FARM DIARY

This whole saga is dragging on far too long as Government is now being over cautious. The disease is contained in a very small area, and as all the tracings are done, we should not be made to suffer any longer.

The aid package offered last week to farmers in the hills (in particular) and stock farmers generally, at 12.5m was not welcomed with open arms, as with the cost to the industry now running at over 250m, it is hardly sticking to the government principle of 'the polluter pays'.

Although I realise that it is necessary (or they would starve), it does seem a great shame that once again we are embarking on a slaughter scheme for hill lambs.

It is a crude, unimaginative government response to the desperate need of hill farmers caught up in this dreadful disease, and its restrictions on export markets.

If government policy was such, that public procurement of meat for the army, the NHS, prisons etc: the country could eat itself out of this crisis in a matter of weeks; but no, we import cheap meat from South America and other places in order to keep the cost down.

This is a policy that needs to be thought through; where is the sense in spending millions to burn perfectly good meat, just because we are wedded to cheap imports.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette October 17