Mrs Down's Diary - Nov 18 2009

Being certificated with FABBL means that the work we do to maintain high standards of food safety, animal health and welfare and environmental care on the farm is recognised as meeting agreed national standards of best practice.

Any beef and lamb produced on our farm which then passes through an assured supply chain is also eligible to carry the Red Tractor logo.

The inspection took the morning and started with the stock. As all the cattle are inside now that was the easy part.

He needed to see where the herd was housed, bedded up, fed and their general welfare. The same with the sheep, only as they are all out in various fields that took longer.

The on to the paperwork. Which fortunately as John is meticulous about keeping records rarely presents problems. Different matter if I was in charge. We'd never find anything.

As with any inspection, the things that need to be recorded and notified grow with each year.

We thought we were doing well providing a sharps box for safely disposing of any needles. What we didn't realize was that we also needed a Broken Needles Policy.

Luckily we weren't asked for it and by now I've drafted one. Also that any farm cats should be wormed regularly and their treatment recorded.

I tell you, if we were able to hold onto one of our farm cats long enough to worm it, there would be a need to record our treatment and the first aid received in a farm accident book.

Our FABBL inspector was, I must say, very helpful. Thorough and rigorous, but also, as a farmer, possessing a good dose (recorded in his medical records) of commonsense.

Even with John knowing exactly where most things are, there was still a fair bit of scurrying round to lay our hands on some obscure documents that although not statutory, needed to be looked at and verified.

We waved him off with a sigh of relief.

The most painful part of the inspection will come in the New Year with a demand for a three figure sum to stay in the scheme.

We chew it over each year. Should we or shouldn't we? Where the scheme benefits us is when stock is sold into independent butchers.

They like to display the names of individual farms they have bought beef from at market, and to emphasize that it meets farm assured standards for welfare and traceability.

You just hope that the public appreciates it too. Who knows in what conditions meat from abroad has been reared.

And, if it is packaged in this country, it can still in some cases sport the Red Tractor logo.

There is a campaign under way to close that loophole and ring fence the validity of the welfare and standard claim of homegrown farm assurance schemes.

So I know, despite our whingeing, what we will be doing. Signing that cheque and sending it off.