Have cows won the battle for the beach?

The cereal harvest is well underway and we should not forget that we are still in August, so plenty of time as yet; harvest used to start in September, but with plant breeding advances and early planting, the harvest is much earlier these days. Straw is now to be seen everywhere on the roads loaded onto trailers and trucks and whilst hay is reluctant to ‘make’ in this weather, quite a lot of it has been baled in the last week.

These days if it still has too much moisture, it can be wrapped with plastic (at some expense) and not lost.

AHDB (levy body) reports that oil seed rape yields are above the five-year average, but crops again plagued by the cabbage stem flea beetle. Winter barley is also coming off at above the fiveyear average, with the majority cut before the weather turned; quality is therefore good. Malting barley has yet to develop, but signs are good, which is just as well now the pubs are open again!

Scotland is only getting underway and it’s too early therefore to report on yields there. Cereal prices are high globally and peaked as the wheat harvest got underway here and future prices are now coming down as one would expect.

Live export for slaughter from England and Wales are to be banned and stricter rules on journey times, which are to be shortened; more headroom and new rules on temperatures. The government has acted on its election manifesto and following a heated debate with industry after its initial consultation which had over 11,000 responses, but as yet no specific date has been given to the implementation of the new changes.

The ban on live exports is already going through Parliament and further discussions are expected this autumn on headroom and any exemptions to the journey times.

One specific detail in journey times which is causing concern is how time spent at auction markets will count given that animals are transported to market, sold and then transported to their new owners’ premises. Another is the issue of collection centres for dairy bred calves, where they are delivered by farmers and then grouped before being transported to the calf rearing unit or farm. Increased headroom allowance will be a big issue for farmers when it is implemented as many trailers will need to be modified –which is not an easy task – or replaced.

Although changed substantially from the initial consultation, temperature is causing most concern; especially for poultry. New limits will restrict travel if outside temperature exceeds 30C for cattle, pigs and sheep, but 25C for poultry, with 0C being the lower limit for transport. Broilers will also be hit by the new four-hour maximum journey time according to the British Poultry Council, given the distance and location of abattoirs.

Pigs are allowed 18 hours, with cattle and sheep 21 hours before a rest period. Although the changes are a huge relief to the industry from the original consultation proposals, this will still be challenging, but are another step in the government’s quest for higher welfare and it was clear that after Brexit we would as an independent country put a stop to live exports.

Whilst the RSPCA and other welfare groups are delighted, Richard Griffiths, CEO of the British Poultry Council, stated that Defra’s new transport proposals show that ministers have opted for ‘ideological fantasies’ rather than practical welfare measures. These domestic transport regulations will create an extremely difficult environment for poultry producers to operate under and could establish a two-tier food system.

His anger is due to the poultry industry not being listened to when in fact they operate worldclass welfare practices in transporting birds.

The shorter transport times coupled with the temperature requirements will be a significant blow to the sector given that arrivals at abattoirs are timed with military precision and temperature can change rapidly at times in the UK. Welfare groups however, wanted two-hour journey times for poultry which would have been impossible to operate; they do seem to operate in a vacuum devoid of reality. The hope is that shorter journey times will drive a network of local abattoirs, but frankly no one sees that happening given the huge red tape and bureaucracy which abattoirs need to comply with. Given that retailers have dedicated abattoirs these days, journey lengths have increased greatly, but they are unlikely to change. Abattoirs operate on wafer-thin margins and need throughput, hence the few very large ones which take most of the stock.

AHDB have won their case as complaints by vegan and animal rights groups over AHDB’s ‘Eat Balanced’ campaign was thrown out by advertising chiefs. More than 480 complaints were lodged with the Advertising Standards authority over the campaign which extolls the benefits of eating a balanced diet, which includes meat and dairy; common sense to most people, but not to those who are ideologically opposed to eating meat and dairy.

The complainants claimed that the material was misleading as it implied that meat and dairy is required in order to eat a healthy and balanced diet, but they were on a losing wicket here as the government’s own nutritional guidance recommends eating meat and dairy as part of a healthy, balanced diet. It was also pointed out that vitamin B12 was not naturally found in a vegan diet without supplementing with extra vitamins (ouch). This is a big win for AHDB at a difficult time and farmers will be pleased to see noisy minority groups thwarted.

A breakthrough which brings the world closer to limitless energy will upset many other minority groups which do not want to see science come to the rescue of climate change. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California have demonstrated fusion ignition for the first time. Of course this is the first tiny step but nuclear fusion is the process which powers the sun, which involves joining atoms and not splitting them and it is self-sustaining once underway and produces almost no radioactive material. Before we get too excited though, they managed a hot-spot the diameter of a human hair, producing more than ten quadrillion watts of fusion power for 100 trillionth of a second; in other words it was over in a flash! However they are on their way and others will learn and join in with all sorts of developments and learning from this brief moment.

Meanwhile in Corsica, marauding cows have been chasing tourists from the beaches. There are around 15,000 of these mountain cattle in Corsica apparently and they are without a sense of humour if approached ‘Attention Animaux Savages – Danger Ne Pas Approacher’ read the signs!

Unfortunately a few got too close and are in hospital and the cattle are not friendly towards the locals either, to the dismay of the mayors who wring their hands and claim they lack the power to curb them. These cows have been seen in the towns, chasing people down the streets with locals claiming that if this goes on there will be deaths. State authorities have stepped in and banned people from certain beaches; it seems the cows have won with their beach towels firmly on the sun-loungers! Picture: Getty Images