Central Region Update

4^th April 2012

Social evening

At the beginning of February, about 80 people crowded into Calver Village Hall for a very entertaining and informative antiques quiz evening, with over 100 agricultural and domestic by-gones laid out on tables and supplied by David Dowkes, who has amassed an amazing collection of fascinating – if not wince-making! – items.  (Some of them seemed to involve removing various parts of the anatomy of cattle, sheep and pigs without benefit of anaesthetic!)  With the bar open, a raffle, and pie and peas to follow, it proved to be an enjoyable pre-lambing social event.

NT – Your Moors, Your Future

During March, the National Trust held a series of consultation seminars, two of which took place in Glossop, one in Bamford and another in Totley, Sheffield, with the stated intention of planning for the future of the moors over the next 25 years.  These meetings were very well attended by National Trust tenants and other livestock farmers, together with game-keepers, shooting tenants, and a variety of other “stake-holders”, such as Ramblers Association, British Mountaineering Council, RSPB, etc. 

The NT owns thousands of hectares of  peat moorlands above the moorland line, with the land rising to over 2000 ft. on Kinder and Bleaklow.  Surrounding this upland area are a number of tenanted farms, who depend on this upland area for grazing.  The NT officers gave a power-point presentation and it became abundantly clear that conservation, access, carbon-storage, and water quality were their key objectives, and food production was not even mentioned.  Given that the whole process had raised the levels of anxiety amongst the farming community about their future, this did nothing to allay their fears.

From talking to a number of farmers who attended those meetings, the overwhelming impressions that they came away with were as follows:-

1. It was less of a consultation and more of a declaration of intent, which we could either take or leave.
2. Not only did they not include food production as sufficiently significant to be part of their key objectives, but they also failed to recognise that farmers and game-keepers have had the experience of managing these moors for generations and are the people who continue to earn their living by working these moors 24-7; yet they are not seen as a valuable source of knowledge, nor are they seen as more than a limited part of the conservation process.
3. From their presentations, the impression was given that the countryside as it is now, has been largely created by the National Trust, whereas in fact it has been largely created by the farming community.  If farming was removed or reduced, the best aspects of this area which attracts so many visitors would be diminished, both in its aesthetic value and in its levels of functioning.  To safe-guard all these valuable elements, people need to be encouraged in their commitment to working the moors, by ensuring that family members can be allowed to take on the family farm when older members retire or die.  Once the numbers of farmers and their families diminish, there is also a knock-on effect on the life of the rural communities to which they belong.
4. Farmers and game-keepers have been largely responsible for increasing the numbers of ground-nesting birds through skilful management of the moors, and their numbers would decrease rapidly if these personnel are reduced.  It is also the game-keepers who have made the moors safe with regular and controlled burning.  The numbers of ground-nesting birds are also likely to decrease if access is increased, especially if people bring dogs with them onto the moors.  There is an inherent contradiction in aiming to increase access while at the same time wanting to improve wild-life and bio-diversity.
5. The consultation process itself needed to be more “user-friendly” than it was.  Post-it notes do not really work with country/practical people, and lead to suspicions that these could be thrown away.  Nor is it enough to rely on an internet feed-back system when many of the farmers in remote rural areas do not have access to broadband.  Discussion groups following the presentations would have enabled people to feel their views had been heard, at least.   

Schmallenberg Virus

According to the AHVLA web-site today (2.4.12) there is just one confirmed case in Leicestershire and one further case in Lincolnshire.  However, we received a phone call from a member in Lincolnshire who was concerned that although she was quite convinced that 2 lambs had been born with deformities – one live and one still-born – she had been informed that there would be a strong possibility that the initial free test might come back negative.  If further tests on tissue (histology) were to be carried out, these would have to be paid for by the farmer.  Being in the middle of lambing and taking into account that it would be an hour and a half round trip to the VLA centre, plus the cost of travel and possible tests, they decided not to bother but to make their own diagnosis instead from the photographs widely publicised.  They also know of other farmers who have responded in the same way. 

This is of concern because it may indicate that the official figures are not accurate in assessing the extent of the disease.  Also, because it is not a notifiable disease, there is no funding available to encourage its reporting and investigation.  This could be a serious obstacle to the information gathering process, resulting in impaired understanding and therefore, possible delays in finding a treatment for this disease.

New appointment for Charles Sercombe

Having recently taken up his post as English Committee rep. for NSA Central Region, Charles has now been appointed Chairman of the NFU Livestock Board for England and Wales.  Soon afterwards, Charles told us he was “delighted to take on the role of chairman, along with the challenges of the livestock industry.  I am looking forward to working in conjunction with other organizations for the benefit of livestock farmers, and in particular, through NSA, for sheep farmers.”

We send many congratulations to Charles and look forward to working with him in his new capacity.

Bob and Anne Payne.
Chairman & Secretary.