HC Deb 17 March 1983 vol 39 cc254-5W
Mr. Cohn Shepherd

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will publish in tabular form in the Official Report the numbers of 18 kg lambs dressed carcase weight at average producer's prices in England required to buy the following basic hill farming inputs for the years 1973, 1979 and 1982: a shepherd's annual wage, 10 tonnes of hill ewe cobs, 10 tonnes of 15–15–21 fertiliser, 10 tonnes of hay at production price, 100 tonnes of lime, net of subsidy in 1973, 1,000 gallons of tractor fuel, a Ford 4000 series or equivalent tractor and the interest on a £10,000 overdraft;

(2) if he will publish in tabular form in the Official Report the number of 250 kg store-suckled calves at average English prices required to buy the basic hill farming inputs for the years 1973, 1979 and 1982: a cattleman's wage for the year, 10 tonnes of hill cow cobs, 10 tonnes of 15–15–21 fertiliser, 10 tonnes of hay at producer's price, 100 tonnes of lime net of subsidy in 1973, 1,000 gallons of tractor fuel, a Ford 4000 series tractor or equivalent, and the interest on a £10,000 overdraft;

(3) if he will publish in the Official Report in tabular form the number of tonnes of barley at averge producer's price in England required to buy the following basic farming inputs for the years 1973, 1979 and 1982: a tractorman's annual wage, 10 tonnes of 15–15–21 fertiliser, 1,000 gallons of tractor fuel, a Ford 4000 tractor or the equivalent, and the interest on a £10,000 overdraft.

(4) if he will publish in the Official Report in tabular form the number of gallons of milk at average English farmgate price required to buy the basic farming inputs for the years 1973, 1979 and 1982: a dairyman's annual wage, 10 tonnes of dairy cake, 10 tonnes of 15–15–21 fertiliser, 10 tonnes of hay at producer's price, 100 tonnes of lime net of subsidy in 1973, 1,000 gallons of tractor diesel fuel, a Ford 4000 series tractor or the equivalent, and the interest on a £10,000 overdraft.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

Specific prices for England for most of the output and input items covered by these questions are either not available or could not be reliably ascertained without disproportionate expenditure of time and effort. Details of movements in United Kingdom price indices for both input and output items are contained in table 2 of the White paper "Annual Review of Agriculture 1983" (Cmnd. 8804). Absolute prices of commodities are shown in table 27.