At the end of January this year, we sent off slaughter premium claims on behalf of 50 clients at the market, and because of the delay in payments, it was not until September that one farmer discovered he had not been paid for his five animals.

By this date, the six-month time limit for making SPS claims had expired; and he has just lost his first appeal to the Rural Payments Agency who maintain that each applicant has to check his form has arrived at the agency, and this despite our despatching all so claims in a recorded delivery envelope.

The above is but one of thousands of examples of penalties exacted out of the farming fraternity for mistakes that happen within DEFRA; and yet there is no reciprocal responsibility.

Last week, our desperate ministry admitted that they had double-counted the agricultural returns for cereals, thus overestimating the 2003 crop by 63,000 hectares for wheat and 22,000 hectares for barley. In the context of a 14m tonne wheat crop, this 5pc error may seem acceptable to our lay readers, but suffice it to say that the price has leapt by £5 per tonne within a single day.

The whole of our grain industry depends upon the accuracy of DEFRA's figures in order to forecast what surplus needs to be exported in order to keep the home trade in balance. In the early part of the season, according to David Sheppard, the Gazette & Herald's grain correspondent, wheat was being traded at a discount of around £9 per tonne compared to French wheat in order to clear our projected surplus.

David believes that prices would have been around £5 per tonne higher if the true figures had been published. As some 10m tonnes were traded in the post harvest period, this means that our cereal farmers have seen some £50m go down the DEFRA drain of incompetence.

And do we get compensation? - no, just a spokesperson saying "it was a regrettable mistake"

By not allowing any cattle over 30 months of age into the food chain, the resultant OTM disposal scheme is costing the country some £400m per year.

Five months ago, the Food Standards Agency, after a long investigation, pronounced that beef from animals born after August 1996 was quite safe to be eaten.

One would have thought the opportunity to reduce the enormous costs would have been sufficient to create a sense of urgency, but all we can get out of the department of health is that "a decision will be made shortly".

January would have been an ideal month in which to introduce the extra beef onto the market as supplies and competition from exports tend to be lower.

As it is, we will probably not be getting an announcement until the New Year after which there has to be the compulsory three month consultation period and a forecast change in the over 30-month rules for summer or autumn 2004.

The back end of the year is the worst time for the beef market, when most of the weight of sales and culling takes place before winter.

I don't think Milton intended his immortal lines to apply to our health minister when he wrote "they also serve who only stand and wait".

The price offered by Malton Bacon Factory for its bacon pigs has dropped by around 4p per kilo over the past two weeks and now currently stands at 104p deadweight.

Even this is better than Daleshead, which has reduced its returns to farmers to 101p per kilo and the downward spiral looks ominously like another pig crisis if it's happening in the weeks running up to Christmas, traditionally the high point for sales.

Combine a poor trade with the 70pc increase in cereal costs and, as the Americans would say, we have a problem.

The National Pig Association is reporting that production costs for the average farmer will be running around 106p per kilo deadweight, which would in turn gives a bottom line loss for every pig sold.

Many farmers are now telling us that they can't stand another hit and that they will have to go out of business.

I make no bones about it and blame the bacon factories of this country, which have failed to grasp the nettle of proper labelling and mislead the public into purchasing what they believe to be British pork and bacon.

We can only plead with the supermarkets to pay more than lip service to British farmers when they stick labels on their shelves.

My watchful Sinnington correspondent spotted the new column on vegetarian cooking in the Gazette & Herald a fortnight ago although I couldn't find it in last week's issue.

Being basically a greedy person, I like food whatever its done denomination but I am not quite sure why those on the vegetarian crusade see it as their mission to convert the other 95pc of the population to their way of thinking.

Taking the meat or, in some cases, even the fish off the plate removes the very sole out of a meal and my message this coming festive season is to buy an extra pound of sausages to go with the turkey.

Tuesday saw a very healthy sequel to last week's Christmas show and there was over a hundred cattle and 458 number of sheep in the market.

Bulls were a real good trade and the highlight was a Belgian Blue Homebred from Mackley and Patt of Folkton which made 119p a kilo.

In the clean section, George Marwood produced a quite outstanding Blonde D'Aquitaine heifer to make a 141p per kilo.

Trade generally is extremely buoyant in both the cattle and sheep sections and we are looking to increase numbers over the coming weeks.

We don't miss a fat stock market over the Christmas period but please make enquiries as to what will be required.

149 cattle including 43 cows and 46 bulls and 458 sheep including 118 ewes. Light steers to 105p (B Gray, Fryup, average 94.3p); light heifers to 116p (Longwood Farm, average 99.7p); heavy heifers to 141p (G I Marwood, Harome, average 106.7p); light bulls to 115p (P M Allen, Great Barugh, average 98.5p); heavy bulls to 119p (Mackley & Pratt, Folkton, average 99.1p); black and white bulls to 88p (M Ellerby, Pickering, average 82.5p); standard lambs to 111p, D Tomlinson, Sleightholmdale, average 109.2p); medium lambs to 119p (A M Avison, Black Bull, average 110p); heavy lambs to 113p (D Ulliott, Suffiel, average 107.05p); overweight lambs to 102.8p (E Stead, Lockton, average 97.1p); ewes to £64.50 (T Midgley & Son, Painsthorpe, average £45.00).

Updated: 12:23 Wednesday, December 10, 2003