ONE of my colleagues in the NFU said something the other day that has stuck in my mind: "We have become a just in time nation."

He is quite right when you think about it. No one keeps anything in stock anymore and as long as everything works properly it's OK.

If you want to worry someone just tell them they are 24 hours from starvation. An exaggeration, yes I admit, but not far from the truth if you look at the size of supermarket storerooms. Everyone does this due to the poor prices received and to try and create a margin.

Agriculture is an industry which suffers greatly from a just in time policy. Take the recent ban on burial for fallen stock for instance. Regulation has been on the statute books since May 1 and now, at the end of May, we are still trying to put a collection scheme in place. The CAP reform is another complete fiasco, all balls in the air and no decisions made. How can any industry plan or invest for the future in such circumstances?

I have, for some time now, been concerned at the low number of students enrolling on full-time agricultural courses in the area. Over the last few years agricultural colleges have coped with this by running other courses to encourage entrants and draw down funding. This has led to 19 out of every 20 students at agricultural colleges being on non-agricultural or horticultural courses.

These facts don't bode well for the industry. In a very few years we shall find ourselves being physically unable to get the work done on farms.

One of the things that has kept me sane over the years (some would be dubious as to my sanity) has been that whenever the wheelbarrow full of paperwork that goes with each cow I have is about to bury me, I have been able to go and have an hour with my horses, something I find very therapeutic. Now it seems the EU, in its wisdom, has decided that my horses are now to join the cows and have a bucketful of paperwork attached to each one. It's enough to turn a man into an arsonist.

PAUL THOMAS, chairman, Herefordshire NFU.