Letter to Michael Gove

[Nick.]

Sorry if that’s has already been posted, but it sheds a bit more light on the shambles that is NE.

https://basc.org.uk/blog/ne-general...rural-organisations-to-write-to-michael-gove/

 

[Bald Rick]

Trouble with writing to Gove is that he will tell you exactly what you want to hear .... no matter which side of the fence you are writing from.

He’s more slippery than a slippery thing that has been dipped in a vat of slippery oil

 

[Spuddler]

Trouble with writing to Gove is that he will tell you exactly what you want to hear .... no matter which side of the fence you are writing from.

He’s more slippery than a slippery thing that has been dipped in a vat of slippery oil

That puts us in as stickier situation as sticky the stick insect that got stuck on a sticky bun.
As said they all say what you want to hear.

 

[DrWazzock]

And he's wetter than a haddock's bathing suit.

 

[DrWazzock]

Serious question.

Shouldn't the NFU get Michael Gove out to look at some of the rape fields that lie devastated as a result of his executive decision to ban the seed coating?

Even Kim Jong Un would be out in the fields having a gander at some kind of screw up on those proportions and Guy Smiths opposite man in North Korea would be furiously scribbling in his notebook so see what we are to do next.

 

[Flat 10]

@DrWazzock makes a good point. Do you know if the Rt Hon Michael Gove has seen the devastation for himself @Guy Smith? And whether he will be visiting a virus yellow riddled field of beet this summer?

 

[steveR]

@DrWazzock makes a good point. Do you know if the Rt Hon Michael Gove has seen the devastation for himself @Guy Smith? And whether he will be visiting a virus yellow riddled field of beet this summer?

Would he even care....

 

[Exfarmer]

Dont forget, Kim Jong Il will only ever be seen in a good light as he controls the media. Gove does not, so we will not see him inspecting record crops of rape, beet etc. On the TV soon

 

[DrWazzock]

Would he even care....

He ought to. Oilseed rape oil is in demand and an important part of the rural economy. If production declines here we import yet more foreign commodities.

You would hope that would matter to somebody in government.

I will writing to my MP about it anyway.

We need to keep up the pressure to retain glyphosate. Loss of that will be the last straw here. We won't be able to use non inversion techniques to prevent erosion and I shall rapidly lose interest.

 

[Flat 10]

He ought to. Oilseed rape oil is in demand and an important part of the rural economy. If production declines here we import yet more foreign commodities.

You would hope that would matter to somebody in government.

I will writing to my MP about it anyway.

We need to keep up the pressure to retain glyphosate. Loss of that will be the last straw here. We won't be able to use non inversion techniques to prevent erosion and I shall rapidly lose interest.

I think/know the neonic ban on osr and sugar beet will reduce yields and increase insecticide use until they too are banned. I think CTL ban will lead to reduced wheat yields. Of course improved varieties and techniques will help to mitigate these losses but I find it sad to think that I may have grown my last 100t/ha beet crops and 10t/ha wheat crops. (never was much of an osr grower).

 

[DrWazzock]

I think/know the neonic ban on osr and sugar beet will reduce yields and increase insecticide use until they too are banned. I think CTL ban will lead to reduced wheat yields. Of course improved varieties and techniques will help to mitigate these losses but I find it sad to think that I may have grown my last 100t/ha beet crops and 10t/ha wheat crops. (never was much of an osr grower).

It's the waste of the other inputs and the waste of the effort that gets me. We know the crop is not reaching full potential so essentially we are getting less beet and rape per gallon of diesel, kg of fertiliser etc, then they go on about saving the environment and global warming, while we are now having to also revert to blanket spraying insecticides several times over.

The whole environmental and climate change policy needs a rethink. Tinkering isn't good enough.

It might be the case that it's more efficient and better all round to turn some farms over to 100% nature reserve or rewilding if you like, and allow others to intensify to maximise output per unit of energy or other inputs.

If some areas were completely pesticide free and had the right plant mix for bees, while other areas carried on intensive farming with neonics I would guess both sides could be bigger winners than they are now with this botched halfway house solution that pleases no one. Certainly I think this is right for the arable scenario. Mixed farms might accommodate public goods more easily but even there 3 cuts of silage has never been that conducive to ground nesting birds.

A big dose of realism on both sides is maybe necessary.

When it comes down to it, if my farm was suitable and they paid me to do it properly I suppose I would rewild it if that's what people want, but as it is, most of the heathland plants and animals went years ago and recreating it authentically would be quite a job,

Either that or let me get on with producing food as efficiently as possible so as to reduce CO2 emissions and resource wastage.

Rewilding AND intensive agriculture could be the solution.

 

[steveR]

He ought to. Oilseed rape oil is in demand and an important part of the rural economy. If production declines here we import yet more foreign commodities.

You would hope that would matter to somebody in government.

.

40 years ago, my old man ( a specialist agriculture farming accountant all his life) and I were chatting about farming and economics and he said that Farming would always be valued by Politicians, as whatever happened, we needed to protect the balance of payments first and keep people fed second...

I suspect that in this brave new world we live in, neither argument would resonate much with our Leaders now!

Too many Idiots with no understanding of economics I suspect....

 

[Guy Smith]

@DrWazzock makes a good point. Do you know if the Rt Hon Michael Gove has seen the devastation for himself @Guy Smith? And whether he will be visiting a virus yellow riddled field of beet this summer?

We’ve made the point more than once to Mr. Gove as to why farmers need access to neonics both through desk based reports and in the field and why without them we will simply produce less and import more from countries that continue to use them.

Mind you, you don’t have to go very far to find arable farmers saying we don’t need neonics at all.