View from Down Under

The All Blacks certainly looked one of the two best sides in the tournament, and it is sad to see them having to fight for the third place with France. Someone cuttingly remarked: "It's like two bald men competing for a comb"!

It would have been a wonderful final between the All Blacks and England, but it was not to be, and we will have to face the rumbling might of our All Gold hosts this Saturday morning,

I am sorry if my enthusiasm for the World Cup is not shared by all, but it has been a magnificent spectacle when, as one wag put it, "there had never been so many dangerous men in Australia for the last 200 years".

The best of luck to Martin Johnson and the boys when the whistle blows at 9am.

After these initial wayward rugby rantings, I can now hear my editor, Bob McMillan, sternly steering me back onto the agricultural track for this column.

I will try over the next week or two to draw a few comparisons between the state of agriculture in its widest sense both in New Zealand and in the UK.

I start with our flight into Auckland and the pre-landing build-up to border control.

There were in-flight videos showing goods that could not be taken into the country and every passenger, without exception, had to complete a double-sided card declaring not only any illicit goods in their baggage but also whether they had been in contact with farm animals.

At the airport itself, surveillance is operated largely by the Ministry of Agriculture, with all baggage being x-rayed once more before going through to the collection point.

There are plenty of large warning signs in the baggage claim area with on-the-spot fines of 200 dollars for any breach. Anybody whose memory or conscience pricks them can put the offending material into an amnesty bin without penalty, but pressure is further applied with loud-speaker announcements every five minutes.

For high-risk passengers like myself, our bags were inspected and shoes removed for cleaning.

Trotting around the carousel in the baggage claim area was a four-legged canine detective called Leo, who can sniff out your hidden salami five yards away.

The Ministry of Agriculture official was quite realistic in his comment that visitors from Europe are not used to the concept of border control or protecting bio-security.

And what about the result of all this pressure and publicity? In 2002, the airport quarantine services seized eight tonnes of meat products, which they consider to be a lot.

Compare now the heat treatment of the New Zealand controls with that on our return to Heathrow. We had no declaration forms to complete, no videos to watch, and the only overt warning against importing illegal meat was part of a poster display in the baggage claim area next to an Adidas shoe advert.

Nobody asked us if we wanted to give up our secreted salami, and certainly there was no sign of any officials.

Is it any wonder that it is estimated that ten tonnes of illegal meat products come into this country every week through Heathrow alone?

It can only be a matter of time before another catastrophic epidemic hits British agriculture.

Next week, we will have a look at the New Zealand attitude to planning in the countryside, and the explosion of what they term as "Lifestyle Blocks" for residential development.

One would not naturally expect fame to follow a career in the knacker industry, but Harry Atkinson, who died earlier this year, left behind him an enviable reputation and a lot of sad friends.

He was a gentle and colourful character with wide interests in the activities of Ryedale.

Colin Russell, Edmund Collins and many of his friends in the racing and veterinary world have clubbed together to sponsor a race in his memory at Wetherby.

The first Harry Atkinson Memorial Beginners Chase will be run on Wednesday, November 26, at the Wetherby course, and it is an occasion not to be missed.

Whilst I was away, the TV Countryfile programme on hunting featured some letters echoing views from the past, and one of these was penned by our own Sally Edwards, of Sinnington.

Although it was published ten years ago in the Gazette & Herald, it is as true today as ever and I quote it in full

"Truancy, shoplifting, joyriding, ram-raiding, schoolchildren burglars, mugging, murder, rape, drugs, AIDS, car theft, vandalised churches, latch-key children, latch-key dogs.

"Get on with that first, Mr Blair. The Sinnington Hunt don't smash shop windows on their way home."

Congratulations to Jack Woodhead who, at the age of 83, is this year's winner of the Royal Smithfield Club's prestigious Bicentenary Perpetual Trophy.

Jack is the senior partner of Woodhead Brothers, running an abattoir business focused on supplying Morrisons' supermarkets.

He has been a great supporter of live markets and of Yorkshire farmers in general.

The cost to the tax payer of running the Meat Hygiene Service has risen by almost £7m in the last year and now has passed the £25m per annum mark.

I find it quite incredible that such a public body is allowed to do this almost unquestioned whilst, at the same time, producing a service which many feel is inadequate and vastly over-bureaucratic.

Last week, we hosted a visit from a DEFRA team investigating animal identity and ways of streamlining traceability.

It is good that those responsible for creating the regulations can get themselves out into the field and listen to those of us who have to implement them.

We made it clear that it was the rigidity of the current systems that upset most people in farming, and the fact that BCMS or even DEFRA are never wrong.

Other discussions ranged over impracticalities of individual sheep tagging through to the acceptability of a single tag in cattle should the secondary identification have come out.

The decision by the EU Commission to lower the set-aside rate to 5pc for harvest 2004 demonstrates the seriousness of the grain supply situation at present. Grain prices are now nearly double the price on offer a year ago and, as a consequence, there is probably only 10pc of the crop left on farm for sale.

Recent price volatility has made grain trading something of a lottery and has not been seen in the UK since the pound fell out of the ERM in the 1990s. On one day alone, London wheat futures moved in a £7 trading range - up £4, then down £3 and finally back up £2.50, to leave the market firmer on the day.

Ex-farm prices at over £100 have come as a surprise to farmers and traders and as a rude shock for end-users.

Millers, maltsters and compounders are locking in losses by buying wheat and barley at today's prices, and most seem to be adopting a hand-to-mouth buying policy.

For livestock farmers, these prices represent a significant threat to their viability, as pig and poultry meat prices have not moved to anything like the extent of feed input prices.

Price forecasting is uncertain, but with Europe needing to import more grain to satisfy demand I expect to see continued volatility.

A year ago, we were exporting wheat to Australia and it would not be a big surprise if we end up importing Australian wheat sometime this season. Perhaps they will put the Rugby World Cup on the first boatload!!

Forward on Tuesday were 111 cattle including 28 cows and 31 bulls; 597 sheep including 112 ewes.

Black & white bulls to 98p from W Smith, Salton (ave 86.5p); black & white steers to 90p from M Webster & Sons, Birdsall (85.6p). Light heifers to 128p from G I Marwood, Harome (99.6p), heavy heifers to 135p from G I Marwood (106.7p). Medium bulls to 114p from D J Sunley, Nawton (99.03p), heavy bulls to 127p from G L Dowse, Weaverthorpe (101.9p).

Standard lambs to 110.5p from A Harper & Sons, Skiplam (106.5p), medium lambs to 109.5p from Wilson Bros, Ryton (104.7p), heavy lambs to 104p from G Gamble, Kirkbymoorside (100.7p), overweight lambs to 101.5p from G Gamble (96.5p). Ewes to £67.50 from D B Wass, Sinnington (£40.54).

Updated: 12:36 Wednesday, November 19, 2003