East Anglia’s farmers and food producers must overcome a raft of challenges in 2022 says Gary Ford, regional director of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU). Here, he outlines five of the main priorities.
As the NFU’s food security summit highlighted, this is an issue impacting every farm business. A joint food industry report, published in August, highlighted an average vacancy rate of 13pc across the food chain, from farm to fork, and estimated there were more than 500,000 vacancies across food and drink businesses.
We’ve seen the first ever mass cull of healthy pigs in the UK as a shortage of abattoir workers in both the pig and poultry sector had a significant impact on farms, a shortage of seasonal workers that has resulted in fruit and veg being left unpicked in fields, a shortage of lorry drivers and a limited choice of products on supermarket shelves. We desperately need an end to short-term fixes and the implementation of long-term solutions if we want to avoid this crisis continuing.
Tackling rural crime
Rural crime is an issue that is of huge concern to farmers across East Anglia. Our 2021 rural crime survey showed that 67pc of respondents had experienced hare coursing in the previous year, 62pc fly tipping and 38pc theft. We’ve seen gangs targeting high-value GPS equipment in Norfolk and other parts of the region and concerning incidents of livestock worrying.
These crimes leave rural residents feeling more vulnerable and they also have knock-on effects on farm businesses – “a tax on business”, as one NFU member called it. If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected in 2022. For example, the carbon dioxide crisis of 2021, caused when some chemical factories closed due to high wholesale energy prices, came out of the blue and had a huge impact throughout the supply chain.
Farmers are having to cope with the legacy of that now, through the soaring cost of fertiliser, up by more than 180pc year-on-year, alongside a huge spike in energy prices. Short-term measures that could help include ministerial intervention on the Environment Agency’s interpretation of the Farming Rules for Water, which are inadvertently preventing the spreading of organic fertiliser on farms.
We’re also calling for an urgent review of Defra’s Future Farming Programme for England, including the temporary postponement of direct payment subsidy reductions in 2022 and 2023, as farmers and growers continue to deal with multiple challenges which are causing severe disruptions to food producing businesses.
Replacing subsidy losses
The new year will be a year of change for farm businesses in East Anglia, as the post-Brexit transition from the EU’s system of direct subsidies under the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) gets under way. We know where the government wants to be by 2028, when BPS is due to end, but many of the details of how it will reach that destination are still sketchy.
Alongside the volatility that our businesses are facing, it is vital that this agricultural transition is a smooth one, with schemes that attract farmers in sufficient numbers to deliver the benefits government is looking for. Every farm should be able to access and receive a fair recognition and opportunity as they adapt away from the old system. The government’s new Sustainable Farming Incentive, for example, must acknowledge the significant costs farmers could incur in delivering “public goods” and recognise that in the payment rates, at a time when direct payments are being phased out.
Environmental pressures
The environment is of huge importance to farmers, consumers and government alike. Farmers are, after all, the custodians of the countryside and are responsible for maintaining the countryside in its current state.
However, maintaining and enhancing the environment causes significant challenges to commercial food production, be that the very divisive Farming Rules for Water, which limit autumn applications of manure, availability of water, which is business critical to so many of our members, or contributing to achieving “net zero”. Our industry is almost uniquely placed to be part of the solution to climate change, as both an emissions source and a sink.
If we’re to meet the NFU’s ambitious goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions across the whole of agriculture in England and Wales by 2040 we must use 2022 to build on the progress that’s already been made. And we need concerted support from government, industry and other key groups to help deliver this carbon neutral goal.
Farm cuts costs by ‘recycling’ its worn-out machines
A Norfolk farm is rebuilding and recycling its old machinery to save money in a difficult financial climate. With cost pressures rising and subsidies being phased out, farms are seeking innovative ways to make savings. OW Wortley and Sons, based at Methwold, near Thetford, farms 4,500 arable acres including 1,000 acres of potatoes and 300 acres of parsnips.
Rather than buy new equipment, the farmers has been refurbishing worn-out potato and parsnip machinery. The most recent project has just been completed to rebuild an old potato harvester into a specialised parsnip harvester. Farmer Andy Wortley said the strategy brought “considerable” cost savings and made more efficient use of the farm’s own labour during quieter winter months.
“The boys have done a great job and this machine could now be good for another 20 years,” he said.
“From a recycling point of view, I have got a machine that has already given 20-25 years of good service and we are taking it apart and it is coming back like a new machine again. “The last potato harvester we bought two years ago cost £135,000 and a destoner is about £65,000. And even with new machinery you are putting new parts on them. “So this is good productive work during the quieter winter months, which is also saving us a considerable amount of money.
“We will probably have two full-time people on it. They will have to go and harvest stuff every now and again, but then they can come back to working on the machines. “We even make a lot of the parts ourselves. You need the skills to do these machines up – these are not highly-trained technicians, but they can weld and profile-cut. “It is at least 50pc cheaper than buying a new machine. I reckon we spent just £10-15,000 to rebuild the destoner and that includes the cost of the labour.
“I am not in business for the privilege of buying new machinery, I want to make some money as well, so if I spend all my money on machinery there is nothing left for profit. It seems like some people are farming just to buy new machines.”
