Just a vanity project?
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
WHAT a wonderful week we have just had, silage made in perfect weather and no breakdowns. Now with an application of slurry we can already see the regrowth and in six to eight weeks we will do it all again.
Up and down the valley our neighbours are busy getting in their silage too creating a marvellous patchwork of fifty shades of green interspersed with patches of khaki where the muck and slurry has already been taken out. It is interesting (and sad) though to observe the parcels of land that have been bought by non-farmers showing up clearly as blanketed with bracken and buttercups in the untended fields.
It would seem that the UK is about to have a trade deal with Australia. Though we share a common language and drive on the same side of the road as our Aussie cousins, our approaches to animal welfare could not be further apart. I have just been reading about how Aussie sheep farmers deal with fly-strike. They
implement a surgical procedure whereby the skin around the crotch of the sheep is cut away (without anaesthetic) and the resulting scar tissue does not grow back with wool thereby reducing the risk of fly-strike.
This practice is known as ‘mulesing’ (check it out on the internet though be warned it does not make pleasant viewing). It has been banned in every other country and about 10 million lambs are subjected to this horror every year. Scott Hanson, the managing director of the Australian equivalent of Hybu Cig Cymru, said “the industry is not willing or ready for it to be banned”.
Last year Australia exported 8,500 tonnes of lamb into the UK. My question is why are we importing lamb from where such practices are allowed, especially while our leaders are assuring us that our farming standards will not be undermined by accepting what is unacceptable here? International Trade Secretary Liz Truss hopes to get the deal done before the G7 summit is held later this month in Cornwall. The Department of Trade analysis suggests total exports to Australia increasing by 7% compared to 83% uplift in the Australian exports to the UK. Farming leaders have expressed the view that the deal represents a serious betrayal of UK farmers. Is this just a vanity project for Liz Truss?
Carbon footprinting is a topic regularly featuring in the farming press, some milk-buying companies are including it as a requirement for giving a contract and I expect all will follow suit soon. Some producers are claiming to be carbon negative! It all depends upon which carbon accounting system on chooses and there are many to choose from. However, they all have statements like “establishing a farm strategy and improving sequestration for the future”, “things will change irrespective of your management as biological systems are dependent on things like weather”.
Those are from the Agricultural & Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) carbon footprint strategy. In a nutshell, the aim is to remove as much greenhouse gas as is created, but how do you measure all this? Take soil for example, its carbon content will vary depending on depth of sample, time of year and soil type. To establish a base line we need to sample soil carbon and therein lies a problem as test samples do not come cheap. Some companies are charging £70 per sample. If we are to do a thorough analysis of the farm it will be a very expensive exercise as it will need to be repeated to detect change.
The only certainty to come out of this is that we farmers will continue to produce food and that a suitable carbon calculator will be established to create a net zero future which will be very cheering for the over-privileged and over-fed woke brigade and their doom-mongering proselytising.