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Following on from the UK’s pioneering presence at the INDAGRA event in Bucharest, last year, a group of British breed representatives made the return journey to Romania last week. The show in November 06 was a good spring board to start the process of doing some business but there’s nothing to beat being face to face in a farmers field to build up greater trust and understanding. Farmers understanding EU
legislation is another matter all together. Here in the UK we’ve
had many years now to come to terms with the myriad of rules and
regulations that spew from Brussels. We’ve even had the opportunity
to tailor the rules to meet our own needs but Romania is now trying
to catch a train that has left the station a long time ago. “No one
warned us about the regulations, it is going to be disastrous” one
regional councillor told the delegation, speaking through an
interpreter from the British Embassy in Bucharest, over a glass of
cool lager in the stifling 30 degrees. He can see big problems in
the near future for many of the small holders in his region. We got
the feeling that the thought of farmers joining together to form
co-operatives to process their milk to standards set by bureaucrats
in Brussels was arousing memories of the days when the law was laid
down, by another regime, that dictated without much consultation or
consideration for the people whose life it would affect.
A major part of the sheep industry in Romania
revolves around the production of soft cheese made from the milk
from their Turcana breed of sheep. The Turcana is the most numerous
sheep in the country numbering approximately six million. It’s a
hill type which has been bred for milk production so, as you would
expect, the breed has taken on the physical characteristics of a
dairy animal. Now with the traditional on-farm methods of
production and manufacture coming under pressure from Brussels a
lurch towards meat production has started. The professor of animal
production at a major teaching university in the town of Timisoara
told
His views were certainly backed up the next day
when we were taken to visit a farm in the Transylvanian Highlands.
The father and son team who owned the farm there had decided to make
the move from milk to meat the year before. The previous autumn
their flock of six hundred Turcana had been split into two flocks
and two Hampshire Down rams had been introduced, as an experiment,
in one of the flocks. The results were not difficult to see. The
Hampshire cross lambs were by far As we stood there on the side of the hill talking to the man about his sheep and his hopes and fears for the future the tranquillity of the countryside was being broken all the while, in the valley below, us by the throbbing roar of the heavy machinery that was cutting a new highway through the hills. An improved infrastructure will be one benefit of being part of the EU that Romanian farmers will appreciate. The existing road network, it has to be said, is not good but as we stood there looking down on the motorway construction there was a realization that the new construction was reaching out towards the sun that was setting in the West. Most of the smaller farmers we had spoken to so far saw Europe as being the consumer for this new improved prime lamb that they would produce. But in contrast we met others who had their gaze fixed on the Arab states to the East. Amongst those that we visited there is, what is
now, the biggest farming operation in Europe. This organisation
farmed 70,000 hectares in hand. We were introduced to their
veterinary manager who told us about the 17,000 hectares of rape,
the 20,000 hectares of wheat and… the list went on. He then
outlined their livestock enterprise which included 1800 breeding
sows and 600 milking cows. The flock of 2500 sheep that they
presently farmed was only a shadow of the 20,000 head that was here
before the revolution in 1989. They intended to increase numbers
dramatically in the near future and they were in the market for
breeding sheep. All of a sudden what seemed like a pleasant trip
with a chance to do a little business began to look a little more
serious. The manager wanted to know |
us. “We must start to improve our sheep by hybridisation”.
The professor, who has seen attempts to make improvements like this
fail in the past, still sees the future of the sheep meat industry
in his country to be reliant on the benefit that the vigour and
greater weight gain a cross of some sort will produce.
superior to the pure bred Turcana
lambs. The man was delighted with the results. “I have Hampshire
cross lambs weighing 28kgs whereas the heaviest Turcana will only be
20kgs” he enthused, using his very good English. The only problem
he mentioned was that there had been difficulty with some of the
Hampshire cross lambs getting stuck when being born because of their
large head. Mike Adams, team leader and Hampshire Down breeder, was
quick to point out that the British bred Hampshire Down sheep were
bred to be an easier lambing sheep, which were longer with more
gigot compared to the two French bred articles that were lurking
under a bush nearby. 
everything about what British
genetics could offer his operation. The opportunity was duly seized
by the members of our small group and each in turn gave a brief
presentation, through the interpreter, of what their breed could
bring to his organisation. Conformation, prolificacy, hardiness,
easy management, mothering ability and stocking density are easily
translated in any country in the world. His understanding of what
we had to offer seemed to be complete and with the talking done,
the warmth of a parting smile and a handshake could go a long way
to build the trust that will be needed if we are to do business with
a country that has so much to offer and so far to go.