IN BRIEF


News & Business Pledges for prosperous farming


Record attendance for young farmers


A record number of people attended last month’s Essex Young Farmers Show. More than 16,200 visitors flocked to the event at Boyton Hall, near Chelmsford – cementing the event as the biggest country show run solely by young farmers.


Breakfasts and


barbecue at Cereals CLA members are invited to attend a number of free breakfast talks and a barbecue in its marquee (stand 808) at this month’s Cereals event. The show takes place on 14-15 June at Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire. If you wish to attend, please book beforehand at www.cla.org.uk.


Stay safe on


the farm Older farmers and workers are being urged to stay safe after a spate of accidents saw three people killed in agriculture in nine days. All victims were aged 65 or older. Agriculture remains one of the most dangerous industries. In the past decade, almost one in three fatal farming accidents involved people over 65.


Combating crime


is rural priority Tackling rural crime, icluding hare coursing has neen named as a priority by Norfolk’s police and crime commissioner Lorne Green. Combating Fly-tipping, illegal metal detecting, online scamming and speeding are all being targeted by police, he told a meeting at Snettisham.


4 ANGLIA FARMER • JUNE 2017


future as general election nears • Tories to keep farm payments until 2022 • Labour to protect from cheap imports • Lib Dems seek access to EU single market


oliticians have laid out their pledges for agricul- ture as voters prepare to go the polls in this month’s gen- eral election.


P Manifestos from the main par-


ties include a number of promises for farming ahead of voting on 8 June. They cover a five-year par- liament which will herald a raft of new policies for British agricul- ture as the UK leaves the Europe- an Union.


The Conservative manifesto pledges that payment to farmers will remain at current levels un- til 2022 – two years longer than previously promised. “We will con- tinue to commit the same cash to- tal in funds for farm support until the end of the parliament,” it says.


Stability The Tories say maintaining pay- ments will provide stability to farmers as the government and set up new frameworks for sup- porting food production and stew- ardship of the countryside. It had previously pledged to keep pay- ments at current levels until 2020. Labour’s manifesto includes a pledge to protect UK farmers from cheap food imports post-Brexit. “Only a Labour government will


prioritise a sustainable, long-term future for our farming, fishing and food industries,” it says.


Continued EU market access is seen as a priority by Labour. Secur- ing it will enable British farmers to continue exporting agricultur- al products to the rest of Europe, says the document, warning that Brexit must not allow inferior food products to flood into the country.


Neonicotinoids


The Labour manifesto also pledges to protect bees by prohibiting ne- onicotinoid pesticides, end the pol- icy of culling badgers to combat bo- vine tuberculsosis, and maintain the bans on fox hunting, deer hunt- ing and hare coursing.


The Liberal Democrat mani- festo reiterates the party’s belief that continued access to the Eu- ropean single market is a prior- ity. Tariffs average 22% for agri- cultural products outside the EU – putting Britain’s £18bn of food exports in danger, it warns. Promising a referendum on any Brexit deal secured by the government, the Lib Dem mani- festo warn that Brexit “puts farm- ing and agricultural businesses in huge danger, threatening both cuts to the support that underpin farmers’ livelihoods, and tariffs on exports”.


A Lib Dem government will continue to reform farm support, it adds, moving from direct pay- ments to a system that rewards farmers who provide public goods, including environmental protec- tion, flood prevention, food pro- duction and climate change mit- igation.


All the main parties have made promises for agriculture


Vintage collection goes under the hammer The collection was started by


A special collection of vintage farm machinery, rural and domestic by- gones will go on sale this month – on behalf of the Barker family at Westhorpe, near Stowmarket. The Barker Collection compris- es of more than 500 lots of collec- tors’ items and is expected to draw crowds from across the county. It will be sold by East Anglian-based auctioneers Cheffins on Saturday, 17 June.


the late Eric Barker who moved to Westhorpe in 1957. After 20 years in storage, Roy and David Bark- er are selling their father’s collec- tion while retaining some items of family significance.


The sale will take place at Lodge


Farm, Westhorpe, near Stowmar- ket, IP14 4TA. For details, call 01353 777767 or visit www.cheffins.co.uk.


Eric Barker on his Deutz FIL 514, from the Wheels & Wings Show at Pensthorpe in 1990


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