ROB SIMPSON of the Yorkshire and North East National Farmers Union canes the

Government for its decree-first-think-afterwards attitude

NEW schemes announced by the Government to enable at last the vital movement of cattle and sheep were met with universal relief among the North Yorkshire farming community recently. But what frustration followed!

Autumn traditionally heralds the start of livestock sales which are crucial to the industry. Upland farmers are desperate to sell sheep and cattle which they will be unable to either feed or look after this winter. And while there are plenty of potential buyers in lowland areas, the restrictions have forced a movement standstill in many areas. Meanwhile, if we are to have any British meat next year, then the bulls must be moved to the cows and the tups to the ewes.

But when the various movement schemes started coming into operation during September and this month, farmers discovered it was virtually impossible to get a licence.

Computer software designed to process the movement licences was totally inadequate and collapsed whenever it was needed. There was no appreciation of the massive number of licences which would be applied for, nor did the authorities anticipate what farmers would actually need to move.

My general feeling is that if I (or someone else in the industry) was to sit down to develop a movement scheme for animals, I might be inclined to design the scheme first and consider the likely problems before I announced them.

The approach taken by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) suggested the most important thing was the announcement, and then (if they had time) they might try and think up a scheme to fit in with the announcement. My Irish colleague asked me why the English make jokes about his country when we have people like this in positions of influence!

It is vital that a balance is found between stamping out the disease and allowing movements which are vital not only to ensure that farmers' businesses have any hope of surviving but also for animal welfare reasons. That is why a stringent licensing system has been put in place to regulate these movements.

In many areas of Northern England farmers are still unable to move their livestock and some of the problems arising are truly dreadful. One farmer I met recently has been unable to move his 50 dairy cows from a seven-acre field for the last six months.

The field has now disintegrated into mud, and although the cows are all healthy, they must struggle through mud a foot deep. With all his other foot-and-mouth problems this year, he reckons his losses amount to £15,000.

The one encouraging note, as I write this, is that we have not had a case for more than two weeks. But farmers cannot afford to drop their guard. Neither can farmers assume that if an area has been disease free for several months, then the threat has gone - the Hexham disease cluster is proof of that. It only takes one careless movement and we are back at square one.

PRICES being received by the producer for lamb at the minute is nothing short of a scandal and the sector will suffer irreparable structural damage if depressed prices for finished sheep are allowed to continue week after week

The loss of export markets following the outbreak of foot and mouth disease have, broadly speaking, been cancelled out by foot and mouth cullings and disruptions to the supply chain which have led to heavy production losses.

Although there are higher costs involved in sending sheep to slaughter and then processing them, the prices this autumn are far too low. The price for finished animals for the week ending 6 October was £1.41 per kilogram, compared with £1.69 per kg this time last year - a drop of 17 per cent.

The entire supply chain must understand that sheep farming is suffering structural damage as the depressed prices continue week after week.

Sheep farmers deserve far better; they need to have far greater confidence so that they can invest for the future. That is a key message that the entire sheep chain must take to heart and upon which it must act.

Updated: 08:56 Thursday, October 25, 2001