Farmers have been ley preaching for years

Sir, – I respond to George Murdoch’s letter (Revolution in food production is needed, Courier January 20) referring to my earlier letter about Channel 4’s anti- livestock farming programmes.

In his letter, Mr Murdoch reinforces my point with his introduction of the subject of soil fertility.

Every farmer knows that soil laid down to grass ley even for as little as a couple of years, is a soil transformed and improved.

There is nothing new about this. Robert Elliot, a Kelso farmer and a former coffee planter in India, wrote a book about this in the 1890s called ‘The Clifton Park System of Farming and Laying Down Land To Grass’.

This book is still referred to as a seminal work particularly by organic farming enthusiasts, one of whom used to be one George Monbiot.

The organic farmer’s organisation The Soil Association, has however now disowned Monbiot for his increasingly bizarre views.

Grass ley and livestock farming is good for the soil and for wildlife too as, in my observation, there is always plenty of wildlife around a field of cattle or sheep.

However, farmers have to live in the real world and if it ceases to be commercially viable to grow grass and farm livestock, then we will have to stop doing that.

That is why the reputational damage being done to livestock farming by biased, vegetarian driven TV programmes is a problem, particularly when Channel 4’s ulterior motive is to boost the value of its investments in its pet veggie burger manufacturer. Douglas Norrie. Denhead of Arbirlot, Arbroath.