What killed us were the restrictions the Government placed on us from animal

“What killed us were the restrictions the Government placed on us, from animal welfare requirements and the additional BSE abattoir charges to the extra cost of diesel. It has just driven pig production abroad to where animal welfare is worst.”Dairy farmers can tell a similar tale. Some 10,000 dairy farmers, one-third of the industry, have been forced to quit over the past five years. They blame profit-greedy dairy companies and supermarkets who have halved the milk price.”At least the suicides are fewer now than they were a few years ago,” said Godfrey’s wife, Jean. “People realise it’s the same problem for everyone; it’s not just them.”"More like they can’t afford the bullets any more,” said Fred Walter sardonically.It is not the kind of joke Godfrey Williams would think funny as, after milking his few remaining cows at dawn, he pulls off his wellies, dons his black tie and heads off for his day-job at the funeral parlour..

The incomes of Britain’s farmers have continued to plummet, with a drop of nearly 30 per cent last year on the year before, according to a survey published yesterday. The incomes of Britain’s farmers have continued to plummet, with a drop of nearly 30 per cent last year on the year before, according to a survey published yesterday.
Over the past five years, farmers’ earnings have fallen by 90 per cent and many farms are expected to make a £4,000 loss next year, according to the analysis by the accountants Deloitte and Touche. Farm incomes are now at the lowest point in the 11 years that the analysis has been running, the firm said.Farmers’ leaders, describing the findings as “depressing”, predicted further job losses in the industry, which had already shed 22,000 workers in the 12 months to June last year. “The report again illustrates the severity of the crisis affecting British agriculture and its impact on every farm in the country, be it large or small,” said the president of the National Farmers’ Union, Ben Gill.”The public has witnessed the devastation of trade and businesses in this country’s pig sector and the pressures facing our dairy farmers. These figures now demonstrate that our arable farmers are also on the rocks.”Mr Gill called for the Government to work with farmers to “reduce red-tape and over-zealous regulation”.

The strong pound meant cereal farmers needed financial aid to survive, he said.The Deloitte and Touche audit of 100,000 hectares of farm land found that an average-sized farm of 200 hectares, which earned £80,000 five years ago, now had to survive on little more than £8,000.Net farm incomes were just £41 a hectare in 1999-2000 – £16 per hectare less than in the previous year – and the situation is likely to deteriorate, with net farm income forecast to fall from £41 a hectare profit to a £22 a hectare loss over the next year. The high pound, soaring fuel costs and low farm gate prices, as well as continuing problems in the pig and dairy sectors, were blamed for the continuing falls in revenue.But the report praised farmers for cutting labour costs by 8 per cent, despite an increase in wage rates, and for looking to new money-making, non-farming ventures.”We have to compliment farmers on taking some tough decisions to offset financial pressure. The very painful issue of workforce reduction is clearly being tackled,” said Mark Hill, partner in charge of Deloitte and Touche’s food and agriculture group.Joyce Quin, an Agriculture minister, defended the Government’s treatment of farmers but saidthe drop in their profits was worrying.”Whereas farming income has doubled between 1990 and 1995, since 1995 it has fallen back very sharply and I accept those figures,” Ms Quin said.”We have taken a number of measures. On the immediate measures, particularly on the dairy sector, we have paid the maximum amount of agri-money compensation, the maximum available under European rules.”Let me say that I believe very strongly … that we have shown that we are not only listening but we are doing.”. Even the old boys like the look of tomorrow night’s fight between Colin Dunne and Billy Schwer for the World Boxing Union lightweight title at Wembley Conference Centre It is, as they say in boxing, a “throwback” fight.

Even the old boys like the look of tomorrow night’s fight between Colin Dunne and Billy Schwer for the World Boxing Union lightweight title at Wembley Conference Centre. It is, as they say in boxing, a “throwback” fight.
Dunne is the champion but his championship bauble is just the glitter on a fight that is essentially for the right to be called the best lightweight in Britain at a time when there are several other contenders. It could just be the start of a series of long-overdue bouts between quality fighters.Dunne and Schwer have won and lost in good fights during the last 10 years and Schwer is arguably the last remaining old-fashioned fighter in Britain. He started out under Mickey Duff’s protection in 1990, beat all the right losers and progressed to real world and European title fights.Dunne’s passage has been easier but he has still fought better fighters than most of the British champions have in the present age.”This is a proper fight between two experienced boxers,” said Schwer. “We both know what we have to do because we are professional fighters.” The two clearly are different from most boxers at the moment; they each arrived at the uneventful head-to-head meeting yesterday with an entourage of one.In 1996 Dunne was involved in a similar fight when he challenged Michael Ayers for the British lightweight title at the same venue It was stopped in round nine with Dunne close to collapse.

Ayers is still fighting and Dunne claims he is desperate for revenge. It is just another fight that would help the cause of domestic British boxing.Schwer was unable to move from top European level to genuine world level in losing in two world title challenges against fighters with better records than Dunne. Tomorrow night he will not have to aim as high but he will surely need to show all his skills if he is to impose his will on Dunne.Seldom in an age of meaningless and insulting intercontinental fights has one fight split what remains of the boxing community. While the recent ring appearances by Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed barely rated a word in the gyms up and down the country, everybody is aware that tomorrow night is a real fight and it is a sell-out.Schwer is the neater boxer but Dunne is masterful at negating his opponent’s skills with just a short move of his feet and a shift in his shoulders.Schwer will read a lot of Dunne’s moves because the pair have sparred nearly 100 rounds during the last six years. They are familiar but not friends; opponents but not enemies.