Double-speak for not milking enough cows?
REGULAR readers of this column will know we are not enthusiastic supporters of AHDB which imposes a levy on every litre of milk we sell.
Our doubts about its merits have been confirmed in a recent damning report by DEFRA. It concluded that the organisation is out of touch, needs to become more accountable and could do better in every department. AHDB is divided into sections, dairy, poultry, arable etc.
With a total income of £68 million the dairy sector alone takes £7.5 million of dairy farmers money. It has 469 employees who net £28 million in salaries (plus benefits) and on top of all this there the board members who all have fingers in the pie.
The report stated that it was over-staffed and that the staff had developed a ‘civil service mentality’, the inevitable consequence of guaranteed income without having to justify their existence or value.
With milk producers taking price cuts the £7.5 million would make big difference.
We have particular interest in the report for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the chairman of our milk buying company is leaving to become chairman of AHDB and we wish him well or as one reporter put it we wish him luck!
Secondly, about three years ago I applied to become a dairy board member but was turned down as ‘being of insufficient calibre’ (offensive or what?) Is that double-speak for not milking enough cows and not owning enough thousands of acres? In retrospect I had a close shave as I really don’t want to develop a ‘civil service mentality’!
The alternative energy industry has useful loop-hole to get money from the government. When demand for electricity is not high, particularly now with lockdown they are paid to switch off the wind turbines and then receive a ‘constraint payment’.
On Friday, May 22 this payment amounted to £9.3 million for just that one day of not producing power. What a wonderful arrangement... imagine such a system in place for milk!
The recent failure of the amendments to the new Agriculture Bill put before parliament is disappointing, especially for the farming unions who have been lobbying hard for a long time.
Common sense would assume that food production standards of imported food should met our own standards.
However, I expect there would be loopholes in the rules such as one that exists to allow Ugandan beef into the EU market tariff -free under ‘less developed country status’.
Here at the farm we have got our silage in, the sheep are shorn and we coping with lockdown.
Life is very busy of course and the countryside is looking wonderful but like everyone else we are limited in our social contacts and visits to the coast are much longed for in this glorious weather, but we are desperate for rain especially as there huge forest fire at the top of our valley this week.
Seeing it at night there was vast wall of flames and a plantation has gone. How it started we do not know.