Ford & Fordson Magazine Ford & Fordson April-May 2013 Back Issue

I hope this finds you all well; the
weather has certainly not been at
its best with all the rain and snow
this winter. But as I write this we are
expecting some dry days, let’s hope they
continue. The fields are so wet and one
can start to see the compaction created
by tractors and machinery over ten tons,
which unfortunately has gone into the
drainage system. Perhaps the older lighter
tractors we all love will come to the fore
again this year.
By the time you read this Tractor World
will have been and gone, but as I write
just days before the show, it’s looking
very good for both clubs, that’s the Ford
and Fordson Association and Blue Force.
Between them they have brought together
over 100 Ford and Fordsons for the
show, which is good to see. I know Mark
Woodward has been working very hard
on the event, together with the owners of
the show Kelsey Publishing. It only seems
like yesterday when I walked into the
Three-Counties Showground and signed
the deal for that first show there that was
to start in 2001. However the event didn’t
actually take place until the following
year, owing to Foot & Mouth.
Now we have the Horsegate scandal
and I fear it could be the decent,
law-abiding farmer who is to suffer
as a result, and who is beleaguered
already. Unfortunately the fear of eating
contaminated beef has sent shockwaves
down the High Street, causing shoppers
to be wary of all meat. “The only safe
option is to buy British meat, and only
British meat,” says NPA chairman Richard
Longthrop. I have been told our pig farmers are
already making a loss, as supermarkets
import increasing quantities of cheap
pork from the continent. However the
NPA say “Over 90 percent of British pork
is independently audited through the
Red Tractor assurance scheme along its
entire production process, from the feed
that the pigs eat, to the way they are
housed and cared for, to the way they are
electronically-tracked to meat plants, and
to the way the meat is processed, packed
and labelled.