44 C O N T E X T 1 0 5 : J U LY 2 0 0 8 ALISON HENRY Is this the final straw? A more vigorous campaign for changes to the seed certification regulations could help to create a sustainable home-grown supply of good quality thatching wheat. The controversial subject of thatching has recently been in the headlines, amid claims of a catastrophic wheat straw harvest last year and calls for relaxation of the planning legislation to allow alternative thatching materials to be used on listed buildings. However, experience in Somerset indicates that there is support among thatchers for the planning controls over thatching materials, and that the real culprit in the thatching straw crisis is seed certification regulations rather than conservation legislation. In the past few months thatching has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles and radio interviews. In March, Observer reporter Graham Mole claimed that ‘British growers of cereal straw reported a “diabolical” harvest last year, with some losing their entire crop and none losing less than 60 per cent. Prices for home-grown specialist straw have doubled in the past year and the 2007 stocks are already used up. Foreign growers are unable to make up the shortfall because they have also suffered a disastrous year.’ In the same article, a spokesman for the National Society of Master Thatchers (NSMT), Bob West, is quoted as saying that ‘within five years there will be no straw left for thatching. The only straw that will be able to be used is the stuff that comes in from Poland.’ Marjorie Sanders, chief executive of the NSMT, said: ‘It’s vital that conservation officers understand how serious the situation is and allow more flexibility.’ In an attempt to understand the seriousness of the situation, as advocated by Marjorie Sanders, I arranged a meeting in early May, on behalf of the Somerset Conservation Officers Group, to which I invited all Somerset thatchers and combed wheat reed growers. The meeting was attended by over 40 thatchers and growers, quite a daunting prospect for the handful of conservation officers who were there. The nine growers present reported that last year’s harvest in the south west had indeed been poor. One said his yield was down by about 30 per cent, but that is considerably better than the minimum 60 per cent losses reported in the Observer. Most of the thatchers at the meeting pointed out that poor harvests are nothing new: there are often lean years interspersed with the better years, and this is something that most thatchers are used to dealing with. With a bit of juggling – bringing forward some jobs and delaying others – they anticipated no significant problems this summer. Only one of the 35 thatchers said that he was worried that he would run out of combed wheat reed before this year’s harvest, and that this might result in him having to lay people off. However, there was consensus that there would be serious problems indeed if this year’s harvest should fail. The growers reported that so far the wheat crop in the south west was looking very promising, and that they anticipated a good yield this year, although they admitted that a lot could change between May and harvest-time in July. And it could be several months after harvest before the reed was combed and ready for use. So it looks like a few more lean months are in prospect, but the situation in Somerset is certainly not
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