Cattle Cull (Hansard, 6 March 1997)

§ 1. Mr. Rendel
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimate he has made of the number of cattle to be slaughtered in Berkshire during the selective cull.

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Tony Baldry)
It is not possible to give an estimate of the number of cattle to be culled on a county-by-county basis.

§ Mr. Rendel
Is the Minister aware that because of the indecision and dithering over the cull, some farmers are now likely to go over quota this year, because they simply do not yet know how many of their cattle are likely to be culled—and even when the numbers are known, the valuations have not yet been done? Will the Minister provide compensation for those who go over quota?

§ Mr. Baldry
I find that a surprising question, because when the National Farmers Union and the Country Landowners Association asked us to get on with the selective cull, they knew full well the situation as regards milk quota. Farmers have managed to organise milk quota year on year for many years, and if anything, quite recently we tended to be under quota. Of all the many questions that arise from the selective cull, that is not one that I see as a real issue.

§ Sir John Cope
Does my hon. Friend agree that the total number of cattle to be slaughtered under the cull has been vastly exaggerated, especially by Liberal Democrat spokesmen, and is unlikely to rise above 100,000?

§ Mr. Baldry
One of the characteristics of the whole bovine spongiform encephalopathy debacle has been a gross over-dramatisation of the situation by all the Opposition parties, not least the Liberal Democrats. In fact, less than 5 per cent. of the national dairy herd is likely to be affected by the selective cull—a maximum of 100,000 1006 animals. Even that estimate makes assumptions about all the animals that are traceable, and about a full uptake of animals born in the voluntary year. Some of the suggestions that we have heard—from the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Mr. Tyler), for example—to the effect that one third of the dairy herd will be affected by the cull, are simply ludicrous.