Milking it for all it’s worth - Times Online

Milking it for all it’s worth - Times Online: "How do you like your milk? From a dairy cow that frolics in buttercups and clover? Or just as cheap as it can possibly be? There is a furious debate about this — and on the future of dairy in Britain — around the plans for Britain’s first American-style dairy feed lot, which will house 8,100 cows in sheds year-round at Nocton in Lincolnshire. Campaigners say the cows will live as unnaturally as battery chickens.

Compassion in World Farming calls the plan disastrous, the Soil Association says it is “beyond reason”; 73 MPs have signed a motion condemning it, while the Facebook group Oppose The UK’s Biggest Factory Farm has 3,500 members. But Peter Willes, a Devonshire dairy farmer who is part of the Nocton consortium, is confident the �40 million facility will get the go-ahead and start milking at the end of this year, despite the “load of tosh” being spread around the internet."

New Discovery about How Water Moves Through Soil

New Discovery about How Water Moves Through Soil: "Researchers have discovered that some of the most fundamental assumptions about how water moves through soil in a seasonally dry climate such as the Pacific Northwest are incorrect – and that a century of research based on those assumptions will have to be reconsidered.

A new study by scientists from Oregon State University and the Environmental Protection Agency showed – much to the surprise of the researchers – that soil clings tenaciously to the first precipitation after a dry summer, and holds it so tightly that it almost never mixes with other water.

The finding is so significant, researchers said, that they aren’t even sure yet what it may mean. But it could affect our understanding of how pollutants move through soils, how nutrients get transported from soils to streams, how streams function and even how vegetation might respond to climate change.

The research has been published in Nature Geoscience, a professional journal, with a title of 'Ecohydrologic separation of water between trees and streams in a Mediterranean climate'."

So all the science behind Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, Pesticide restrictions etc. needs to be looked at again...

Queen guitarist Brian May calls proposed badger cull ‘genocide’ - Times Online

Queen guitarist Brian May calls proposed badger cull ‘genocide’ - Times Online

Badger culling in England will be the rural issue after the election. Expect fireworks.

Farming without Subsidies - The New Zealand experience

Rolling Back Government: Lessons from New Zealand
Maurice P. McTigue: "Needless to say, as we took government support away from industry, it was widely predicted that there would be a massive exodus of people. But that didn’t happen. To give you one example, we lost only about three-quarters of one percent of the farming enterprises—and these were people who shouldn’t have been farming in the first place. In addition, some predicted a major move towards corporate as opposed to family farming. But we’ve seen exactly the reverse. Corporate farming moved out and family farming expanded, probably because families are prepared to work for less than corporations. In the end, it was the best thing that possibly could have happened. And it demonstrated that if you give people no choice but to be creative and innovative, they will find solutions."

March Forecast

MUST SEE: "The Worst possible March for farming & gardens is on the way for Britain, Ireland & much of Europe" AND winter 09/10 world REVIEW | Climate Realists: "'Worst possible March for farming & gardening in Britain, Ireland & much of Europe' is on the way warns Piers Corbyn of WeatherAction long range weather and climate forecasters"