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| "Phil the farmer" giving lots of sound, practical advise to CFE advisers. (If only the jokes were as good!) |
CAP Greening measures. Ecological Focus Areas. The 3 crop
rule. Water Framework Directive. Soil Protection Review. Cross Compliance. GAEC.
Tried & Tested. Voluntary Initiative. NELMS. Believe you me I could go on
and on and on!
All of the above will most likely be complete jargon to the non-farmers
amongst you, but it is just a tiny fraction of what anyone running an
agricultural business needs to be up to speed on nowadays, otherwise it could
result in hefty fines or penalties. But
what do they all mean and how do they translate onto individuals farms?
It is a very big ask for busy farmers to get abreast of so
many edicts, so step up the CFE – yet another acronym – but this time a free, friendly
and helpful one!! CFE stands for the “Campaign for the Farmed Environment” which
has an advisor in every English county, there to help farmers deliver the best
possible practices for water, soil and wildlife on their farms.
CFE advisers are not in competition with other conservation groups,
but work closely with all locally based experts, organising timely events so
that the farmers attending, quickly get a distilled, succinct, clear message as
to what they should be doing. At a time of so much change in the farming world,
this can literally be a God send to farmers, already overloaded by the burden
of red tape.
Last week the CFE advisers from across England attended a
training event at the GWCT’s own farm at Loddington in Leicestershire. Training
courses such as this are important so that advisers are clear as to what the
message is and confident that they clearly see how decrees, often created in Brussels,
are then translated and adapted to fit into a typical English farm – not always
an easy transformation!!
GWCT’s Jim Egan, a wonderfully grounded, clever organiser of
people, headed up the morning with his usual enthusiasm and the lively discussion
was full of tips, successes and indeed failures, as to what works well and what
does not! Then, following lunch, we all spilled out onto the farm to hear the
wise words of Phil Jarvis, the farm manager.
Phil has the great ability to unscramble reams of regulations
and instructions, deciphering them all into a down-to-earth, practical and usable
format. Don't you reckon that the best advice usually comes from the person who actually has to do it
for real!
I head up the Campaign in my own county of Hampshire and
have found one of the most rewarding aspects to be the “bringing together” of a really quite diverse array of organisations, to work alongside each other, so that
farmers receive a joined up clear message. That is so important.
If you would like to find out more about the campaign go to;
http://www.cfeonline.org.uk/home/
And if you would like to read Farmer Phil’s blog, then go
to: http://loddingtonestate.blogspot.co.uk/
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