Reaping the harvest of wasteful CAP

YOUR Editorial (Yorkshire Post, October 11) rightly supports our Yorkshire farmers but increasingly this support is rose tinted rather than objective, informative or investigative.

Proud though we are of our attractive Yorkshire countryside, its main use is to produce food for our nation. Despite the poor summer I see our good farmers of Thixendale and elsewhere taking very little harm when compared to the fortunes of the majority of the country. The weather has increased the price of wheat by 40 per cent, even the farmers admit that more than offsets the poor summer.

The elephant in the room is the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its effect on the people of the UK as a whole who pay for it.

The CAP costs our country £5.5bn each year. That is over £100 each year for every adult in the UK, or an Olympic Games every year without the fun. In recent times the money has been changed from food production to environmental (decoupling).

It is paid out to farmers and rich landowners simply to look after the land they own regardless of any food it produces. The result is that production has and will increasingly drop particularly in grassland areas, resulting in higher prices in the shops for everyone and an increase in the nation’s dependance on imported food.

The farmers on the other hand can now dispense of their dairy herds and lie in bed till late knowing that if they have a couple of hundred hectares they will draw a cool £50,000 per year for life so long as they keep their land tidy.

The CAP is a waste of taxpayers’ money and serves nobody. It is immoral globally allowing subsidied farming products from the EU to compete unfairly with food produced in developing countries. Support for farming if deemed necessary should benefit all particularly those who pay it. Those farmers who say they cannot survive without the drug should try a little cold turkey or leave the industry just like any other business. Good luck those farmers from Thixendale that buck the trend and diversify to develop their businesses.

While George Osbourne squeezes yet more money out of working families, the CAP budget remains immune and beyond his control. I would like to add I am not a cynical townie but an ageing rustic who once attended Askham Bryan and a former vice chairman of the once West Riding YFC. I would just like to see farming return to the dynamic developing industry it should be and once was – employing our younger people and serving and feeding the country.

Not convinced on badger cull

From: John Richmond, Harrogate Road, Ripon.

PERHAPS Reece Fowler (Yorkshire Post, October 9) should be the one taking the pinch of salt when writing on the subject of badger culling.

While the randomised badger culling trials led by Sir John Krebs over a period of 10 years did establish a connection between badgers and bovine tuberculosis, Krebs is quoted as being “a leading expert” on the disease. He is quoted online: “The findings of the RCBT led him to oppose further culling in 2012.”

I am not an animal activist but lived and farmed through the 1950s and 60s when we as dairy farmers went through the rigours of becoming owners of “TT herds”.

In 1952 our small dairy farm with about 50 cattle became the first TT herd in the area. After vigorous testing, barbed wire internal fencing and the like we gained a few extra pence per gallon.

I went on to manage a much bigger dairy farm close to Harrogate, where we produced over 300 gallons of milk per day, farm bottled and in wax cartons for Leeds Co-op Dairy.

On that farm was a sizeable badger sett. As far as I remember while rigorous tests were carried out for obvious reasons (farm bottled milk) we never had a case of tuberculosis among the herd.

My personal view is that testing was relaxed during the 1980s and once compensation came into being, farmers were not too worried about the outcome.

There has to be a far better reason why Devon, Cornwall and Wales are now “hot spots” for the disease. The badger cull will, as Sir John Krebs says, gain a possible 16 per cent reduction if that. So to Adam Quinney, vice president of the NFU and his article (Yorkshire Post, October 8) does little to satisfy my views on the vexed situation.

Festival seeks new faces

From: Jennifer Marshall, Ghyll Wood Drive, Bingley.

IT was with great sympathy that I read the letter from Don Burslam (Yorkshire Post, October 5) in which he reflected sadly on the decline of classical music.

In Bingley the committee 
of the annual Bingley Robertshaw Festival of Music and Speech 
and Drama is currently in the process of organising the 
68th festival to be held in March 2013.

We offer a range of opportunities for solo voices, choirs, instrumentalists and brass bands during our music weekend.

All classes are usually well represented but, as Mr Burslam observes, the number of participants in the classical sections is slowly declining.

Each competitor is awarded an appropriately levelled certificate along with written feedback from a highly-qualified adjudicator both of which can be used as CV evidence.

As our older stalwarts retire we hope that younger musicians, of whom there are many, will feel able to come along and enjoy the warm, friendly atmosphere of our festival and witness the excellence of other competitors.

Our prospectus for next year is available from our website www.bingleyrobertshawfestival.org.uk.

We do hope to welcome many new faces and so keep this prestigious festival alive.