Conservation

Grade Spring 2009

As you know a key focus for Con-servation Grade is the expansion of growing opportunities for our mem-bers. Late last year, the CG Advi-sory Panel suggested that we should be talking to English Food and Farming Partnerships (EFFP), in order to explore ways in which we could work together to generate additional premium markets for the crops grown on CG-accredited farms. Advisory Panel members Nick Rowsell and Phil Jarvis had been particularly impressed by the way in which EFFP has assisted farmers, Coors and Carling to de-velop a long-term market for British malting barley to underpin the Car-ling brand’s commitment to ‘buying local’.

Following extensive discussions in the New Year, we’re therefore de-lighted to announce that CG and EFFP have formed an alliance aimed at widening market recognition of the unique positioning and supply chain possibilities of the CG brand, in order to develop new markets for the range of crops produced on CG farms.

We’re extremely pleased to be work-ing with EFFP, amongst whose first tasks will be to compose a detailed, market-oriented, questionnaire (which we will be asking all CG farmers to fill in), as well as speaking directly to merchants, EOM, Jordans and all those involved in our supply chain. So, please keep a look-out for the questionnaire and get it back to us as soon as possible, as we’ll need it to kick-off this great opportunity!

CG and EFFP Go To The Market! INSIDE

• The Buzz on Bees P2

• Good news for chocolate lov-

ers….launch of Jordan’s new

Country Crisp P3

• Update on Upton— Latest on

CG Trial at Upton Estate P4

• At the Farm Gate - by Marek

— Winter Bird Food, Pollen

and Nectar P6

• Fussy eaters? What birds really

prefer to eat. P8

• News and Events P9

• CG Protocol Changes P10

• BNA Assessments P11

• CG Fees and Audit P12

CONTACT US

T: +44 (0) 1767 318222

F : +44 (0) 1767 600695

E: conservation@jordans-cereals.

co.uk

W: www.conservationgrade.co.uk

Mail : Conservation Grade

Market Garden Road

Stratton Business Park

Biggleswade. SG18 9JY

CG farmers at the Regional Update 0n 21st November 2008 at Crux Easton Farm, Newbury.

2

There seems little doubt that bee populations are changing, there used to be 25 species of bumblebee in the British Isles, but now 3 are thought to have gone (B. cullumanus, B. po-morum and B. subterraneus) and 7 more are on the BAP list. The reasons for the declines are not yet fully un-derstood but changes in agricultural practice resulting in monocultures of crops, without suitable habitats for bees and many other insects are thought to be implicated.

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are differ-ent; literally millions of domestic strain honeybees are moved around by beekeepers; so are potentially less affected by losses of wild habitat.

However, honeybee hives seem to be increasingly affected by foulbrood, varroa mite, viral diseases, dysfunc-tional immune systems and colony collapse disorder (which although widespread, and not yet understood, does not yet seem to have arrived in the UK) – and perhaps the loss of varied foraging habitat is contributing to this.

The British Bee Keepers Association

estimate the value of bees through

pollination of crops to be in the region

of £1 billion a year and it says that

35% of our own food crops are esti-

mated to be directly dependent on

honeybee pollination.

Bumblebees pollinate crops too, probably more than the honeybees, especially fruit, oilseed rape and beans.

Some growers are resorting to import-ing southern European bumblebees raised in countries such as Slovakia and Holland. The concern is that this could potentially introduce further pest & disease risk to native bumblebees.

The Plight of the Humble Bee

Evidence in the US seems to indicate that wild bumblebee numbers have collapsed since the 1990’s – perhaps related to the introduction of parasites carried by Euro-pean species.

A warming climate may not help either. The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) for example has recently been recorded in flight in December & January along the south coast as far east as Ramsgate, as far north as Leicestershire and even North Wales.

This is really unusual, as normally only the queen bee overwinters, in holes in the ground, and the suggestion is that global warming is affecting bee behaviour - which may, in turn, affect pollination, flowers, plant survival, fruit, crops and ultimately numer-ous species of wildlife; including us.

On the other hand, the great yellow bumble-bee, Bombus distinguendus, which thrives in cold and wet climates, was once common throughout Britain, but now occurs on the mainland only on the extreme north coast of Caithness & Sutherland.

The shrill carder bee (don’t you just love that name!), Bombus sylvarum, is now lim-ited to the Somerset Levels, Salisbury Plain and Thames Estuary. Since 1980 the for-merly common large garden bumblebee, Bombus ruderatus, has been recorded at fewer than 10 sites in the UK; all contribut-ing to a picture of general decline and in-creasingly fragmented populations.

So, why is the decline happening? The short answer is we don’t know. Artificial ni-trogen fertilisers mean there is no need for the old-fashioned rotation of crops, most importantly clover; that bumblebees used to forage on, and successful use of herbicides has eliminated many wild alternatives. Their nesting sites have been depleted too. Some species live in dense grass above ground; others prefer underground cavities – typi-cally abandoned rodent nests.

……..cont’d

Honeybee Apis mellifera

Bumblebee

Honeybee Apis mellifera

3

Some fruit growers have also reported (in

‘Horticulture Week’ recently) that growing

badger populations might be affecting

bumblebee nests, as they eat the larvae,

honey and pollen.

Surviving populations of bumblebees are

increasingly small and isolated, resulting

in potential inbreeding and weakening of

the gene pool.

This could make them unable to live with

pests like the highly virulent small hive

beetle (Aethina tumida), whose larvae

have devastated tens of thousands of

honeybee colonies in the US & Canada –

which has now spread into bumblebee

nests. Finally there is ‘deformed-wing

virus’, which although it has not yet ap-

peared in the UK, has reached other

parts of Europe.

So much for the bad news! The good news is that Conservation Grade farm-ers are helping to make a real differ-ence. We’re right at the coalface; keep-ing bees buzzing in the British country-side!

The CG trial on Upton Estate farm

has underlined the fact that Bumble-

bees respond well to habitat creation

initiatives.

Indeed, one species, B. ruderatus

appears to have been brought back

from the brink at Upton by the provi-

sion of farmland pollen & nectar habi-

tats.

Check out the latest results in the ar-

ticle overleaf.

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Bombus terrestris

Carder Bee Bombus sylvarum

NEW … £2 MILLION JORDANS COUNTRY CRISP TV

CAMPAIGN AND LAUNCH OF COUNTRY CRISP

CHOCOLATE!

Jordans cereals is announcing a £2m marketing campaign, including new TV advertising, focusing on its best selling Country Crisp range. The Country Crisp range has been improved and the advertising will support a ‘Best Ever Golden Clusters’ on pack claim which has been made possible thanks to Jordans unique cluster baking process. The new campaign coincides with the launch of a brand new product variant - Country Crisp with Dark Chocolate Curls, which is anticipated to become a best seller in the popular Country

Crisp range.

Jordans’ £2m investment in Country Crisp in spring 2009 will see new TV advertis-ing in mid March for 6 weeks. The 30 second ad features an animated Jordans ce-real box on which characters appear to bring to life the brand’s links to British farm-ers, support for the environment and unique ‘baked by eye’ cluster-making process.

The ‘Crisp’ or ‘Cluster’ segment of the breakfast cereal category is worth £82m and growing at 7% pa.* Jordans pioneered and launched the “Cluster” segment follow-ing the launch of its best selling original granola – Jordans Crunchy Oats in 1972. Today, Jordans Crunchy Oats and flagship Country Crisp brands account for £22m of the total segment value making Jordans brand leaders. The new variant in-cludes a combination of Belgian dark chocolate curls, made with 70% cocoa choco-late; toasted clusters made from British Conservation Grade® wholegrain oats, crispy rice and roasted chopped hazlenuts, naturally flavoured with hints of vanilla and coconut. All Jordans cereals are free from GM, artificial flavourings, colourings and preservatives.

4

Wildlife increases confirmed in CG

trial

Our “Nature Friendly Farming” trial at Rob Allan’s Upton Estate in Oxfordshire is now moving into its final year. It is a 4 year project to scientifically evaluate a range of Conservation Grade habitats and to examine any differences between locating them as field margins or cor-ners, either North or South facing.

The results will provide more critical sci-entific evidence to underpin the CG stan-dard and inform future revisions of the CG management protocol.

The habitats in the trial in-clude the following:

FARM CROP – This is where the raw mate-rial (eg Oats) comes from, but is poor in terms of a wildlife habitat.

NATURAL REGENERA-TION – A cheap, easy habitat that gener-ally produces low levels of wildlife and consider-able weed ingress

WINTER BIRD FOOD – A seed mixture that pro-vides birds with the vital food they need to sur-vive through the winter.

WILD FLOWERS – Argua-bly the best overall habitat for wildlife deliv-ery and the main habi-tat in the CG protocol

Each year the habitats are carefully as-sessed for various wildlife species by the CEH researchers managing the project.

The species assessed include the follow-ing:

Farmland birds, Bumblebees

Butterflies, Invertebrates

Dicotyledonous plant species

(eg wild flowers)

We are still awaiting the full results from last year and as soon as they are avail-able we will be sending all CG members a full summary of progress to date.

Meanwhile the following interesting data is emerging:

1. FARMLAND BIRDS

Linnets and Greenfinches were the most abundant bird species recorded in the winter of 2006/7, whereas Linnets and Chaffinches were most abundant in 2007/8. The total number of birds re-corded in 2006 between December and March was significantly higher on the wild bird seed mix (mean 54.7 birds per plot) than all other habitats, and the number of different species was higher too.

Then in 2007 bird numbers increased by 36% (to 86 birds per plot), once again, significantly higher than all other habitats. Not surprising really, considering that the wild bird seed mix contains specific plants with high seed numbers, designed to provide food throughout the winter months (eg Fodder radish, White millet, Camelina, Buckwheat and Quinoa).

CG Trial at Upton Estate

0

5

10

15

20

25

Mean no. birds/visit

Crop Natural

regen.

Wildflower Birdseed

mix

2006

2007

Linnet Acanthus cannabina

Upton Estate

Linnet Acanthus cannabina

Greenfinch Carduelis chloris

5

The low levels of birds in both the crop and the natural regeneration plots high-lights their poor suitability as bird habi-tats and underlines our view that the only logical and sensible way forward on farm to make a real difference to bird popula-tion declines is to sow species specific habitats.

2. BUMBLEBEES

In 2006 the short tongued bumblebees Bombus terrestris, B.lucorum and B.lapidarius were the most common spe-cies recorded.

Also, the rare (UKBAP) Large Garden Bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus) was re-corded in the wild bird seed mix.

Then in 2007 the most abundant species was the long tongued Bombus pascuo-rum and once again the rare B.ruderatus appeared in the wild bird seed mix.

The total number of bumble bees in 2007 between July and September was signifi-cantly higher in both the Wildflower and Wild bird seed plots compared with the Natural regen. plots, and bees were ab-sent in the crop. This again confirms the enormous value of sowing species spe-cific habitats.

So why were there so many bees in the Natural regen. in 2006 ? Well, interest-ingly there were quite a few spear thistle (Cirsium vulgare) in those plots in the first year, which attracted the bumble-bees, whereas the wildflower plots had been cut in the spring to encourage flower growth rather than grass species.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Mean no. bees/visit

Crop Natural regen. Wildflower Birdseed mix

2006

2007

2008

The thistles are an ‘injurious weed’ so were sprayed off in year one, and in year 2 and year 3 the wildflower plots were positively blooming, hence more bumblebees.

3. BUTTERFLIES

Small White & Meadow Brown butter-flies were the most abundant in 2006. The declining species Small Copper & Common Blue were also recorded ex-clusively in the wildflower plots.

In 2007 Meadow Green & Green-veined White were the most abundant butterflies and in both years total but-terfly numbers were significantly higher in the Wildflowers and Wild Bird Seed plots than the crop, once again high-lighting the value of species specific habitats.

Summary

This is clear confirmation that Con-servation Grade production stan-dards will lead to significant in-

creases in biodiversity.

By re-creating quality habitats on farm, using the scientific principles and guidelines developed over many

years, wildlife can be returned.

0

1

2

3

4

5

Mean no. butterflies/visit

Crop Natural

regen.

Wildflower Birdseed

mix

2006

2007

Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina

Red-tailed bumblebee Bombus

lapidarius

Small White Pieris rapae

6

At the time of writing it is early February and all is covered with snow which makes it look like a proper winter. This may have put an end to any early drilling but with drilling in mind here are a few seasonal reminders be-fore you set about any new habitats.

These notes should cover the questions raised at recent meetings but please ring Brin with any unanswered questions.

Winter bird food and Pollen and Nectar are the two big wildlife delivery habitats so we will focus on these. There are two seasons for P+N sowing but only one for winter bird food. The potential changes and effects from the return of “set aside” will not effect what we do in 2009-2010 but may impact on 2010-2011, but we can deal with that later.

POLLEN + NECTAR

This splits into two sections, legume based and flower based. We know that legume mixes don’t generally live beyond year three whereas flower mixes do.

The most recent information for legumes is with or without the addition of grasses. Both these options are now acceptable in ELS/HLS so individuals need to make an in-formed choice.

The addition of grass helps reduce the threat from thistles colonising any bare ground but the grass can smother the legumes before

year three. Graminicides can play a role here.

The wild flower mixes remain unchanged but it is worth remembering that the flower mix is more expensive per KG but as it lasts con-siderably longer so may not, over its life time, be more expensive. The sowing times are around April-May and again during July–August for legumes and April–May and Au-gust–September for flowers. Don’t forget the golden rule that seed needs to be left on the soil surface and where possible ring rolled after broadcasting

WINTER BIRD FOOD.

Best time to sow April-May when the ground is still moist and warming up. This enables the seeds to hit the ground running and helps reduce pest problems. Don’t forget if brassicas are in the mix then Flea beetle will need to be dealt with. The best sowing re-sults are from a firm fine weed free seed bed.

At most meetings we talked about rotating the sites so a summary follows. Two to three years of the same mix on the same site is about all you can get before yields start to decline. The rules of crop rotation are the same for any crop, wildlife or otherwise.

Here are some suggestions that may help:

1. Move the site to fresh ground. This can be discussed with your Natural England officer and should be permissible in ELS/HLS.

2. Change the components of the mix if moving to a new site is not possible. For example this may mean dropping any brassi-cas and switching to other plant groups. These changes will allow for better weed, pest and disease control. There is now greater flexibility for herbicide usage, espe-cially if you say that without management I am likely to fail.

Farm Gate - March 2009 by Marek

7

.

This confirms that wildlife habitat creation on farmland is severely limited by the lack of seeds of desirable species in the seed bank and surrounding landscape

3. Consider switching a P+N site with a bird food site. Farmers seldom want to give up good ground so by switching you are us-ing the same sites but changing the crops. This can be nearly as good as moving to fresh ground.

There are many CG mixtures that work well, but there is no “best mix”. There are how-ever some mixture guidelines.

We have often talked of winter bird food run-ning out too soon (pre-March) and how we may overcome this. We could plant hundreds of hectares of bird food they could not possi-bly eat but this is not a popular farmer choice!!

Well try this then. Birds generally move around in winter flocks and display preferen-tial feeding habits This is called an optimal feeding strategy. This means they eat their favourite food first then move to their second

choice and so on. So if a farmer plants one type of mix and the birds eat it all then there is nothing left to fall back on, so we need to have at least two different types of mix.

What does this all mean in practical terms? A mixture based on Fodder Radish is a great

favourite with many birds and seems to be their first choice so we also need to provide another mix that does not contain Fodder Radish in the hope that this second mix will provide food when Fodder Radish has all gone.

competed by the Radish hence the need to reduce or remove Radish from some mixes. Incidentally Fodder Radish flowers are a favourite with many bumblebees.

The following mixes are tried and tested but I am sure you will adapt your own.

ANNUAL NO BRASSICA MIX: 40% cereal, 12% quinoa, 23% buckwheat, 25% white millet @ 20kg/ha

ANNUAL MIX: 20% cereal, 15%white mil-let, 35%fodder radish, 20%quinoa, 10%buckwheat @15kg/ha

There is also the two year mix: 80% cereal, 10% kale, 10% quinoa @ 40kg/ha.

This mix can sometimes be very disappoint-ing in its second year as there is little kale left and what seed there is sheds readily.

Some final points:

Where seed sizes or drilling depths vary greatly within a mix you can order and sow a mix as two separate components i.e. Ce-real sown first then follow up with smaller shallower seeds.

Don’t forget where brassicas are used then fertilizer is necessary for establishment.

Please think about supplementary feeding. When your bird food crops have run out then tail corn could be all there is between starvation and survival.

8

Birds food preferences

At one of the recent CG farm visits, someone asked the following question: “Which foods should we sow to attract which birds ?”

Good question. The seed mixes suggested in the CG training manual and in the “Farm Gate” notes (see previous page) are recommended for their broad appeal and are tried and tested so should form the basis of Wild Bird Food mixes.

But for something more specific the following table has been provided by Peter Thompson from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and shows bird preferences to a range of

foods and is based on years of research.

It is not possible to build a mix that fits all birds but this will give you some insight to plants and birds.

Corn bunting Skylark Linnet

* All of equal importance. **As a permanent crop – Yellowhammers show a strong preference for Canary

Grass

Kale (2) Rape Linseed Millet Cereals Yellowhammer** Millet Rape Quinoa Cereals Kale (2) Tree Sparrow Cereals/Millet* Rape Quinoa Kale (1) Kale (2) Song Thrush Cereals Kale (2) Kale (1) Millet Linseed Skylark Sunflower Rape Quinoa Millet Kale (2) Reed Bunting Quinoa Rape Mustard Linseed Kale (2) Linnet Quinoa Millet Rape Kale (2) Cereals Grey Partridge

Rape/Mustard/Borage* Linseed Quinoa Kale (2) Sunflower Greenfinch Rape Quinoa Kale (2) Linseed Teasel Goldfinch Linseed Cereals Quinoa Kale (1) Kale (2) Dunnock Millet Linseed Mustard Cereals Quinoa Corn Bunting Millet Linseed Quinoa Cereals Kale (2) Chaffinch Mustard Linseed Millet Quinoa Kale (2) Bullfinch Rape Cereals Quinoa Kale (1) Kale (2) Blackbird

5 4 3 2 1 Species

IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE (1-5 with 1 being best)

9

TRAINING

CG Induction Training Course

We recently sent out certificates to all those members who had completed an Induction Training course.

If you did not receive a certificate it is be-cause our records show you have yet to un-dergo the Induction Training.

And you will have been invited to the next Induction Training course which is being held on :

Thursday 12th March

At Upton Estate Farm, Banbury, Oxon.

Regional Technical updates

Last autumn we held 3 very successful Re-gional Updates on members farms courtesy of Nick Rowsell, Rob Allan, Rob Law and Ralph Parker.

Further Regional Updates are planned for

Summer (June).

News and forthcoming events

EVENTS

Natural England Farm visits—HLS

If you have applied for a Higher Level Stew-

ardship (HLS) agreement you are in good

company - if not you could be missing out.

Natural England are inviting farmers to farm

walks to look at the potential HLS options on

the farm. They will be looking at a range of

options available under the HLS scheme that

are characteristic of this target area giving

you the opportunity to see what HLS entails

and to discuss the various options.

Details of the current Natural England HLS, ELS events can be found on the Natural England website http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/

To find the events:-

On the left hand side of the home page - "Select A Region" from the drop down menu

On the left hand side of the region web-page - click on Events (5th on the list)

For each event click on "more" or the event title to get the details.

Guild of Conservation Grade ProducersGuild of Conservation Grade ProducersGuild of Conservation Grade ProducersGuild of Conservation Grade Producers

Certificate of Completion of Training

is hereby granted to

A CG FarmerA CG FarmerA CG FarmerA CG Farmerto certify that he has attended an Induction Training Course at Upton Farm, Banbury

on 15th February 2006

10

A few changes to the CG Protocol

For some years now the CG Protocol has been left unchanged, which has meant that some minor amendments were required and these have now been completed as part of a review process.

They are mainly concerned with date changes, plus some cost/fee changes and updating one or two chemical requirements as products disappear as a result of pesticide approvals changes.

(See the table below for a list of the main changes).

In addition we have changed the name of the “Environment Statement” to become “The

Farm Environment Plan”.

This is the collection of maps, lists of habitats, farm procedures, policies and plans, vision statements etc. that members are required to produce for the annual CG Audit of Protocol compliance carried out by an assessor from CMi.

And in order to help members keep all the necessary documentation in one place, we will be introducing a specific “Record Book” which will be known as “The Farm Environment Plan”. This will contain all the definitions and details of what is required together with some space to record the details.

These new Farm Environment Plan (Record books) will initially be made available to new members at their Induction Training course.

Existing members will be sent their own copy.

Changes to Conservation Grade Protocol - February 2009

Page Section Change

3 1 The term ‘Standards & Technical Committee’ becomes ‘The CG Advisory Panel’

6 2.3 The ‘Environment Statement’ becomes ‘The Farm Environment Plan’

7 2.4 Re-naming of the compulsory training course to ‘Induction Training’ and of the

follow up regional events to ‘Regional Technical Updates’

8 2.5 Introduction of the following comment regarding contractors: ‘It is the responsi-

bility of the farmer to ensure any contractors understand and comply with the Conserva-

tion Grade protocol’.

8 2.5 Removal of references to usage of Thiodicarb slug pellets (following failure to

achieve Annexe 1 listing)

8 2.5 Addition of requirement to use Metaldehyde slug pellets in accordance with the

Metaldehyde Best Practice Advice given by the Metaldehyde Stewardship

Group.

10 2.6 (a) Re-naming of ‘Major F Breach’ to ‘Critical Failure Point’

11 2.7 Change to the cost of the annual Guild membership fee to £65 + VAT.

13 3.3 Re-wording of the requirements regarding Pollen & Nectar habitats, to clarify

that these habitats can come from solely grass & wildflower or can include leg-

ume mixes with or without grass. But legume mixes can only be up to a maxi-

mum of 2.5% of required area.

15 3.5 Re-wording of the requirements regarding Tussocky and Fine grass habitats, to

clarify that these habitats can come from Tussocky and/or fine grasses but at

least 0.5% of required area must be Tussocky.

11

BNA Assessments

In 2008 there were several issues get-ting assessors onto farms, not the least of which was the late and wet harvest ( which resulted in many farmers neces-sarily focussing on harvest concerns), and in one case a barn fire, which further delayed the assessment!!

The late return of some of the pre-assessment questionnaires had caused further administrative delays, this infor-mation being required in order for the assessor to have the necessary back-ground information prior to the on farm visit.

As a result of the delays some of those farms chosen for 2008 assessments will be added to the farms to be assessed in 2009, and in addition a couple of farms that were visited later in the season will again be visited in 2009, (at the request of the assessor), so that a more accurate habitat overview can be determined.

Of the visits completed, highlights in-cluded: good populations of Grey Par-tridge, Barn Owls, Brimstone, Marbled White and Ringlet butterflies. In addition to Common Elm and Spindle (indicative of ancient hedgerows).

One natural regeneration area in Cirencester was noted as containing the following species;

“Lady’s Bedstraw, Red clover, white clover, Crested Dog’s Tail, Cocks Foot, Red Fescue, Eyebright, Hedge Bed-straw, Meadow Buttercup, Black Medic, Ribwort Plantain, Crosswort, Hoary Plantain, pyramidal orchids, Common Bent, Selfheal, Common Vetch, Lesser Trefoil, Autumn Hawkbit, Travellers Joy,

Wild Strawberry, Musk thistle, Dwarf thistle and of course some obligatory Yorkshire Fog!”

Malcolm Turner of the BNA had the fol-lowing comments regarding his visit to a Conservation Grade farmer in Hertford-shire;

“It is obvious that the whole of his conservation effort is well thought out. Some of the ‘newer’ hedge plantings and mixed plantations have been there for a few years, with more recent hedge plantings in other areas of the farm.

His hedge-cutting regime also makes good sense - judging from the wealth of berries on them. He has also constructed a pond to ad-dress somewhat the acute shortage of natural water on the farm, and planted an adjacent reed-bed and a willow plantation to comple-ment it – this also works well.

When walking around the fields it seems that everything he has done has been primarily for the enhancement of natural environment. He loves to do it because it enriches the wildlife of the farm - and it certainly has paid off.”

“It was a delight to see a pair of Buzzards on the first visit, particularly in a location where they are generally not so abundant. Also to see a Common lizard in the short grass of Heath field was especially pleasing”.

The information gathered from these as-sessments is slowly accumulating and fur-ther visits will enable us to get a real sense of how the Conservation Grade Protocol is contributing to Nature Friendly Farming. So if you are chosen for a visit in 2009 please do all you can to help the assessor, some may even appreciate a quick cup of tea!

The pre-assessment questionnaire has been reviewed and will shortly be sent out to all farms chosen for the 2009 visits. De-lays in getting the questionnaires back and the management time taken to chase growers last year have resulted in the need to insist that questionnaires are returned within one month of their receipt so that we can start to allocate the assessors time as soon as possibleI.

If any further information is required, re-garding this years BNA visits please con-tact John O’Neill through the Guild, (and by the way Steve, the “ologists” are coming your way soon!)

Contact John O’Neill at :

John.oneill@jordans-cereals.co.uk

Round Rough Head Poppy (Papaver hybridum) photo-graphed at Greys farm Roys-ton. Courtesy of Malcolm

Turner.

Common Lizard

Lacerta vivipara

Common Buzzard

Buteo buteo

12

News regarding the CG membership fee and the CG Audit

There may have been some confusion over membership fees and annual audit pay-ments, so for the purposes of clarification……

1. CG Annual Audit

Every year CG members are required to undergo the annual Audit of Protocol Compli-ance. This is carried out by an assessor from CMI , (who are now part of NSF Interna-tional). Usually the assessor will be able to do the audit with you at the same time as your annual ACCS audit, but please be reminded that the two audits are different and are invoiced separately.

The cost for the CG Audit is £145.00 + VAT (or £95.00 + VAT for ACCS members). CMi send out the annual invoice during the autumn (October) for the audit in the following Spring/Summer. Payments should be made direct to CMi.

2. CG Annual Membership

From October 2009 the CG membership fee will be £65.00 + VAT.

The annual renewal request is send out by CMi on the same invoice as the CG audit. Payment should also be made direct to CMi.

NSF-CMi can be contacted at:

enquiries@nsf-cmicertification.com

or telephone Head Office: 01993 885610