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Despite headlines about higher food prices and increased profit margins, it's been a lean year for farmers.
Particularly so for those that harvest the cereal straw that can be seen crowning any number of picture postcard cottages dotting the UK countryside.

A terrible summer harvest has left locally produced straw dangerously low, with European imports not faring much better.

Thatchers have already used up their 2006 supply and are now struggling to meet demand from cottage owners needing repairs and replacements to their straw-topped abodes.

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Clutching At Straws

Now that the problem has come to a head, The NSMT (National Society of Master Thatchers) are urging their skilled workers to save the solid-gold standard cereal straw for re-ridging and are pushing for permission to use alternatives.

They think triticale, a cross between wheat and rye, is the ideal substitute in these leaner times, but local councils are having none of it.

The NSMT argues that the wheat-rye hybrid has been thatching roofs across Britain for thirty years, and tends to be more durable than its traditional counterpart.

English Heritage has also backed the move, but it seems that conservation officers have had a change of heart – and their timing couldn't be worse.

With stocks of cereal straw running low Marjorie Sanders, Chief Executive of the NSMT, has appealed to local councils to see reason.

She comments: "For the long-term preservation of any properties with thatched roofs, conservation officers need to be sensitive to the constraints of cereal straw availability and to keep an open mind regarding the sensible use of alternatives.

"Past trends in the changing fortunes of agriculture are evident through thatch layers; changes made through forced circumstances from 2007 and beyond will provide equally valid evidence to conservation historians of the future."