Farm Diary

They are not gathering around the gate. Oh no; very happy inside thank you. Wild ducks are having a whale of a time in the grazing fields, splashing in the puddles (large) as they enjoy the spring, and I can see that it could well be the middle of May before cows go out in 2008.

Thank goodness I went to Australia in March, and saw Frank Tyndall grazing 4.5 '“ 5.0 tonne grass covers; I can relax in the knowledge that it can be done, and that as it will be the first round of grazing, the cows will be keen.

Blue tongue vaccine has arrived in the country, and by the time you read this I hope ours may have arrived on the farm.

It has arrived earlier than at first anticipated, and in the 50ml bottles, which makes it cheaper. Once the 28 days have lapsed and we can administer the second vaccination, we will be within a fortnight of immunisation. A sigh of relief all round. Let's hope it all goes to plan.

Subsides are in the news again (are they ever not in the news). As usual, I think it helpful to get to the facts and to bring the subject into perspective.

Are subsidies good or bad? A very difficult question to answer, but on the whole, a good thing if government want something very badly, but then a very bad thing when it has enough! Let me explain.

After the war (God, I sound old), the Second World War that is, subsidies were introduced by government in order to encourage farmers to dramatically improve productivity, in order to feed Europe, and bring an end to food rationing in this country. Government introduced subsidies in order to have a 'cheap food policy'.

Just let me explain the last bit. Subsidies were paid to farmers, not in order to reward them directly for their efforts, but in order to create confidence and stability, which in turn would encourage farmers to invest, and increase productivity.

Agricultural subsidies were paid on the product; therefore they were food subsidies which enabled the citizens of this country to afford a properly balanced, healthy diet. History shows that in the sixties and seventies, technology and science, coupled with the stability and confidence in agriculture, resulted in massive productivity gains, and food surpluses.

By this time, we are members of the EU, with Food Mountains and lakes. Extracting ourselves from unnecessary subsidies is a slow and painful process, and the farmer is vilified, and referred to as 'feather-bedded'.

Markets are seldom fooled, and if one cares to look, any subsidy a farmer gets is taken to account in the final price, therefore the end price for any food product, plus the subsidy is the farmer's total income.

Subsidies inflate land values, they prevent young people coming into the industry, they change the farmer's focus away from the marketplace, to the government that offers handouts, because after market adjustment, the subsidy is now entirely responsible for the profit and more; hence the 'junkie' element.

CAP reform is ongoing, and we are about to see off all production subsidies, but at the behest of the 'Greens', we are to be paid for looking after the countryside, which is either good, or an insult, depending on your point of view!

Hold on! What's this? Government are subsidising 'Green power'. In the strange rush to produce 'green power', which people have mixed views on; government is paying farmers to produce power, or (as some see it) not to produce food! Do they really want to pay farmers for green power?

Of course not; they want more green power, and they want it now. Farmers happen to be the ones that can deliver it; which is deliciously ironic. So, here we go again, farmers vilified in the press for the food shortages, and for being subsidised. Whilst oil is still so (relatively) cheap, no one will produce green energy commercially, hence the subsidy.

What should government do? Nothing. It seems to me that if government did nothing, this country would be far better off. Let's have a policy of doing nothing. If successive governments had a policy of doing nothing for the past 40 years, education, the National Health and farming would be in better shape. A policy of doing nothing more recently would have been good for pensions, motorists, banks (?) and so on.

This feature was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on May 7. To read it first, buy the West Sussex Gazette every week.