BBC | Autumn Watch

Rain = late harvest = cuts + re-recording

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:45:03 +0000

Never mind the barn burning down or strife among the Horrobins ... what about the real crisis in Ambridge?

The winter barley isn't ripe and the fields are waterlogged.

Like most of the arable farmers in the country, the good folk of Ambridge have been in varying states of despair about the grain harvest.

By now, combines would normally be rattling about all over the place, grain trailers would be hitched to tractors and Adam would be making inroads into the winter barley.

As far as I can discover, hardly anyone in the country has started combining yet, although a few brave souls took the plunge on Sunday (July 15). They soon took refuge in the tractor shed again.

Harvest is going to be later than most people can remember. It's not just that heavy machinery will make such a mess of the sodden ground, it's that there hasn't been enough sunshine and warmth to ripen the crops.

Annoying for farmers. Spare a thought, too, for the Archers production team. We write and record the episodes you hear a long time in advance (on Monday, for instance, we were discussing the stories that will run from mid-September).

And while I have many talents, long-range weather forecasting is not among them. So we've been busy. Combine harvester sound effects - goodbye. Scenes in a field of cut barley - begone. Last week we had to re-write and re-record nine scenes and make cuts in many others.

Remember that scene on Monday when David drove a trailer full of sheep into a ditch? Up until Friday it was a trailer full of grain. And there were plenty more like that.

It's playing havoc with our budgets, so you can imagine how happy we were to hear the news that the sun is going to shine next week. Maybe harvest will start in Ambridge in August? Watch this space.

Steve Peacock is The Archers' agricultural advisor.

Vaccinating badgers against TB

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:30:58 +0000

Ed Grundy is learning how to vaccinate badgers against TB. Steve Peacock explains why.

As early shifts go, this wasn't bad. Four o'clock on an August morning saw me driving from Birmingham to a village in the Cotswolds, to join a group from Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust as they set out to inspect badgers in the cage-traps they'd set the night before.

Why would an organisation which uses the badger as its emblem be catching the animals in traps?

This is all to do with bovine tuberculosis - an infectious disease which was once well-controlled in Britain but is now rife in cattle on the western side of England and in Wales. It causes a great deal of inconvenience and misery to farmers and has cost taxpayers £500 million in the past ten years. 25,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2010 as part of the Government's disease control strategy.

Ambridge has not been spared. The disease has affected three farms there - Brookfield, Grange and Willow Farm.

Badgers to blame?

Badgers (and other mammals) can also be infected by the bacterium M. Bovis, which causes the disease, and infection spreads easily once it gets into a herd. Most of the efforts to control the disease are focussed on cattle and biosecurity on farms. But, because it can also be passed from badgers to cattle and vice versa, farmers have long campaigned for badgers to be culled as well.

In England, Defra has approved pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset. This decision is currently subject to a legal challenge but the Government hopes to go ahead in the Autumn.

Shoot or jab?

In Wales, a decision to cull was reversed earlier this year. Badgers will now be vaccinated against the disease instead. Farming unions were - and are - furious. They say that while there may be a place for vaccination, it is no substitute for culling badgers in areas where the disease is rife in both cattle and the wildlife.

But the decision by a group of farmers in Ambridge to invest in a badger vaccination programme should not be viewed in that context. Even if the pilot culls in England are successful and rolled out to other areas, Ambridge would not be included because it is not in a bovine TB "hotspot", despite past outbreaks there.

So their vaccination programme is not an alternative to culling. It is the only option that could be directed at badgers.

Defra has been experimenting with vaccination for a number of years. But outside official circles it was Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust who were ahead of the game, and they have published a detailed report on their experiences. Which is why I went to the Cotswolds to see how it was done.

Clippers at dawn

The vaccinators are all trained by FERA - a Defra agency (this is the course that, in The Archers, Ed is attending). They set the cage traps in the evening and bait them with peanuts. At dawn they'll visit all the traps and inject the badgers with the same BCG vaccine as is used on humans.

They'll mark them by shaving a patch with electric clippers and spraying a dye. This is so if they catch the same animal twice they'll know not to give it another dose. Then they set the badger free and it scuttles off at speed to its sett. By law, because badgers are nocturnal, it must all be done before 8 am.

This must be repeated every year for five years. The chances of success are debatable but for farmers outside cull areas it's got to be worth a punt.

Steve Peacock is The Archers agricultural adviser

Picture shows Steve Peacock (right) on dawn patrol and is used with permission of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

TB news from DEFRA

Information on bTB from Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust

Information from the National Farmers Union

NVZs and the slurry lagoon

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:28:15 +0000

David and Ruth Archer can curse their bad luck in finding that badgers have damaged their slurry pit (or 'lagoon'). But they are by no means the only farmers having to fork out substantial sums in order to comply with the Government's latest Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZ) regulations.

A year ago the National Farmers' Union (NFU) estimated nearly half of dairy farmers in England would not have enough slurry storage when the rules changed on 1 January this year. Just to stay in business they would have to invest in new storage tanks or different ways of processing slurry. As David said, it is investment just to stand still, with no prospect of a return.

Of course, the rules haven't been changed just to annoy farmers. They are there to protect the rivers, streams and underground aquifers from being polluted by fertilisers or farm waste running off the land.

The UK government has adopted the European nitrates directive and the NVZ strategy stems from this. 62 per cent of England is now covered by NVZs. There is even talk of making the whole country into a zone, so that the same rules apply to everyone. This is because some farmers have complained they are put at a disadvantage compared to neighbours who are not in an NVZ.

Farmers inside a zone - there are maps on the Defra website - have to keep detailed records of where, when and how much fertiliser they spread. There are also closed seasons for spreading slurry, manure and manufactured fertilisers. Different rules apply according to soil type and whether the land in used for grazing or cultivation.

The risks

The Environment Agency may ask to see these records and can prosecute people who don't keep them accurately. It is also a 'cross-compliance' issue, so farmers risk losing part of their single-farm payment if they don't comply.

The big change that came in on January 1 is about the capacity for storing slurry on livestock farms and, again, one rule doesn't fit all farms. Cattle farmers have to be able to store five months' worth of slurry safely. On pig and poultry farms they need six months' storage for slurry and/or manure. It can be a complicated equation.

Many dairy farmers have been advised to separate the solids from their slurry and store that as manure so they would need a smaller tank or lagoon for liquids. This has the additional benefit that the liquid is a very good grassland fertiliser, with less taint than conventional slurry. Cattle can graze the treated land within a few weeks of application.

But this wasn't an option for Brookfield because some years ago David and Ruth got rid of their cubicles and switched to a loose-housed system with the cattle on straw in the winter months. This meant they had less slurry to deal with. Their pit would have been big enough to comply with the new regulations.

If only it hadn't sprung a leak...

Steve Peacock is The Archers agricultural advisor.

Check out the national Nitrate Vulnerable Zones map (pdf)

Read more about NVZs on the Defra website

Picture shows Timothy Bentinck and Felicity Finch (David and Ruth Archer) - and a muckheap

Brookfield and direct milk contracts

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:01:22 +0000

Ruth is keen to improve hard-pressed Brookfield's milk contract arrangements. The Archers agricultural advisor Steve Peacock explains the background - and why the supposed holy grail of a direct contract might have its drawbacks.

Beef has done well for David and Ruth Archer this year. So have the sheep. But they, like many British dairy farmers, are finding it a struggle to make a profit from milking cows.

You'll often hear dairy farmers complaining that milk costs less in the shops than bottled water. They say the price they get for milk is often less than it costs to produce it. Certainly, the average price British farmers get has been bumping along the bottom of the European league table for a while now.

It is a complex business with a seemingly endless variety of contracts, but a glance at the league table published on the industry's DairyCo website shows that some of the best deals are "direct supply" contracts, where the farmer is contracted by a milk processing company to supply one of the main supermarket chains.

According to the latest Defra figures, the average farmgate price for liquid milk stands at just over 28 pence per litre (an improvement of nearly 3 pence on the same time last year). But there's a big gap between the best and worst prices - as low as 25.75 and as high as 31.29 pence per litre.

It's not hard to see, then, why Ruth Archer is currently so keen to get Brookfield on a direct supply contract and it may well make sense for her and David to pursue this option. They are good farmers with the sort of mixed family farm that would delight any inspector - high standards of welfare and hygiene, reliable supply, good quality product, a good story to tell.

In recent years they have worked hard to improve standards on the farm, improve their grazing and cut down reliance on expensive concentrated feedstuffs. Their main problem in securing a deal that pays them over the odds is that plenty of farmers have got there first. They'll find it hard to break into the magic circle populated by farmers who are happy to comply with any strings attached to earning a premium price for their milk.

If they don't, they'll be able to take comfort from the fact that many others regard direct supply deals as a lot more trouble than they are worth. They see the strings - conditions attached to the contracts - as onerous. They are designed to give supermarkets - and so us, the consumers - assurances that we're getting a quality product, produced to high standards.

Disillusioned farmers will tell you they're being made to jump through hoops by people who don't properly understand the business or, worse, being set up to fail so they can be dropped at will. And there are, of course, other ways to make a profit.

Whichever way it goes, the Archers of Brookfield Farm will need good luck as well as good farming standards as they continue their search for profit in a hard-pressed sector.

Steve Peacock is The Archers agricultural advisor.

Compare milk prices on the DairyCo website
Steve writes about another approach - Debbie's proposed mega-dairy
Picture shows Steve Peacock

Super dairies

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:19:07 +0000

As Debbie brings proposals for a dairy unit housing 1000 cows or more, Archers agricultural advisor Steve Peacock looks at the emergence of the 'super dairy'.

In the white heat of the 1960s, when Dan was in charge at Brookfield and Phil challenging for top dog status, you could sell food by getting an actor to dress up as a lab technician and talk about science and innovation.

These days you'd be better off with a smock, or at least a tweed jacket. We seem to need reassurance about our food and farming. Consumers prefer images of contented animals, green fields, woodland and rolling pasture, however tenuous the link may be with the actual means of production.

It is no surprise, then, that plans for large-scale, intensive dairy farms prove to be controversial, even among people living far away from the site. We may not know a lot about how food is produced but we know what we like. And we like cows to be in fields, chewing the cud, not in sheds being fed by computers.

Debbie's scheme

Debbie Aldridge's latest wheeze is for her father Brian and the Borchester Land board to invest in a high-tech, intensive dairy unit on the Estate. This is nowhere near the scale of the Nocton Dairies plan that caused such a storm of protest in Lincolnshire. That was withdrawn earlier this year after objections from the Environment Agency. But it is on a grand scale for dairy farming in Britain.

The average herd size is growing, as almost one farmer a day gives up dairying and herds are amalgamated. But it's still not much over 120. The percentage of farms where herds are housed all year round is very small. But unless campaigns like 'Not In My Cuppa' get up a real head of steam it will grow. That sector will account for a disproportionately large percentage of the country's milk production.

Units like Debbie's are not The Future but they have proved profitable in the USA and mainland Europe. They are likely to be an increasingly important part of the dairy farming landscape.

She needn't expect many people to like them though. The idea of 1,000 or 1,500 milkers living under cover all year round, fed 'total mixed rations' instead of grazing the meadows, will be controversial for the forseeable future.

Phil Archer might have approved. After all, he ran an intensive pig unit in his time. But Dan and Doris wouldn't have no more than David and Ruth would. (Although as an National Farmers Union branch chair, David has to be even-handed when discussing controversial issues).

In fact, the NFU would argue that there is plenty to be even-handed about. They point to the high welfare standards enjoyed by the cattle living in these units: the constant attention of highly-qualified herdspeople and vets; clean and comfortable bedding; well-designed, easily digested food; no need to trudge around muddy fields in all weathers.

Open the doors and give them the choice, enthusiasts say, and the cows choose the five-star hotel. They also make the point - and no doubt you'll hear Brian on the subject before long - that in this country most dairy cattle spend nearly half the year under cover, often in less comfortable and welfare-friendly conditions than you will find in a modern dairy unit.

My bet is it'll cut little ice - not until you see a shed on a packet of cheese.

Steve Peacock is The Archers agricultural advisor.

The Nocton Dairies story from BBC News
Not In My Cuppa campaign
News and comment on the Nocton Dairies proposal, from the National Farmers Union
Picture shows a dairy cow in a rotary parlour

The new agricultural story advisor

Fri, 20 May 2011 14:44:14 +0000

Sharp-eared listeners may have noticed a new name mentioned in the credits for The Archers. Our long-serving agricultural guru, Graham Harvey, has returned to the writing team and handed over the ceremonial thumb stick* to Steve Peacock, former editor of BBC Radio 4's Farming Today. We asked Steve to introduce himself.

(*wholly metaphorical)

Among my claims to fame are that I have slept with Noddy Holder (and Dave, Jim and Don, it was quite a night). John Humphrys once threatened to do violence to my portable telephone. And the late Captain Beefheart berated me for eating an egg mayonnaise salad on the grounds that it would poison me. You should have seen the look the waiter gave him.

None of this has ever cut much ice with my family, but now I'm a regular visitor to Ambridge they are very proud. So am I. I can now add to my CTF list that I have been welcomed to Ambridge by Brian Aldridge and that I have witnessed an intimate moment between Jolene and Kenton.

My lips are sealed. And frankly that's going to be one of the hardest things about this job. I've been a journalist since I left school, so my instinct is to blab stories, not sit on them. Now I know things that are going to happen in Ambridge weeks, if not months, from now and I have been told very firmly that Our Listeners Do Not Like Leaks.

The other thing I am having to learn fast is how a radio drama works. I know from my years editing Farming Today that agriculture and rural life are full of really interesting stories. It can be as simple as people believing passionately in a way of life or a rural pursuit that most of us have no idea about. There's science and technology all along the food chain that leaves me open-mouthed.

And even the big issues can provide the raw material for emotionally-charged human stories. Over the past decade or so, farmers have had to change and adapt to a system in which food production is subsidised less and less. I have found it fascinating that some - large and small - have reinvented their businesses and thrive while many still struggle to cope. There is drama in success and failure - and in the process.

In Ambridge, three out of the four main farms milk cows for a living. That is a notoriously difficult business for many farmers and it would be surprising if it didn't get more difficult, in the short term at least. I do not think it would be breaking any confidences to say that David, Tony and Ed will have to think hard about what they are doing. For someone interested in agriculture it is great that The Archers brings issues like that to life. For someone interested in The Archers it is the agriculture that makes it unique as a drama serial. Real stories about farming give the characters and their life stories a sense of being grounded, not just having a location.

So far I'm having fun. Just don't ask me what happens next!

PS - about Noddy and the lads. I was writing about Slade for Sounds magazine early in my career, so I went on tour with them. Normally you'd get put up in an hotel but their management was, er, famously careful with money so I found myself sharing a kind of dormitory with the band.

Steve Peacock is the The Archers' agricultural story advisor.

Listen to Farming Today
Discover Slade on BBC Music (not often you find that sort of link on The Archers blog...)
Picture shows Steve Peacock