Dairy farmers leaving the industry are increasing

I can only hope that this coming week is better, and by the time you read this, that we are again under way.

I still have about 250 acres of fourth cut grass silage to make and, that will really need rather different weather. The ground is still hard, but for how much longer?

The trees are changing colour, and autumn is well under way.

As usual there is fruit going to waste in gardens and in the woods and hedgerows, but there has been an abundance this year, and everyone should be prepared for winter in one way or another.

We have a couple of roe deer visiting us in the evenings, peering in the conservatory windows as if watching the television!

The dog waits until they walk away before barking furiously, having watched in disbelief as these creatures saunter up her lawn, on her turf!

The cows are very happy indoors, and we only have the in-calf heifers out grazing.

We do have a few sheep who have come in to help eat some of the surplus grass, most of which is too tall to graze, and must therefore be cut for silage. It looks very good, but it will be tricky to harvest- unless we get an Indian summer?

n Dairy Co, the levy body has come out with its market report, showing (as this column has repeatedly suggested) that milk prices at the farm gate have not followed the market.

Milk processors in the liquid market are receiving more than 8p per litre of milk from the cream alone (cream being skimmed off low fat milk), and some are paying around 5p per litre below the market price to farmers.

I am told that the number of farmers leaving the milk industry this autumn is increasing, and one only has to look in the farming press to see the number of dispersal sales advertised.

The milk buyers who process the milk have behaved once again in the same predictable way. By not passing on their increased margins to farmers, they have had it taken off them and more, by the supermarkets.

Once again, they have fallen, fawning at the feet of the retailers in supplication, only to be kicked in the teeth. I feel no sympathy towards them I’m afraid, as they squeeze the lifeblood out of dairy farmers, and are in part responsible for the decline of the British dairy industry.

The retailers themselves are, of course, the other party involved in the general squeeze on British agriculture in general.

Take the poultry industry. Spiralling feed costs are following the increase in the price of wheat, and what do retailers do?

They insist that poultry growers cannot use GM feed, which is a measure not imposed on the other agriculture sectors, or indeed, more importantly on imported chicken.

Given that feed prices affect pig and poultry in a massive way, we can look forward to increased retail prices being introduced, whilst retailers then wait and cream in extra profits, before passing some extra money down the line, weakening these sectors further.

n Given that the proportion of all home produced food consumed in the UK has fallen to the lowest figure for 42 years (58.9 per cent), consumers should be aware that they will pay more money for food as others take a stronger hold on our markets.

Agriculture cannot be switched off and on, and it takes a long time to respond to market signals.

This low level of self-sufficiency is very worrying indeed, especially in the fruit and vegetable sectors, where this country really should be producing more.

The structure of our markets and the supply chains, allow powerful retailers to pass risk down the chain to farmers and growers, which together with low farm-gate prices, account for a lack of investment; and without investment, there is no future.

Professor Tim Lang (head of food policy at City University and no friend of the farmer) agrees, and as the man widely credited with inventing the concept of ‘food-miles’, states that in his opinion, it is complete folly to be relying on imports so much.

To make things worse, poor and inaccurate labelling is duping consumers into thinking that some imported foods are local or regional.

Hampshire is one of the worst examples, where trading standard officers found a quarter of all ‘local’ food sampled in pubs, restaurants and butchers, was ‘nothing of the sort’.

One restaurant in Fareham was allegedly caught selling ‘Hampshire spring lamb’, which had in fact come from New Zealand.

n The good news story of last week was that the National Trust is to permit badger culling on its land.

The Trust owns half a million acres, much of it badly affected by bovine TB, and getting their permission was seen as essential in order to control the disease, before eliminating it.

The right criteria for a cull must of course be met, and it will need to be carried out to the right professional standards, but it is very good news that common sense has prevailed and that the National Trust now accepts that there is no point addressing cattle to cattle transmission, without tackling the problem of wildlife reservoirs.

n The sad story of last week was the Soil Association, attacking conventional farming (once again), this time over antimicrobial resistance.

At a time where anti-biotic use is increasing in organic farming methods, I fail to see what they hoped to gain with this ridiculous allegation, where there is no scientific evidence, and scientists’ total disagreement with the premise.

Firmly on the back-foot after their story was challenged widely, the Soil Association quickly corrected its stance, claiming not to be suggesting anything other than the need to police anti-biotic use on farms; which is of course already happening.

Things are tough enough without a niche market turning on the mainstream in order to try and gain an advantage. The truth is we all lose.

Gwyn Jones