Farmers launch climate change initiative

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society, where I served on its innovative Farmer-Scientist Network for many years, has launched a #Farm4Zero campaign on climate change. This is a very welcome initiative.

The YAS states, 'The campaign aims to energise farmers and rural businesses about how they can respond to the climate change challenge as British agriculture seeks to reduce its carbon footprint. Although agriculture accounts for just 9% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, compared to proportionally higher impact sectors such as transport (23%) and industry (21%), farmers are acutely aware of the need to take action.' [Well, at least some are].

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society is determined to focus minds on the positive opportunities that exist as British farming seeks to meet its own target to become net zero in greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 – ten years ahead of the Government’s 2050 target for the British economy as a whole.

No one denies that it's going to be a big challenge, but an important one. Far better that farmers take their own initiatives, rather than waiting for legislation.

Defra sets out its stall

Defra has provided more details on how direct payments will be phased out in England and how the future Environmental Land Management Scheme will function, although arrangements after 2021 remain unclear: Plans for future greener farming

ELMS will have a three tier entry scheme. As far as the basic payment is concerned, farmers making a claim of more than £150,000 will be subject to a 25 per cent reduction in 2021, while those making a claim of up to £30,000 will be subject to just a five per cent reduction.

I welcome proposals on productivity and research and development. From 2021, new government grants will help farmers to invest in equipment and technology which will help them to increase their productivity and deliver environmental benefits. From 2022, Defra will support research and development projects to help our farming industry benefit from innovation, enabling farmers to produce food more efficiently and sustainably with lower emissions.

As far as smaller investments are concerned, 'Grants will be available for equipment, technology, and small infrastructure investments that will make an immediate difference to farm performance, including investments that help farmers use less inputs, reduce emissions, and cut waste, which will also benefit the environment.' These will be for specific, pre-determined items - in other words the devil is in the detail.

As far as larger investments (sum not specified) are concerned, 'These grants will be for higher-value or more complex investments, with the potential to bring transformational improvements to business performance. Eligible investments could allow for more efficient use of labour, provide opportunities to switch to alternative or more efficient production methods, reduce environmental impact or create opportunities for new business models and alternative ways of selling produce directly to customers.' These will be for priority outcomes, including the use of automation and robotics.

The end of farming?

This 'long read' in The Guardian takes the kind of line one would expect, i.e., it is critical of 'intensive' farming and sympathetic towards attempts at rewilding and environmental regeneration: The end of farming?

In my view farmers tend to rely too much on food security arguments as a response. I think there is a need to engage more with these environmental concerns, even if some of them are overstated. Farmers may feel that an urban audience does not understand their challenges, but the UK is a highly urbanised country.

It doesn't help that some farmers still appear to be in denial about climate change according to a recent report in Farmers Weekly. An survey carried out for them by Macleod Research found that more than two-thirds of the farmers interviewed believe the increase in extreme weather events seen over the past five years is due to climate change – but many believe it isn’t.

Some 31 per cent said they believed weather patterns were cyclical and had always changed over the years Many said weather patterns were natural and had little or nothing to do with mankind or the impact of human activity. Of those who believe extreme weather is due to climate change, 68 per cent said it was a threat to their business but 32 per cent of respondents said they believed it was an opportunity to do things different, including growing different crops and starting new enterprises.

NFU president Minnette Batters has recently claimed that farmers are feeling 'hurt and demoralised' by the anti-meat agenda that has labelled them the problem and not part of the solution to mitigating climate change. The simplistic argument that meat is bad and plant-based alternatives are good has been 'enormously detrimental' to farmers’ mental health, she argued. However, she did go on to accept that the farming industry will face huge change.

The Guardian article argues that 'technology is opening a whole new direction for food production, which will take farming away from the farm. Robotics and drones are reducing the need for humans to be on the land, while vertical farming, in which vegetables can be grown in sunless warehouses using LED lighting, gene editing and metagenics – the engineering of specific enzymes or proteins – are coming up with new definitions of food.' Vertical farming in my view is still very niche, but I will examine it in more depth in a later post.

However, if new technology is going to be adopted at a time when farm profits are likely to fall, some government funding to accelerate the rate of adoption would be justified.

Can agribots boost farm productivity?

It is well known that UK farming has a poor productivity record. Given the phasing out of subsidies after Brexit, farmers need to find new ways to run their businesses more efficiently.

One way forward is the use of new robotic technologies, in particular for weeding. Advances in computer vision are making this possible and The Economist reviews the potential: Robots are on the rise.

One of the companies discussed is RootWave which is located close to me in Kineton in Warwickshire. Their product uses electricity to zap weeds. Clearly a small start up company they recently acquired €6.5m of funding: Financing success

There is clearly some interesting experimentation and product development going on. But what are the chances of adoption by farmers? Capital costs are always a consideration and these agribots need skilled operators who have to be trained and then paid high wages.

Agricultural innovation usually follows a bell shaped curve with some farmers willing to be early adopters. They might be encouraged by government grants towards training and capital costs. Another round of the Countryside Productivity Small Grants Scheme is expected later in the year, but last time its budget was just £15m and the maximum any one farmer could claim was £12k which may not be game changing.

No profit in dairy sector before basic payments

According to consultants Andersons dairy budgets for the 2020/21 milk year show no profit before BPS payments: Dairy budgets

The main factor is a lower milk price, estimated to be down by 0.8p a litre. The firm sees the next decade as one of profound change as subsidies are withdrawn. Milk producers will find accessing the ELMS scheme more challenging than other sectors. Farmers in the sector are least likely to have joined existing stewardship schemes.

Dairy farming in the traditional milk production region of Wisconsin in the United States is also facing big challenges, with farms either going industrial or going bust. The rising cost of labour is one factor: Business has gone sour in America's dairy capital

UK consumers drink just half the milk they did in 1974. Research by market analyst Kantar found that the decline can be linked to reduced consumption of foods such as tea, coffee and breakfast cereals. The uptake of plant-based alternatives is also contributing, although these products still account for 4.6 per cent of the volume of all milk sold in the UK.

The answer no longer lies in the soil

NFU Mutual have produced an excellent report on diversification activity by UK farmers. What is clear is that one response to the phasing out of subsidies is an increase in diversification activity: Diversification

A note of caution is necessary. Much of the low hanging fruit has already been taken. Diversification requires a different skill set from farming and often considerable capital, so risks need to be carefully assessed.

NFU Mutual's Chris Walsh told Farmers Weekly:'There is only room for a certain number of farm shops, holiday cottages and wedding venues, so farmers planning to diversify need to do careful research and costings before they start converting cow sheds into cafes.'

Some of the traditional favourites such as on farm holiday lets are seeing a fall off in income as customers favour long weekend breaks over weekend stays. Mind you, one can adapt to this by offering luxury accommodation for large family get togethers, having shelled out a four figure sum this morning.

Perhaps most worrying is that the sector most under threat by market trends as well as subsidy withdrawal is livestock farming in challenging locations which often offer fewer diversification opportunities. Forestry is one that may be available.

Defra statistics show that diversification generated £740m of income in 2018/19, up six per cent on the previous year.

Cornish MP is new Defra secretary

George Eustice has been promoted from Minister of State at Defra to be the new Secretary of State. He is the MP for Redruth and Camborne.

Coming from a farming background, his family still run a fruit farm, restaurant and farm shop in Cornwall where they also have a herd of South Devon cattle and the country’s oldest herd of the rare breed of pig, the British Lop.

His appointment has been welcomed by the NFU.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) says the appointment of George Eustice as environment secretary signals the arrival of a ‘real countryman’ at the heart of government.

Christopher Graffius, BASC’s executive director of communications and public affairs, said: 'George Eustice is a farmer with a sound knowledge of the environment and rural affairs. His appointment means that we have a real countryman at the helm and this can only be of benefit to conservation, shooting and rural affairs.'

Could Dom's deal be bad for UK farmers?

The Foreign Secretary, the Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab is visiting Australia today and tomorrow: Foreign Office statement

A free trade agreement with Australia has received much less attention than one with the United States in terms of its impact on agriculture, but it could actually be greater. My concerns in the past have focused on exports on lamb and cheese, but I may have been focusing on the wrong target.

According to Wake up to Money on Radio 5 this morning, Australia is interested in beef exports, including hormone reared beef (which concerns me more than chlorinated chicken, although that is bad enough).

The writer visits an irrigation area in New South Wales

This figures as some years ago I was given a study tour by the Department of Agriculture in Australia. We visited a huge dry lot beef farm where our guide kept referring to the 'beasts'. No doubt they were properly looked after, but I don't think animal welfare activists would like what I saw. The entire output was going to Japan, but some of it could easily be sent to the UK.

I also visited a wine production area which relied heavily on irrigation (with consequent impacts on the Murray-Darling system). Australia is also interested in more access for its wines and claims that that could costs by £1 a bottle.

Much Australian wine is at the cheap end of the market (I have crossed the famous 'Jacobs Creek') although I have had some excellent wines from the Margaret River area of Western Australia. There is probably no real threat to the developing UK industry (I should declare that I am investor in Chapel Down in Tenterden, Kent).

It's livestock producers that should be concerned.'

Incidentally, according to The Times yesterday the Foreign Secretary is known in Whitehall as 'Dim Dom'. I am sure this is unfair, but I also know how tough and well-informed Australian negotiators can be.