Dear NFU communications team

[delilah]

Farming Today this morning. You will have heard it. Report on feeding seaweed to cattle to cut their methane output.
Enough is enough. It stops now. You have got Charlotte Smith's number, request a right to reply, get someone on there before the end of the week. Not a tongue-tied farmer, someone who can string a sentence together, to explain clearly how cutting the amount of methane a cow belches will not make a jot of difference to climate change. In short, and with the greatest of respect, do your job. Thank you.

 

[Treg]

Farming Today this morning. You will have heard it. Report on feeding seaweed to cattle to cut their methane output.
Enough is enough. It stops now. You have got Charlotte Smith's number, request a right to reply, get someone on there before the end of the week. Not a tongue-tied farmer, someone who can string a sentence together, to explain clearly how cutting the amount of methane a cow belches will not make a jot of difference to climate change. In short, and with the greatest of respect, do your job. Thank you.

What the NFU could do with is a spokesperson who has a foot in both camps , a environmentalist who farms as well.....
I wonder who the ideal person would be

 

[egbert]

In this instance Delilah I'm right with you.

We should challenge the methane garbage at every stage.
it is a red herring.

(remind me...how long has the carbon in oil been sitting safe underground? and when was the carbon in my cow's burps sequestered?)

 

[slackjawedyokel]

@delilah you should be having a word with Phil Stocker at the National Sheep Association. Their funding must be a small fraction of that of the NFU, yet they do a good job of communicating. I’m no longer a member of NFU!

 

[delilah]

What the NFU could do with is a spokesperson who has a foot in both camps , a environmentalist who farms as well.....
I wonder who the ideal person would be

@Clive can remind us what the annual budget is for the communications dept. With that sort of money they should have half a dozen people on speed-dial who could do this today.

 

[Treg]

@Clive can remind us what the annual budget is for the communications dept. With that sort of money they should have half a dozen people on speed-dial who could do this today.

I'm quite happy for you to have a chunk of that budget
I fully agree with what your saying @delilah just not sure there's the right person who is passionate about it in the right job.
The meetings I've gone to at low level NFU & the Cornwall Wildlife trust has been there, the wildlife trust has spoken passionately about livestock farming & how it's needed for biodiversity , the ( and I mean no offense) NFU officials seem totally bemused by it and move on quickly.

 

[egbert]

I'm quite happy for you to have a chunk of that budget
I fully agree with what your saying @delilah just not sure there's the right person who is passionate about it in the right job.
The meetings I've gone to at low level NFU & the Cornwall Wildlife trust has been there, the wildlife trust has spoken passionately about livestock farming & how it's needed for biodiversity , the ( and I mean no offense) NFU officials seem totally bemused by it and move on quickly.

One of the problems there is that the wildlife trusts collectively and individually are holding hands publicly and covertly with some very anti-farmer groups.
Saying nice things to your face might not be a true reflection of their direction of travel elsewhere... that said, i know nought of Cornwall, and have had deallings with a county group in the SE of England who were OK 'far as I could tell.

I wouldn't have the local lot on the place, ever.

 

[primmiemoo]

National Beef Association on the wrong track ?

I read in the Farmers Guardian that the NBA are suggesting the age at which cattle can be sold as prime beef be lowered to 27 months to allegedly reduce the carbon footprint of beef production. Firstly I completely disagree with their calculations as slower grown grass fed beef actuallytakes...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

Whilst we're vaguely on the same page, a spot of crossthreading to have a over.

 

[PaulNix]

Good effort but alas as we see the NFU doesn't really "do" the internet, ghastly thing which will never take off.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Farming Today this morning. You will have heard it. Report on feeding seaweed to cattle to cut their methane output.
Enough is enough. It stops now. You have got Charlotte Smith's number, request a right to reply, get someone on there before the end of the week. Not a tongue-tied farmer, someone who can string a sentence together, to explain clearly how cutting the amount of methane a cow belches will not make a jot of difference to climate change. In short, and with the greatest of respect, do your job. Thank you.

Have the NFU got anyone who understands the point you are making and can put it over clearly and passionately in a way ordinary folk can understand ?....................and will those corporate members you keep telling us about let them?

 

[traineefarmer]

Can we not turn TFF into a lobby group and have @delilah as our environmental spokesperson?

 

[Tarw Coch]

Can we not turn TFF into a lobby group and have @delilah as our environmental spokesperson?

Most, myself included would rather someone else did the lobbying for us but threads on here show that some of these paid organisations aren’t worth their subscription. Maybe we all need to get off our collective asses and write to our MPs/Defra or whoever depending on the issue

 

[Hampton]

In this instance Delilah I'm right with you.

We should challenge the methane garbage at every stage.
it is a red herring.

(remind me...how long has the carbon in oil been sitting safe underground? and when was the carbon in my cow's burps sequestered?)

As I posted on another thread. When you calculate the carbon emissions of a car you go to the figures which show the amount of co2 produced from the fuel burnt per km. Nowhere in these calculations does it mention the carbon footprint of extracting it out of the ground and getting it refined.
Somehow, when it comes to fertiliser, we are responsible for all Yaras emissions, as well as the emissions we create ourselves when we spread the fert on our farms!
Imagine if BP or shell turned around to the public and announced that they weren’t responsible for any of there own emissions, as they are just the facilitators not the end users! That is effectively what the fertiliser manufacturers have done.

 

[Clive]

Can we not turn TFF into a lobby group and have @delilah as our environmental spokesperson?

lobbying costs money and we don’t have much......... unlike. The NFU which has frankly quite obscene amounts of the stuff

 

[delilah]

We don't need any ginger groups, we just need the NFU to do their job better.
Getting on Farming Today is as easy as falling off a log, I look forward to hearing an NFU spokesperson putting the record straight re methane before the week is out.

 

[Tarw Coch]

We don't need any ginger groups, we just need the NFU to do their job better.
Getting on Farming Today is as easy as falling off a log, I look forward to hearing an NFU spokesperson putting the record straight re methane before the week is out.

Do you think that will happen?

 

[spin cycle]

delly m8....have a lie in and don't listen to that old farming today cr@p cos it'll send you mad

 

[kiwi pom]

Farming Today this morning. You will have heard it. Report on feeding seaweed to cattle to cut their methane output.
Enough is enough. It stops now. You have got Charlotte Smith's number, request a right to reply, get someone on there before the end of the week. Not a tongue-tied farmer, someone who can string a sentence together, to explain clearly how cutting the amount of methane a cow belches will not make a jot of difference to climate change. In short, and with the greatest of respect, do your job. Thank you.

There seems to be some research into this and I know LIC here are researching whether certain cows produce less methane than others. They want to know whether this can become something you can select for breeding.

Seems like a good positive story to me and shows agriculture is always trying to improve.

I have no idea why the NFU would come out and try to rubbish it. It may not do much for climate change (I've no idea) but if it leads to customers becoming happier with Beef and Dairy, its a winner surely?

 

[Robt]

lobbying costs money and we don’t have much......... unlike. The NFU which has frankly quite obscene amounts of the stuff

what ever you do dont dare to question t hem on social media. They will come after you! one member was boasting how they started at 5 am on the farm then fitted NFU job in around the farm but my god they worked hard.... I suggested that they should chose one job or other as in any other job your boss would ask you to make the choice... I got called a rude word by the worshipers........ All hail the kale

 

[delilah]

There seems to be some research into this and I know LIC here are researching whether certain cows produce less methane than others. They want to know whether this can become something you can select for breeding.

Seems like a good positive story to me and shows agriculture is always trying to improve.

I have no idea why the NFU would come out and try to rubbish it. It may not do much for climate change (I've no idea) but if it leads to customers becoming happier with Beef and Dairy, its a winner surely?

Are you for real ?
Livestock production is currently being portrayed as climate enemy number one. I have teenagers come to our farm club every Saturday who think that our cows are destroying the planet, because they are being told it so on social media.
And you want the NFU to agree with them ?
We have a strong scientific case that methane as belched by cows makes no contribution to climate change.
And you think we should keep quiet ?
Get away with you.