Whatever else happens just don’t mention Brexit

Now that the farming world is well into this year’s round of autumn meetings and conferences there has been a bit of a theme emerging.

For it would appear that whatever else is up for discussion at these conventions of farming wisdom, one subject seems to be firmly off the agenda – and that is the topic of Brexit.

Maybe it’s simple Brexit fatigue – combined with the fact that there isn’t really anything new left to be said on the issue – but the subject hasn’t been getting flagged up in the conference flyers – and even when it is addressed it seems to be only with an air of resigned inevitability

So, it would appear that those who organise the annual round of gettogethers have had sufficient conscience to spare the sector a reminder that while we’re so close to the edge, so much remains unknown.

I, however, have no such qualms. But, instead of trying to predict whether we’ll have a soft, medium or hard boiled Brexit, or once again looking at the iniquities which the deal looks set to visit upon the industry, it might be time to comment on what might be the first delicate green shoots which mark the beginnings of a positive response from the industry.

Now don’t for a minute think that this piece is going to look upon our exit from the EU as a consummation devoutly to be wished – for there are more than few rubs.

And I can’t help but feel farming in Scotland finds itself is in the same position as the dinosaurs were in when they looked skywards at the end of the Cretaceous

0 Times are changing when it comes to grazing

period - and wondered what that increasingly large ball of fire in the sky might mean for them.

For there is a very real threat that as March the 29th hurtles towards us, it could mark the start of a process of mass extinction in the sector similar to that caused by the asteroid strike 66 million years ago.

But, and here’s where the hint of optimism starts, as we all know, while that event might have spelled the end for the dominant life-forms of the time, it certainly didn’t spell the end of life on earth.

And, hopefully, our industry might be the same – and what we might currently see as the small furry creatures eking out a meagre existence on the margins of the sector might go on to inherit the industry if not the world..

One sure sign that there is likely to be at least some survivors to the approaching cataclysm is the noticeable increase in the number of farmers willing to experiment, to try something new – and to take a bit of a chance. And these guys might just represent the first of the industry’s small furry creatures to replace the current lumbering giants which natural selection had favoured under the CAP.

It’s not that many years since there was really only one way to do things – and, with the exception of a few eccentrics, everyone in the industry seemed to follow

the same tramlines. We all ploughed, sowed with a single pass driller, adopted a three spray regime and got as much of our crop into the intervention store as we possibly could.

On the livestock side, while the go-ahead lads (with in-refugia worm resistance strategies still to be invented) would adopt clean grazing policies, we basically all set-stocked our fields and coped with grass flushes as best we could.

But there’s been a growing tendency for people in the industry to try something new, to be prepared to take a step away from the flock and, basically, to take a few risks.

In the arable sector, not only are we seeing growing interest in reduced tillage and direct drilling, but more people are picking at the edges of intercropping and investigating the use of cover crops and nitrogenfixing legume mixes.

The stock boys, too, are moving too – and as set stocking gave way to rotational grazing so it too has stepped aside for paddock grazing which is now being challenged by the dizzying heights of techno-grazing.

Andlet’snotforgettolook at the communication, innovation and collaboration which has helped the whole industry up its game in response to the privations of the past year.

The end might be nigh but for some it will be the beginning…