Amidst all the doom and gloom, a man called Smith dreamt up an idea to bring temporary relief and a lot of pleasure into Ryedale's capital town.

The Malton Motor Show last Sunday was a huge success and it brought back memories to see the town centre heaving again with thousands of people. The driving force, if you'll excuse the pun, behind the show was Steve Smith whose bubbling enthusiasm attracted a team with notable stars such as Ryedale Council, who provided Steve with a man for a month and other noticeable absentees.

Around the core of cars the peripheral activities helped make the day with shops open, local artists' exhibition, farmers market, car boot sale, and the blasting sounds of Radio York. We unreservedly thank Steve & Co for their efforts remembering in these miserable times the words of his famous ancestor, the Reverend Sydney Smith: "Praise is the best diet for us after all."

There are a lot of newsworthy stories floating around and I will try and summarize a few.

TIGHTER CONTROLS

The erratic, but persistent, appearance of new FMD cases is perplexing everyone and has brought about the introduction of even tighter controls on movement in our region.

The Yorkshire/Lancashire square has been declared a virtual no-go zone, not only for any livestock moving from farm to farm, but also for all those service vehicles and personnel who travel around the countryside. The Government is clutching at straws with these new curbs because the truth is that they have no idea how the disease is spreading, with only 30pc of confirmed cases being traced back to the source of infection.

However, at present it is only the "live to live" farm movement that is affected and the "live to dead" slaughter movements still remain available to us.

If you are trying to get a licence to go to slaughter please don't take no for an answer as, quite frankly, many of those answering the telephone in officialdom do not know what they are talking about.

CLEAN-UP CANCELLED

The Prime Minister's quite extraordinary announcement that he was going to suspend the cleaning up operation on farms has been met with disbelief and anger.

Many of us suspect that it is the Government's own managerial incompetence that has been partly responsible for the spread of the disease and to stop the disinfection of premises while the Government examines its own shortcomings must be crass stupidity.

On the one hand, the risk of further infection is exacerbated because farms taken out in the cull are left with bits of flesh and bones strewn about their homesteads; and on the other, the six month quarantine period before restocking cannot start until after disinfection. My researches reveal that the problem lies with DEFRA's own specification for cleansing farms, which is far more rigid than the regime administered in Scotland, for example.

I understand that this side of the Border a milking parlour has not only to be steam cleaned in situ but also taken apart nut by bolt. Such extraordinary precautions seem a little over the top.

OTMS STARTS MONDAY

After a lot of argument, the OTMS Scheme is to start up on Monday, but only five or six abattoirs have been approved for the whole country. This region's designated slaughter house will be at Sheffield and those wanting to dispose of their cull cows must make an application either through their local market, through a Collection Centre, or direct to the abattoir.

My partner, Richard Tasker, spent Tuesday with the abattoir operators and we hope we have secured the best possible arrangement for Ryedale and York's farmers.

The collection centre at York will hopefully play an important role in gathering together sensible numbers of cows for onward transmission.

It would be neither desirable nor economical for hundreds of trailers to be used for taking the odd cow on its last long journey. Entries for the scheme will be taken strictly in date order, so please approach your market as soon as you can.

FMD ABROAD

The disease in South America continues to bumble along with Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil all fighting sporadic outbreaks. Nearer home, Turkey has had its first case of the same virus as our own in a herd of 40 goats.

Across the Channel, however, France was declared officially free of FMD on June 23, having had its last confirmed case on March 23. How is it, I wonder, that France, Holland and Ireland have all managed to contain FMD whereas we have failed?

I referred last week to the situation in New Zealand, where every entrant to the country is given a leaflet entitled Stand Together - Protect New Zealand.

Their protective measures include the toughest defences in the world against FMD:

- X-ray machines at all international airports to detect food and plant material

- Twenty-one teams of beagle detector dogs to sniff out food

- Passengers from high-risk nations targetted for special checking

- Detailed declaration card to be completed by all passengers

- On-the-spot fines of $200 for incorrectly filling out the declaration card and fines of up to $100,000 or five years' jail for breach of New Zealand's bio security laws

I wish Mr Blair would take a trip to Auckland, for many reasons, but one of them would be to learn how to protect our precious island.

SHEEP SALES

Charlie Breese seems to attract media coverage and his latest ideas for remote video auctions of the autumn sheep sales are no exception. In his role as a Malton Livestock Auctioneer, Charlie is developing the idea and would welcome hearing from any producers wanting to support this venture.

He is looking more towards producing a photographic catalogue which can be put on the internet as well as displayed in the sale room during the auction. Please make contact with Charlie or Keith Warters at Cundalls.

MASSIVE FARMERS' MARKET

A record number of 37 stalls have been entered for Saturday, offering all the usual goodies and lots more. There will also be a car boot sale on the outside sheep pens, and the usual auction of live poultry and garden sundries at 11am. All car boot inquiries to Steve Rawlings on (01653) 692151.

MARKETING SERVICE

On the whole, it has been a better week for marketing slaughter stock with a reversal of fortunes for lambs especially.

Only a few days ago, we were struggling to get any offers much above 140p/kilo for the general run of lambs; but, due partially to other work on the farm and part to producers withholding supplies, the abattoirs found they were short of numbers and have come back with improved prices running currently at 155p and still rising.

On the beef front, there are also little signs that supplies are tightening and certainly the best intervention-type cattle are 1p or 2p dearer. I managed to get around 168p this week for 'R' & 'O+' steers, which is a bit better. There are still a few too many bulls by comparison but we can move them given a bit of time.

With pigs, the trade remains steadily good and there is little change from a base of about 105p/kilo with a top price of 115p.

The more I operate our marketing service the more I realise how much we need to join together in order to maintain and influence prices. Please support the service.

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

Updated: 09:17 Thursday, July 26, 2001