Dear Minette Liz and Rishi

[Boysground]

I know the three of you are not really that much interested in my vote. The NFU seems a closed shop and living in one of the safest conservative seats in the country my vote for an MP is next to worthless.

I thought I would let you know that I am feeling just a little bit sad at the state of agriculture in the Uk and what I have been thinking has just been confirmed this morning. I had my Red Tractor Dairy and Beef audit, a very nice lady came and spent time looking around my dairy and seeing what we do. I like to think we are quite good but always expect to be pulled up on a couple of items. We then move to the office and spend a lot more time going through the paperwork just to make sure all the boxes are ticked and I can go about my way and get back to running the combine and getting a harvest in.

I now have a list of problems to solve a couple out in the parlour and the rest on paper and this is where I think I am beginning to think something is wrong. I have to have an Emergency Action Plan, this sounds and is sensible, if the power goes there is a number to call, if the vet is needed there is a number again to call. However I have failed (item DR.DP.2.a) because I dont have an action plan for Activist Activity. I suspect I am like most farmers and dont really like the idea of somebody coming specifically to my farm trying to stop my day to day life and perhaps having a plan in case that happens will stop them coming to me. Should I publish it so that all can see the plan, perhaps not!

When I was told this I think I lost a little part of my soul. Its a lovely day here I can look out of my office as I create my plan and I am just feeling that perhaps farming because you love the job and want to care for cattle, fields, the wildlife and guys that work for me will never be the same. Its not a nice feeling to have and perhaps the 3 of you should sit down and wonder where our industry is going, perhaps instead of just feeding the masses with what you think they want to hear we can have some sensible discussion. The country needs food, a healthy environment and farmers would like just a little respect, although I think that is asking too much.

Give me a call, I am probably still in my office writing a protocol

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[toquark]

My soul died a little every time I was audited, that's why I chose not to be audited anymore.

I understand in dairy its not as straight forward but leaving is possible and if more come out of it, they'll have to reconsider the model, which currently amounts to little more than a parasitic sub-industry which I refuse to support.

 

[Chris F]

Unfortunately Red Tractor is being allowed to create more of this stupidity under the wing of the NFU. They are untouchable from what I can see. Doesn't matter what normal farmers think.

Dare to disagree and you are branded some sort of loon who wants to bin off auditing and lower food or welfare standards. They skip over the fact this sort of stuff has nothing to do with either welfare or the quality of the food we produce.

Can you start another thread for others to add to with pointless stupid nonsense that you have "failed" a RT inspection for. The irony being retrospective correction means the food is now safe again. Its a miracle!

 

[Grass And Grain]

Minette, Liz and Rishi,

I too often wonder what the world is coming to.

Food safety is important, but Minette, why does @Boysground need to have a written Activist Activity Plan? And why, for a food safety audit, is there need to see a written health and safety policy or the first aid kit.

Many of us need a written H&S policy by law, as we also need to file our VAT returns, or pay our drainage rate, or MOT our pickup, etc, but those things aren't in the audit because they've nothing to do with food safety assurance.

And why do I need to actually have Red Tractor assurance to sell grain? The grain imports are allowed into our feed mills by having one single lab test on a full boat load, or lab testing one out if twenty lorry loads. I don't have a problem with that, it's fine, but I'd like the same option please. I'd like the option of lab testing one sample per 60,000 tonnes or use RT.

Currently we can only use RT. Has this anything to do with the fact NFU are on the ownership board of Red Tractor, or anything to do with ownership of the Red logo?

Yet you say you want imports to have a level playing field with us. If so, why voluntarily saddle the UK farmers with extra hoops compared to imports, as I thought you wanted equal rules. You know full well we can't prevent imports or ask for them to meet our production standards due to world trade rules, so why bother asking.

Or at least, it's pretty clear this isn't going to happen any time soon, so in the meantime create a situation where UK farmers don't have extra costs above our import competitors.

And if you really, really want everything to be RT assured, then go get us a price premium for it. If processors/retailers want it that's fine, but don't give it away for free. No wonder they want more and more standards - the farmers are paying.

Tell them they can have produce to UK legislative standards, but pay premium X for RT warranted goods. It's a bit like autosteer. Customer can get the steering hardware on EGNOS (our farm produce, produced to legislative standards) by paying market price for the kit (grain/beef/pork etc), but if you want RTK (RT assured) you've to pay for the unlock code (price premium for RT assurance).

Trimble manage to charge farmers this way. Think NFU own RT logo??, so why haven't you negotiated a price for supply of RT goods? Have you even tried?

And why do we get RT audited every 12/18 months, when Danish pork sits on the same Tesco shelf on a 36 month assurance audit. Why can't we have 36 month audits? Why haven't you equalled things up?

 

[Boysground]

Minette, Liz and Rishi,

I too often wonder what the world is coming to.

Food safety is important, but Minette, why does @Boysground need to have a written Activist Activity Plan? And why, for a food safety audit, is there need to see a written health and safety policy or the first aid kit.

Many of us need a written H&S policy by law, as we also need to file our VAT returns, or pay our drainage rate, or MOT our pickup, etc, but those things aren't in the audit because they've nothing to do with food safety assurance.

And why do I need to actually have Red Tractor assurance to sell grain? The grain imports are allowed into our feed mills by having one single lab test on a full boat load, or lab testing one out if twenty lorry loads. I don't have a problem with that, it's fine, but I'd like the same option please. I'd like the option of lab testing one sample per 60,000 tonnes or use RT.

Currently we can only use RT. Has this anything to do with the fact NFU are on the ownership board of Red Tractor, or anything to do with ownership of the Red logo?

Yet you say you want imports to have a level playing field with us. If so, why voluntarily saddle the UK farmers with extra hoops compared to imports, as I thought you wanted equal rules. You know full well we can't prevent imports or ask for them to meet our production standards due to world trade rules, so why bother asking.

Or at least, it's pretty clear this isn't going to happen any time soon, so in the meantime create a situation where UK farmers don't have extra costs above our import competitors.

And if you really, really want everything to be RT assured, then go get us a price premium for it. If processors/retailers want it that's fine, but don't give it away for free. No wonder they want more and more standards - the farmers are paying.

Tell them they can have produce to UK legislative standards, but pay premium X for RT warranted goods. It's a bit like autosteer. Customer can get the steering hardware on EGNOS (our farm produce, produced to legislative standards) by paying market price for the kit (grain/beef/pork etc), but if you want RTK (RT assured) you've to pay for the unlock code (price premium for RT assurance).

Trimble manage to charge farmers this way. Think NFU own RT logo??, so why haven't you negotiated a price for supply of RT goods? Have you even tried?

And why do we get RT audited every 12/18 months, when Danish pork sits on the same Tesco shelf on a 36 month assurance audit. Why can't we have 36 month audits? Why haven't you equalled things up?

I note you said equalled up not levelled up. My current pet hate, there should be equal opportunity between communities but the rural community is never mentioned in the sound bites.

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[Grass And Grain]

Minette,

As @Chris F says, retrospective correction is nonsense. So is tipping grain from multiple farms on one big heap in a co-op store, then a farmer fails RT audit, but it all gets sold and loaded out as RT grain doesn't it? You know it can happen.

That's atrocious.

So, is grain going to mills and supermarket shelves with a RT logo, when the grain has been mixed up with grain from a farmer who's failed the audit? If so, is that grain actually OK to use and eat? I suspect the grain is fine to eat, it's just someone hadn't written down what time they washed the grain bucket.

If the grain is perfectly OK to eat, then what was the point of making us all pay to have a RT audit in the first place - if you're going to allow failed grain to have a RT logo on the packet?

So is RT important or not? I'm confused.

 

[Two Tone]

Dear Minette, Liz and Rushi,

Two weeks ago today I suffered a heart attack. I asked the surgeon who repaired my heart artery what caused it. He told me that although they can do wonderful things with a knife or via keyhole surgery to repair all sorts of bodily organs, the one thing no surgeon’s knife can do is to cut out stress! And that stress builds up and accumulates until it eventually causes a delayed reaction catastrophe.

So when you come across ridiculous situations as highlighted in this thread, what answers have you got to prevent me and others in this situation to stop us losing our lives, let alone a bit more of our souls?

 

[Boysground]

Dear Minette, Liz and Rushi,

Two weeks ago today I suffered a heart attack. I asked the surgeon who repaired my heart artery what caused it. He told me that although they can do wonderful things with a knife or via keyhole surgery to repair all sorts of bodily organs, the one thing no surgeon’s knife can do is to cut out stress! And that stress builds up and accumulates until it eventually causes a delayed reaction catastrophe.

So when you come across ridiculous situations as highlighted in this thread, what answers have you got to prevent me and others in this situation to stop losing our lives, let alone a bit more of our souls?

You are so right, I think its essential that all the people who audit farms (for whatever reason) should start to consider the health of those they are visiting and or creating rules for.

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[Boysground]

Dear Minette, Liz and Rushi,

Two weeks ago today I suffered a heart attack. I asked the surgeon who repaired my heart artery what caused it. He told me that although they can do wonderful things with a knife or via keyhole surgery to repair all sorts of bodily organs, the one thing no surgeon’s knife can do is to cut out stress! And that stress builds up and accumulates until it eventually causes a delayed reaction catastrophe.

So when you come across ridiculous situations as highlighted in this thread, what answers have you got to prevent me and others in this situation to stop losing our lives, let alone a bit more of our souls?

I hope you are recovering well @Two Tone

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[borderterribles]

You are so right, I think its essential that all the people who audit farms (for whatever reason) should start to consider the health of those they are visiting and or creating rules for.

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The last audit we had( and passed), the cheeky mare doing the inspection had the audacity to ask me, (as I was escorting her off the premises to her vehicle), how I was in myself, and did I need someone to talk to , as I seemed very stressed? We are no longer Farm Assured!

 

[steveR]

The last audit we had( and passed), the cheeky mare doing the inspection had the audacity to ask me, (as I was escorting her off the premises to her vehicle), how I was in myself, and did I need someone to talk to , as I seemed very stressed? We are no longer Farm Assured!

They really don't understand do they....

 

[borderterribles]

They really don't understand do they....

No, but there is a distinct possibility that I might have helped her to, as she hurriedly got in her car and left!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

They really don't understand do they....

It's not their job to understand.

Their job is to get your money and that's it

 

[steveR]

It's not their job to understand.

Their job is to get your money and that's it

Not mine....

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[BrianV]

No other industry would have a so called union that works against it's own members interests to benefit big business, the NFU have long passed their sell by date!!

 

[hoyboy]

Activist activity plan - tell her you keep a loaded 12 bore in the parlour with you just incase.

From my experience you can tell them / write down anything you want as long as it's a slightly plausible answer. Whole thing is a joke. I didn't have a rodenticide environmental risk assessment or some such rubbish one time. Had to fill it out and send it to them afterwards. One of the questions was how would I dispose of rodent carcasses. I wrote - I burn them in the sitting room fire. It still passed, I doubt if anyone even reads it

 

[puppet]

Feed plans, Emergency plans, weather plans and now Activist plans are just a reflection of a whole culture across industries that you can plan your way out of a crisis. You then have created a whole other industry with consultants and experts who will help you plan for all these unlikely events, for a fee. As part of planning for a house we need a turning area for a fire engine even though the public road is only 20 yards away where I hope they could park to actually put out the fire. We will need concrete steps into the stream in case one slips on the small bank and before that SEPA will need to approve the concrete steps. And so it goes on.
Farming is about constantly managing crises, in fact we are experts at it. That is what we do every day.
When asked about extreme weather plans I said I get a bigger pair of wellies and go and help dig out my non-farming neighbours.
Feed plan if we are all killed - cattle are there, 1000 tons of silage is over there, someone will shift it close enough they can eat it somehow. I hope my relatives might have other worries on their mind in such circumstances.

I am all for quality assurance and food safety but it just seems that something else has to be added every year.

 

[matthew]

We almost had a non compliance because the sprayer chap hadn’t entered his MOT (or inside leg measurement?) on the invoice. I wouldn’t let the auditor write that note until I had phoned the operator. He was home having just had heart surgery. He read out the appropriate numbers and another box was tIcked.
We don’t spray any more.

Another farmer we heard, had a problem with his trailer and a relative took his cattle to an abattoir. This trailer (nearly new) was not on their list of RT approved trailers. The cattle missed being binned by a whisker And after a pretty lively conversation.

The retailers want a vertical supply chain, and they want us to pay for it, all of it. RT facilitates this.

 

[hoyboy]

Heard a story about one fella I know, qms asked do you haul your own livestock? Yes. Do you have a plan in place for any emergency that may occur during transport? He replied - they're are public toilets on my route to the mart

 

[Boysground]

Activist activity plan - tell her you keep a loaded 12 bore in the parlour with you just incase.

From my experience you can tell them / write down anything you want as long as it's a slightly plausible answer. Whole thing is a joke. I didn't have a rodenticide environmental risk assessment or some such rubbish one time. Had to fill it out and send it to them afterwards. One of the questions was how would I dispose of rodent carcasses. I wrote - I burn them in the sitting room fire. It still passed, I doubt if anyone even reads it

Next door I have 90000 acres of Salisbury Plain training area, I also have the direct phone number for range control. Think I will call in an Apache if I get problems

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