2 CUMBRIA FARMER June 2009
CUMBRIA
FARMERA Cumbrian Newspapers publication, June 2009
FarmingNews
Anna Burdett
June Bell
01228 612235
june.bell@cngroup.co.uk
ADVERTISING
ACCOUNT MANAGER
Wanted! Budding young writers for Cumbria Farmer
Children in mini gather at fell event
CUMBRIA Farmer is search-
ing for budding young writers
to contribute to the monthly
publication.
The hugely successful Next
Generation column has come
to an end after a popular
two-year run and now there is
an opportunity for a number
of columnists to take its
place.
We are looking for between
six and 12 regular columnists
to write about their lives in
farming.
Columnists must be Young
Farmers Club members in
north Cumbria, south-west
Scotland or the Haltwhistle
area.
They do not have to be full-
time farmers � they might be
working in a job linked to
agriculture such as auction-
eering, land agency or farm
contracting.
Each column would need to
be around 500 words long and
could appear with pho-
tographs.
Cumbria Farmer comes free
with The Cumberland News
and is distributed at livestock
marts and other agricultural
businesses around the
county every month.
If you would like to become
a columnist or would like
more information about what
it would involve, contact Cum-
bria Farmer editor Anna Bur-
dett for an informal chat on
01228 612221 or email
aburdett@cngroup.co.uk.
Alternatively, write to Anna
Burdett at Cumbria Farmer,
Newspaper House, Dalston
Road, Carlisle CA2 5UA.
TINY sheep will be scattered
around the stalls at this
year's Fell Gather to help
young visitors understand
rural life.
The food and farming fes-
tival takes place on Saturday,
June 13 at the Mitchell's
Lakeland Livestock Centre
in Cockermouth.
This year, children can
take part in their own mini-
gather by searching for the
handmade model sheep on
the stalls. Each one will have
markings which they can
match to one of the local
flocks.
Will Rawling, a sheep
farmer from Ennerdale and
one of the event organisers,
said the idea is to encourage
a wider understanding of
rural life.
"As well as a fun day out,
we have always wanted Fell
Gather to be educational, for
adults and for children," he
explained. "We'll show the
connections between the
food we eat and the farmers
in Cumbria who are growing
it.
"The idea of the gather
competition is to show the
children how hill farmers
have to work together to
bring sheep in off the fells
and also the long tradition of
marking sheep so that each
farmer can identify his own
flock.
"We'll have a stall to
explain how these traditions
work today and the chal-
lenges facing farmers as the
number of sheep and farm-
ers decline."
Exhibitor Linda Cameron,
of Hannalin Crafts, has
made each of the 10 tiny
sheep using Cumbrian
fleece.
Children will also be able
to see animals close-up, take
part in National Trust activ-
ities and find out more
about the life of an auction-
eer. For older visitors, there
will be an ale trail of Cock-
ermouth pubs and a prize
draw to become a brewer for
a day.
Organised by the Cumbria
Farmer Network, Fell Gath-
er is a celebration of Lake-
land food and farming, with
more than 50 stalls.Tiny flock: Will Rawling with some of the hand-made model sheep
Delay to vets' training
holds up grant scheme
BY ANNA BURDETT
T
he first grants from
the �18 million live-
stock scheme will not
be paid to Cumbrian
farmers until August at the
earliest.
The Northwest Development
Agency (NWDA) says vets are
still being trained to carry out
the resource efficiency audits
necessary for farmers to
access the money.
Vets' dairy training has been
completed, but the beef and
sheep training won't be fin-
ished until July 10 � after the
June 30 deadline for applica-
tions in the first grant round.
Beef and sheep farmers
wanting animal health money
will have to wait for the sec-
ond grant panel, which closes
to applications on September
30.
Progress on nutrient man-
agement plans, another part of
the scheme, has been quicker
as advisers were trained ear-
lier this year. By the end of
May, 41 Cumbrian farms had
been visited by the advisers.
Their visit is necessary before
an application for a perfor-
mance grant can be made.
These farms can now apply
for a 40 per cent grant of up to
a maximum of �8,000 each. If
they apply in the first grant
round, decisions should be
notified by early August.
David Hunter, head of rural
development at the NWDA,
said: "We expect that around
�200,000 will be committed to
Cumbrian farms in the first
grant round, on top of the ben-
efit of 90 per cent subsidised soil
testing with advice on fertiliser
use and manure handling."
The criteria agreed by the
agency and Defra means all
grants must be based on a
technical plan.
The North West Livestock
Programme is funded with
modulation money from the
European Union and runs
from 2008 to 2013.
One of the key elements of
the four-year scheme will be to
deliver 2,000 animal health
plans to farms in the region.
For a maximum fee of �160,
farmers will have a day with a
vet and a technical adviser to
draw up a plan for their farm.
The programme will also
offer grant-aided fertiliser and
manure plans, which could
reduce farm fertiliser bills by
30 per cent.
Some of the eligible projects
include specialist comput-
erised calf-feeding equipment,
roofing middens, heat recov-
ery systems or electronic
sheep scanning scanners.
Susan Aglionby, an organic
farmer at Houghton, has
applied for a �2,000 grant
towards better livestock han-
dling facilities to train people
coming onto the organic farm.
She said: "I can't get the
grant until I've got the health
plan and the health plan can't
be done until the vets are
trained and the vets won't be
trained until June/July.
"I filled out an expression of
interest several weeks ago.
The vets should have been
trained months ago before this
scheme was even launched.
"They've trained the dairy
vets but not the sheep or beef
vets yet."
For more information about
the scheme, contact:
For animal health and
welfare, SAC Consulting on
01668 283 363;
For advice on nutrient
management and resource effi-
ciency, Sandra Callwood, of
Promar, on 0870 870 7380;
For grant aid, the NWDA's
RDPE team on 01768 861306.
Flashback: The NWDA's Nancy Tweddell outlining the Northwest
Livestock Programme to a packed meeting in Carlisle earlier this year
THE dust is
starting to
settle
around the
ruins of
Dairy
Farmers of
Britain, who
called in the
receivers
last week.
Despite it
being
expected
and talked
about for
months,
most
producers
were shocked and angry at the
news.
They discovered that all those
6am starts throughout May were
for nothing as there will be no
milk cheque on Monday.
The thousands of pounds they
had invested over the years is
unlikely ever to be seen again
with such a long line of creditors
already queuing out of the door
of Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
Many who have spoken to
Cumbria Farmer sound crushed
and deflated and ready to quit if
they could sell their herds
tomorrow.
Some have lost faith in a co-
operative system they spent
years propping up with an ideal
in mind of transferring
marketing power to the farmer.
But it seems to be becoming
clearer now where the
management team went wrong.
By the close of business, they
were out of touch with the
farmer members and taking ever
more desperate measures in a
difficult market.
One Carlisle shopkeeper says he
was buying two litres of Dairy
Farmers of Britain milk for 84p at
the end. This was 38p cheaper
than its closest rival.
The farmers' May milk cheques
were good money thrown after
bad, and there was not a thing
they could have done about it.
EDITOR
Anna Burdett
01228 612221
anna.burdett@
cngroup.co.uk

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