BEFORE the dust has settled from harvest, all livestock farmers will have received a benign looking booklet from the Rural Payments Agency entitled "New Provisions Affecting All IACS Bovine Schemes For 2002 Onwards"

Like everything else in this country, our civil service has managed to take a simple idea and turn it into a complex nightmare. The principle behind agricultural subsidies is to offer financial support to farmers and encourage them to produce a commodity which would otherwise be uneconomical.

Leaving aside the wider issues raised at the recent Johannesburg Earth Summit, one might naturally presume that our Government would therefore make every effort to see that funds do filter into farmer's pockets but DEFRA has turned the rules around and it is now a vicious game in which the primary objective seems to be how much they can reclaim from farmers, if not by modulation then by the imposition of penalties.

There is no doubt that the 13 pages of the department's latest publication on farm inspections are going to be very unlucky for a lot of farmers if they are implemented as I fear they might be.

- The proposals focus on "Combined Bovine Inspections", which cover all the cattle support schemes and extensification and identification. It is this latter that will cause most concern as the minimum requirement will be to check every ear tag and the farm records relating to those animals on the farm and those that have died or moved on.

There is an encouraging footnote stating that although the number of inspections is likely to drop, each one may take several days to complete!!

- It is not too difficult to accept the penalties on claimed animals when an error has been made, but they do rise in severity as the percentage of mistakes go up. For example, with a less than 10pc error you lose not only the subsidy on the individual animal concerned but also that same percentage right across the board of all the bovine subsidy schemes.

At the other end of the scale, if more than 20pc of your animals are ineligible there will be no subsidy payable on any bovine scheme in that year.

- The real sting in the new regulations is that there will be penalties on all unclaimed animals each time an error is found. This applies to ear tags that are missing or records that do not comply with the CTS database.

Every error is treated in exactly the same way as for claimed animals and they will be aggregated in accordance with the new Richter scale of penalties which can exact reprisals of earthquaking magnitude for the producer.

- Also drawn into the inspection net will be the Forage Acreage Declaration that you have made on your farm, and if this is found to be overstated then penalties will echo right back across the bovine spectrum.

I find it very hard to accept this new philosophy of trying to kill off farming by stealth and in that respect alone Mugabe's totally immoral eviction policy for white farmers has been unambiguous and clear in its intent.

My strong advice to all cattle producers is to go through your herd and records with a fine tooth comb before DEFRA's Gestapo knock at the door. One way of trying to pre-empt the problems is to computerise your records onto a farm management package and to that end we are now offering a full bureau service. Please contact me for more information.

Despite the fact that we have just lost 3m breeding ewes to FMD, the Government believes that our hills are being overgrazed, or is it just another backdoor scheme to remove support from livestock farmers?

Anyway their latest caper is to offer to purchase LFA (Less Favoured Area) Sheep Quota from any producer willing to sell it. The basic rules of the scheme which opened last week are fairly simple:

- Any producer holding English LFA sheep quota is eligible

- The quota that has been sold will not be available to other farmers

- Producers must offer a minimum of 50 quota units and no more than 75pc of their total quota

- It is a tender-based scheme, with producers stating how much they will accept for their quota combined with an undertaking to keep a lower stocking rate for the next five years

- Tenders will be assessed on price with the lowest bids having priority

- The tender period is from August 23 to October 31.

Those who may feel inclined to apply need to consider what offer would tempt them, and generally the thinking is that it ought to be around £20 per unit. Last year, in exceptional circumstances, quota traded at £16 compared to £29 the previous year and a peak of £36 in January 1999. My only comment would be to think carefully before you give up what could be a valuable asset.

Don't forget that the mid-term review proposals are that the stewardship payments in future years will be based on your past receipts of subsidy, and if you lose part of your sheep quota then your stewardship payments for the future will be lessened

This Friday, September 6, sees the Mid-season Sheep Sale at Malton Market where 2,770 sheep have been entered, including the following:

1,050 Suffolk cross ewes & gimmers

300 Mule ewes & gimmers

200 other ewes & gimmers

1,060 store lambs

110 rams

There is an excellent selection and the sale commences at 10.30am. Don't forget that the new licence system is in operation, but our staff will be on hand to assist. As far as prices are concerned, these seem to be holding up well and the report from the Skipton sale a fortnight ago was encouraging, with Mule shearlings making over £80 a head.

Last week's article brought a couple of interesting postscripts and I have one or two more items to report:

- Elaine Keith wrote on the thorny question of isolation units. She brought a pedigree ram back from the NSA sales at Exeter recently and put it into the isolation area agreed by DEFRA in July, only to find that the rules have changed again which made the previous approval void.

Under current sheep movement regulations, any farmer wishing to establish an isolation unit has to pay for his vet to come out and approve it afresh. I agree with Elaine that the Government is really seeking to pass on the cost of implementing its new regime.

- Roused by the Asda Brazilian beef scandal, I got a phone call from an agricultural accountant in Pickering who, for the sake of anonymity, I shall call John.

In July 2001, his wife inadvertently bought some beef from Safeway bearing the Little Red Tractor symbol but little else. He wrote to Safeway asking for the origin of the beef together with its sex and type of feed.

It may not be a surprise to many that he received no response, contacted the managing director, waited a further month, rang the head office; and eventually received a five page letter, none of which answered his three questions. After further enquiry Safeway apparently told him that the records had been destroyed and they couldn't therefore give him the origin of the beef.

John contacted Trading Standards and gave them the code on the label which revealed that it had been imported from Northern Ireland and beyond that there was no trace.

Another tale of more supermarket deception for consumers to contemplate.

The NFU are backing demonstrations outside supermarket distribution depots in protest at the miserable price of milk.

For the lay reader, I can tell you that the farm gate milk price is around 15p per litre which is then subsequently retailed in the supermarkets at 45p per litre. The UK is bottom in the European league for milk price and is some 30pc below the average.

Meantime this year alone we have lost 10pc of our milk producers from the industry.

According to the weather forecast, Tuesday looked like being one of the last avaiAlable fine days for gathering the remnants of harvest and I think numbers suffered a little as a consequence at the market.

We had 40 cattle and an excellent trade. Derek Beal topped the bulls at 114p/kilo but generally there was a very strong demand and the Brown family from Hunmanby would make well over 100p/kilo of all their consignment. The clean cattle were led by the heifers with George Marwood coming out on top at 131p/kilo followed by Chris Beal at 125p/kilo, Chris also had the best steer which made 109p/kilo.

The lamb trade was equally buoyant with an overall average of 110p/kilo through the market and up to 121p/kilo for some smart lambs from Mrs Avison & Daughter, of California Farm, which is just reward for their loyalty and support. The top price per head was £54.50 on the day and the best ewes made £36.50.

As from next Friday we should be returning to a weekly sale of store cattle and sheep.

Updated: 09:22 Thursday, September 05, 2002