Harvest 2009

Your produce needed for British Food Fortnight

Club marquee a winner at the Royal Show (More pictures on pages 12-13)

19 September - 4 October This most popular annual event, created to enable everyone to sample the delights of the very best of British food, is fully supported by The Farmers Club To enable the Club to provide maximum backing for this great food fortnight, Head Chef Jeff Plant needs donations of British farm produce from members.

Your donations will be used by Jeff and his team to create dishes that reflect the very essence of British culinary delights for serving to diners at the Club during the Food Fortnight.

In return for your generosity, you are invited to display your own promotional material at the Club over the two-week period.

Beyond that, all you have to do is help the Club spread the word that this best of British food - in special dishes representing as many areas of the country as possible - is being served throughout the Fortnight.

Sample this best of British food by dining at YOUR Club To donate produce call Head Chef Jeff Plant on

020 7925 7103 To make Dining Room reservations - for lunch or dinner - call

020 7930 3557 INSIDE… Application form for St. Andrew’s Day Lunch Monday 30 November Cut-out application forms for: • Supper and Theatre Evening Friday 25 September • Harvest Service and Buffet Supper Tuesday 6 October Please note your individual Club membership number, printed on your Journal envelope.

You will need it to access the members’ section of the Club website at www.thefarmersclub.com

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CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS • John Reynolds

CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS • John Reynolds

THE FARMERS CLUB Over 160 years of service to farming 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL

contents

Patron – Her Majesty The Queen

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Chairman’s Comments John Reynolds writes in support of UK agricultural shows, explaining why they are more important now than at any previous time in farming’s history.

Club visit to RHS Wisley Journal Editor Don Gomery gives an account in words and pictures of the wonders to be seen at that gardenlovers paradise, RHS Wisley.

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The state of farming today Alastair Dickie, just prior to his retirement as a Director of HGCA, spoke at a Club breakfast at the Cereals Event. His talk is reproduced in full.

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Climate Change Club Committee member Charles Notcutt confesses that his worries about climate change have switched to fear, giving his reasons why.

Our industry MUST make the most of its invaluable agricultural shows planning and dedication, and the livestock at the shows has been really impressive.

Not only this, but the commentaries which accompanied the judging and parading have also been first-class. These have provided information about local, native and imported breeds, explained the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’ of breed improvement, and emphasized the importance of good husbandry in a way that has been both interesting and entertaining.

10 Shetland Ahoy!

Club Vice President Peter Jackson sets the scene for a visit to the Shetland Islands being planned for next May by Chairman Elect Nicki Quayle.

12 Farewell to the Royal Show Don Gomery describes in words and pictures the final Royal Show, where the Club marquee proved an enormous hit with members and their guests.

14 Alfonso Belmonte The Countess of Mar gives a very personal appreciation of Club Evening Head Waiter Alfonso Belmonte, who died following illness on 12 June aged 33.

15 Dairy Event and Livestock Show Nick Everington urges all in the UK ruminant sector to visit this year’s event, where they will see and learn much of value to their own businesses.

16 Livestock and meat exports Henry Lewis explains how the UK Export Certification Partnership (UKECP) is working to obtain and expand markets overseas for UK livestock and meat.

17 Bring fly-tippers to book The Environment Agency asks for the help of Club members by reporting cases of the fly-tipping of rubbish on private land.

18 Under 30s 19 Help in boosting business skills Kate-Anne Kelly describes how the cost of getting a business degree can be eased with the help of an MBA Agri-Farm Scholarship.

21 Whitehall Court Ramblings 22 Information and Diary Dates 24 Back Cover Your produce needed by Head Chef Jeff Plant for preparing dishes to be served in the Club Dining Room during British Food Fortnight.

FRONT COVER Club Members enjoying themselves at the Royal Show

Disclaimer: The articles published in The Farmers Club Journal do not necessarily reflect the views of The Farmers Club. No responsibility for the quality of goods or services advertised in the magazine can be accepted by the publisher. Advertisements are included in ‘good faith’. All rights reserved.

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It has also been encouraging to see organisers actively encouraging parents and educators to bring children along to enjoy the animals.

MY STUDY window looks out across a small stream, over a coppice of willows and onto farmland. In idle moments, I can watch the changes in the landscape and follow the course of the farming year.

However, during this particular summer, I haven’t had much time to sit and gaze.

In my role as Club Chairman, I’ve spent much of the season traveling around the country visiting as many of our agricultural shows as possible.

Janet and I have considered it a great privilege to have had the opportunity to meet the many members and guests who have attended the shows and joined us at our Club receptions and dinners. Some were familiar faces and some were new, but we thank you all for your support and encouragement.

On behalf of the Club, I‘d like to say a big ‘thank you’ also to all those who hosted us and worked behind the scenes to ensure our Club events were successful and enjoyable. And, let me make special mention of our own Club staff, whose experience and attention to detail has been invaluable.

At one event, we stood aside to allow a group of schoolchildren squeeze through to the barrier. As the animals passed, we listened to them chattering enthusiastically, pointing out and comparing the different sizes, shapes and markings of the breeds.

Yes, there was also an animated discussion of ‘cow poo’, but it was all part of the fun of seeing big animals up close.

I’ve also been impressed by the emphasis placed on the quality and nutritional value of British fruit, vegetables and dairy produce. At another show, my wife’s enthusiasm for cookery and my desire to get out of the rain combined to lead me into a demonstration on one of the supermarket stands. A cheery home economist (I believe this is the correct term!) was cooking with fresh vegetables and cheese and taking care to underline the value of using British produce to make simple, nutritious dishes.

Dedicated people

There were some jolly hefty plugs for the supermarket, but also some strong messages about quality and value for money, with plenty of reference to the British farmer. In fact, my delight at what I was hearing, the strength of the downpour and the revelation that, if I sat there long enough, I would get to eat something delicious, kept me engaged for much longer than I anticipated.

Over the course of the year, many very dedicated people work hard to bring a show together; not least those whose job it is to manage the livestock sector of the event.

Getting good quality animals onto our show-grounds takes a huge amount of

Another thing I noticed was the imagination and innovation which had gone into developing the concept of shopping for ‘local’ food. Visitors to one food hall were able to distinguish the county’s own food producers and retailers by the uniform

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

that food security is a real challenge. It will take a dramatic change in outlook, and a dynamic shift in people’s priorities, if we are to come close to ensuring food security for the coming generations.

Looking ahead As an industry, we shall first have to put an end to our reminiscing, set aside our grudges and pay close attention to what our plant breeders, climatologists, soil experts and environmentalists are saying. We’ll need to speak with one voice, to cultivate the media, push forward our very best communicators and make sure our messages are clear and urgent.

In fact, I’d suggest that our show-grounds may well become more, and not less, relevant as time goes on.

Club ‘grandees’ with combined age of 266 years The Guild of Agricultural Journalists Charitable Trust treated past Journal Editor Derek Watson to lunch recently in his home town of Godalming, Surrey, to mark his 80th birthday.

Derek was a founder trustee of the GAJ Trust, as well as past secretary and treasurer.

Among the 15 present were Club Vice President John Harris, 95, shown above on Derek’s right,

and past Club Committee member Peter Bell, 91, on his left. These Grand Old Men (or should it be young?) have a combined age of 266 years.

Others there – all well known at the Club – were Grieve and Anne Carson, Denis Chamberlain, Mary Cherry, Tony Collier, Rosemary Duffy, Stephen and Sue Howe, Don Gomery, Helen McCulloch, Diane Montague and Wendy Ryder.

livery and byline which branded these particular stands. Not only did it create awareness among the shoppers and browsers, but it also gave a sense of pride and individuality to those local companies who had invested time, and money, in taking a pitch at the show.

we farm more ‘smartly’ and if we make huge advances through agricultural research. On top of this, we shall need large amounts of investment and a significant increase in the labour resource.

Farming showcase

Perhaps, I should put this in context? The youngsters who watched the cattle lumber past will be the generation which will confront head-on the challenges of food security. They will bring their children into a world with 3 billion extra mouths to feed, in a country that is growing, comparatively, poorer.

So why do I think all this is important and more than just ‘interesting’? Well, these agricultural shows provide a unique opportunity for our industry to showcase its lifestyle, its successes and its aspirations. Certainly, we must continue to be proactive in persuading the general public to make sensible choices about how they shop and feed themselves now, but I also think it’s time we went public on another issue - specifically, the need to gear ourselves up to tackle the enormous challenge of future ‘food security’.

In the next 20 years, farmers will be required to increase world food production by 50% and to double it by 2040. Just read that again and let it sink in, before I go on. I’ve taken my figures, by the way, from a report produced by the Royal Agricultural Society.

We can bring new land into production, but even as we do this other land will become less productive, due to climate change. So, we can only hope to meet these targets if

Food security

Unfortunately, in Britain, we now discard half of the food we purchase and our teenage children have little or no idea of the seasonality of food. Politicians are very wary of ‘bad messaging’ and voters like to believe that any sort of ‘tricky’ issue can be neatly solved.

Over the next few decades, parts of the globe that have hitherto been reliable areas of food production will increasingly be threatened by drought, or by flood; and famine will be much, much closer to home than it is now. This is a stark message and, I fear, it will probably fall on our industry to put it across.

In reality, we are probably a long way from getting the general public to understand

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

Each year, our agricultural shows entice farmers, industry colleagues, consumers, the media and our politicians to come and see what’s happening. They’re an ideal place to rally interest and talk frankly about farming and the future.

These shows are a special time when we can make a ‘lot of noise’ about who we are and what we can do. They are not only a great tradition, but will also play a very vital role in our future.

We’ll need to get the best possible people in charge; so let’s try to continue to attract enlightened executives and efficient support staff to our showgrounds and let’s give them constructive and positive advice.

What they do will surely play an important part in the struggle to get from where we are now, to where we must be in two generations’ time.

Probably, by the time you read this, the combines will be working into the night and, day by day, the view from my window will be changing as harvest continues and preparation is made for the next year’s crops. We accept this cycle and we know from experience that technological advances, combined with our own expertise, can bring forth much fruit.

Forthcoming Seminars Watch The Farmers Club Website – www.thefarmersclub.com - for details of two important seminars we are holding in the final quarter of 2009: • Monday 12 October. Anaerobic Digestion, in conjunction with Harper Adams University College.

• Tuesday 10 November. Soil and Soil Management, in conjunction with the RASE and Lincolnshire Agricultural Society.

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RHS WISLEY • Don Gomery

RHS WISLEY • Don Gomery

Members bedazzled by sun and beauty on wonderful day visit to RHS Wisley HERE was a Farmers Club visit that had it all: sun, interest, education, colour, spectacle, inspiration… shared with the very best of garden-minded company..

Most of the 60-plus members visiting this historic heart of The Royal Horticultural Society – its gorgeous Garden Wisley, near Woking, Surrey – met over coffee at Club headquarters in Whitehall Court, to journey by coach to our destination and join up with those who had travelled there direct.

Meeting ov

l er coffee on arriva

Into Queen

Mum's Walk

We also heard how the society’s development of Wisley – donated to the Society as an experimental garden - began with the building of a small laboratory in 1907 for scientific research and as a study centre for student gardeners. How, as the garden developed and the number of staff and students increased, a new laboratory – modeled on vernacular buildings in Surrey to resemble a manor house – was completed in 1916. and is still used for these same, original purposes.

al Learning

Water feature

Following masses of yet more friendly greetings, over cuppas at the coffee shop, individuals were given their lapel-sticker entry tickets and the group divided into manageable parties for morning tours of these exquisite gardens, each with its own guide.

Your Journal Editor was in a party led by Maureen Jones, who gave us a history of the RHS since its founding in 1804, told us how the originally-named Horticultural Society was granted its first royal charter in 1809, Queen Charlotte became its first royal patron in 1816, Prince Albert became President in 1858, Queen Victoria renewed the royal charter in 1861… and so the royal connection continued, with HM Queen Elizabeth II joining the Queen Mother as joint patron in 1952 and continuing as Patron to this day.

The Queen Mum's Walk

Talking point Not the Triffids!

Into Quee

The Laborator y An oriental touch

Many qu

l about it

estions...

Bird’s eye view Masses of colour

n Mum's

Walk

Happy Cha John Reyno irman lds

Not surprisingly, we learned that, today, there are more than 370 permanent staff at Wisley, some 90 of whom work as garden staff and the remainder in the scientific, educational, admin and retail departments.

They are backed by a team of more than 100 volunteers, such as Maureen, our group’s guide.

Of course, as fascinated as we were by this history, it was the gardens themselves containing 300,000 different plants, spread across a vast array of feature gardens, glasshouses and trial areas - that we had come to see. And, believe me, they were breathtaking. Small wonder to see them described by the RHS as “A Surrey garden of extraordinary diversity and depth”.

If anything, an understatement.

Alas, lack of space makes it impossible to describe the beauty of all that we saw on that morning tour, and words alone, anyway, couldn’t begin to do it justice, causing us not even to notice the constant hum of traffic, akin to an angry wasps’ nest, coming from the adjacent A3.

Alpine glasshouse 4

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

Suffice to say, backed by an in-depth and enlightening commentary from our guide,

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

we took in conifer lawns; the weather station, trials fields: flower and shrub borders of every kind; rose, rock, vegetable, fruit, water, walled, herb, bonsai, Alpine and Mediterranean gardens; to name but a few. We covered the uphill length of the central Queen Elizabeth Walk – affectionately known as the Queen Mum’s Walk – to reach Henry Moore’s massive sculpture, The Arch, a 19ft high fibreglass cast of the 1980 original.

It was hot, albeit exhilarating, work in the blistering sunshine of that glorious June day, leaving us all more than ready for a well-deserved and much-needed drink, sit down and lunch in the Terrace Restaurant.

Members then had 90 minutes to wander at their leisure, some walking as far as the magnificent new glasshouse, opened by the Queen only two years ago and complete with its own garden and lake; others making for the well-stocked gift shop; the more energetic taking in both; and pretty well all ending up in the coffee shop before departure at the end of what had been a perfect day… The Farmers Club at its very best.

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FARMING TODAY • Alastair Dickie

FARMING TODAY • Alastair Dickie

A personal view of the state

been doing this all my life. I was talking about farmer hedging in my first life at HGCA, 30-odd years ago.

of our agricultural industry

Let’s be clear: this price management is the single most important part of today’s farm business – yes, ahead even of R&D – and now we can see it is also affecting fertilisers and other inputs.

Club Chairman John Reynolds was so impressed by the talk given to members and their guests by Alastair Dickie at a Club breakfast held on the opening morning of the Cereals Event, he asked him to share it with the wider membership. Here’s what Alastair – due to retire as a Director of the HGCA a month after giving his talk – had to say on the current state of the agricultural industry.

GOOD MORNING, ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to be with you this morning.

John Reynolds, your Chairman, asked me, as I move away from my management role at HGCA, to set out a few ideas about where we are in the industry today.

So, where are we in this industry?

There are some key issues that I want you to think about. So, I will set these out briefly, and then we can discuss them together.

Many of you will know that, with the changes to the levy-boards, my own management skills at HGCA are no longer needed and I will be leaving the team to new management on 10 July.

Funnily enough, now that I am older, I feel I have more energy and intellect.

But maybe that’s just the first sign of Alzheimer’s!

All the same, I hope I am not in the position of Bob Hope, who said: “I don't feel old.

I don't feel anything until noon. Then it's time for my nap.”

I have, however, learned that experience is the thing you have left, when everything else is gone.

Management lacking First, let’s talk about the lack of management in modern business.

It is my observation of the current credit crunch and its disastrous knock-on effects that the fundamental problem is a lack of corporate identity and supervisory management. Without direct management of key activities and personnel, organisations will fail.

We have changes in the industry and its politics. But times, of course, do change, and we must not resist creative change.

When I came into this job in 1972, the country was facing recession after steep rises in the price of commodities and oil, and the government found itself bailing out big business. As I say, times change…

At HGCA we have done a lot of work to explain important price and marketing concepts which give added value to farmers. This work must continue if farmers are ever to correctly exploit their place in the market.

There is no conspiracy in the market, despite the unpopularity of supermarkets and processors. This is just commerce working on behalf of shareholders, and we need to adjust to that.

As far as grain prices are concerned, this is now a global market affair and not a political one.

Climate change Another key issue is climate change and its impact on society and farming. Just in case you still believe that climate change is something that only happens in the Guardian newspaper, I would like you to hear some quotes from senior insurance people:

“Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasing frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes.”

Torsten Jeworrek, Munich Re Exec Board

“The loss statistics for 2008 fit the pattern that the calculations of climate models lead us to expect.”

Peter Hoppe, Munich Re’s Head of Geo-Risks Research These are people with money on the line… and they should know.

It’s believed that the rising sea levels may threaten coastal towns, such as Boston and Ipswich. However, there are also positive consequences to global warming.

So, if we are definitely having climate change, what are we doing about it? Well, UK agriculture is helping with the development of biofuels.

At HGCA we have provided work that demonstrates definitively that UK biofuels can be sustainable, particularly if they are made from UK crops. We already have some biodiesel and sugar ethanol, but next year we will see the first ethanol from UK wheat to be produced commercially.

This will have a major impact on markets: higher-yielding starch varieties, audited carbon accounting, overall more robust prices, with a new regional pricing structure and more imports and exports of milling wheat.

Risk management But we will still need a new approach to managing price risk in the markets, even if base prices do improve.

In recent years, people have upbraided me for going on about risk management and the value of the use of options to provide price insurance, both on the farm and in business. Well, it seems to me that I have

A Dickie adding:

MAIN BUSINESS DRIVERS

Regionality essential The coming importance of regionality within the UK is an essential part of the EU. And what makes regional development so important?

In the UK, although we try not to acknowledge it very often, we are part of the EU (despite UKIP success in the recent elections) and more and more of our life is directed from Brussels. And a part of the Brussels’ plan is to bypass national governments and work directly with the regions: the Lander in Germany and the Departments in France.

So you will have noticed that the English regions (following the devolution of Scotland and Wales) are being built up by the system, with more and more Government money for industry being channeled via the (currently unelected) Regional Development Agencies.(RDAs).

Whether you like it or not, that is where we are going and all of you should be getting to know the relevant people for your region so that you can exploit any opportunities that are on offer. Bear it in mind.

Key issues The range of industry issues is huge. In preparing this talk, I asked my erstwhile colleagues from the HGCA and the Cereal Liaison Group for their key issues. This [see tables above, which were read out] is what came up, and I have separated, by importance, into farm business issues, business drivers and industry drivers, as well as adding some of my own.

A Dickie adding:

Consumer Power/Diet Business Management Planning Collaboration in the Grain Chain Chain Branding/Market Driven Reactive Behavior Business Defence Traceability Management Small (minded) Banks

new priorities and trends matching revenue against costs a strategic view of the future new trading relationships new trading relationships monitor events and change plans secure the bottom line first food safety/ product brand protection pro-active as well as reactive we are in a new financial space

These are strategic business issues that require a long-term plan and the development of business links (‘chain branding’) and relationships with distributors and processors.

INDUSTRY DRIVERS

A Dickie adding:

BioFuels/Food v Fuel Carbon Accounting/Environment Mycotoxins/Food safety Productivity/Breeding/Genetic Mod Training The place of R&D Big Government

brand new issues and politics new procedures that will stick modern transparency still relevant to cost reduction we need more you people less important than before more regulation/less funding

These important issues are background noise that do not affect short-term profitability and are, therefore, less important to farmers as business men. They are, however, fun to talk about at NFU and other farm meetings.

Interestingly, if we analyse the responses I got from the industry, we find that, of the total list of 22 items, including my own, the industry focused on 10 mentions of industry issues (on seven topics), four mentions of business drivers (on 10 topics) and four mentions on farm business (from five topics).

In conclusion So, all in all, I see an industry still living in the political zone where the annual price reviews fixed farm revenues, and appeal to government was paramount. This is very old-fashioned, misguided and ineffective for farm businesses.

I support this with a quote from last week’s editorial in the Economist, talking about the THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

£80 range in one year boom and bust links to energy prices a break with the past new fragility from the Credit Crunch new regional forces

These are external factors that individuals cannot control, but they can cope with by adjusting the way they run their business. Risk management of all priced and currency related goods is included here. Without a risk management strategy, farm businesses will struggle.

We need to see a sharper focus on trading relationships, supply contracts (with flexibility) and an active exploitation of the price volatility that the industry fears.

The ‘star trader’ syndrome is a flawed one, and the banks and others will regret it if they revive it.

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So, you see, some things do not change.

But that doesn’t mean that my repetitive advice is not the best!!

DIRECT FARM BUSINESS ISSUE Price Volatility Input Costs Regional Analysis Currency Global Market Forces

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

weaknesses in General Motors that lead, I remind you, to its downfall:

‘’If Detroit had spent less time lobbying for government protection and more on improving its products (cars) it might have fared better’’ And: ‘’By trying to keep its car industry big, America’s leaders…prevented it from being good. There’s is a lesson in that…”

So take it and heed it, please. We need to focus more on product and market economics and less on agronomy and politics.

To finish – and returning to the current crisis in the economy – I want you all to remember what everyone forgot: The unforeseeable is out there waiting for you.

I have enjoyed my time as a Director of HGCA, and I hope you all enjoy a prosperous future. So, good luck, and thanks for listening.

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CLIMATE CHANGE • Charles Notcutt

CLIMATE CHANGE • Charles Notcutt

Club Committee member and nurseryman Charles Notcutt, President of Notcutts, has stopped being worried about the probable threats of climate change and is now “simply scared”. In this thought-provoking article, he explains his reasons and puts forward several points for discussion.

CLIMATE CHANGE Why my worry has switched to fear THE ONLY certainty is uncertainty… and on a scale far greater than mankind has ever experienced.

Our planet has had two stable states of glacial (ice ages) and interglacial, one of which we are in now. Between them are periods of chaotic variability.

The earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical. The gravitational pull of other planets and other astronomic forces on the earth result in its orbit being slightly altered about every 100,000 years. This is the primary cause of movement in and out of ice ages.

The angle of the axis of the earth varies on a 41,000-year cycle, and a wobble in the axis occurs on a cycle of 19,000 – 23,000 years. These trigger short warm periods within each ice age.

None of these cycles is directly affecting us now. They are not the cause of recent global warming. Indeed, in the very long term, we are heading back into another ice age.

The sun is the original source of all our energy. Variation in the sun’s radiation, amplified by its effect on the stratosphere, alters our climate. A correlation has been shown between increased sun spot activity and earth’s rising temperatures between 1850 and 1980.

However, sun spot activity after that decreased, so earth’s temperatures should have, too, but they did not. Why? The answer lies with greenhouse gasses.

But we need greenhouse gasses. Without them the earth would alternate between extreme heat and extreme cold. They act like a kind of atmospheric thermostat. The gasses are transparent to ultra violet radiation from the sun, but trap the infrared heat radiated back from the earth’s surface.

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The three main gasses are water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane.

It is usual to express carbon dioxide levels as parts per million, but this is not as meaningful as tonnes of carbon in the atmosphere. At the depths of the last ice age there were about 400 billion tonnes in the atmosphere. As the ice age closed, some 200 million tonnes switched from the oceans into the atmosphere, raising the level to some 600 billion tonnes, where it remained until the start of the Industrial Revolution. After two centuries of largescale burning of fossil fuels, the level has risen to about 800 billion tonnes.

Currently, we pour about 7.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. Slightly more than 40% of this is absorbed by the oceans and vegetation on land. The rest stays in the atmosphere, where its life expectancy is more than a century.

We are, thus, adding more than 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year to the atmosphere. At current rates of emissions, by around 2020 we will be reaching 850 billion tonnes.

Many scientists consider that, at this level, equating to more than 2°C global average temperature rise from pre-industrial levels, we will be reaching one of the ‘tipping points’ that will trigger some form of uncontrollable, irrevocable climate change.

These ‘tipping points’ could affect any of the planet’s major drivers of climate.

Scientists do not know their order of priority. Nor, indeed, whether change in the polar regions drives change in the tropics, or vice versa.

These main climate drivers are: • The ocean conveyor. This starts with the warm Gulf Stream. When it reaches around Greenland, the waters meet the cold, saline Arctic waters and winds, so cool, become more saline, and sink, flowing south, deep past Antarctica into the Pacific and finally back into the Atlantic.

In the past, the Gulf Stream has switched off. There is already evidence that the flow of warm waters north from the Gulf Stream into the North Atlantic has faltered by some 10% since the mid 1990s.

The waters of the Gulf Stream have two choices: sink or freeze. And if they freeze, so shall we!

The ocean conveyor could also be affected by increased warming of the seas around Antarctica and, thus, of the southern hemisphere. Ironically, if this results in the Gulf Stream being switched off, there could be a cooling of the northern hemisphere, while the southern hemisphere warms.

• The amount of Arctic Sea ice. This shiny white surface reflects a lot of sunlight. As the ice melts, the sunlight is absorbed instead by the sea, warming it and, thus, the air above it. The Arctic is especially sensitive to climate change, and the whole planet is especially sensitive to change in the Arctic.

• The Greenland and Antarctic east and west ice sheets. As these melt on the surface, water is flowing into 3km-deep crevices, crashing down to the base of these ice sheets, where it lubricates their faster slippery slide into the oceans.

Collapse of any of these ice sheets could occur far sooner than previously thought, raising sea levels many metres, not centimetres. The collapse of the west Atlantic ice sheet alone could raise sea levels by 6m.

• ‘El Niño’. The warm surface waters of the Pacific flow from the Americas in the east to Indonesia in the west, driven by the earth’s rotation. This results in an enormous pool of warm water some 40cm higher and up to 8% warmer on the west side of the ocean. Every few years this warm pool breaks out and flows back across the surface to the Americas, approximately along the line of the equator.

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

This is an ‘El Niño’ event, which redistributes heat and energy throughout the tropics. These events have been on an average cycle of about every six years, but since 1976 this has changed to an average of 3.5 years. El Niños alter the pattern and locations of monsoons and droughts. The more frequent El Niños are, the more variable monsoons and droughts become.

• Amazon rain forest and peat bogs.

Droughts affecting these result in fires, thus releasing their substantial stores of carbon dioxide and creating dust storms affecting world-wide weather patterns, again particularly the monsoons.

• Acidification and warming of the oceans. Carbon dioxide dissolves in the oceans to form a corrosive carbonic acid.

This damages those organisms which assist in absorbing carbon dioxide in the oceans and, thus, significantly reduces the capacity of the ocean carbon sink.

This is also much reduced as the oceans warm up.

These are six main factors, but there are some more. They are all part of an integrated system, which is bigger than the individual parts. Alter one, and we may not know its effect on the others.

Methane. This is the next most important man-made greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It is the most likely to cause catastrophic change. Over the century life in the atmosphere of a molecule of carbon dioxide, the effect of methane is about 20 times as great. But this hides the fact that methane does most of its warming in its first decade, during which it achieves 100 times more warming than carbon dioxide.

Quick action to reduce methane emissions would be a speedy way to have some early effect on global warming.

There are, however, some substantial uncontrollable releases of methane which are potential time bombs: • The permafrosts in Northern Siberia and other upper northern hemisphere areas hold an enormous amount of methane, which is now being released as the permafrost melts.

• Methane arises in the oceans and is held frozen in sediment just under the ocean floor in areas beyond the edge of continental shelves in the form of methane clathrates.Warming of the sea above these – or movements of the ocean floor, such as landslides – can release vast quantities of methane, as has happened in the past.

When the rise in global temperatures reaches a certain point – and scientists do not know precisely what this point is – one or more of these major drivers of climate change will be triggered into action.

What does all this say? Extreme uncertainty, indeed!

I have been a nurseryman for more than 50 years. In the 1970-s the delay in leaf fall, and thus the start of our bare root tree lifting ‘harvest’, led me to become interested in climate change. In the 1980s I became concerned, in the 1990s worried, and in the first decade of this century simply scared, like a rabbit caught in oncoming headlights.

I have recently reread the book by Fred Pearce, The Last Generation*, so titled as he considered we are probably the last generation that can rely on anything close to stable global climate. In this article I have asked Fred’s permission to put together a précis of his book and he has approved.

In Britain we do not know if we are going to fry or freeze. The high probability is that, initially, we will fry, with a longer-term possibility of freezing.

So much of business involves assessing degrees of risk and reacting accordingly.

How can we, as farmers and growers in Britain today, take a balanced approach against these contradicting probabilities so as to give the best chance of long-term success of our farms and holdings? This is, of course, in addition to actions we should be taking as citizens, and what the Government should be doing.

As a layman I cannot answer this challenge, anymore than the scientists can answer the issues above, but I put forward a few tentative suggestions for discussion.

If you have views on them, do email the Editor at don.gomery@btinternet.com • Withdraw gradually from owning and/or farming low-lying coastal land, where there is a high probability of serious flooding which is economically unpreventable (and be thankful you are not a Dutchman).

• Install large reservoirs on medium and lighter land to be filled by any water source and particularly heavy rainstorms whenever they arise, not just in the winter, thereby reducing downstream flooding and providing some irrigation water against the high probability of severe and prolonged droughts.

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harevst 2009

• Organise the farm’s finances to enable you to withstand not one but two seasons of crop failures from whatever cause.

• Grow limited quantities of crops that can withstand probable high summer temperatures, to gain experience of their cropping on your land and their marketing.

• Recognise that large numbers of cattle may have to be kept in controlled ventilation buildings from which the methane can be extracted and converted into fuel, unless their diet can be changed significantly.

• Pursue politicians who will take sufficiently strong and urgent action on reducing the causes and adjusting to the effects of climate change… and if they don’t, elect those that will!

• Take an interest in the United Kingdom Climate Impact Programme (UKCIP) projections, published in July, and the proceedings of the next UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on 17-18 December.

• Be thankful you are farming in maritime Britain, where climate extremes are likely to be less severe than in southern Europe (and, if you are farming there, withdraw).

• Pray! Lambeth Palace is within easy distance of The Farmers Club, so we have several bishop members, each with his own agricultural flock. Perhaps we should ask them to lead our prayers.

• The Last Generation, by Fred Pearce, is available from bookshops and Transworld Publishers, ISBN 9781903919880.

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CLUB VISIT TO SHETLAND ISLANDS • Peter Jackson

CLUB VISIT TO SHETLAND ISLANDS • Peter Jackson

Nicki Quayle, the Club’s 2010 Chairman-in-waiting, plans a members’ trip (limited to a maximum of 50 for logistical reasons) as far north as one can go in GB… and that means the Shetland Islands. Peter Jackson, a regular visitor there for 60 years, gives a peep at what’s very likely to be found.

Shetland Ahoy!

A TINY outpost of Great Britain, 60° North, the Shetland Islands are part Scottish and part Scandinavian, yet very different from both.

They were under Norse rule until 1469 when, with Orkney, they were pawned to King James of Scotland as a dowry on his marriage to the Danish king’s daughter, Margaret.

There are still plenty of Viking names and faces among the old established Shetland families, for whom seafaring remains central to most of their lives. Indeed, one is never more than four miles from the sea… the North Sea on one side and the Atlantic on the other.

As one acutely perceptive visitor commented: “Visiting Shetland from the British mainland is like going abroad, but without the need for a passport.”

There are Neolithic and Iron Age sites aplenty throughout the islands, providing an archeologist’s paradise and starting the moment you leave Sumburgh Airport at the southern tip of the principle island, Mainland. There may be little time to visit

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST The Club visit to Shetland is scheduled to start with arrival on the evening of Monday 24 May, with departure on the afternoon of Thursday 27 May. Flights to Shetland will be arranged from either Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Inverness.

However, members will need to organise connections to these airports. Alternatively, an overnight ferry from Aberdeen is possible.

Please contact the Club Secretariat - either by phone or by emailing secretariat@thefarmersclub.com - to register your interest in the visit. Should it be oversubscribed, a ballot will have to be held… but do not let this put you off applying.

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these, but much of their history and content is set out in the wonderful new museum in Lerwick, the capital of Shetland.

and oysters. Hopefully we can fit in a glance at some mussel farming, which is proving most successful.

This was opened in 2007, jointly by the Queen of Norway and Price Charles, and was runner-up in a recent, major, UK-wide competition. It gets to the heart and soul of the islands and their people, graphically describing much that there will be no time to see in the proposed two-and-a-half-day visit by the Club. It also provides an excellent light lunch, with a lovely harbour view thrown in.

The deep-water operation is carried out by seven large pelagic trawlers (costing up to £18 million each new today), catching herring, mackerel and blue whiting; about 30 smaller trawlers, catching haddock, cod, whiting and monkfish; and a large fleet of small shellfish boats, catching scallops, crabs and lobsters, etc.

Shetland is a land of wonderful cliffs, no trees (too much wind and salt) and largely hill farming on grass with their own breeds of sheep, cattle and, of course, ponies.

Originally a land of small crofts, there are now some larger holdings, though crofting still has an important place, as we shall hear and see.

There is a sizeable dairy near Lerwick, owned by its farmer suppliers and providing enough milk to achieve self-sufficiency for the islands.

The total population of the islands (about 100 in total but only seven of any size) is approximately 22,000, some 7,000 of whom live in and around Lerwick, the main port and centre of government, education and industry.

In 2006 (my latest figures) the following were the values of individual industries to the islands’ economy: deep-sea fishing and aquaculture, £225 million; oil, £70 million; agriculture, £17 million; tourism £12 million; and knitwear, £3million.

The seafood sector includes substantial fish farming in the sea-water voes (‘lochs’ to a mainland Scot) around the islands, mainly for salmon and mussels but also for sea trout

All are now very hemmed in and subject to tight EU and Serad (Scottish Defra) restrictions and quota controls, which means their viability is on a knife edge.

These boats are all owned by the men and their families who fish with them, unlike the shore-owned company system operating in most English ports.

The big trawlers won’t be fishing when the Club visits in May (all quota already caught), if, as I hope, one of them is moored in Lerwick, we may have a chance to look around her. She could be lying close to the largest and most sophisticated fish processing factory in Europe, which has a Shetlander Club member as company chairman.

Get up early one morning and you can see a unique electronic auction at the fish market.

Hull and Grimsby apart, Lerwick has the second highest weight and value landed at any port in the UK. Scalloway (former capital of Shetland), a small town on the west of Mainland, is home to the internationally-renowned North Atlantic Fisheries College and Marine Centre, which trains the next generation of fishermen, fish farmers and merchant seamen to the highest standards, as well as doing important research and development for the seafood

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

“Shetland is a land of wonderful cliffs, no trees (too much wind and salt) and largely hill farming on grass…“

sector. It also has a renowned seafood restaurant, which, hopefully, we can sample.

the North Sea all around them and the desire of the big oil companies to pipe ashore on Shetland to be processed and then shipped off in huge tankers round the world.

Close by is the ‘Shetland Bus’ museum, set up to commemorate the clandestine operations to Nazi-occupied Norway, carried out mostly at night in winter, to avoid detection, by incredibly brave Norwegians in small fishing boats, landing special agents in Norway and bringing refugees back to freedom.

A spectacularly good deal was negotiated between the Shetland Islands Council and the oil men, giving them the right to build one of the biggest oil terminals in Europe at Sullom Voe (some 30 miles north of Lerwick) and giving the Council the funds to update and develop the whole infrastructure of the islands… roads, education, public services, sports and community facilities, everything.

The most dramatic and life-changing thing to happen to the islands in the past 40 years has been the discovery of large quantities of oil in

Club Theatre Evening FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2009 After the success of the first theatre evening in January, a repeat performance is not to be missed. The play on this occasion is J B Priestley’s classic thriller, An Inspector Calls, directed by the award-winning Stephen Daldry. This production has thrilled audiences with its epic and wildly imaginative staging, raw emotion, evocative score, lashing rain and searing suspense.

A supper will be held at the Club at 5pm. The performance is due to start at 7pm, as it has been designated a Press Night. A dessert buffet will be available at the Club at the conclusion of the evening.

It is so different from what I first saw in 1948. Hopefully, we will be able to visit the terminal.

Sadly, there will not be time to visit more than one of the smaller islands, Bressay, which is just across the water from Lerwick.

But there is insufficient space to ramble on further now and to talk about such things as the great traditions of fiddle music and Up-Helly-Aa, not to mention the wonderful wild life and birds, which have been shown recently in some fabulous TV programmes.

✁

Harvest Festival Service & Buffet Supper TUESDAY 6 OCTOBER 2009 The Club will be holding its annual Harvest Festival Service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Tuesday 6 October. The Service starts at 5pm; our Preacher this year will be the Reverend Nicholas Holtam, Vicar, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and also Club Chaplain.

Do please come and join us for this important and enjoyable event in the Club calendar. All Club members and their guests are most welcome.

The cost of the evening is £65.00 per person and applications will be dealt with on a first come first served basis as tickets are limited. (Maximum of 2 per member).

Accommodation should be booked directly with Reception (Tel. 020 7930 3557).

Our traditional Harvest Festival Supper will be held afterwards in the Club from 7pm, costing £25 per person, including wine. To book, either email:generaloffice@thefarmersclub.com or send your application form to the Club.

Please complete in CAPITALS WITH FIRST NAME and return to The Secretary, The Farmers Club, 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL

Please complete in CAPITALS WITH FIRST NAME and return to The Secretary, The Farmers Club, 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL

I would like to reserve ………… tickets for the supper and An Inspector Calls.

Cheque enclosed for £ ..……………… [payable The Farmers Club].

I would like to reserve ………… tickets for the Buffet Supper.

Cheque enclosed for £ ..……………… (payable The Farmers Club).

Members Name

Members Name

Guest (s)

Guest (s)

Address

Address

Post Code

Post Code

Telephone Number

Telephone Number

Email

Email

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

11

FINAL ROYAL SHOW • Don Gomery

FINAL ROYAL SHOW • Don Gomery

Club marquee a winner at the final Royal Show

CLUB members swelled the crowds attending this year’s Royal Show, many there to mark this somewhat sad final occasion for an event that had become a firm feature of early July in so many diaries.

Members were aware that the old, wooden Club pavilion – which had outlived its best-by date – had been dismantled and replaced by a spanking new marquee. Most – including your Journal Editor – imagined this would be a large canvas structure with a grass floor and, consequently, somewhat wobbly chairs and tables, a makeshift bar in the corner and a table serving food.

Image our surprise at the splendour we encountered. There, where the pavilion used to stand, in the same spot and with the same well laid-out garden, the paved pathway led visitors to a short flight of wooden steps, a raised, decked and

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fenced balcony, complete with tables and chairs, and through double glass doors into the vast and magnificent, woodenfloored and matted interior, complete with glittering chandeliers, a sturdy, fullystocked bar, a similarly robust food service counter, a plush, comfortable sitting area and tables and chairs for diners that wouldn’t be out of place in any city restaurant.

There was, of course, a vast deal more going on around the showground to keep members exceptionally busy throughout.

One such very prominent feature was the daily debates, with Club Chairman John Reynolds chairing and speaking at the well-attended second-day debate on The Energy Gap, sharing the platform John Seymour of North East Biofuels and Dr Angela Karp of Rothamsted Research.

Whereas the old pavilion was very much divided into three distinct and very separate areas, for sitting, drinking and eating, here was open-plan at its best.

And, to add to the delight of members, gone were the unfamiliar faces of an RASE-imposed catering company, to be replaced by the friendly and well-known smiles and ultra-efficiency of our very own Club staff from Whitehall Court, giving a home-from-home atmosphere in every sense of the word.

It was difficult, in the sunshine and surrounded by smiling people, to realise that this, the 160th, was to be the final Royal Show. News from the RASE, at the end of the week, that attendance, at 114,000, was up 17,500 on the 2008 event, came as no surprise, with so many people admitting that they were there to take part in the wake of this historic event, which attracted nigh on a quarter of a million visitors in its heydays of the 70s and 80s.

Small wonder that the Club marquee proved such a magnet, with, for the first time for some years, peak-time queues for the bar and dining tables. Along with the garden, it also served as a superb venue for many crowded functions, including the presentation of the Club/ADAS Pinnacle Award by HRH The Duke of Kent to ‘Gold’ student George Hood of Reading University; a Nuffield Scholarship Trust reception, with Patron The Duke of Gloucester as principal guest; and receptions by the Tenant Farmers Association and the Royal Agricultural College, as well as the somewhat familiar presence of RABI and the CLA.

Happy to say, The Farmers Club – our Club – went out in great style, with great aplomb, enabling members, organisers and staff to leave with fond memories and their heads held high.

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

13

ALFONSO: A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION • The Countess of Mar

THE DAIRY EVENT AND LIVESTOCK SHOW • Nick Everington

Offering in-depth information for entire UK ruminant sector

ALFONSO BELMONTE BELDA (6 September 1975 – 12 June 2009) TO ALL of those who knew him, the mention of the name “Alfonso” would bring a smile. One only has to read his book of tributes to realise how utterly this young man enchanted us.

He seemed to be such an uncomplicated person. “What you see is what you get,” I think one tribute said… and yet, when you got to know him, he proved to be a deep thinker; profoundly sensitive to the people around him and to wider political and artistic affairs. As The Farmers Club Chaplain, Nick Holtam, reminded us at his funeral service, Alfonso played the fool, but he was no fool.

I can hardly believe that he was an integral part of the Club team for only nine years.

He seems to have been there forever, at first to greet us at breakfast time, guided initially

by Annie and then by Jerry, going on to work his way through the system, providing guidance to the lunch and dinnertime staff.

I recall an occasion when Jerry had to take a week off to do jury service. It was a very busy morning and, without Annie or Jerry to keep the members in order, discipline fell apart. Poor, young Alfonso did his Manuel act. In the end he shut the dining room door while he sorted out those who were in the room and made the others wait. Not everyone saw the funny side of that one.

This was far from the only occasion that he would call on Manuel to get him out of trouble. He was called to Grieve Carson’s office one morning. Thinking that he was going to be ticked off, he was seen going around the corner at the top of the corridor holding his hands to his head and crying “Don’t hit me, Mr Fawlty. Please don’t hit me.”

Even if he had been intending to reprimand Alfonso, Grieve was totally disarmed. Ever afterwards, the Group Captain was “Mr Fawlty” to Alfonso.

I got to know Alfonso better during several summers when the Club was nearly empty and I had to be in London for business. By this time he was promoted to temporary barman. He would be perched on a stool on one side of the bar and I on another, on the customers’ side. He told me a little about his life in Spain; his law degree; his coming to England to improve his English; his efforts to settle in Spain, and then his adoption of our country as his and the Club as his family.

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He was fascinated by the way our parliamentary system worked, by our hereditary families and by British history.

He told me that, when he was first in London and had not yet made friends, he would take himself off to the art galleries.

There he learned more than most of us put together about our history and the personalities involved.

Later I discovered that he knew about the constitutions of most of the great democracies and that he had read widely about the American continent. He could discuss their own country with many of our overseas guests, showing a remarkable depth of knowledge.

Alfonso’s love of and interest in people shone through all of his relationships.

Very often his interactions with members were so audacious that, in any other establishment, he would have been sacked on the spot.

On one occasion at dinner, a rather portly member was hesitating over whether or not he should take potatoes as he was on a diet.

Alfonso quipped: “Well, it’s clearly not working, so have some.”

He was free with his compliments to the ladies, but only when they were appropriate.

At other times he wouldn’t hesitate to say that they were looking dreadful and should have an early night.

Alfonso would never allow his ‘regular’ ladies to dine alone. I was often kept waiting for as much as an hour beyond the time I wanted to eat before an appropriate companion could be enticed into Alfonso’s web and made to accompany me into the dining room. At one time my friend, Sheila Crispin, thought he was matchmaking!

He had his own special names for many of us. He found it a little hard to grasp the significance of the change from Dame Hazel to Baroness Byford, but cottoned on when it was explained to him. Professors seemed also to cause him a problem. He needed to be reminded that they should not be called by their surnames alone. For ever more Professor Crispin became Professor Crispy.

Alfonso was incredibly kind and generous.

No request was too trivial for him. He would hunt the Club for pillows without feathers, when required. Even when he was ill last winter, he would telephone me at home demanding that I get better and return to the Club.

The Farm Health Planning exhibition will also be returning for the second consecutive year, in a purpose-built exhibition hall, and featuring a series of practical demonstrations combined with technical information provided by some of the UK’s leading specialist vets and advisors.

He bravely shared his diagnosis with a carefully selected group. I suspect that it was the knowledge that they held him in such esteem and didn’t make too much fuss that carried him through those last months.

When first I heard I sent him a card, painted by an artist I know, featuring an otter by a stream. I explained that I sent it to him because otters were an endangered species that were now making a comeback.

Alfonso was always the optimist but, as Nick reminded us, he was also a realist. He retained his dignity and command of his situation right to the very end.

I am deeply honoured that I was one of the few people with whom he would speak in those final days. In our last conversation, he asked me to tell everyone at the Club how much he had appreciated his years with us.

We were his family, he said.

He loved us all and was so appreciative of the love we had given to him. He wanted us to know that he wasn’t in pain and that he was at ease with himself. His last thoughts were not for himself but for us.

I reminded him of the little otter. I told him of a picture that had come to me the night before. The otter was floating gently down its stream, into the river and out to a wide, warm, blue ocean where there were no more troubles and no more pain. I know he understood.

There are those who may live for a century and will be forgotten in a trice. There are others whose lives are cut short but who have made such an impression that none who knew them will ever forget. Alfonso was one of the latter.

While many of us will miss him grievously, he would not want us to be sad. Let his name “be spoken without an effort / Without the trace of a shadow on it”.

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

TAKING time out from the business for a fresh look at its current strategy while embracing new ideas and opportunities is time well invested.

The Dairy Event and Livestock Show will provide you with the chance to do just that.

As well as discussing the industry’s challenges with the trade and fellow producers, you will be able to take advantage of the plethora of quality advice covering every aspect of the livestock business, all at the one location.

Furthermore, the event will provide invaluable training for your partner, your family and your stockman.

While dairying continues to remain at the heart of the event, with competitive dairy cattle classes as a key feature, the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers is once again working in close association with the National Beef Association, the National Sheep Association, the British Goat Society and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Following the successful re-launch of the event in 2008, to take in all ruminant sectors, we are continuing to develop specific exhibitions for their respective sectors - beef, sheep and goats, together with commercial native breeds - in order to broaden the scope of the event and enable livestock farmers with multi-species enterprises to obtain all the information they need from attending this one event.

Furthermore, this year the RBST has chosen the event to host its National Show.

Added to that will be information from more than 450 exhibitors representing the entire food chain - producers, processors, retailers and suppliers - all helping to build

much needed collaboration. Technical, The crowds management, marketing at and all business aspects of the dairy and livestock industry will be covered, from feeding, genetics and milking equipment to recruitment, financial and environmental management. We will be specifically encouraging farmers to bring along their wives or lifelong partners who, we are well aware, play a significant role in managing the business.

This year, for the first time, we are launching Farming Women’s Workshops, a series of seminars specifically designed for women and delivered, sponsored and supported by women – the Women’s Farmers Union and the Institute of Agricultural Secretaries. The seminars will offer solutions to issues farming women frequently have to manage, including employment law, succession, negotiating skills and business implications for diversification enterprises.

RABDF is aware that responding to environmental requirements, making cost savings and building a sustainable business are high on the agenda for all livestock farming business. Consequently, at the event, it has organised various initiatives, such as evaluation of samples of soil and farm waste - slurry and FYM - free of charge.

Working with the British Cattle Veterinary Association, we have also designed an exhibition to encourage farmers to proactively manage disease, improve their livestock’s overall the Dairy Event performance and, ultimately, their unit’s sustainability. Key issues coming under the microscope are lameness, mastitis, fertility, young stock management, milk recording and screening test health platforms.

Finally, we are aware that farmers are continuing to consider adding value through diversification. The Country Landowner Association is once again sponsoring the Diversifarm area, where visitors can talk to CLA advisers and find out more about the opportunities and options.

The livestock sector operates in a fast moving environment. To compete in an increasingly competitive global marketplace, we believe that livestock producers need to be equally efficient in all their enterprises, not just their key business of dairying.

We are confident that a visit to the Dairy Event and Livestock Show will help towards achieving that goal.

• The Dairy Event and Livestock Show will be held at Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, on 16 and 17 September. For more information call 0845 458 2711 or visit www.dairyevent.co.uk

Visitors will also be able to collect information on energy cost savings, while both the live mixer wagon demonstrations and the new tractor Ride and Drive have been specifically designed to help with machinery purchase decisions.

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

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STOCK AND MEAT EXPORTS • Henry Lewis

FLY-TIPPING • The Environment Agency

New export initiatives for livestock and meat sector established an Export Certification User Group (ECUG) to prioritise markets, share information and co-operate in restoring and agreeing Third Country export certification for the livestock and meat sector. Confidence grew after initial suspicions, and industry representatives took on an increasing roll in overseas liaison activities.

Henr y Lewis

THESE are exciting times for the livestock and meat sector as it claws back export markets. Getting the necessary certification that lets exports happen has been a major focus after the total loss which followed the 2007 foot-and-mouth disease virus escape from Pirbright.

The relative weakness of sterling against many other currencies in the past year, plus stock and meat shortages in some countries, have also helped our export initiatives. Consequently, producers in Britain are seeing some of the best returns for years as true competition enters the market place.

It was déjà vu all over again, as they say, after the FMD of 2001. Following that outbreak, both Defra and the industry

Consequently, lessons learned from this experience were put in place after 2007, when some Defra funding helped visits by personnel to certain key countries to brief officials on the need to reinstate certification.

An added factor was the need for bluetongue disease clauses to be incorporated.

Britain has an enviable global position in the cattle, pig and sheep breeding sectors, and exports are fundamental for their businesses, helping sustain a stronger industry for British producers. It’s the quality of our genetics, together with our husbandry, that gives British meat and meat products such a good reputation.

Top priorities Top priorities were to restore access to markets for breeding pigs and cattle semen, as well as meat and meat products.

Markets are being sought for ‘fifth quarter’ products to add value to these and boost returns to producers and processors.

To further these ambitions, the UK Export Certification Partnership (UKECP) concept between Defra and the industry was initiated last summer, becoming operational in late 2008.

UKECP is an informal Defra/industry working group that: • Liaises with the UK livestock and livestock products industries to establish export market priorities • Provides a forum to discuss the use of Defra agents to negotiate export health certificates on behalf of the UK • Assists in the drafting of export health certificates which are generally required before exports can take place. This is quite a revolutionary step.

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Defra is contributing staff resources and funding to the three-year project for official visits overseas and to the UK by officials; as is the industry to help with costs here, with the relevant levy bodies (BPEX, Dairy Co, EBLEX, HCC, LMC and QMS) all contributing significantly. Other contributors include the breeding companies, breed societies, exporters and various industry organisations. A non-profit making company, Export Certification Limited (ECL), has been established to administer industry’s involvement, with directors drawn from across the sector. Andrew Taylor - Chairman & Veterinary Director of ECL - is accredited

by Defra to act as an agent.

Much activity It might seem obvious but the obvious doesn’t always get acted on, and one of the key facets of recent activity has been to arrange face-to-face meetings with key overseas officials and for on-the-spot liaison.

Using Defra funds, visits have been made this year by Defra staff and industry personnel to the many countries to negotiate new certificates, including Bahrain, Chile, China, India, Kuwait, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and United Arab Emirates.

Further visits are planned for later this year and next, the priorities for which are driven by industry’s needs.

On the positive side, in the short time of its existence more than 30 Export Health Certificates for breeding stock, germplasm, meat and meat products have been agreed to date (July 2009), with several other certificates ‘in the pipeline’. And the returns can be immediate: within days of the bovine semen certificate for Saudi Arabia being restored, tens of thousands of semen straws were exported there.

UKCEP’s website www.ukecp.com - gives more information on certification procedures and provides stakeholders with the a means to contact UKECP with export enquiries and priorities.

• Henry Lewis is a Club member and Director of Export Certification Ltd.

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

Help from members requested to identify true extent of fly-tipping THE Environment Agency has launched a pilot with eight major UK landowners, including the NFU, to identify the real extent of fly-tipping on private land. This follows initial research which has revealed that 94% of private landowners suffer from illegal dumping of waste.

Half of local landowners questioned through the Defra-funded Landowner Partnership Project research of 520 landowners in February 2009 said that illegally dumped waste has become a significant concern, with some experiencing more than one hundred separate incidents in a year. With clearance costs averaging £809 per removal, the figures underline a significant problem with which the Environment Agency is determined to get to grips.

Although anecdotal evidence suggests that fly-tipping on private land is widespread, the true scale of the problem is still not known, making identifying potential solutions a challenge. 83% of landowners do not formally record incidents, often because they see no direct incentive for doing so.

Under current legislation, landowners must cover the cost of removing fly-tipped waste in most instances. The Environment Agency will remove illegally dumped waste on public or private land where there is a high risk to environmental or human health.

The Agency project has been developed to help identify an effective system for accurately recording fly-tipping so that measures for tackling the problem can ultimately be identified. The second phase of the Landowner Partnership Project will support a pilot group of landowners with a system to record incidents on their land by size, type and location.

Gerald Lee, Project Manager for the Environment Agency’s Landowner Partnership, explains: “Our ‘Recognise, Record, Reduce’ campaign is being launched in partnership with private landowners, from farmers and park managers through to utility companies. Its purpose is to record fly-tipping incidents uniformly through a central online system for an extended period of time. We need this level of understanding to be able to

provide tools and guidance for tackling a problem that we know anecdotally is a big issue for Britain’s landowners.”

The pilot is now underway in the Midlands and the North West, involving the National Trust, National Farmers Union, United Utilities, British Waterways, Countryside Alliance, Country Land Association, Network Rail and the Highways Agency.

These organisations will record fly-tipping on their land until April 2010 using the Flycapture system, a method already used to good effect by all of Britain’s local authorities and the Environment Agency for recording fly-tipping on public land.

If the pilot proves viable, the information provided will help make a case for providing landowners with their own simple system for accurately reporting future incidents.

Farmers in the West Midlands are being encouraged to support the pilot by the National Farmers Union. “We all know that fly-tipping on private land is a seriouis problem,” says Aarun Naik, NFU Environment Policy Adviser. “But it’s really important that we demonstrate the full extent of the problem to the Government, backed by hard facts.

“We are starting to do this by trialling an initiative that that aims to paint a fuller picture of fly-tipping in the West Midlands region. Consequently, we really need farmers in that region to help us by reporting to the NFU any fly-tipping incidents taking place.

“Unless we can supply real evidence of the impact of fly-tipping, we will have a hard job convincing policy maketrs that more needs to be done to tackle the problem.”

Half of material illegally dumped on private land is household waste, followed by construction waste and used car tyres.

Harmful materials such as asbestos, chemical drugs and clinical waste present a particular problem. Clean up can be expensive and time-consuming for landowners and The Environment Agency hopes that better recording and intelligence on incidents will present the first step towards identifying new measures to support landowners in managing and reducing fly-tipping occurrences.

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

Gerald Lee adds: “The project ultimately aims to reduce the impact of fly-tipping on private landowners, but to do this we need to be able to identify the scale of the problem for different landowners and advise on strategies which will work in each environment. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution and local authorities, waste companies and trade bodies all have a role to play in informing this crucial campaign.”

For more information about the Recognise, Record, Reduce pilot visit www.record2reduce.com

Do you farm in a pilot area?

As part of the Landowner Partnership Project, the Environment Agency and Defra are working together with the NFU, CLA and CA to capture data of fly-tipping on farmland.

The pilot, running with the NFU from April 2009-2010 in the West Midlands, is looking to gather incident information in order to get a full and accurate picture of the scale of fly-tipping… and the costs.

Without recording incidents formally, informed decisions about the best way to tackle fly-tipping on private land cannot be made. So, if you get fly-tipped, help by recording the incident with one of the Landowner Partnership Project organisations, even if you are not a member of that organisation.

West Midlands farmers can call the NFU hotline on 0870 840 0686 or log on to www.nfuonline.com/wmidsflytip.xml Farmers in the North West should email fly-tipping@countryside-alliance.org.uk or visit www.visitcountryside-alliance.org.uk to download a report form.

If you are in an organisation that owns land and has a problem with fly-tipping on private land, contact Ged Lee by emailing Gerald.lee@environment-agency.gov.uk You may also want to look at the resources used in the pilot to see how you could use them within your organisation. To do so, go to www.record2reduce.com and click on ‘resources.

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U30S • Luke Paterson, Chairman; Gemma Partridge, Vice Chairman; MaryAnne Salisbury, Secretary

Chairman’s Jottings There are a few new wheat varieties that look interesting from the marketing perspective. Let’s hope their yields don’t disappoint.

The U30s held their spring farm walk in Cambridge this year. I’m grateful to Holly Adams for the article about it on this spread, which relays the weekend perfectly. The U30s cricket match has also been held, with my thanks going to Philip Hoare for not only organising the match but also writing here about it.

CURRENTLY, everybody to whom I speak is greasing their combine and having a general catch up before harvest kicks in.

No doubt, by the time you read these words, the excitement of harvest will be a thing of past, even if it’s not fully over.

Members who take part in Club events, whether main or U30s, get a lot back, so please note the dates of future events and come along to as many as possible.

Remember, your guests will also be made very welcome.

The inter-club events continue to sell out, leaving us stranded for tickets.

Consequently, MaryAnne is booking tickets in advance, on our behalf, so if there’s an inter club event you would like to attend let Maryanne know, as she may well have a stock of tickets available.

The Farmers Club batted first, meaning the Forty Club had to deal with the midday heat while fielding. Steve Mallinson and Martin Allsop opened the batting to some tight bowling. After Mallinson’s departure for 6 runs, following a catch at slips, Bob Johnson and Allsop built a strong partnership, ultimately scoring 39 and 42 respectively, before a flurry of wickets to the Forty Club, including that of Joe Dorgan, bowled for 4.

Then up stepped two stalwarts of The Farmers Club side, Simon Gardner and Rob Kerr-Bonner, whose partnership added 95 to the scoreboard, with them scoring 48 and 47 respectively. On Gardner’s loss of wicket to a catch, yours truly Philip Hoare, captain of The Farmers Club side, declared at 184 for 5.

The Forty Club batsmen came to the field to be met with the blistering pace of Dorgan, a Gloucestershire and Wiltshire young fast bowler, who caught them with surprise,

18

ensuring an early loss of wickets. Harry Gladwin supported Dorgan until first change, when Hugh Ball and Kerr-Bonner took over the bowling. Essex based Martin Menhinick then provided economical overs alongside Tristram van Lawick before Dorgan returned and was joined by Johnson to bowl for the remainder of the game.

A visiting Forty Club member from Yorkshire built a strong partnership with one of their regulars, before Dorgan ran out the Yorkshireman on 78 with a throw from 30 yards hitting the stumps. Tristram van Lawick then took the catch of the game at 2nd slip some 20 yards behind the stumps, off Dorgan. Dorgan took 5 wickets as well as his run out and kept wicket-keeper Maillinson busy behind the stumps.

Our Autumn Farm Walk in Dorset has been meticulously planned by Patrick Durnford. The weekend will be based in the idyllic village of Castle Corfe, with trips to farms on the Lulworth estate.

Luke Paterson

Of particular interest was the potato seed testing field where the BASIS Potato Course is taught and assessed. We were challenged to identify varieties of potato, and those potato tubers which had been deliberately exposed to pest and disease. Gemma and I, it would appear, are much better at eating potatoes than identifying them!

Those attending

IN MID MAY the U30s decamped to Cambridgeshire for their annual Spring Farm Walk.

With members travelling from all corners of the country, and a busy itinerary ahead, we took the chance to relax and enjoy a superb three-course meal in Brown’s Restaurant; taking the opportunity to catch up with old friends’ news and meet new U30s members.

Bright and early on Saturday morning, 17 U30s plus Winston, a Jack Russell, were welcomed to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, an independent agricultural botany research centre celebrating its 90th birthday this year.

The team

In action

But with steady and unflappable batting, the Forty Club slowly added runs, punishing poor balls and at 7.10pm, with 3 overs left to play, won the game with 185 for 6.

Our thanks to Nick Rowsell for organising the ground and manning the bar.

Philip Hoare

Visits to NIAB and an award-winning farmer set the scene for Spring Walk

We are planning a Saturday dinner at the Club, probably in November, on a date yet to be decided. I hope this will be well received and attended by those a little further afield, who are unable to make a Friday evening. A Saturday dinner in the Club will be a first for the U30s, so let’s aim for a full house to spread the cost of staff overtime.

Forty Club snatches cricket victory in final overs of exhilarating game A VERY warm and sunny day for the annual duel between The Farmers Club and the Forty Club saw a keenly contested match which ended with a hard fought win for the latter in the final overs at Warnford, Hampshire.

U30S • Luke Paterson, Chairman; Gemma Partridge, Vice Chairman; MaryAnne Salisbury, Secretary

The pitch

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

After walking around the winter wheat trial plots, it was evident that NIAB is dedicated to ensuring the high standards set by the National List, which, with its laboratory and pathology facilities, NIAB is well placed to do.

Our tour of NIAB concluded with a review of the genetic research work; NIAB is currently researching the genetic indicators which control the flowering of wheat plant.

This work is likely to become more significant to commercial farmers, as adapting the genetic flowering indicators will help farmers tackle the issues that climate change predicts.

After our busy morning, the U30s needed refuelling to set us on our way for our afternoon farm walk. The Royal Oak pub provided a great atmosphere for us all to warm up, eat up and continue the banter from the previous evening.

Set across 131 acres, NIAB provides firstclass research and expertise in plant genetic resources through laboratory and field trial facilities. While Cambridge is the central base, NIAB itself is a centre of arable excellence with seven regional bases spread across the country.

Robert Law was kind enough to host our farm walk; as well as being an enthusiastic host, Robert was a great example of what the modern farmer can do to utilise his land to its full capacity, while protecting the environment. Robert’s innovative approach to farming has been recognised by the Farmers Weekly ‘Farmer of the Year Award’.

We were fortunate to have the expertise of four NIAB specialists to show us around and answer our questions… and with such a diverse group of young people from agriculture and related professions, we had plenty of those.

The U30s, an inquisitive bunch as always, were keen to have a thorough walk around the farm and have the opportunity to quiz Robert about his award winning outlook to farming.

The NIAB centre is run as a fully fledged farm, and has a vast mix of specialist equipment to ensure trials in such areas as sugar beet harvesting and herbage are carried out to the highest standards. It was very impressive to see the extensive range of machinery from across all aspects of the agricultural spectrum. After a thorough look round at the machinery, we were able to visit the fields and see the extensive trials upon which NIAB’s strong reputation is built.

Robert is a first generation farmer who began working on the Royston farm 25 years ago. Through a combination of farmshares, renting and buying he has built up a 3,500-acre farming operation.

The majority of Robert’s farm is in arable production, but there are 500 acres set aside for his 2000-ewe-flock. Managed by two shepherds, the flock produced some 3,500 lambs, for which Robert is building up local sales.

Roberts’s holistic outlook to agriculture centres on the environment. He belongs to both the Countryside Stewardship and ELS schemes; every acre of land is used to maximise both the environment and commercial aspects. His conservationgraded grain is the largest supplier for UK manufacturers Jordan’s cereal and breakfast bars. By doing this, he is able to take advantage of the environmental payments without jeopardising his commercial edge.

Our weekend highlighted the significance of the relationship between agriculture and science.

Combined with increasing environmental awareness, the responsibility falls to us, in the agricultural world, to ensure that we can meet the everchanging global challenges thrown at us.

That evening we headed out to the stylish ‘Bar B’ where, with fantastic cocktails, delicious food and plenty of great company, we partied our way through the night, finishing the evening at the Fez Club.

Although it wasn’t quite like Motion (our regular stomping ground in London), we still gave it our all, threw some moves on the dance floor and concluded the night in good spirits.

Unfortunately, due to the typical British weather, our planned punting trip for Sunday morning was a wash out. After saying our goodbyes to old and newly made friends, we headed back to our respective corners of the country… a little tired and exhausted but on a high from a thoroughly well planned and enjoyable weekend.

Holly Adams

Studying trial plots

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

19

MBA X • X SCHOLARSHIPS • Kate-Anne Kelly

RAMBLINGS • Stephen Skinner

Boost your business skills with an MBA Scholarship management practises. The goal is for members of the industry to be equipped with the correct skills required to deal efficiently with food chain suppliers and customers, as well as having the vision and capability to discover and exploit new business opportunities.

The thinking behind the scheme is that by creating the opportunity to study for a Masters in Business Administration degree at a leading UK business school, it expresses serious intent for business management excellence in agriculture.

IN TODAY’S economic climate, there is no question that the agricultural business environment is becoming increasingly challenging. More then ever before, agricultural skills are simply not enough for farm businesses to survive in the long term.

However, latest reform of the CAP, as well as volatile commodity markets, are providing opportunities… but only for businesses which can take advantage of these by possessing the right management skills and techniques.

Now, thanks to a pioneering scholarship scheme, farmers and agricultural professionals are being given the opportunity to learn valuable business skills by obtaining an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management, Bedfordshire, one of the world’s leading business schools.

Driving force behind the MBA Agri-farm scholarship is John Beckett, former Chairman of Genus and founder of Belton Cheese, whose experience as a farmer and businessman convinced him that the agricultural industry needs strong business leaders with the right skills and expertise.

The scholarship provides recipients with a substantial contribution towards the cost of studying. To date three students have taken part in the scholarship and, in June, two of these formally graduated and were presented with their MBA, with the third due to graduate early next year.

One of those MBA students is Mark Hall, 36, who decided to study on a full-time basis when he started the course in October 2007. Farming with his father in Bedfordshire, Mark was working for a leading agricultural consultancy and previously had a degree in agriculture and land management from the Royal Agricultural College.

“One of my main concerns before undertaking the course was the cost,” he says. “However, through the scholarship fund, the financial burden was greatly reduced.

“I applied for the MBA scholarship scheme because I wanted to enhance my skills and learn all about strategic business planning.

It also provided an opportunity to gain expertise from individuals working within a variety of industries. In addition, I felt I had hit a career ceiling and, as an ambitious person, saw this as an excellent opportunity to strengthen my CV.”

“Although the principal of British farming is excellent, there is a lack of business acumen,” he says. “The aim of this MBA is to give people that knowledge.”

The MBA -covering a wide range of subjects, such as finance and accounting, micro and macro economics, supply chain and operations and marketing - is hard work but brings great benefits.

With this objective in mind, the MBA Agrifarm Charitable Fund was set up four years ago, by Genus and John Beckett, to demonstrate the importance of agriculture adopting the very best business

“Completing the MBA meant working within a pressured environment to meet tight deadlines and consistently producing a good standard of work,” says Mark.

“With138 students on my course, coming

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from 32 countries, it also allowed me to make many new friends.

“My career path has taken a new course.

I now work as a business analyst for Syngenta, looking at the performance of the UK business and challenging specific areas of business strategy within the UK and Europe. It’s a job I would never have secured without the MBA.” The MBA Agri-Farm Scholarship can be completed on a full-time, intensive, one-year basis, or part-time, spread over two years, where students attend four residential week periods and fourteen weekends.

Farmers Club member Dan Powell, 43, from the Cotswolds, is currently doing the MBA on a part-time basis. “It‘s easy to get very introspective in farming,” he says. “Consequently, I felt it would be extremely advantageous to have a better understanding of business in the outside world, both to help me in my role as a representative of farmer members of Openfield Co-op and with any future opportunities that may arise.

“Once I graduate, early next year, I plan to improve my own business and look for opportunities to collaborate with other farmers and consumers to change our industry's focus from price sensitivity to security and quality of supply.”

To find out more about the scholarship scheme, visit www.som.cranfield.ac.uk or call 01234 754812. Applications are now being sought, with a closing date of November.

Contrasting emotions at Club as New Head Chef grief and happiness intermingle I WRITE this at a time of great and contrasting emotions. Enormous sadness because we have lost a friend to us all, Alfonso, and yet happiness because of what he gave us and a wonderfully successful Royal Show for The Farmers Club.

Like many of us, I have lost many friends and indeed, family, but the loss of Alfonso has touched myself and others unlike many.

He was unique. Intelligent, hard working, able, humorous and a real ‘people person’.

Alfonso understood us all in a way that is rare. The stories are legion, but his humanity for me was summed up when he

said, just three days before he died: “Why do people have to be horrid to others? There’s no need”.

As many will know, a collection has been set up to fund a wooden bench which will be engraved and placed on the balcony here at the Club, with any residual funds being donated to Cancer Research UK. Cheques should be made out to ‘The Farmers Club (Alfonso)’.

We have also opened a book of condolence, which I will forward to Alfonso’s mother in Spain at or around the end of August, once most who wish to have had a chance to write a few words.

Light again as balcony re-opens I’M PLEASED to be able to report – as many of you will have by now witnessed – that the Club balcony is now re-opened following its long, almost claustrophobic closure while the back of Whitehall Court was refurbished.

One of the first to make use of the re-opened balcony, as our picture here shows, was the group of Club past chairmen attending a gettogether lunch in the adjoining Eastwood Room. It was good that my predecessor as Club Secretary, Grieve Carson, was able to join us, and to hear that life is treating him exceptionally well in his frequent fluctuations between the UK and Spain since his retirement.

Don has been a great servant of the Club, providing great food under trying conditions to large and small parties alike, while demonstrating a real love and understanding of his craft. I wish him well for the future… one that doesn’t involve quite so much commuting!

Don is replaced by his deputy, Jeff Plant, with another chef, Andrew Tea, replacing Jeff as deputy head chef. I know Jeff is enormously excited to be given this opportunity and I look forward to savouring the offerings of him and his team in our soon-to-be-refurbished dining-room.

Golf champions ON THE sporting side, 40 members and guests gathered at Blackwell Golf Club under threatening skies to take part in the Club Championships the day before the start of the final Royal Show.

In addition, companies who would like to lend their backing and provide sponsorship to the charity, enabling more individuals within the industry to gain the business skills provided by the MBA, are invited to contact John Beckett at johnbeckett@beltoncheese.co.uk

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harevst 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

CLOSER to home the gentle wind of change continues to blow. Not least is the fact that Don Irwin has decided after very nearly 10 years of wonderful service to move on to pastures new.

Our picture shows, from left to right, Club champions George Forbes, Fiona Wylie, Janet Reynolds – who presented the prizes - and John Pigott. Many congratulations on their sporting success.

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

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Club Information & Diary Dates

THE FARMERS CLUB

The Secretariat 020 7930 3751

THE FARMERS CLUB Over 160 years of service to farming 3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL

Patron – Her Majesty The Queen

Diary Dates 2009 These dates are reviewed for every Journal. Please read them on each occasion, as they are sometimes revised and additional dates included.

Details of events circulated in the previous issues are available from the Secretariat at the telephone number shown above.

Club Information 020 7930 3751

VICE PRESIDENTS John N Harris OBE MC, Peter Jackson CBE Roddy Loder-Symonds, Sir David Naish DL John Parker THE COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT OF THE CLUB FOR 2009 PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN John Reynolds TRUSTEES Mark Hudson (Chairman), Barclay Forrest OBE Mrs Susan Kilpatrick OBE, Norman Shaw CBE

Further information is available on The Farmers Club Website: www.thefarmersclub.com To register for the Members’ Area, enter your membership number as shown on the top line of the address label of your Journal and then create your username and password.

Obituaries It is with regret that we announce the death of the following members: G B Richards M P R McLaren

Kent Midlothian

New Members The following have been elected since February: J B Addy M C Anstey Mrs O Atwater Professor W S Bardo N J Barkhouse R Bolter L C Branfield Mrs V A Braybrooks E H S Briggs D Clayton-Jones M Clementson Mrs H Colley S E C Conant J F Constable P H Cooke P Cooper B J Croft M David OBE R D Davies Mrs R De Vere H F Drnec P J Eggleston P N Elkington S J Entwistle I D Fern Mrs E M Fletcher E J Gallimore Lady J W Garrett P D Gibson D J T Gilliland R R Gledson Dr C Glossop Mrs B L Harper Ms J Hill D W Hines Reverend A Hodgson T D Inman A F Ivory Mrs H A Jenkins S W Jenner F Jennings 22

Yorkshire Monmouthshire Sussex Berkshire Cambridgeshire Oxfordshire Devon Lincolnshire Buckinghamshire Glamorgan Cumberland Lancashire Rutland Lincolnshire Shropshire Yorkshire Derbyshire Cheshire Worcestershire Norfolk Suffolk Leicestershire Lincolnshire Cambrigeshire Kent Berkshire Worcestershire Kent Cheshire Londonderry Norfolk Monmouthshire Devon Somerset Wiltshire Lancashire Cumberland Perthshire Berkshire Warwickshire Down

D Jones Mrs K Kaneko J Kilvington M C Laird D W Leatherdale A N Little Mrs S L Mace J A E Major Mrs B S Mallace Mrs G Marshall C J Maughan D J Maughan R J More R C Morris Mrs M Musson J G L Nichols C C Pomfret Ms N Purcell Mrs G Quinney J C Raper E M J Richards R A Roff S Rooney J G Ropner DL N D Sampson M T Savage J S Seymour Ms C J Stenner C O Stewart J Sutcliffe Ms J Tacon Mrs A M Taylor C P Thomas-Everard A Thornber M Thorpe B Warren Professor C M Wathes Professor A R Watkinson Mrs A Webster S Wilcox V M F Williams T J Windett W E Wrinch Overseas J C Bennett P J C M De Schouwer Dr W S Richards T D Tozer Under 30s C J Anyan J R Barton Jayne J Brooks Miss S M Butler Mrs L E A Chandler G A L Dobson J C J Dodgson Miss E C French Miss A C M Gore P Green

Shropshire London Warwickshire Angus London Somerset Lincolnshire Staffordshire Oxfordshire Durham Gloucestershire Durham Norfolk Shropshire Lincolnshire Cornwall Cornwall Herefordshire Worcestershire Yorkshire Devon Buckinghamshire Cheshire Yorkshire Yorkshire Suffolk Durham Cambridgeshire Wiltshire Yorkshire Cheshire Suffolk Somerset Yorkshire Northamptonshire Warwickshire Hertfordshire Norfolk Nottinghamshire Wiltshire Oxfordshire Gloucestershire Suffolk

Australia Netherlands Nigeria Netherlands

Lincolnshire Sussex Norfolk London Norfolk Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire Essex Cornwall Surrey

Miss E A Harmer C C Hart J H A Luck P R Mason E J Reynolds J G Sudlow E A Tabner M Towl D J Walmsley Whitehall Court C J A Hobbs A Paulson

Sussex Cornwall Suffolk Shropshire Cambridgeshire Somerset Yorkshire Hampshire London

London London

Dress Code Members are requested to advise their guests of the following: • Gentlemen must wear formal jackets and ties on weekdays. Polo-neck jerseys, jeans and trainers are not acceptable.(between 1 June to end of September, Gentlemen will not have to wear jackets at breakfast).

• There is a Club jacket and a selection of ties at Reception which may be borrowed in an emergency.

• Ladies should be dressed conventionally.

Trousers are permitted but not casual slacks, jeans or trainers during the week.

Visit to The Alnwick Garden, Northumberland Thursday 17 September Application form was in the Summer Journal Theatre Visit and Supper at the Club Friday 25 September.

Cut out application form in this Journal Autumn Mixed Golf Meeting in Cheshire Wednesday 30 September Carden Park Thursday 1 October Delamere Forest GC. Harvest Festival Service at St Martin-in-the-Fields followed by Buffet Supper at the Club Tuesday 6 October at 5pm Preacher: Revd. Nicholas Holtam, Vicar, St Martin-in-the-Fields Cut out application form in this Journal

Seminar on Anaerobic Digestion at Harper Adams University College Monday 12 October St.Andrew’s Day Lunch at the Royal Overseas League, Edinburgh Monday 30 November Application form in this Journal Wine Tasting and Dinner at the Club Friday 4 December Annual General Meeting Wednesday 9 December at 12 noon in the Club

CLUB CLOSURES 2009 3.00pm Friday 14 August to 3.00pm Tuesday 1 September Tuesday 22 December – no afternoon bar or dinner 3.00pm Wednesday 23 December to 3.00pm Monday 4 January 2010

VICE-CHAIRMAN Mrs Nicki Quayle HONORARY TREASURER Paul Heygate IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN Julian Sayers COMMITTEE Elected 2004 Ian Lindsay, Mrs Jill Willows Elected 2005 Charles Notcutt OBE Elected 2006 Stewart Houston CBE (Chairman House Sub-Committee), Meurig Raymond MBE Elected 2007 Tim Bennett, Mrs Anne Chamberlain, James Cross Richard Harrison, Campbell Tweed OBE Mrs Teresa Wickham (Chairman Journal & Communications Sub-Committee) Elected 2008 The Reverend Dr Gordon Gatward OBE Jimmy McLean (Chairman Membership SubCommittee), David Richardson OBE, John Wilson Elected 2009 Richard Butler, John Stones Co-opted Luke Paterson (Chairman Under 30s) Gemma Partridge (Vice-Chairman Under 30s) THE FARMERS CLUB CHARITABLE TRUST TRUSTEES John Kerr MBE JP DL (Chairman), James Cross Stephen Fletcher, Vic Croxson DL Mrs Stella Muddiman JP, The Chairman and Immediate Past Chairman of the Club (ex officio) Chief Executive and Secretary Air Commodore Stephen Skinner

• Smart casual dress may be worn from 6pm Friday to midnight Sunday, smart clean jeans and trainers permitted.

Deputy Secretary Robert Buckolt

• Children should conform with the above guidelines.

Club Chaplain The Reverend Nicholas Holtam 020-7766 1121

• Members must advise their guests of the dress regulations.

Reception & Dining Room Reservations 020-7930 3557 Accounts 020-7925 7101

Parking

Membership 020-7925 7102

The Club has no private parking at Whitehall Court and metered parking in the immediate area is extremely limited. The nearest public car park, open 24 hours a day, is situated in Spring Gardens off Cockspur Street, approximately 5 minutes walk from the Club.

Telephone: 0800 243 348. The Congestion Charge can be paid at this car park.

Private Function & Meeting Room Reservations 020-7925 7100 Secretariat 020-7930 3751 Personal calls for members only 020-7930 4730 Fax 020-7839 7864 E-mails secretariat@thefarmersclub.com accounts@thefarmersclub.com membership@thefarmersclub.com functions@thefarmersclub.com meetings@thefarmersclub.com reception@thefarmersclub.com u30s@thefarmersclub.com

Envelopes Sponsorship The Farmers Club would like to thank Agrovista UK for its kind sponsorship of the Journal envelopes. Agrovista is the leading researchbased agronomy advice and product supply company providing solutions for arable, fruit & vegetable growers throughout the UK. For information about the company, visit www.agrovista.co.uk.

THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009 • www.thefarmersclub.com

Website www.thefarmersclub.com THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Editor and Advertisement Manager Don Gomery 01892 610628 Email: don.gomery@btinternet.com

www.thefarmersclub.com • THE FARMERS CLUB JOURNAL Harvest 2009

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