There is not enough fodder to get all the animals through winter and no money to buy more

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Ballet Shoes Center.com

Published: August 28, 2010

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There is not enough fodder to get all the animals through winter, and no money to buy more.”We just haven’t a clue what to do,” says Alan.The bank has been understanding, but won’t be for ever. The Sharps hope Defra make some culled, cleaned-up land available on low ground, so at least young sheep can be saved and fattened up for possible sale or lambing next year.”This is the worst it’s been here since the Depression in 1937,” says John “If nothing is done lads like us will not be here anymore Those that come to walk will find that it’s not so nice. This will all go to scrubland.”And what will happen to the brothers? “We know nowt else,” says John. “We’re unemployable, aren’t we?”"I wouldn’t want to be told what to do,” says Alan, after a life spent working side by side on the moor with his brother “We’ll go bankrupt Lose this place Then? I just don’t know.”. When Nuala Preston picked up the phone at her farmhouse in Wales, she thought the caller sounded just like a salesman. When Nuala Preston picked up the phone at her farmhouse in Wales, she thought the caller sounded just like a salesman. Did she want to buy a dead sheep, infected with foot and mouth disease? She slammed the phone down.

“I told him to go forth and multiply,” said Ms Preston, who breeds sheep, cattle and horses at Trefoel Farm in Pembrokeshire. Ms Preston contacted the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but was told nothing could be done without further evidence She is convinced the offer was authentic “I think it was genuine,” she said. “I was so appalled by the whole thing.”While Ms Preston was not interested in the deal, for at least some farmers out there it would be a tempting offer. Pembrokeshire trading standards and local police are investigating the scam but have so far drawn a blank.Perverse as it seems, a flock of infected sheep is worth an awful lot more to a farmer than a healthy one.

With sheep fetching as little as £10 on the open market, the chance to claim compensation of up to £90 a ewe for diseased sheep is one that some unscrupulous farmers would jump at. Brigadier Alex Birtwistle, the senior army officer in charge of the mass cull, was recorded telling a subaltern: “People are still transiting sheep illegally and there’s strong anecdotal evidence to suggest that is the case ­ either to infect them so they can claim compensation or simply to keep sheep they haven’t previously declared one step ahead of the cull process.” The suspicions have never gone away, although the Ministry of Agriculture, trading standards officers and police have lacked evidence. What is clear is that farmers whose animals have contracted foot and mouth have, on the whole, benefited financially. Compensation payments have now reached more than £900m, making cash millionaires out of some bigger landowners.Then came last week’s shock decision by the Government to suspend the £2m-a-day clean-up pending an inquiry into its spiralling cost. While farms in Scotland, where the clean-up was tightly controlled by local authorities, cost an average £30,000, ones in England cost, on average, three times that. Again rumours abound of scams perpetrated both by farmers, who can be given the job of cleaning up their own farms, and by private contractors.

The pay rates for cleaning up farms, set by Defra, clearly allow scope for making money from the operation. A list of payments obtained by The Independent on Sunday show, for example, farmers need work only four days a week to claim a weekly payment. They can also can buy pressure washers for £700 and then hire them back to Defra at £200 a week. “The onus is completely on Defra to make sure they have got their figures right,” said Stephen Dew of the National Farmers’ Union “Clearly the farmers are businessmen. They are going to clean the farms to the best of their ability, yes, but they are also going to recognise the opportunity of these rates and make the most of them.”. An extreme sports enthusiast suffered serious injuries and was lucky to escape with his life yesterday after a “Base” jump off Beachy Head, in Sussex, went terribly wrong.

An extreme sports enthusiast suffered serious injuries and was lucky to escape with his life yesterday after a “Base” jump off Beachy Head, in Sussex, went terribly wrong. Sean Richards, 33, a sales engineer from Oxford, was hurt when his parachute deployed too early and tangled, slamming him into the side of the cliff and instantly snapping a bone in his leg, splintering another, and dislocating his ankle.The experienced parachutist, with more than 130 jumps to his name, was forced to land in the sea, where he was rescued by lifeboat and taken to hospital in nearby Eastbourne “Sean rescued the situation incredibly. His experience showed, but a lesser-minded individual could have died,” said one of Richards’ crew. Last night, Richards was adamant he would not give up Base jumping ­ which stands for “buildings, antenna, span (bridge) and earth”.”I am 33 years old and this is the first time I have ever broken a bone,” he said. “We are living in an airbag culture, but Base gives you an opportunity to really touch life.”However, a police source said yesterday: “We’ve no idea whether what he did was illegal. All we can think of is that he may have contravened a by-law. “Most people that jump off cliffs don’t need arresting when they get to the bottom “We are looking into it.


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