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North Yorkshire Show: Culling of badgers backed in battle over bovine TB
Former farming Minister Jane Kennedy may take up the case for badger culling against her old boss, Hilary Benn.
Speaking at the North Yorkshire Show yesterday, in the grounds of Otterington Hall, near Northallerton, Ms Kennedy made it clear that Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his remaining loyalists could find her an awkward cannon to have cut loose.
She lost her job a week ago as Mr Benn's chief deputy for farming affairs at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), after making clear she could not promise loyalty to Mr Brown.
However, she kept her appointment to visit one of Yorkshire's leading livestock shows – and, although it was thought diplomatic not to ask her to make a speech, she told the Yorkshire Post she would remain active in food and farming affairs from the back benches.
In particular, she is concerned about the plight of the dairy industry, as illustrated by the collapse of the milk co-op Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFB).
She said one of the things the dairy industry needed was a clear plan of action on bovine tuberculosis, which is costing huge amounts of money and morale in the West Country and South Wales and adding to the fears and pressures which are driving dairy farms out of business all over.
She said she had come to the view that culling of badgers, which swap TB with cattle, might have to be part of the solution, although Mr Benn ruled it out a year ago.
Ms Kennedy said she was exploring the possibilities of "exceptional circumstances" in Mr Benn's policy. She thought some farmers were already in exceptional circumstances. And she was impressed that a colleague in the Welsh regional government, Elin Jones, was still keeping the culling option open, in spite of the same concerns about reaction from animal protectionists.
She said: "I always found it hard to explain why we were culling cattle with such severity but not moving against wildlife."
The dairy crisis was one of the topics of the day at the show. A showring commentator, Carol Mellin, took her opportunity with the microphone to call on the public to buy British as far as possible.
Mrs Mellin, of Oakworth, near Keighley, said she and four neighbours were among the 400 former DFB members who still had no alternative market for their milk, because they are too small to interest the big buyers who run past their gates. If the remnants of the DFB collection network in Yorkshire are closed down this week, as looks likely, they will have to sell their herds.
For Mrs Mellin, the DFB collapse, which meant an immediate loss of 8,000, was the second body blow of the year. Her husband Albert died 10 weeks ago.
But she put on a crowd-pleasing show herding geese with her working dogs, and the show was a success, blessed by brilliant sunshine for most of the day.
One of many specialist corners was a display of old engines in action. David Carter of Northallerton was one of the patient men who sat sipping tea from flasks, savouring the smell of petrol. He makes his living fitting lifting gear to trucks and tractors but his hobby is restoring old machines like the two generators he was running from Boulton & Paul of Norwich, one dating from the First World War and the other from about 1928.
Next page: Results Animals are stars, even if the rats couldn't make it...
BEING a proper old-fashioned livestock show, the North Yorkshire was genuinely sorry that the rats could not come.
A disease scare meant its substantial fancy rat section had to skip a year. But there were still rabbits and ferrets, besides the usual range of farm animals – and one of the biggest poultry tents on the general show circuit, with 750 birds and 300 egg displays.
The poultry tent looks innocent enough but is where you go to hear dark stories about gipsies and kidnappings.
Fancy poultry are leftovers from the days when every part of the country had its own favourite birds for three things – meat, eggs and fighting. Nowadays, hybrids provide the first two requirements. But there is still a black market demand for birds like Oxford and Carlisle bantams for the third.
For sheep and cattle showing, the North Yorkshire is a traditional dress rehearsal for the Great Yorkshire Show and entries were as good as ever.
One interesting new entry in the beef section was a collection of prize shorthorns from a Charles Lowther of the Estate Office, Lowther, near Penrith.
He who turned out to be The Hon. Charles, a son of the recently deceased Earl of Lonsdale.
One of his brothers inherits the title and another has been working with him for six years on a pedigree shorthorns herd reflecting the upsurge of interest in an old English rival to the limousins and blues now dominating the beef business.
The Lowther beasts took several rosettes, including best in breed, and will be out again for the Highland, the Royal and the Great Yorkshire shows.
Meat from the herd goes into an estate gastropub, the George and Dragon.
In the commercial beef section, which had an entry of around 50 animals, most of the crosses were still getting their bulk from limousin or blue blood. But as commentator Mike Keeble pointed out, the blues were originally developed, in Belgium and Holland, from shorthorn stock.
One striking feature of the commercial lines was the number of part- timers getting involved with just a handful or two of animals .
In the heavy horse section, the champion, Ayton Final Discovery, presented by Ted Cumbor of Great Ayton, is the grandson of a former champion stallion of Mr Cumbor's, Ayton Perfection.
Mr Cumbor saw the grandson in a sale and bought him because the family resemblance was so striking.
RESULTS
DAIRY CATTLE Interbreed champion – Homebred Holstein cow from J Pratt of Bellerby, Leyburn; Reserve – Jersey cow from Pam Crosby of Knayton, Thirsk. The champions also won their breed classes.
BEEF CATTLE Interbreed Champion – Limousin heifer bought from Chatsworth estate disposal by Ben Stevenson and Jane Seagrave, trading as Season Limousins of West Auckland, Darlington; Reserve – none chosen.
Best in Breeds: Aberdeen Angus – from T & P Johnson of Huby, York; Limousin – Seagrave & Stevenson (see interbreed champion); Any Other Continental – Belgian Blue bull from Eileen Wilson of Scorton, Scotch Corner; Commercial Beef – Limousin-cross heifer from J Timm of Doncaster, shown by stockman Tom Hill; Shorthorn – from Charles Lowther, Lowther Estate, Penrith.
SHEEP Interbreed Champion – Charollais from C. Dougherty; Reserve – Texel from Graham Taylor.
Best in breeds: Masham – from M&B Allen of Staithes; Teeswater– fromWGraham, Ilton, Masham; Mule – from Cecil Hutchinson, Kirby Wiske; Bluefaced Leicester – from T. Willoughby, Leyburn; Swaledale – from N. Bell; Wensleydale – from Yvonne Mudd, Wetherby; Ryeland – from A.W. Pink; Texel – from G.
Taylor of Thirsk; Charollais – from C. Dougherty; Beltex – from DR & DC Findlay, of Middleham; Bleu du Maine – from Robin Johnson of Danby Wiske; Suffolk – from L Peel of Skipton Bridge, Thirsk; Butchers' lambs – from I Lancaster; Commercial sheep – from Cecil Hutchinson.
HEAVY HORSES Champion – Five-year-old Clydesdale gelding shown by Ted Cumbor of Great Ayton; Reserve – Three-year-old Clydesdale filly shown by Harry Emerson of Bishop Auckland.
POULTRY Show Champion – White Silkie from Louise Tinson and Geoff Hidden of Glossop, who were also runners-up, with a Black Sumatra Game Bantam.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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