Water abstraction
At the end of September, your County Chair, Kate Mayne, hosted a meeting at her farm with Helen Morgan MP to discuss water abstraction issues that members faced in the hot summer and the potential problems going forward. Also present was Michael Bubb, who chairs the water abstraction group for the county.
While the majority of the talk was on access to water and how this is part of food security, we also discussed flood management and water storage, including the difficulties over planning.
At the end of the meeting, those present drove up the road where Catherine Suckley kindly showed Helen the issues on the ground.
UK Dairy Day
While not a county event, September saw Dairy Day return to the county at the Telford International Centre.
It was great to speak to so many members there and even though I haven’t seen any numbers yet, it felt even busier than usual.
On stand were both of HQ’s dairy advisers as well as many members of the national board, including Chair, Ian Harvey.
Potential land grab
In early October I attended a meeting at Selattyn, near Oswestry, about an issue that land owners have been facing there, involving the Kingdom Sanctuary.
I will continue to keep an eye on this situation. Their 'target' is unregistered land, so please speak to your solicitor or land agent as a matter of urgency if you have any land that is not registered with the Land Registry.
County meeting
We held our most recent county meeting at our meeting room in Telford at the beginning of October. Our guest speaker was the NFU’s Senior Adviser on Support Schemes, Richard Wordsworth.
Richard went through the debacle that was SFI26 and took questions from members present who had not been able to get an application in. He finished with explaining what the NFU is now trying to achieve going forward.
Rural crime
I have been invited to a meeting this month by the police, involving a round table meeting of our county MPs. I will report back next month on what was discussed (and which MPs turned up).
LEAF workshop
LEAF is running a workshop on Wednesday, 21 October, at Great Wollaston Farm in Shropshire, farmed by the Rob Kystaston, a NUE-Leg project farmer and long time demonstration farmer.
The day is focused around the role legumes could play in helping livestock and dairy farmers improve nitrogen efficiency, grow more home-grown protein and reduce reliance on bought-in feed and fertiliser.
It’ll be very practical and informal, covering the latest from the NUE-Leg project, mixed with real farm experience.
Details and booking link
Branch AGMs
The county branches are in the process of organising their local AGMs and below are the ones booked so far. Individual invites have been sent, or will be nearer the time
- Market Drayton, joint with Wem, Prees and Ellesmere – 23 October at 12.30pm at Prees Social Club. Separate AGMs, then branches come together for the speaker, who is Helen Morgan MP
- Oswestry – 6 November at 6.30pm at the Crazy Cow Café at the Mart
- Bridgnorth, Much Wenlock and Longville – 10 November at 7pm, venue tbc
- South Shropshire – 24 November at 7.30pm at the Three Horseshoes
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