Pigeons are now protected species

This time they have focussed on that most rare of British birds, the pigeon, which clearly needs protection.

I must be living in another world to the DEFRA legislators, or is it just that the whole of the pigeon population lives in Ryedale and the rest of the country have forgotten what they look like.

This farcical situation has been created by Margaret Beckett amending the wording of general licences under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

In basic English, if anyone wants to shoot pigeons, crows and magpies, they must first demonstrate that "appropriate non lethal methods of control are either ineffective or impracticable".

DEFRA's website goes further, stating that shooters "must be able to explain why such (non lethal) methods are either ineffective or impracticable".

Effectively, at a stroke Deaf Ear have managed to outlaw pigeon shooting in order to protect our crops, and despatching magpies to save the more vulnerable little birds.

Although Deaf Ear claims that they are only implementing an EU directive, the rest of Europe seems quite happy to shoot any mortal thing that flies over them.

The world gets more barmy by the minute, and it reminds me, for no particular reason, of the Irish gardener who was given a tin of slug pellets for his vegetable plot.

When asked a fortnight later how he was going on he replied: "It's alright but I find it devilish hard to hit them with these small pellets!"

Although we were promised that applications for the Entry Level Scheme could be made earlier this year, the first deadline has now been given as the May 31, with an effective start date for the agreement of the August 1.

I have set out below the four application dates for this year in respect of the Entry Level Scheme:

Application Deadline/Agreement Start Date

May 31/ August 1

July 31/ November 1

September 30/February 1

December 30/May 1

If you are wanting to progress to the higher level stewardship which will give you £60 per hectare return then the application date will be the July 31 with an agreement start date of November 1.

Nearly all farmers should qualify for the basic ELS and obtain the £30 per hectare payment for stewarding the countryside.

Now is the time to start looking at the scheme and its requirements to add up enough points to qualify.

You need 30 points per hectare over the "whole farm".

You will have to sign the agreement for a five year period.

Both these conditions may lead to problems, especially with tenants on shorter term FBT's or farmers who have taken land for grazing or arable cropping.

Last week a DEFRA spokesman said that if tenancy agreements run out before the end of the five year period then an application countersigned by the person who will take over the agreement will suffice, in most cases this will be the landlord and offers a useful sensible concession.

With regard to short term cropping arrangements it seems that farmers will be able to put in an ELS application based upon land that they own or over which they have full security of tenure. So you don't need to put in all the land you farm.

These are very vital pieces of the jigsaw if we are all going to benefit.

At dinner the other evening, I was listening to a fellow guest lauding the rise of his Tesco shares; and I rashly commented that I would be ashamed to hold such an investment at the present time.

I apologised afterwards, but I am not sure why, having read two pieces regarding supermarket misbehaviour.

Tesco and Asda proudly announce that they are going to increase the price of retail milk in their stores by around 3.5p per litre.

Although to be welcomed, the move will come too late for the thousands of dairy farmers whom they have forced out of business over the last five years.

2p/L a few years ago would have been adequate to save a lot of family dairy farms and I cannot believe that it would have made one jot of difference to the buying habits of Tesco's customers.

The second sinister report said that Sainsburys had written to 1,400 of its suppliers notifying them that in future payment would not be made until four weeks after delivery.

Supermarket shelf life must be numbered in days rather than weeks, and therefore by the time a poor supplier receives payment, Sainsburys will have already banked several times its value in to their coffers.

Thankfully this unilateral action has been brought to the attention of the Office of Fair Trading who are now requiring the supermarket giant to rethink.

I was talking to our Whixley correspondent when he was on duty at the Northern Hide and Skin Business in Bradford, and we were mulling over the price of sheepskins which will impact upon the hogg trade at this time of year.

In past times, skins have been worth anything from £3 to £5, rising to the odd peak of £10, but today they are worth a mere £1.50.

In addition, it is no longer economical to process the skins in this country which incredibly can be shipped to China and dealt with more cheaply by their factory workers.

Reflecting on the state of the industry our reporter wistfully recalled when there were 31 fellmongers in the country 20 years ago, which now have been reduced to one.

Another sad comment was on the quality of our sheepskins which used to be the best in the world but since dipping was banned up to 30 per cent of our skins are diseased.

In my post yesterday was a warning shot from the MHS head office at York to say that their own staff may well be going on strike on March 23 and thereafter.

The dispute is over pensions, and the reluctance of the work force to accept that the country cannot afford a final salary scheme index linked as in the past.

If they do withdraw labour from the abattoirs then there could be some disruption of marketing but I will keep you informed.

Brian Glaves has been spring cleaning, and at the bottom of one cupboard was a list of the maximum retail prices for meat in 1953.

Those of us that are old enough will remember this was still a period of rationing and control left over from the war, and it wasn't until 1954 that market opened up again.

So, 52 years ago the price for beef, lamb and pork was remarkably similar in terms of the carcass price, and all of them hovered around the old 2/6d per pound, which in today's money is 12p.

I saw there was a special offer on the bottom of the price list which graciously offered that "customers may ask for any kind of meat and have it minced without extra charge!".

Ryedale Country Ladies is a new group that has been recently formed in the area and is aimed primarily at ladies involved in agriculture.

This rural network support group will also give access to information relating to farming and diversification businesses.

The chairman is Annabel Strickland of Hutton-le-Hole, and the first meeting is to be held tonight at Reagarth Farm, Helmsley.

Everyone is welcome. Please telephone the secretary Christine Thompson on (01439) 772000.

Forward 146 cattle including 57 bulls, 1586 sheep including 367 ewes. Light steers to 115p J L Gray Grindale ave 110.8p heavy steers to 126p J L Gray Grindale ave 108.1p, medium heifers to 137p G I Marwood Harome ave 98.8p, heavy heifers to 142p G I Marwood Harome ave 104.9p heavy bulls to 115p A W Turnbull Rook Barugh ave 104.3p black and white bulls to 96p A M Avison Black Bull ave 83.2p, standard hoggs to 122p M Medd Sawdon ave 109.9p medium hoggs to 117.7p T M Abram Westow ave 108.5p heavy hoggs to 112.7p ave 102p P Bannister Butterwick ave 102.7p overweight hoggs to 101.4p A Cussans & Sons Kirkbymoorside ave 96.4p ewes to £50 P Raines & Son Stonegrave ave £33.80.

Updated: 15:48 Wednesday, March 09, 2005