Get arty with your wheat bales
 A horse 'on holiday' at Alkham Court, Kent.THE challenge is on to find the Damien Hirst of farming with the launch of the Weetabix Wheat Art 2010 competition.
After the success of the 2009 competition, Weetabix is again joining forces with the NFU to offer farmers the opportunity to win up to £5000 by designing and creating a sculpture using wheat bales on their farms.
There will be 10 regional £2000 prizes in the 10 television regions of England, Scotland and Wales. The overall winner will receive an additional £3000.
How to enter
Farmers wishing to enter the competition need to request the official Weetabix bale wrap to place on their entry from the following address; Weetabix Wheat Art Competition, 52A Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BE or email entries@weetabixart.co.uk. There is also a downloadable entry form available on www.weetabix.co.uk/wheatart or www.nfuonline.com
Once the masterpieces have been created they must be photographed and the photos should be sent through for judging. Final date for entries is Wednesday 29 September 2010, and judging will follow soon after. Entries need to remain in place up to and through the judging process.
The urban fox epidemic
Chas Baird takes a look at why urban foxes have become such a problem – and a danger – to humans.
WHEN I started thinking about this piece on urban foxes in the aftermath of the recent attack on the two little girls, I am afraid my only surprise was that it was such a long time in coming.
So – where do we start? Foxes have been moving into urban surroundings for a very long time; when I was a teenager in Scotland in the 1960s we were already starting to see the odd one skulking round the main street late at night.
Our town was built on a hillside and the farms with a lot of sheep on the edge of the high moorland were always at war with them. I have also seen, in very hard weather, red deer foraging on the foreshore and devouring shrubs in riverside gardens; more than two miles through built-up areas from their home on the high moors.
The received wisdom (with which I largely agree) is that as agriculture changed towns and cities started to encroach onto agricultural land and the foxes, instead of moving deeper into the countryside, simply stayed put! They would have no problem adapting their diet: the fox is probably the most omnivorous animal in Britain and there is very little that they will not eat. The practices of dumping half-eaten fish and chips, burgers etc everywhere and putting uneaten food straight in bin bags means that foxy very rarely goes hungry!
When I moved to the Midlands in the mid-1970s, we could watch foxes two gardens away; they had an earth under a garden shed and used to sunbathe quite brazenly on the roof!
By the time the 1980s came and I had started pest controlling, I think the urban person’s rosy view of foxes was starting to fade; many people wanted to see the back of them. I did quite a bit of trapping and several times I was asked to get rid of foxes found dead in people’s gardens. Some of these were obviously down to old age, but there were cases where I am sure poison was involved, others where the animal was obviously in poor condition and might have died of hunger and more than one that appeared to be road strike.
So what is the difference between the urban fox and his rural cousin? I think the main thing is the way they perceive humans. If you walk round a hedge in the countryside and come upon Reynard about his business, he will be off his mark very rapidly; assuming that he has not caught wind of you and is already 100 yards away! The urban fox is far more likely to stand his ground and stare at you before turning and walking leisurely away; they are losing their fear of humans.
I had a prime example of this recently: I walked my two dogs at heel round a corner on the canal towpath and surprised a big dog fox in the process of disposing of a discarded kebab. Instead of, as you might expect, being spooked by the dogs, he was quite prepared to stand his ground and defend his 'kill'. It took a loud shout and a wave of the stick to send him on his way (and a stern 'No!' to stop Whisper the lab finishing the kebab!)
This, I think, is where the danger lies. Cuddly he may look to inexperienced eyes, but he is a wild animal and he is big enough to be dangerous. If a child had come round that corner and in all innocence tried to fuss him as they would a dog, then he might well have attacked.
There is a theory that the rise in aggression by foxes directly relates to the time they have spent in proximity to humans; each generation losing more and more of their innate fear of man. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is the case; over the years I have seen them get bolder and bolder.
The problem of the urban fox will not go away and needs to be addressed on a large scale; whether or not it will be is anybody's guess! In the next piece on the urban fox, we will look at attitudes towards him and what you may and may not do to stop his evil.
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