INTELLIGENT and clever she may be, but sympathetic to, or even interested in, agriculture she is not. Having spent six weeks holidaying in France at the height of the FMD crisis, our Minister of State derisively dismisses the nation's farmers as "not happy bunnies".

With a phrase more appropriately applied to a kindergarten class which has had its ration of jelly babies stopped, Margaret Beckett displayed her lack of understanding and concern for the worst farming crisis in living memory.

We may not have as many brains as she does but we would expect our farm staff to know the difference between sheep and cattle, which seems to be beyond her own scientists. Her condescending remarks were uncalled for and hurtful; and she certainly does not appreciate the scale of the salvage problem to be addressed.

The minister proudly announced a £24m package last week, much of which has merely been reallocated from the EU-sponsored Rural Development Fund. Most of the money handed out in foot and mouth compensation will therefore simply be taken away from other farmers.

Two other statements were also quickly swept under the carpet last week:

- A report that damage to rural tourism by FMD has amounted to £2 billion, which seems to overshadow the Government's contribution of £24m (only 1pc).

- DEFRA announced that, because of the costs of terrorism, it will not be applying to Brussels as promised for £57m due to compensate British farmers for the collapse of the euro.

It is a sad fact of today's political scene that the Westminster benches are almost devoid of MPs with any practical knowledge of agriculture and Margaret Beckett is without doubt top of the ignoramus class - thus speaks one very unhappy bunny!

I don't think the lay reader outside of agriculture appreciates the frustration and time taken trying to obtain movement licences. Initial application has to be through the Trading Standards office and, up until this last week or so, the only reliable communication channel was via the telephone.

Busy farmers have spent all day coming back into the house only to hear the engaged tone. I have listened to my own staff sat at a desk constantly redialling Trading Standards and taking three to four hours to get through.

Charlie Breese spent the whole of Tuesday in an attempt to find out from DEFRA what had happened to all the movement licences from the sale of sheep at the video auction on October 4 but never managed to make contact. DEFRA has so far issued licences for two sheep out of 3,000.

Three weeks ago, DEFRA was persuaded to fast-track movement licences between premises in one occupancy and in a 20km circle.

It is now 12 days since I applied to shift some sheep back to my homestead that are separated from the main farm by two fields. Nothing has yet come through and our situation is not as desperate as some at this critical time of year with disappearing forage and management demands for breeding and weaning.

DEFRA has apparently instructed Trading Standards to stop issuing hand-written licences and to require the process to be done on their new software computer package which fails to function.

There really ought to be some redress against this continuing melange of mismanagement.

In a major speech last week at a conference in Dublin, Steve Murrells, the meat director of Tesco, made it clear that the supermarket would be calling for the abolition of livestock auction marts.

"Tesco has long been concerned," he warned, "about the role of livestock auction marts in the modern meat supply chain."

Tesco, he says, has already switched to direct sourcing from the farm in order to cut out the un-necessary movements and middle men. Ironically, Mr Murrells was delivering his lopsided solution for the meat industry in Ireland where domination of the meat plants has forced the closure of many auction markets and decimated the returns to the farmer.

A comment repeated over and over again to me in past months has been that it has taken this dreadful crisis to make the farming industry realise how vital and valuable is the livestock auction system.

For myself, I am convinced that we must reconstruct the bridge between farmers as producers and the consumer; but we have got to retain control of that bridge, be it through independent middle marketing auctioneers or new cooperatives.

It would be absolutely fatal for farmers if we were to totally commit ourselves to the Tescos of this world whom we know from past experience are not driven by any professed loyalty to British farming but only by the cash till.

Next Wednesday, starting at 11am, we have our second video auction of livestock to be held at Malton Rugby Club.

There is a good entry of some 200 cattle and 2,000 lambs. If you want a catalogue or more information, please contact the help line. We look forward to seeing everyone next Wednesday.

- Pig World has carried out a survey of pork producers to determine the effect of FMD which, according to the returns, is now running at £8,000 per month per family farm with 300 sows.

The biggest cost is the ongoing ban on meat exports but there are nasty extras such as the collapse of cull sow prices, increased haulage and higher vets' bills.

We mustn't let the spin doctors distort the truth.

- BSE has been pushed into the background a little but figures to the end of August show we have had 469 confirmed cases in Great Britain this year compared to 168 in France and 125 in Ireland.

None of the genuine medium-sized abattoir operators are enjoying the current market situation with prices that are often below subsistence levels. Nevertheless, trade has been driven down through a combined variety of circumstances including the movement controls forcing half-fit stock to slaughter, the pressure of diminishing fodder and competing imports.

Incredibly, the imported meat this last week has comprised not only huge quantities from Ireland but also the odd boat load from Italy. (How on earth Italian beef can be shipped over here to compete at our prices without subsidy I would like to find out!)

Consequently, the price for 'R' grade cattle has slipped to 155-160p for clean cattle and 152-156p for bulls. The breaking-up cattle have suffered also, dropping to 130-140p/kilo.

Lamb prices are still holding pretty steady, with the odd sign they might be hardening. We don't have to take less than 145p/kilo at the moment and some abattoirs will give 150p or a bit more.

In the pig section there has been little change, with bacon pigs running at 88-94p/kilo and the best lightweight gilts making over 100p.

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

Updated: 09:03 Thursday, October 25, 2001