Make standards as high as possible
WITH all the cattle out at grass there is an empty silence in the sheds and yards. However it is uplifting to see the stock outside grazing grass doing what they are meant to do, namely converting grass into food for the nation.
What a pity is for those animals that do not have the opportunity to graze out of doors with the sun on their backs and what an indictment it is of our legislators who bowed to economic pressure and removed one of the five freedoms enshrined in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, namely ‘freedom to express normal behaviour.’
In this country we have the Red Tractor Assurance scheme which could lead the world in ensuring food production is at the very highest standards but what we have ended up with is another tax, another paperchase and an organisation more concerned about its own preservation than grass-roots animal welfare.
I have just been reading the latest Welsh Government spring update for farming matters and one almost needs a directory of acronyms to navigate one’s way through the high tide of capital letters, for example, WRNSU, The Wales Rural Network Support Unit, GAEC, Good Agricultural Environmental Conditions and SMR, Statutory Management Requirements. These are just a small example of what amounts to almost 30 acronyms used to inform we farmers
Jinsy and David Robinson are organic dairy farmers from Penyrallt Farm in the Teifi Valley. It is a traditional, mixed, family farm, run by the Robinson family since 1960 and together they strive to farm in a way which has as little impact as possible on the nature around them
of what government controls and rules are needed for us to go about our daily business. I also despair when I read that some of the regulations are to be imposed to minimum standards . . . why not reach as high as possible in these matters?
The local elections have been and gone and whatever one thinks of politics our local politicians are the ones who directly affect the communities in which we live with regard to things like bin collections, local transport and schools.
Here in our local ward the turnout to vote was higher than the national average. What is odd though is why are our government employees receiving a 1.75% pay increase while local councillors are getting 16.9%?
The Independent Remuneration Panel Wales reckons to rectify the pay imbalance between themselves and their constituents. I suspect no mention of this was made whilst the candidates were out canvassing – just think how much money could be saved if we all just clapped for our local councils one night a week instead!
Over the last three years we have been treated to the arrival each spring of a semi-tame mallard duck bringing her newly-hatched brood of ducklings for our inspection. Mrs Duck is not daft and remembers that by bringing them up to the house her family will be kept safe from any opportunistic predator as we gather them safely into a large netted enclosure.
She marches the little balls of fluff into the pen without any fuss and they stay there for a week or so until we release them into the gardens and orchards. For such tiny creatures they march great distances about the place including visits to the ponds but come back up to the house about twice a day for food. It’s all very entertaining and quite delightful watching the progress of the ducklings as they mature.