the future for food, farming and the environment

[Richard 1234]

And another thing..................................!
 

Land is so expensive due to lack of it and a vast population wanting it, that  to go to Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and borrow it would cost over £300/acre a year just for the interest but £500/acre to pay the capital, whereas average farm rent for an arable farm is less than half that.

Even at a rent of £100 acre many farms are making ends meet by diversification or living off the proceeds of selling a bit of land for building.  Maybe a second job, a farm shop, a wood business or contracting.

The point being that the farm itself if generally just turning money round.

How are the young people of today going to be interested in a future like that?

I live in a county with good arable land and know many farmers, some with large farms of many thousands of acres, but I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of farmers sons or daughters who want to stay and run the business.

There is a perfect storm brewing.

I know another farmer with 2000 acres with 2 sons. Neither want it. He’s gutted because 5 generations bought it over time. All paid for. But again not making much for its size and hassle. In reality it should be a license to print money but it ain’t! Can’t afford more than 3 of them to work it (with extra drivers at harvest)

[difflock]

Son(s) should get an ordinary job(s), Re-wild the ground, soak up the grants, and enjoy nature.

Perhaps set up as a Charitable Trust?

Simples

P.S.

A local landowner, on a small estate, has set up a charitable trust for their lands/families future,

I dont know the ins-and-outs, but he is a shrewd bloke.

So there must be an angle.

mth

[CHC]

What's an ordinary job?

[markieg31]

Some interesting points raised thus far, we had some conservative MP's visit our farm last week. One question they asked was what are you going to do when you lose BPS? 

 

Diversify and work double shifts leaving my wife to get on with the farming while i go out and earn money else where to help cover the rent!

 

 

 

 

 

[aspenarb]

Farming is a bowl of cherries, just swan about in flash 4x4`s raking it in, bowl of cherries

With brexit we have a real chance to make a difference for britains farmers , the government needs to strip the system back to bare bones and have a rethink on production, tariffs, ecology  and subsidies. The agri policy we have in place does not work and its at a very high cost to the taxpayers.

 

Bob

[markieg31]

No posh 4x4 yer boy chap. The way we farm is hopefully in line with modern thinking. looking for mixed sward hight more flowers and herbs etc. should have about 30 bee hives in the next couple of weeks. Because we are looking after and trying to improve the land we dont over stock it which means it is a fine line covering the rent. 

Chainsaw boots started leaking today.. it might be a while before i can justify a new pair!

[Baldbloke]

One more thing I would like to add is the question of subsidies.  We have had subsidised farming since the war for reasons already mentioned.  My father benefited from deficiency payments from the war until we joined the EU.
These payments only stepped in when grain prices went below a certain value which was negotiated by the NFU with the government and was only a figure to stop farmers going under rather then making them profit.
I never heard or saw any complaint about these subsidies in all those years.
The trouble started when it became a political weapon to control farmers in the 1980s and turned into a single farm payment which was seen by many as a way of paying farmers to do nothing.  This was quite correct in some high profile cases, but for the majority it meant running around like blue arsed flies trying to fill in forms and tick a load of boxes just to make a living.
Most farmers would rather just be paid a fair price for their produce and forget subsidies.
In fact subsidies are subsidising the general population to provide cheap food.  This is made worse by the super markets making food so ridiculously cheap that people do not value it any more.
Not only do we have a huge obesity problem causing a nightmare for the NHS, but also a huge food waste scandal, again not helped by sell by dates and demands for ever more exotic non seasonable food.
 
The simple answer is to make food more expensive which would mean the end of subsidies and obesity but it would be political suicide.
 
People laugh at me when I say that wheat should be £1000/ton.  But in 1978 I was paid £100/ ton and a Ford tractor was £6600.  The equivalent tractor is now ten times more at over £66000.  The wheat price is not much different today forty years later at £140. it should be ten times this.
A  £1 loaf of bread should really cost £10. Bet you wouldn't chuck it out for the birds in that case!

To put it in perspective at 16 and a newly employed farm labourer I was being paid £18 a week in 1976.
The air fare to New Zealand was much the same price as it is now, but my wage there in the same industry a year and a half later was more than 4 times higher.
As stated by Billhook, the price of machinery is the killer.

[Baldbloke]

To put it in perspective at 16 and a newly employed farm labourer I was being paid £18 a week in 1976.
The air fare to New Zealand was much the same price as it is now, but my wage there in the same industry a year and a half later was more than 4 times higher.
Strangely where you could buy a cheap second hand car in the U.K. for £50 in the 70s, the same car in NZ would have cost you £500 or a $1000. The Kiwis have always been good at appreciating old gear and keeping it running.
As stated by Billhook, the present price of machinery is the killer.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

No surprises there:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/24/revealed-majority-politicians-key-eu-farming-panel-industry-links

 

But I wonder how many of these policy makers have links, knowledge or allegiance to “small”, Hill or tenant type farmers as compared to large scale land owning, corporate types? 

 

Its one of the reasons I struggle to comprehend the allegiance, from the “little” guys, to the masters. 

[drinksloe]

It's just 1 off those things 1 size will never fit all,, esp in farming as such a varied industry.

 

To be fair the mep/farmer bloke from NI will probably be fairly clued up on smaller/poorer farms, quite a lot of poorer ground in NI. And even i he does own a decent farm it will be a small enough farming community he'll know other 'hill' farmers.

Which wouldn't be the case if he was down in some intensive arable area down south

 

Somehow the way they implement the CAP in france they still have heaps of small farms that are vaible, just not sure how they do it as it certainly is not the case here