Bank holidays are a real menace for messing up the meat trade and the May weekend has been no exception.

Demand for cattle has been hampered by the flood of cheap unlabelled foreign imports and generally the price has dipped.

We had just over 40 cattle on Tuesday with the top-priced bull from Roland Mason at 110p/kilo; and another from nephew, Richard, at 102p/kilo.

There was a good show of 1,500 sheep which included 560 lambs, 700 hoggs and 240 ewes.

Demand for lambs has just eased back a touch and the average of 130p/kilo reflected this. Top-priced lambs per kilo went to Carl Fawcett at 147p/kilo and, per head, £58 was achieved by Gordon Harper and Steve Stonehouse. Amongst the hoggs, J H Ruston hit £56.50, whilst the top-priced ewe from Chris Beal was £58.50.

We are looking forward to a more settled week.

Anyone wanting further information please contact the helplines at Malton on (01653) 697820/692151 and York on (01904) 489731.

Updated: 09:29 Thursday, May 09, 2002