Is minimum wage all a farmer gets?

Farming is no longer viable for the majority of those working the land, writes

HOW should a farmer measure his worth? The recent Teagasc survey on farm viability was interesting reading. Only 37pc of all farms were viable and only 26pc of sheep and 20pc of suckler farms. More intriguing was the definition of a viable farm. It was defined as offering a return to labour (ie, family farm’s own labour) of the minimum agricultural wage and a return on investment on non-land assets of 5pc.

Who defines a farmer is worth at the minimum wage? Look at recent Luas and Dublin Bus strikes. A key tenet of most employment agreements is that higher pay goes with experience.

Throughout the public sector, even if you don’t perform better than you did in previous years, the very fact that you remain on the books entitles you to incremental increases.

Most farmers are far more experienced at their role than the average Luas driver. Yet, it seems that there is no implicit acceptance that a farmer is worth more than the most inexperienced novice seeking employment on a farm.

I was reminded of this again when speaking at Terre 2016 (Agrifood Conference) in France last week, when a French farmer in the audience stood up and slated all of the agencies in France.

While the discussion was about adding value to French agri products and the development of the ‘Made in France’ label, this farmer was having none of it.

In a speech that would resonate with farmers throughout Ireland, he said he was sick of everybody else benefiting from his work and risk-taking and at a rate of pay far better than he was getting.

By contrast, this 60-yearold with a lifetime of experience was still lucky to make the wage of someone starting out a career in any other sector. He went on to warn the many agricultural students who were at the event, to change course before it was too late.

Don’t be a busy fool for everybody else summed up his estimation of farming.

The notable thing about this conference was that the French were very interested in what we were achieving with Bord Bia’s Origin Green. The French are developing their own ‘Made in France’ label amid fears in Ireland that their market is becoming more protectionist.

There isn’t a single speech made in France, which does not refer to the special high quality of their own product. Much the same as people here saying we have the best beef in the world.

So the phrase running faster to stand still comes to mind. While it would be an act of heresy to question the strategy behind all this added value, one wonders if farmers are getting any real benefit from this.

Particularly when the ingenious marketing concepts invariably involve more hassle and cost for farmers at a time when the aforementioned Teagasc study shows that they don’t have time for this because they need to get busy working two jobs.

Brexit has focused minds on the impact on our most significant export market. The Red Tractor label has been used by British farmers to differentiate their product from all imports. Ireland’s response was to try to keep up by developing an even better label.

However, a fundamental problem is that both the French and the British have large domestic markets and when it comes to it, the real point of differentiation is a call to patriotic duty.

All of the rules on movements, residencies and perhaps even on carbon footprint are potentially a vain effort to convince people of something that, deep down, they place no value on.

Are the people who voted for Brexit because of an innate sense of British nationalism going to be persuaded that Irish beef is just as good as their own or are they going to go to the supermarket that offers them the cheapest food?