Different policy needed; my view.
Byline: Andrew ForgraveTHE Farmers Union of Wales floated an interesting idea last week - giving greater autonomy to the National Assembly to run Welsh agriculture.
It grates to see the Scottish Executive tackling footand-mouth disease as it sees fit, while the National Assembly is little more than a puppet for rural ministry Defra.
Moreover Wales' agriculture, with its traditional family farms, is a world away from England's agribusiness-dominated farming. Different countries require different policies.
So far the Assembly has toed Defra's line but the crunch could come if vaccination becomes a reality. Wales, which depends so much on exports, has much more to lose if this happens.
So far Rural Affairs Minister Carwyn Jones has been implacably opposed to vaccination. If the policy is imposed on Wales, would he be able to remain in his post?
ON a visit to Cyprus this spring I was struck how the island was divided not just on political lines, but also agricultural ones.
In the Turkish half, the land was neglected and ugly.
In contrast the Greek side, where agriculture is more intensive, the countryside was much more attractive.
Needless to say, it is the latter to which tourists flock.
Similar divides are starting to emerge here. In the Brecons the grass - which should be neatly cropped by now - is knee-high.
And if anyone wanted to harvest it for hay, they couldn't because no-one is allowed up there.
Furthermore, ground nesting chicks are being driven away by infestations of ticks, which would normally have fed on sheep.
Nature is being allowed to run wild, and the results do not always do the countryside a favour.
LAST week I mentioned the Leicester University scientists who claim to have established a link between music and milk yields.
Harry Mooney begs to differ.
As a stockman in Tushingham, Cheshire, in 1951, he bet his boss 10 bob that certain tunes improved his cattle's mood. Placing an old record player amid the shippons, he found his cows hated bag pipes but loved Bing Crosby.
"They couldn't get enough of Stardust, " reports Harry, now 81 and living in Winsford.
"They were swinging their heads to the music and there's no doubt their yields increased."
Harry won his bet, but it took another 50 years for modern science to catch up.
IN THE same column I had a go at Paul McCartney for associating himself with animal rights extremists People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is behind an antimilk propaganda campaign against schoolchildren.
Now farmers from North Wales, led by Keith Thompson, Clwyd chairman of NFU Cymru, have written to the former Beatle asking him to visit Wales and see for himself how modern dairy farms operate.
By the way, there is a rival campaign group with its own website, also called PETA - People Eating Tasty Animals.
Just thought I'd let you know.
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| Title Annotation: | Columns |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
| Date: | Sep 11, 2001 |
| Words: | 477 |
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