Farm Assured
A flyer of helpful info which the vet sends out tells us that to sell meat in the future farms must be Farm Assured. I contacted this organisation and they sent me details but said they didn't know anything about it becoming a statutory requirement to join. Does anyone else know anything about this? As usual most of the things are what we do or don't do already but I really don't want to get involved with more paperwork and expense if I can help it.
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hazel clarke
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2005 12:40 pm
Hmm, as you say yet more paperwork! I know that at least in Scotland it is desireble to become "Farm Assured". As far as I remember it does help with a few more brownie points towards the small amount of subsidy that we might still receive and should you sell anything from your farm it is supposed to give the end consumer some "guarentee" as to how the product has been produced. I'm afraid that I am a little cynical about all these schemes that are around and dislike the extra paperwork they all involve.
It is not a requirement to be farm assured, but the accreditation bodies are very keen to give the idea that it is! It is well worth doing however, because there are premiums to be had and some of the schemes are far more practical than others. A little searching around to find a suitable scheme is well worth the effort, and the paperwork is not always desperately onerous.
In 2004 I had a crop of oats to harvest (undersown with permanent pasture) and it was only with the help of a neighbour that I managed to sell the grain as we are not 'Farm assured' regarding crops!
Like everyone else, I resent having to join a scheme as they are expensive and all my customers know that our meat is produced on grass only and the fields have been treated with calcified seaweed.
We will have to join up I fear but when I see the blue and white sign at farms where I know only too well how very 'assured' they aren't it makes me mad!
Jo
Like everyone else, I resent having to join a scheme as they are expensive and all my customers know that our meat is produced on grass only and the fields have been treated with calcified seaweed.
We will have to join up I fear but when I see the blue and white sign at farms where I know only too well how very 'assured' they aren't it makes me mad!
Jo
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Kathy Millar
- Posts: 725
- Joined: Wed May 19, 2004 4:53 pm
- Location: Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
Here they call it the On Farm Food Safety (OFFS) Program and each group of livestock has their own form of it. The stupid #@*! bureaucrats made this one up with the "expert" help of the factory farms so it is geared towards them and not small, mixed farms (except the sheep one which is actually quite doable). The sheep workshop estimated it would cost around $500 to have an audit and they didn't know how often that would be required. So if you have sheep, cattle and poultry..........................
September is when the province of BC loses most of its abattoirs due to new regulations. I sure hope the government doesn't get into this 30 month and no bones business with cattle. Oh, and I just found out it will be illegal for someone to kill my animal for me on my own property if I want to eat my own animals and I can't take the carcase to a butcher for cut and wrap. And we small farmers here in Canada get NO subsidies.
Kathy
September is when the province of BC loses most of its abattoirs due to new regulations. I sure hope the government doesn't get into this 30 month and no bones business with cattle. Oh, and I just found out it will be illegal for someone to kill my animal for me on my own property if I want to eat my own animals and I can't take the carcase to a butcher for cut and wrap. And we small farmers here in Canada get NO subsidies.
Kathy
Kathy
Home Farm, Vancouver Island, Canada
Home Farm, Vancouver Island, Canada