Badgers – slow Paice

On Wednesday, Defra announced their next slow pace towards a large amount of badger-bothering.  What they said wasn’t very much and wasn’t very clear. It seems that some time in the autumn, that’s autumn 2012, there will be a six-week trial of farmer-led badger killing in two ‘pilot’ areas of southwest England which are yet…

Gonshaw, gone for sure.

Matthew Gonshaw is in prison again for stealing birds’ eggs. On Tuesday he was convicted of stealing and possessing eggs which included those of golden eagles, ospreys and avocets.  Over 700 eggs were found in his east London home in Bow. This is the fourth time that Gonshaw has been jailed for similar offences. Rather…

Jim Paice doesn’t make stewardship pledge to taxpayers

The Defra Agriculture Minister James Paice told his fellow farmers that he wanted them to be able to opt out of their current agri-environment agreements if CAP reform changed the rules.  This seems fair enough to me.  I can’t quickly find his words on the Defra website but the Farmers Weekly report them here.  Mr…

The third warming

It’s an old saying that wood warms you twice  – once when you chop it up and again when you burn it.  But the evidence is strong now that it warms you three times. We had a load of seasoned timber delivered the other day and moving it in a wheel barrow to a dry…

Burgundy? Glass half empty

It has been a cold weekend, although mine has been warmed by a rather lucky profit at Cheltenham racecourse (my winning bet came as a result of the leader falling at the last hurdle – but there is just as little point in apologising for fortuitous wins as railing against ‘unlucky’ losses) and by the…