News

October 22, 2008

Weak Kneed Defra Almost Stymies UK Harvest

Charles Wyatt

The good news is that the latest figures from the National Farmers Union confirm that this year’s harvest in the UK will prove to be big despite farmers enduring some of the most difficult conditions for decades. The bad news is that it was very nearly not so, and the blame would have to go to Defra rather than the weather. Only at the last possible moment did Secretary of State Hilary Wedgwood Benn wake up and give a further suspension of GAEC3 rules governing the work while land is wet. This is yet another of the rules handed down by the desk jockeys of Brussels who have no idea of the problems faced annually by farmers. Effectively it governs the amount of work that can be carried out when the land is wet.

What they do not seem to appreciate is that no farmer wants to bring home crops while the soil is wet. It clogs up the ground, means more money has to be spent on drying,  and makes it that much more difficult to produce a seedbed for the next crop. But needs must when the devil drives and the worst thing, at a time of food security, is to threaten them with fines at a time of appalling weather conditions.

As Guy Gagen, chief arable adviser to the NFU pointed out, "Farmers...