Today, I am retiring from the AF Board...

Today I officially retire from the main board of AF after 11 years; it is the right time for me to step down. Although I strongly believe this is a positive move for the organisation that needs new enquiring minds and a fresh perspective to go forward, of course, my retirement comes with a certain feeling of sadness. AF has been a big part of my life as well as my career and although I am sure I am leaving at the right time and with the organisation in safe hands, I know I will miss being part of AF and the dynamism and challenges that brings.

As has been announced, I will be at Honingham at least twice a month for the membership executive and as Chairman of the newly formed AF Logic board so I am not completely departing, just taking on a new role. I would like to take this opportunity thank all those who have helped make the past 12 years a fascinating, sometimes challenging but overall, a thoroughly fulfilling and rewarding experience and look forward to seeing AF develop into a stronger and even more successful business than it already is.

HOW MUCH ??

How much… ?

Why farming REALLY struggles to recruit bright young things.

My son is 17. He has four jobs and has a place at Harper Adams University this September to study agriculture. He currently wants to be an agronomist.

The only condition on his entry is ten weeks work experience. Which is easy for him to do. He lives with us on the farm and he has a full driving licence. The problem for the industry is that in all of his other jobs, he earns as much per hour as he does working overtime for me. And that’s not because I’m mean. We take both sandwich and harvest students alongside apprentices and could pay them the minimum wage. We choose to pay them more because they are worth it and we value them. Sadly, a high street fashion chain and a national gym also value young people, and they are not asking their trainees to work outside doing menial and often dirty work in adverse weather, often with older staff. They are offering staff discounts, a great team ethos, prospects and career progression. In fact, the only thing that farming has going for it when you put it like that is that you CAN earn more money, but only if you work LONG hours.

What a selling point !

Now this post is not about my son. He will enjoy working for us this summer and is committed to farming as an industry. I do wonder whether someone from outside this industry would find it quite so easy to overlook those other factors.

Brexit. Really ?

In 1926, 250g of butter cost 5p. By 2016, the same butter costs around £1.25. However, if the cost of butter had risen as fast as house prices, it would be around £25 for the same 250g. Fortunately the cost of food does not rise as fast as house prices, but it does rise slower than inflation and that is largely down to the common agricultural policy. 

The CAP has undoubtedly been a success in ensuring food security for Europe and its role in reducing the cost of food to the consumer cannot be denied. Indeed, consumers now spend only 11% of their income on food as opposed to over 30% fifty years ago. I should be very clear that I have believed for many years that UK agriculture would be better off without subsidies. It would solve succession issues at a stroke and change what is undeniably an inefficient industry into one in the same class as New Zealand’s. However, the net effect of unilateral subsidy removal in New Zealand in the mid 1980s was devastating, reducing land prices and driving some of the best, but most highly geared farmers out of business. Having been in Brussels in the week of the recent attacks and seen at first hand the infighting and politics that exist within the EU, I can understand the frustrations expressed by many. If any of you believe that the UK government would continue to support UK agriculture to the tune of 3.1bn post Brexit at the expense of the NHS, schools or anti terrorism, I certainly do not. If we think that our existing partners will rush to build new trading relationships with us after we have damaged their currency and weakened their trading position, I do not. We must remain in the EU, and work with it to reduce subsidies and tariffs.

This article first appeared in the Anglia Farmers members magazine in June 2016.