To tell you how fucked UK agriculture is?

[eatsleepfarmrepeat]

God I just feel beaten this evening, I’m a farmers wife, I work in a professional role which pays well (thank god) we have two young children and I’m just DONE.

My husband is on his arse. This years harvest is so relentless, wet weather means it’s a real smash and grab operation, the heavy machines are running on wet ground and we’re just burning diesel trying to dry wet crops.

I’ve just escorted the combine from the field up to the yard (because it’s raining, again) and for about the fifth time this harvest I’ve been flashed at and given the wanker sign. I mean, I get it, it’s a big bit of kit, it takes up the whole road but honestly escorting is the only way to get them home safely and how the fuck do you get it from A to B without it going on the road? We’re not waggoning class As or having some recreational rave, we’re just making food.

We grow cereals which are either milling wheat for bread (which will be problematic this year due to the drop in proteins and the unfavourable harvest because of the weather) feed wheat for animal feed, oil seed rape for biodiesel and barley, for beer. The new green agenda means our subsidies are being replaced by taking good arable land (which makes up 24% of the country) out of production. This is why there is a shortage of eggs, the commodity price is being pushed and egg producers are not being paid the cost of production by supermarkets so they are importing, from countries which are not held to the same (necessary) animal welfare standards which the UK industry operate under.
we produce high welfare free range chickens. They retail for £10+ but our contract with supermarkets has them in at £3.24 per bird - imagine trying to operate on those margins with food and energy bills being what they are. In addition the UK market is absolutely flooded with Thai imports of cheap shit mean which again falls far below our own mandatory animal welfare standards - we just cannot compete.

ironically a lot of our feed wheat will probs go to vivirgo/e sos for energy crops. Literally thousands of litres of diesel burned producing something to go into a power plant and be sold as green energy for the lithium heavy teslas of Britain.

in the last decade we have planted 100acres of woodland, created four new wildlife ponds on the farm and drilled artichoke and wildflower shelter belts to enhance wildlife and pollinators on the farm.

I keep thinking we would be a million times happier (and better off) if we just sold out of the partnership and started again, get out of this shit, spiralling industry where the general public seem to think we’re trying to kill them and simultaneously fuck the countryside at the same time, go have a nice life where my husband isn’t hampered by stress and the never ending pressure of his arsehole father who got fat in the 70s where they used shit hot chemicals and decimated any balance of wildlife. This year is hard but with the commodity prices falling again against an increasing fuel and labour and fertiliser bill I just wonder what the fuck we are doing it for. Any trade off with the lovely holistic life the kids have is countered by stressed out parents.

we’re an island. We need food security, and we’re being paid to fallow productive acres which is already having a knock on effect to other food markets. Why are we so short sighted? We can afford to be virtuous with our farmland as a nation by offsetting but the outcome is that we’re outsourcing our footprint to these poorer nations like Thailand who are picking up our production slack and selling their chicken into our country at a criminally low value. It’s batshit.

That sounds relentless. I'm sorry.

The problem is that everyone is struggling. I used to make an effort to buy locally grown food, but my food bill (like everyone else's) has exploded in the last year. I can't afford to buy British-grown food any more, for the most part, without making sacrifices elsewhere that I don't want to or can't afford to make. For dinner we had green beans from Kenya. The fact that it's cheaper in August in S E England to buy Kenyan green beans is difficult to process, but a real end stop for many of us.

Which I can understand your perspectives, it's a pickle but in the era of globalisation etc it seems part and par for the course really.
I know that doesn't make it right, but I guess combined with capitalism and profit margins, it's ......

Thank you for such an informative post. I work with farmers and I'm aware of some of some of the difficulties that govt is imposing on them.
The gap in this country between producing and purchasing food is so wide. People buy cheap crap and it's frightening that they don't know it is so.

💐Thank you for all you do. Praying for dry weather to help with the harvest

I get it and thanks for venting.
Especially about the egg shortages. A lot of people insisted it was bird flu which I know has wound up a few farmers I know.
I don't think people thank you guys enough.

Thank you for the Post, I know absolutely nothing about farming but I will certainly take much more care with what I'm buying!

I will also mentally add this to the list of broken things in this Country!

Totally with you OP. Grew up in a farming family that went back generations, my dad will be the last farmer now. He’s very close to retirement (although I highly doubt he’ll ever actually retire, he’d go insane in the house all day) but the whole thing is just so sad.

I’m nearing 30 and it’s been shit I can remember. Milk prices are awful. Lamb prices are awful. Beef prices are awful. The cost of everything is extortionate. It’s the world’s loneliest job for a lot of folk who work by themselves. Suicide rates are through the roof for farmers. It’s incredibly dangerous work as well.

It’s absolutely fucking shit.

Everyone always comes on threads like these saying how everyone is struggling but I just find that response so patronising to be honest.

Imagine working long days in all weathers. Imagine working alone for that. Imagine working with dangerous animals, dangerous machinery. Imagine pouring your heart and soul into your job. Your mental stability and your physical health. All to make a loss every year. To be selling at market to get fuck all for it.

And then you go home and you’re now an ordinary consumer. You have bills to pay, mortgages/rents, insurance, groceries etc like everyone else. Except you’ve also got land rents, extortionate vet bills, maintenance on machinery (which costs thousands to replace. Tractors are not cheap at all). With what money?

Minimal to no time off. If you work alone and you’re hospitalised, who looks after the animals? You have to ring and beg neighbouring farmers to help you because you aren’t there yourself. If you work alone, you work every single day of the year. No 2 weeks off paid holidays. No 28 days a year paid holidays. If you don’t work, you don’t get paid. You can’t just shut down the farm for a week.

But people wanted cheap, imported food. And now it’s bitten them on the arse. There won’t be a farming culture in the UK in the future. It will be several huge, intensive farms with hundreds of paid workers on an industrial scale. The animals will get a shit quality of life. But that will end up being the only way farming is profitable in the UK. You can say goodbye to grass fed animals who get outside every single year. Only a small number establishments will remain to supply middle class retailers, markets, restaurants etc.

The whole thing is just shit but the vast majority of the population don’t give a single fuck and have no appreciation for it at all. The Government doesn’t care, either. The only people who care, and I mean genuinely care, are those who have grew up with it and truly understand how much is sacrificed for each penny earned.

So the population pays taxes so the government subsides farmers to produce food. And this is good because....?

The economy around farming is fucked big time and it just reflects and helps magnify other dysfunctions our economy. People paying twice for their food (once through taxes, and again in the ships) is no cheaper than paying the true price once. If the wheat you grow is important and necessary then why doesn't it pay for itself?

YANBU OP and I’m sorry it’s so shit
i live in a semi rural area and don’t begrudge farm machinery on the roads and understand what time of year it is:

it can’t go on like this can it, something’s got to give!

I think another thing that annoys me as well is how people don’t seem to realise how much farmers have to know about so many facets of their business.

Most farmers will be able to diagnose what’s wrong with an animal before it even gets to the vets. They know what is needed to treat it, or what needs to be done. Not to mention they have to keep on top of all routine procedures like dosing for fluke and worms, etc. And yep, they’ll do each animal, individually, themselves.

They know their way around machinery and will know when something is blown or what needs fixed before they even take it to a mechanic most of the time.

They have to keep up to date with all legislation which is constantly changing. When their next round of TB testing is. When slurry can go out on the fields. Making sure the farm is up to code as farms get inspections. It’s an endless list.

Most farmers (or their wives!) handle most of their books and accounts themselves. Yes, they’ll have an accountant, but they know what needs to be kept and documented. Additionally, animal records. Every cow that has a calf born in the UK has to be recorded. Mum’s tag number, calf’s tag number, sex, breed etc. For every single one.

Fencing fields, fixing walls, building pens. Being able to actually drive the machinery. Reversing a trailer isn’t as easy as they make it look, especially into a narrow field at an awkward angle.

And what about calving/lambing season? Getting up 5, 6 times a night to check on a ewe who has been pawing the ground and circling for hours now. How to actually help them give birth, too.

Working with dangerous animals. Bulls, cows (especially if they’ve just had a baby), even rams and sheep can be aggressive. Working with dangerous machinery in dangerous situations (everyone here will have read a story about the tragic outcome of someone mixing slurry and being overcome by fumes). Or a tragic accident on something like a quad.

Thefts are constant as well. My dad has had a cattle trailer stolen and a quad, but he’s been lucky compared to some of his farming neighbours. People steal red diesel and livestock too. And then livestock losses as well, an increasing problem. People walk their untrained dogs, off lead, through a field of livestock. And it ends in tragedy.

A lot of people have no idea what it’s actually like and like to dismiss farmers for complaining. Yet I guarantee if you asked one of them to work on a farm for a month, they’d quit within a few days.

@Ampharos I agree with every word you have said.

Sorry, I don’t care. We live in a culture that values profit above people (and animals, and the environment), across all industries, so why should farming be any different? Making money isn’t a crime and some people somewhere are making loads of it, so everything’s fine, the system’s working as intended.

Kindly, you sound incredibly naive about farming as an industry on the whole.

I mean, people like you are exactly why it’s got so shit in the first place. Folk like you, with some snazzy suits but a degree in something totally unrelated, who have never stepped foot on a farm, decide they have came up with such an amazing way to do things going forward. Farmers tell you time, and time again, why it won’t work. But you push on anyway. Because you’re so clever and farmers are uneducated morons who just drive a tractor in circles all day.

And then it goes to shit. And you’re all so shocked as to why. So you come up with more shit ideas and the cycle continues.

You can have an incredible understanding of economics and policy, but that doesn’t mean you understand how it relates to farming in the real world. If you don’t truly understand the industry, you can’t fix it.

So please, don’t insult those on this thread who have grown up with it by telling them how to run their business. Who have had knowledge passed on through generations. You wouldn’t walk into Tesla and tell Elon Musk how to run his business so I don’t see why you think your “knowledge” is in any way, shape or form, relevant or helpful to farmers. What you’re saying isn’t new and revolutionary. It’s the same, tired argument that’s been made for the last 20 years.

The realities are that the subsidy system has made farming far too removed from agriculture. The majority of modern farmers are farming the subsidy & not the land. This is why land agents such as yourself exist.

Agricultural land in the past two to three decades has become far more valuable to sell due to wealthy individuals buying land based on the value of the subsidy. Mr Dyson is a prime example for those of you in Lincolnshire.

As some others have said, food in the UK is far too cheap. We should be looking at controlling how much we import, accept that fresh produce is seasonal & buy UK primarily. Only using imports when we have used our own.

However Farmers should only be rewarded based on what they produce. Throwing money in the form of subsidy has never worked. We only need to look at Farmers selling their milk quota's and similar schemes to know that.

@eatsleepfarmrepeat I hear you.

I'm of farming stock, and have a smallholding, just under the critical 8 acres needed to count for grants, sadly

. Veg, orchard, top fruit, soft fruit, woodland, meat, eggs, cider, juice, flower sales and preserves at the gate and local farmers market.

We don't get any subsidies (too small)

I see my farming neighbours, with good businesses, on the verge of going under.

So are we. Despite desire for unsprayed food (which we are)

It's all bonkers. Food security should be a priority.

I live in Normandy and am part of a farming family. We harvested early again this year and had reasonable yields.
Just back from a week in the UK where we have gone from Portsmouth to the Midlands and then to Brighton and Sussex. We were shocked to see so much of the harvest still in the fields. It looks to be a very poor yield year.
Farming is a mad business with policy that does endless harm to the poor bloody farmers and animals. The UK going it alone seems to be no better than it was pre-Brexit.

This 💯. The supply chain issues and rising food costs we have been experiencing should be a wake up call to the public and the government to support farmers. I'm not sure people really get how fragile the whole system is and how being so reliant on imports is really disastrous.

With all due respect, farmers and the farming lobby have been spouting this bollocks for generations now and its wearing thin.

We grew up in farming community, farmers having to know all aspects of their business isn’t news and I’d say that’s part of the job in @Ampharos post

Weather was stressful and always working. There was value to it in the end in terms of profit though m, especially the established farms in good areas

There are only around quarter of a million long term empty houses in the U.K., many of which will be in places people don’t want or need to live. Long term empty means over 6 months…I know that for the various spells when we lived abroad our house was empty for years at a time, but as we intended (and did) come home why should we have been forced to sell it?

https://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/_resources/pdfs/press-pdfs/press-releases/empty-homes-week.pdf

So near me they are applying for planning permission to turn 10,000 acres of prime arable land into solar panel farms. On the map it looks huge, it’s a distance of about 6 miles x 5 miles square, maybe more.

I have written lodging an objection based on the fact we need to be using our land to grow crops and make us more self sufficient as a nation. Not rely on grain imports from Ukraine, etc. solar panels can be put on roofs, they can be put on verges, on central reservations, on brownfield sites…..not prime arable land.

I expect it will go through. Bonkers.

No knowledge of this but I hope this gets picked up by the Daily Mail as it needs some public attention / education.

Clarkson’s farm did a lot of good for highlighting these issues to a huge number of people that would have otherwise had no idea. The fact that he tried to make the farm profitable by expanding into other businesses and the council blocked it just goes to show that the powers that be do not want farmers to survive. What I can’t figure out is why? We need food. We need to be more self sufficient as an island (as Covid and the war have highlighted). Why does the government and local authorities not want to support this? I can’t see what anyone would gain from the collapse of our farming industry.

@CallumDansTransitVan

Using your combine example, I have watched countless Farmers buy machinery far in excess of size and power than they actually need. Just so they can keep up with the 'Giles's' next door.

Are you sure it's to keep up with the neighbours though? I know on our farm at the end of the tax year last year, the accountant proposed either paying a hefty tax bill or investing in new machinery, the money was not cash that could be kept and used for personal spends. So my husband bought a new tractor, updated, faster machinery is required now because the harvest windows are getting smaller and smaller.

A combine that is slow and takes forever to get round a field is no use because you just wouldn't get your crops in on time. Everything is bought on tick. There are very few 'old money farmers' now who have cash and can buy outright.

OP I am sympathetic to farmers, and I do believe that government policy is irrational, but I do need to ask...

You might make a low income, but I'm guessing you have a lot of wealth locked up in land, that "beautiful house" etc?

If so, it's going to be hard to persuade the public to subsidise your family to make a living when in asset terms - if not annual income - you are probably by most standards extremely rich.

I live in an arable farming area and used to it being busy on the roads with tractors and heavy farming machinery at this time of year. I have definitely noticed that it has been more drawn out this year due to the weather. This week has been fairly busy though as the weather has dried up a little here. It must be hard having to be reliant on weather patterns and lack of support from policies.