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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
England in the spring
I spent the last month in England
and Scotland admiring the glorious
greens of the UK countryside. On the
other side of the hedgerows were
some of my cousins and brothers-in-
law who are
still in the
farming
business. Thus,
I was given the
opportunity on
a number of
occasions to
listen to tales of
doom and
gloom about
farming within
the European
Union.
Although
Great Britain
looked more prosperous and more
picturesque than I can remember,
with roses and cow parsley
displaying their different approaches
to nature's art, all is not well with
farmers. While I was there the
National Farmers Union proposed a
10 -part list of demands that sounded
all too similar to farmers' concerns
expressed in Canada.
One of the highlights of my trip
was a visit to the annual Bath and
West show, a show that bills itself as
"Supporting the best of British
Agriculture".
This is a four-day show aimed
squarely at the consumer and rural
resident. There were displays of
major livestock classes, poultry and
rabbits but very little on farm inputs.
The grounds are permanent on
large acreage at Shepton Mallet with
both tents and show -rings for
livestock and horse trials. The
grandstand makes the whole
atmosphere feel more like the CNE
than the Canadian International
Plowing Match.
There must have been close to
1,000 exhibitors with far more cars
on display than tractors. This show
was in fact more like a country living
showplace than a farm show.
I attended this show to try to get
more background on the devastating
effects of BSE on the UK beef
market. I found that consumer
confidence had not returned to the
shelves of the supermarkets.
A new farm program that is being
introduced in the UK to try to
improve consumer confidence is a
cattle tracing system. This is as a
result of the BSE crisis and the
European Union requirement for
member states to have computerized
cattle tracing systems in place by the
end of 1999.
In the UK this means that all
cattle of all ages, colour or condition
must be registered by September this
year. From then on all cattle
movements must be recorded
between farmers, merchants and
abattoirs to the point of slaughter.
This is done with the help of a
passport for each animal.
It is expected that there will be 20
million cattle movements a year.
This is just about 100,000 data entry
records a day that the new agency
will have to handle.
Although much of the record
keeping is expected to be handled
electronically, with farmers using
their own data capture systems,
critics say it will bog down in weight
of paper.
These systems will have
microchips for the cattle and e-mail
for the delivery of information.
Farmers not on "the net" will use
mail -in postcards.
As farmers have to bear the costs
of this program after the first year,
there is complaint and further doom
and gloom over the high value of the
pound sterling as that too is
depressing UK fatstock prices even
further than the BSE effect alone.0
Robert Mercer was editor of the
Broadwater Market Letter and a farm
commentator in Ontario for 25 years.