Farmer fury
OPINION: The new Labour Government in the UK is facing the wrath of farmers. Last week thousands of farmers and their supporters converged in London protesting changes to inheritance tax for farmers announced in the Budget.
UK farmers are urging their Government to implement its 25-year TB eradication strategy immediately and in full to ensure farmer support for it remains strong.
NFU president Meurig Raymond says farmers support the strategy but are frustrated at the lack of action to introduce its various elements.
“The farming industry needs to see more urgency in the implementation of the whole strategy and better communication of its measures and aims. Now is the time to build on the determination of the farming industry to eradicate this disease which is destroying farming businesses and families.”
Raymond says different elements of the strategy are urgently needed in different parts of the country and needed to be introduced as a matter of urgency.
“We need appropriate and proportionate measures to keep the disease out of the low risk area of England.
“We need more targeted measures to stop the spread in the edge area (between the high and low risk areas). In particular we need better information on the local infection rate in wildlife in this area.
“And we need further pilot culls in the high risk area. Farmers are committed to playing their part in this but need to see that commitment reciprocated by the Government.”
Statistics released by the UK Government in April show the provisional incidence rate for January 2015 was 3.9% compared to 4.5% for January 2014.
However, it states that care needs to be taken not to read too much into short term figures, especially as this figure includes a number of unclassified incidents.
The number of new herd incidents in January 2015 was 494 compared to 534 in January 2014.
The number of cattle compulsorily slaughtered in January 2015 was 2977 vs 2923 in January 2014.
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.