By Matt Donald, pig & poultry producer, north Yorkshire
Without trying to repeat my last article, as another month passes we see another blow to farming, with the withdrawal of SFI. The scheme designed to deliver environmental benefits alongside food production. This isn’t going to directly affect poultry farmers, other than those with arable land or free range producers looking for support for tree and hedgerow planting on ranges.
In my opinion however, it is setting the precedent for all of agriculture, proofing it is extremely low on this governments agenda. As a poultry industry what may this mean? As we look for support to increase quality labour supply, easier planning applications for poultry sites or increased fairness on import standards, I fear the help won’t come, because Labour are showing us farming is not on their agenda.
For the poultry, it could well see an increased amount of farms looking to join the sector, largely as arable enterprises look to diversify into livestock, a broiler or free range unit can be a valuable addition.
UK Agriculture as a whole has such high standards, we must unite and fight harder than ever to get policy makers to understand that food doesn’t just appear on shelves. The nations food supply is becoming increasingly at risk of destruction by ill informed pen pushers in London, we cannot let that happen to the general public who do support UK produce.
Away from politics, all three breeder sites are in production and performing well, we have had a recent focus on egg utilisation- (the amount of eggs produced suitable for hatching), as to gain even half a % across a flock would give us another chick per bird. We made some slight changes to our nest system on turnaround and time will tell as to whether this has reduced the amount of cracks we get. Once a chick is laid, transfers from nest mat all the way through to the incubator need to be managed in a way that minimises any damage to the egg.