I’ve come up with a plan to raise money for cash-strapped local councils, while making our roads a bit safer, as well as saving lorry owners and tractor drivers a fortune in broken mirrors. How about giving all roadside hedge owners 12 months to legitimise their hedges, or face a statutory £500 fine?
As far as I am aware, trees and hedges at the side of the road have a legal obligation to be cut back to the inside of the grass verge and to a height of 14ft. If this part of the country is anything to go by, the law is largely ignored. Most of the small byroads around here are getting more and more difficult to negotiate with wide and/or high equipment, while some of the busy highways are only kept ‘‘open’’ by constant battering from curtain-sided articulated lorries.
Of course, my motives are entirely selfish. At this time of year, I have to travel local roads with the tractor and sprayer, and both have fairly delicate extremities. The mirrors on a TM range of New Holland tractor measure about 2.6m apart at the widest point, while the top of the Amazone sprayer boom is roughly 3.3m above the ground.
It’s bad enough having to regularly replace the nearside mirror glass on the tractor, but ripping off a nozzle body on the sprayer is a more costly error.
Spraying grassland
This situation came to a head last week, when I was rushing towards Crossgar to spray grassland for a client. At one point, I had to move across the road until most of the tractor was on the wrong half of the tarmac. This road is wide enough for normal traffic to comfortably meet.
Where the overhanging mixture of ash and hawthorn was at its worst happened to be in the middle of a left-hand corner, and it was here that I met a car.
The motorist wasn’t driving quickly, and also seemed to be a well-mannered individual (an unusual concept nowadays), so there was no need for any fingerpointing, or insulting hand signals. He reversed; I saluted him for his considerate actions and continued on my way. As I drove away, I wondered just who would be liable if we had crashed into one another?
If I am forced to drive on the wrong side in order to use that stretch of road, surely the fault lies with whoever has failed to cut the hedge? Or is a motorist supposed to drive in such a way that they are prepared for whatever situation crops up unexpectedly?
Verge
While on the subject of roadside maintenance, is it just me who has an overwhelming urge to bulldoze those painted stones that homeowners place along the grass verge outside their properties?
I have had conversations with some of these folk and while their intentions are entirely honourable (‘‘just trying to keep the place neat and tidy and you farmers off my grass’’), it’s satisfying to watch their reaction when you tell them they don’t own the verge. I usually follow up with: ‘‘If I fall and hit my head on those stones that are illegally placed, I could claim millions off you.’’
In a world where so many commonsense laws seem to have been replaced with lunacy, it is immensely satisfying to occasionally take the moral high ground and claim some sort of victory, however small.
John Gilbert, Germinal
Holdings Ltd
Dear Sir: As the future of AFBI is in the public arena, I would like to join the debate and inject some useful facts into the argument.
If AFBI exists to benefit NI farming overall, then common sense suggests that investment in crop research should be allocated according to economic importance.
Recent DARD census figures (2013) for crops indicate the following crop areas and farmgate values:
Potatoes, 4,300ha: £24.5m.Barley, 25,800ha: £25mWheat, 8,000ha: £11.5mOats, 2,000ha: £1.7mApples: £9m.Mushrooms: £30mGrass, 788,000ha: £500mRough grazing, 143,000ha. It is clear that grass is the most important crop. What is perhaps less well known are the potential gains to be made from grassland improvement and better management. Grassland research across the UK and Ireland indicates that the average production of grassland (ignoring rough pasture) is under 7t of dry matter (DM) per hectare. When you consider that top local grassland farmers are averaging well over 10t DM/ha, it is clear that there is massive room for improvement. The benefits to the local economy of exploiting our grass yield potential are enormous.
The success of the AFBI Loughgall grass breeding programme has, quite rightly, been trumpeted by AFBI. The world renown and efficiency of AFBI’s Plant Testing Station at Crossnacreevy, which is in fact more important to NI farmers, gets much less local publicity. It is extremely worrying to the NI industry that this vital and internationally acclaimed facility is under threat of closure.
Among other tasks, Crossnacreevy tests grass and clover varieties and produces an annual list of varieties best suited to local conditions. Unlike other crops, it is extremely difficult for farmers to assess grass yields and forage quality. The most important species tested is perennial ryegrass. It is a testament to the impartiality of the Crossnacreevy staff that over 70% of the perennial ryegrass they recommend does not come from the AFBI breeding programme. This demonstrates that varieties suitable for NI agriculture need not be bred locally. If this grass testing programme is threatened, how can the local industry receive impartial advice on varieties for our most important crop?
South of the border, the economic importance of grass is recognised and farmers now have access to a list of recommended grass varieties based on trials similar to those carried out at Crossnacreevy and large-scale practical farm trials. This work is being done at the same time and independently of the grass breeding programme in Carlow. Considerable work is also being devoted to improving practical grassland management.
The competitive factors in agricultural production are now global and profitability increasingly depends on minimising costs and maximising efficiency. We should be investing more, rather than less, in increasing grassland productivity and, like our southern neighbours, be finding ways to maximise ruminant livestock output from our most natural resource. I would urge DARD to recognise the important role that the independent recommended list has to play in helping to achieve this.
See letters on page 24.
I’ve come up with a plan to raise money for cash-strapped local councils, while making our roads a bit safer, as well as saving lorry owners and tractor drivers a fortune in broken mirrors. How about giving all roadside hedge owners 12 months to legitimise their hedges, or face a statutory £500 fine?
As far as I am aware, trees and hedges at the side of the road have a legal obligation to be cut back to the inside of the grass verge and to a height of 14ft. If this part of the country is anything to go by, the law is largely ignored. Most of the small byroads around here are getting more and more difficult to negotiate with wide and/or high equipment, while some of the busy highways are only kept ‘‘open’’ by constant battering from curtain-sided articulated lorries.
Of course, my motives are entirely selfish. At this time of year, I have to travel local roads with the tractor and sprayer, and both have fairly delicate extremities. The mirrors on a TM range of New Holland tractor measure about 2.6m apart at the widest point, while the top of the Amazone sprayer boom is roughly 3.3m above the ground.
It’s bad enough having to regularly replace the nearside mirror glass on the tractor, but ripping off a nozzle body on the sprayer is a more costly error.
Spraying grassland
This situation came to a head last week, when I was rushing towards Crossgar to spray grassland for a client. At one point, I had to move across the road until most of the tractor was on the wrong half of the tarmac. This road is wide enough for normal traffic to comfortably meet.
Where the overhanging mixture of ash and hawthorn was at its worst happened to be in the middle of a left-hand corner, and it was here that I met a car.
The motorist wasn’t driving quickly, and also seemed to be a well-mannered individual (an unusual concept nowadays), so there was no need for any fingerpointing, or insulting hand signals. He reversed; I saluted him for his considerate actions and continued on my way. As I drove away, I wondered just who would be liable if we had crashed into one another?
If I am forced to drive on the wrong side in order to use that stretch of road, surely the fault lies with whoever has failed to cut the hedge? Or is a motorist supposed to drive in such a way that they are prepared for whatever situation crops up unexpectedly?
Verge
While on the subject of roadside maintenance, is it just me who has an overwhelming urge to bulldoze those painted stones that homeowners place along the grass verge outside their properties?
I have had conversations with some of these folk and while their intentions are entirely honourable (‘‘just trying to keep the place neat and tidy and you farmers off my grass’’), it’s satisfying to watch their reaction when you tell them they don’t own the verge. I usually follow up with: ‘‘If I fall and hit my head on those stones that are illegally placed, I could claim millions off you.’’
In a world where so many commonsense laws seem to have been replaced with lunacy, it is immensely satisfying to occasionally take the moral high ground and claim some sort of victory, however small.
John Gilbert, Germinal
Holdings Ltd
Dear Sir: As the future of AFBI is in the public arena, I would like to join the debate and inject some useful facts into the argument.
If AFBI exists to benefit NI farming overall, then common sense suggests that investment in crop research should be allocated according to economic importance.
Recent DARD census figures (2013) for crops indicate the following crop areas and farmgate values:
Potatoes, 4,300ha: £24.5m.Barley, 25,800ha: £25mWheat, 8,000ha: £11.5mOats, 2,000ha: £1.7mApples: £9m.Mushrooms: £30mGrass, 788,000ha: £500mRough grazing, 143,000ha. It is clear that grass is the most important crop. What is perhaps less well known are the potential gains to be made from grassland improvement and better management. Grassland research across the UK and Ireland indicates that the average production of grassland (ignoring rough pasture) is under 7t of dry matter (DM) per hectare. When you consider that top local grassland farmers are averaging well over 10t DM/ha, it is clear that there is massive room for improvement. The benefits to the local economy of exploiting our grass yield potential are enormous.
The success of the AFBI Loughgall grass breeding programme has, quite rightly, been trumpeted by AFBI. The world renown and efficiency of AFBI’s Plant Testing Station at Crossnacreevy, which is in fact more important to NI farmers, gets much less local publicity. It is extremely worrying to the NI industry that this vital and internationally acclaimed facility is under threat of closure.
Among other tasks, Crossnacreevy tests grass and clover varieties and produces an annual list of varieties best suited to local conditions. Unlike other crops, it is extremely difficult for farmers to assess grass yields and forage quality. The most important species tested is perennial ryegrass. It is a testament to the impartiality of the Crossnacreevy staff that over 70% of the perennial ryegrass they recommend does not come from the AFBI breeding programme. This demonstrates that varieties suitable for NI agriculture need not be bred locally. If this grass testing programme is threatened, how can the local industry receive impartial advice on varieties for our most important crop?
South of the border, the economic importance of grass is recognised and farmers now have access to a list of recommended grass varieties based on trials similar to those carried out at Crossnacreevy and large-scale practical farm trials. This work is being done at the same time and independently of the grass breeding programme in Carlow. Considerable work is also being devoted to improving practical grassland management.
The competitive factors in agricultural production are now global and profitability increasingly depends on minimising costs and maximising efficiency. We should be investing more, rather than less, in increasing grassland productivity and, like our southern neighbours, be finding ways to maximise ruminant livestock output from our most natural resource. I would urge DARD to recognise the important role that the independent recommended list has to play in helping to achieve this.
See letters on page 24. 
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