Letter From Europe

Minute levels of dioxin in livestock feed caused a massive reaction, including import bans by a number of countries on German pork, chicken, meat and eggs

by NORMAN DUNN

The tight network of livestock feed supplies in northern Europe was never more strikingly highlighted than during the first two weeks of 2011.

At the turn of the year, routine tests by one feed mill discovered higher than allowed levels of dioxin. Subsequent tests in other mills found dioxin levels in rations for cattle, swine, broilers and layers that were in a few cases many times the legal limit, although still representing just a few billionths of a gram.

Poor grain returns and peaking fuel prices are making renewable fuel from fast-growing trees more attractive for farmers

by NORMAN DUNN

In Europe, it’s been a very slow start for energy production from quick-growing trees. Hardly anything happened in Germany in this respect, for instance, until five years ago.

Recent developments in dairy product packaging and printing show how the right labelling can give a real boost. But sometimes it can go wrong

by NORMAN DUNN

There’s no doubt that milk and its products are firmly established as best-sellers in the European food and drinks sector, mainly because the industry is by far the most innovative in developing new ideas and products. Even in countries famed for their high consumption of beer, such as Britain, Belgium and Germany, milk and yoghurt drinks have consistently beaten beer in the last years in terms of annual turnover.

With Denmark and some other European countries eying a tax on saturated fats, 
there are fears that profits for dairymen and swine farmers could be hurt


by NORMAN DUNN


No one can accuse agriculture of not following the ups and downs of market demands for its products. Take hogs, for example. Quite apart from increased fat trimming on slaughter lines, the swine sector has been increasing carcass lean meat content for years now. In the last seven years alone, the average lean meat proportion of carcasses in the U.K. pork industry has risen from 58.5 to almost 
62 per cent.

With the European agriculture sector advising increased flexibility for more reliable farm income, old hands are experiencing more than a touch of déjà vu

by NORMAN DUNN

Specialization looks like it’s now destined for a back seat in European family farms with low returns from most traditional enterprises – dairy, pigs and poultry, for instance – making “diversification” all the more attractive.

By formalizing farming’s traditional neighbourly help into computerized listings of available labour, machinery and special skills, German farmers are providing a service and turning a profit into the bargain


by NORMAN DUNN

Just this year, the German farm machinery ring association received the respected international “Top 100 Innovator” accolade from the Vienna University of Economics. It’s one of many awards that have come the way of this concept, developed since the 1980s when the first few dozen farmers got together to help each other out by swapping spare machinery and labour.

The eyes of European milk producers are on eastern England, where a group of farmers plan a revolutionary $70-million dairy that will produce up to 100 million litres of milk annually from a single site

by NORMAN DUNN

As far as western Europe is concerned, a new milk production business being planned for eastern England offers an avalanche of innovations.

The so-called Nocton Dairy in Robin Hood country, near Lincoln, aims for 8,100 high-production cows on a single site. Milking at any one time will be up to 7,000 head run thrice daily through two 80-point rotary stands.

From kangaroo vaccines to biogas production, agriculture is countering criticisms that it is a major greenhouse gas producer with a series of practical solutions

by NORMAN DUNN

Farming’s carbon footprint has caught the public’s attention in Europe with meat and milk producers finding it especially hard to win acceptance for new major projects.

The main reason is a rash of media “revelations” that have shifted the main responsibility for global warming and atmospheric pollution away from excessive use of hydrocarbons onto methane from belching cows and ammonia from swine.

As of 2012, a ban is due on battery cages for laying hens. But countries making the switch are facing imports from non-complying countries and others are lobbying for a delay

by NORMAN DUNN

The complications of changing farming policies within a 27-country common market are being underscored once again in the European Union (EU).

The bell rang for round one in this particular battle 11 years ago when the European parliament decided that battery cages for layers would be phased out before January 1, 2012.  The system to be stopped featured the “Eurocage” (550 square centimetres of floor per bird).

Though plowing could remain in favour for some time yet, sowing systems are changing fast, with broadcasting and band sowing making headway

by NORMAN DUNN

Never has European cereal and oilseed production been more diversified when it comes to ways of establishing the crop: From central France to Sweden, no-plow
systems have gained a good hold. In Britain and France, for instance, an estimated 40 to 50 per cent of arable land is now under minimum tillage.

But it’s a tough task unearthing precise statistics, because I come across farmers every year who officially stopped using the plow on their wheat, barley and canola fields maybe 20 years ago but who have started again, at least in some years.