Do we need rural taxation policy?

On Monday evening, I was royally entertained by Barclays at a small discussion group which included representatives from differing sides of the agricultural industry in Yorkshire.

One of the topics covered in some depth was inevitably the future of farming, with the emphasis changing from intensive production to the more environmentally-acceptable stewardship of the countryside.

The recently launched Rural Development Plan will inject £1.6 billion into the economy over the next 6 years; and although there is inevitably yet another business appraisal scheme, the total package has to be looked at, as it is serious money.

A very knowledgeable accountant at the table commented that all this very healthy diversification in which we have been encouraged to participate would come to nought unless the tax structure for agriculture was altered.

I know I shan't get it all right, but the gist of his argument was that enterprises such as bed and breakfast, holiday cottages, livery yards and farm business tenancies are not accepted by the Revenue as a genuine part of a farming business with all the appropriate allowances.

If the new vision for stewardship in the countryside is to come to fruition, then there has to be a fresh strategy for rural taxation which perhaps could include allowances for fuel and other costs which hit us hardest.

On my other side at the table was Wesley Abbey, chairman of the NFU's taxation committee, and he revealed a fascinating feature of the farming crisis. At a time when farmers are leaving agriculture at a rate that is only exceeded by the drop in their incomes, the membership of the NFU and its subscriptions have increased. The consensus was that in these bad times, with backs to the wall, farmers recognise the need for help and are prepared to prioritise their payments.

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Judy and I went to listen to a talk from our latest champions of the countryside, Clarissa Dixon Wright and her very much smaller childhood friend, Johnny Scott. Listening to the incongruous couple, I was inevitably reminded of Jack Sprat and his wife but I have to say they were most entertaining and are doing a tremendous amount to trumpet the rural way of life from the rooftops of BBC2. The series is on every Friday at 8pm.

There were two little snippets that I found very interesting. The first is to do with the hefting of hill sheep and Johnny Scott has around 1,000 ewes which are hefted or belong to his particular Scottish hill farm.

What I didn't know, is that the flock will instinctively graze down to the lower slopes during the morning and daytime; but return up the hill for their evening and night time forage. The roots of this behaviour lie in times long ago when wolves, bears and other predators were a danger to our sheep flocks and they naturally headed for high ground to give themselves better protection at night; and the old instincts are still there.

The second tale was also to do with predators, and the present obsession with preserving every hawk and buzzard on the wing. If we do, there is a price to pay and Johnny Scott illustrated this relating how the Duke of Buccleugh gave a grouse moor to the RSPB to manage for five years. At the end of the period, there was not a grouse left nor even a dawn chorus of little birds, but there were still some very hungry hawks.

Please don't get me wrong - I love to see our birds of prey and had great pleasure last week in watching a recently returned buzzard floating above Howsham Wood. Nevertheless, every time we see one of these graceful killers in the sky we need to remember that they feed on the smaller population of our trees and woods.

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Surprise parties are always a gamble. The astonished faces of the recipients soon turn to happy smiles or wrinkled brows.

Saturday's "somethink" birthday soiree for Norman and Gill Jackson was a proper celebration of their partnership with family and friends.

Gill has been the power behind the X-ray department at Malton Hospital for many years whilst Norman has saved more animals than St Francis around his native Easingwold practice. Congratulations to them both.

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At long last, the Minster of Agriculture has succumbed to pressure from the Gazette & Herald and others, and has modified the formula for payment for pigs that are caught up in swine fever restrictions in East Anglia.

The new compensation formula which will be back-dated to the inception of the scheme is as follows: £12.00 per pig + 55p/kg liveweight

The payment is subject to a cap of £75 per head for the next few weeks and reducing to £67 per head, probably from the end of November. Even though only 80pc of this will be funded by Government, it is a dramatic step towards relieving the very real suffering of innocent pig producers.

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On the BSE front, there seem to have been a lot of developments in the past few days.

* The latest figures show that there have been 947 cases of BSE confirmed in Great Britain up to the end of September.

* The French are heading towards an admission that they may break their first century in BSE cases by the end of the year; and they have reacted with typical Gallic illogicality and banned their own beef from schools in most of their major cities.

* The National CJD surveillance unit in Edinburgh has reported on its study of 51 tragic victims against a small control sample; and it has failed to find any clear-cut statistical link between the victims of CJD and whether they ate beef or how often.

* Last week, the Food Standards Agency said: "Whilst the likely link between exposure to BSE and the occurrence of vCJD was considered ... .as sufficient to justify action, nevertheless evidence was and remains circumstantial."

As Shakespeare might have said, " Much ado about very little!"

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The devastating floods have hit our market numbers but perhaps not as much as many feared. We had 177 cattle on Tuesday, of which 77 were young bulls and I had a respectable if slightly reduced trade for them.

The best continentals could still make 100p/kg and the Nichols family from Stape topped the market with a splendid Belgian Blue bull at 110p/kg. Unfortunately, the second quality half bred continentals are worth little more than the black and white bulls that are carrying flesh and these breaking up cattle were making from 80-88p/kg.

Anything that was badly misshapen or short of weight was difficult to place and fetched little money. There was also a strict divide in the clean cattle between those commanding a decent price because of quality and flesh and those that didn't! The best steer came from Paul Sanderson at 111p/kg and the best heavyweight from Chris Beal at 108p/kg. However, it was the heifers again which led the field with a double ladies' bill - Bridget Raby produced the heavyweight heifer to make 134p/kg which was quite outstanding.

We had over 1,000 sheep in the market, although this was boosted by a massive show of 450 ewes. The hogg trade was running just under 80p/kg, best lambs of the day came from Gordon Gamble at 87p/kg.

There were 220 pigs on the two days of markets and they averaged around 81p/kg. Tuesday had a top price of 90p/kg for a smart pen of gilts from Dennis Wardle and Monday saw a top of 85p/kg for Brian Barnes.

What a difference 12 months can make !