Wiltshire Village Meats Farm Diary - October 2007 - Autumn planting, foot and mouth, blue tongue

	Wiltshire Village Meats Welfare - - Quality				In association with Walter Rose and son Family Butchers
AUG 2008 JUL 2008 JUN 2008 MAY 2008 APR 2008 MAR 2008 FEB 2008 JAN 2008 DEC 2007 NOV 2007 OCT 2007 SEP 2007 AUG 2007	FARM DIARY THE EVERYDAY STORY OF LIFE ON A WILTSHIRE FARM
	Links to other pages HOME FARM SHOP FARM SHOP - Greeting Cards WALTER ROSE ABOUT OUR FARMING FARM DIARY RECIPES QUESTIONS CONTACT US		October 2007 Trouble in farming! This time of year should be a good time for farmers. The harvest is done, most of the new crops are planted, pig field-moving is nearly finished and with luck there's still a month of nice autumn weather to enjoy. I'm afraid this autumn livestock farmers have very little to be cheerful about. Foot and Mouth is still rumbling on and Bluetongue is a time-bomb about to explode. On top of all that the cost of animal feed has doubled in the last few months as cereal prices have rocketed. Sadly we are losing money on the majority of the pigs we sell as the supermarkets have not increased what they are paying to farmers. The only pigs we make a profit on are those we sell to Walter Rose so please support local butchers who support their local farmers. We have somehow to survive the next year before feed prices are likely to ease back - many producers are already going out of business. We started this month with a meeting with one Bank Manager and we have a meeting with another in a fortnight - we have to make our case that we think there is a long-term future for livestock farmers in this country. One change brought in by the EU to try to help the feed situation is to scrap the setaside rules for the first time since 1993. So for next harvest farmers will be able to crop all their land if they so wish to. We are reducing our setaside to a few very small corners which will benefit wildlife by being left. As the crops now planted won't be harvested until next year clearly this will not have any effect on feed costs until next autumn. The Year of Food and Farming Sadly, this wonderful iniative has been over-shadowed by foot and mouth. It is a scheme backed by government to get every School child to visit a farm, or be visited by a farmer at School. We have been invited to lead assemblies for several local schools which is really exciting. Please contact us if you are a teacher and are interested in inviting us to your school. Sadly, unless the foot and mouth and bluetongue outbreaks are controlled soon this scheme could really be spoiled if farm visits can't go ahead. We promise to be cheerful and positive about food and farming if we come and speak!
	For further information on anything on this site please contact Muriel Naughton Email: Naughton@Farming.co.uk