Bakers should stop 'whining' over wheat prices

They have no choice in the matter but to take what the market says. Really bakers – get a grip. You are on a win-win trip.

I for one have never seen a reduction in the price of bread, even when wheat has been 90 a tonne ex farm. You have had a good run. I suggest you bite the bullet as we have done for years.

As producers we have no one to pass our costs on to. We have to take it on the chin, so get on with it. You are on a par with fish and chips shops. They, too, have had a good run with potatoes at giveaway prices and never dropped what they charge when their raw material was below production cost.

From: Mrs Jennifer Pindar, Fairleigh Farm, Wakefield Road, Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

From: William Snowden, Butterbowl Gardens, Leeds.

THERE is nothing glorious about the "Glorious Twelfth" in which "game birds" are subject to acts of unmitigated cruelty and suffering (Country Week, August 7).

As a former, all-round sportsman, I refute the assertion that this barbaric practice is a sport. It is not a sport. It is not a game. It is a savage, blood-letting ritual.

Its adherents have corrupted primitive man's natural instincts to hunt for food, into perverse acts of killing for pleasure. Its is contemptible to contend that these poor, hapless creatures have "a sporting chance". They have no chance. They are driven from cover by beaters towards hides, where gunmen lie in wait to blast them out of the sky.

Moorland habitants should be managed in harmony with nature, and not to indulge the primitive cravings of gunmen. Moorland is a national asset. Such habitats should be publicly owned and managed accordingly for the benefit of the many (people and wildlife) and not the vested interests of the few.

From: John Duckett, Ivy House Farm, Wormley Hill, Syke House, Goole, East Yorkshire.

With reference to Agricultural Minister Jim Paice's article about ragwort (Country Week, August 7), he rightly points out that this is a dangerous weed which can kill animals when eaten.

Instead of asking for volunteers from the big society to help remove this weed, why not refer to the statute book and look at the Injurious Weeds Act? This Act of Parliament covers the removal of ragwort, thistles and docks and although it has been the law of the land for many years, as far as I am aware it has never been used.

If prosecutions and fines were imposed the message to landowners would spread faster than ragwort is spreading. What use are laws if they are not implemented?

From: Stuart Twitchell, Meadowcroft Drive, Bishop Monkton, Harrogate.

REGARDING Nicholas Rhea's problem with herons, I lost all my fish to herons four times. I spent a lot of money trying to protect my pond before I learnt of a very simple solution, you simply run a length of fishing line round the pond at a height of four to six inches. The herons are not able to step over this and the fish are safe. I've lost no fish over the last four years and I'm now reasonably sure that the problem is over.

From: RJ Lacey, Wrose Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

I HAVE not heard a more unusual description of familiar Yorkshire than Sue Woodcock's description of the county's anthem, On Ilkley Moor bah t'at as a song of the carbon cycle. Let's hope that it does not catch on.

CW 14/8/10