By Matt Donald, pig & poultry farmer, north Yorkshire
An extraordinarily early harvest for us up in the north, coinciding with one of the driest and has made for quite an easy summer for us and neighbouring arable farms. Yields have been favourable given the spring conditions and crops have managed to go straight into store without the need to dry them. As a predominantly pig and poultry based business, current cereal prices can stay as long as they wish to, however the pure arable farming side of agriculture would disagree.
Livestock farms are the ones that are making land purchases and growing, especially those with pigs, dairy and poultry. The benefit of livestock manure to aid crop yields, shines through in a year as dry as this, hence why more and more farmers are looking into their options to balance out arable farming. Where we are, bed and breakfast pigs are extremely popular. It is a regular income, as well as manure and slurry supply, and it reduces the cost of growing cereals as well.
This lends itself to poultry, at a time when sheds are needed to increase floor space to grow at 30kg. It is the arable businesses that should be considering diversification. Prioritising feeding chickens over sitting on a combine seat may take some learning, however these enterprises can go hand in hand on helping each other out.
If only the planning system meant these greenfield sites were granted easier and more cost effectively. I fear some farms are put off going into poultry in the first place, due to the huge planning fee gamble you take when applying to build a site, not really knowing the true chances of being successful or not. I doubt this government, which does not appear to value farmers, is likely to make any changes to this broken system any time soon.