Network launch to let farmers have their say

The Yorkshire Dales Farmers Network has the aim, as summed up by its chairman, Chris Clark of Buckden, Wharfedale, of "making members better off than they would have been without it".

The foundation of it was inspired by the success of the Cumbria Farmers Network, based in Penrith, which has built up to 550 members in four years and organised a number of practical solutions to common problems, including dead animal disposal, a recycling service for silage wrap and a check list for farm accounts.

The YDFN steering group hopes to copy those services and add co-operative purchasing to the list – medicines, pest control and diesel are among the options to be explored.

But a detailed agenda will not be written until a membership has been recruited and consulted.

Following a year of consultations to establish that interest exists, the steering group has used some start-up money from regional development funds to rename the Cumbrian organisation The Farmers Network and make that a holding company with subsidiaries on either side of the Pennine border, sharing the back-up facilities of the existing Penrith office.

Those organisational moves are still in progress. Meanwhile, the contacts are the YDFN steering committee, listed below.

The structure will be a not-for-profit company hiring in some services for a membership paying 35 a year. Membership is open to residents of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Nidderdale AONB and near neighbours. The aim is 70-80 members over the next year, building to equality with the Cumbrian side in five years.

The launch event, next Thursday, will be a day of advice on electronic sheep identification systems, at Hawes Mart, attended by tag manufacturers and software companies, together with Defra, North Yorkshire Trading Standards and local farm supply companies. Presentations will be at 10.30am and 2pm by auctioneer Andrew Wright, explaining the EID regulations and their practical implementation.

Visitors will also be able to talk to members of the YDFN steering committee, who are Chris Clark, Nethergill Farm, Oughtershaw, Buckden, Wharfedale; 01756 761126; Michael Barker, Abbey Farm, Ellerton Abbey, Reeth, Swaledale: 01748 884472; Stephen Ramsden, Northsidehead Farm, Middlesmoor, Nidderdale: 01423 755658; Nick Townley, Burnt House, Westhouse, Ribblesdale: 01524 241345; Martin Coates, Redshaw, Widdale, near Hawes, Wensleydale: 01969 667473; and Andrew Hattan, Low Riggs, Middlesmoor, Nidderdale: 01423 755122.