By Gary Ford, policy advisor, BFREPA
The first quarter of the year has brought a strength of feeling in the farming community not seen before for a long time. Farming and farmers are a generally quiet community who are not comfortable protesting but rather getting on with the job despite the adversity and challenges that are frequently seen and experienced in farming. Dealing with flood and drought and very busy times, particularly around calving and lambing, are taken in their stride. Specifically in our sector we have the annual challenge, worry and financial impact that is avian flu.
What is difficult to understand and accept for the farming community is when the government seem to not value what we do and what we contribute to the economy – locally and nationally. No different to a poor employer where an employee’s efforts go unappreciated or unnoticed. This is demoralising as we all, instinctively, like to think that our work and toil is valued and recognised.
The poultry sector, which is an important part of the farming community, is equally impacted by the changes that has led to this strength of feeling. The sudden closure of SFI will rob those not already in the scheme of an opportunity to develop their range area and beyond and, with expensive specialist sheds and equipment and, in many cases, limited land area, arguably as a sector we stand more to lose from the inheritance tax changes. As we always have done, we carry on farming and must not give up hope, albeit a thought needs to be given to those family farms with aged or ill parents or those that have lost capacity.
The profitability of the egg sector is at least welcomed and needed after a difficult trading period in the two years or so following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We do need to use this time of good margins to take the opportunity to invest in our farms whether that be more concrete to improve vehicle access and aid cleanliness or incorporating hygiene stations to improve our biosecurity or new equipment and machinery to improve productivity. Investing in our business for resilience and future proofing is under our control. At a time when so many things are being decided outside of our control, leading to this strength of feeling in the farming community, it is more important than ever that we focus our effort, energy and investment into what we can control.