Understanding the business is paramount for farmers

The mild weather continues and is threatening complacency? The birds are singing the grass is green but it’s mid-winter; in Europe it’s very different indeed. A tremendous freeze has been taking place with many people dead in the colossal snowfalls in the northern Alps. Snowfall has been in meters and huge avalanches been taking place with further risks in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

It all started on New Year’s Day when storm Zeetje swept in from the North Atlantic, striking Scandinavia and northern Europe. Water was raised as much as two metres when a surge along the Baltic coast of Germany and southern Denmark caused serious flooding, the storm then diving into Eastern Europe with huge snowfalls.

Parts of southern Poland were buried and cold wind blasting off the Balkans hit the warmer waters of the Adriatic Sea, generating massive snowfalls on the Apennine Mountains of central and southern Italy.

Heavy snow hit Greece where people died, and snow in Istanbul delayed flights. Parts of the Middle East were affected and snowfalls stranded people in Lebanon.

This can be blamed on us! Here we are sitting pretty with a block of high pressure holding the fort while our usual wet and windy weather has been diverted on a wild detour to the far north before swooping down again over Europe. The outlook still looks good for us which is more bad news for Europe.

While the Oxford Farming Conference was taking place at the beginning of this month with industry leaders rounding on Michael Gove to protect standards, the back to the future gathering which tries to replace the event was also taking place; it is called The Oxford Real Farming Conference.

The NFU president challenged the Secretary of State, with less than three months to ‘B-day’, he should stop talking and start regulating. “If you believe it, write it down,” said our feisty lady. Mr Gove replied that government has no intention of lowering standards and will use all the tools available to protect our industry. He went on to say that he has been quite clear that lowering standards would undermine the strength of our domestic production and cause uncertainty for consumers.

While this all raged with Labour’s Barry Gardiner landing some heavy blows with comments such as: “The danger is that Michael Gove might not allow UK standards to slip, but allow in products from the USA which have a minimum levels allowed for substances such as rat hair or rat droppings; the UK and EU levels are zero.”

Always with an eye to the main chance, New Zealand trade negotiator Sir Lockwood Smith thought we are all obsessed with standards. “The New Zealand wine industry has soared, not because of legislated standards but because it has massively and unilaterally increased quality since the days of protected agriculture, when there was a 40 per cent tariff to protect our home market.”

Dr Clive Black, head of research at Shore Capital castigated all politicians, simmering with frustration. He stated that the present position was a national embarrassment. The audience showed their hand when 60 per cent were more reassured following Michael Gove’s speech and 40 per cent less assured (at least it was not 48 per cent :52 per cent).

Caroline Lucas claimed that a tax should be applied to red meat; the more intensive the system, the higher the tax (nothing to do with the environment then which I thought the Green Party are keen on?). When challenged if this would hit the poorer in society, the answer was classic political speak: “That is not my intention.” Sir Lockwood Smith again pitched forth that in New Zealand they are seeing an increase in anaemia causes which correlated with a rise in vegetarian diet and decline in red meat consumption.

Over at the Town Hall, the 1950s debate was in full flow. Here was the call for the £3 billion farming kitty to be retained (more than that will be needed if we follow their advice) and the lack of realism prevailed. This is all about method of production labelling on food, the push for much more extensive systems, more expensive food, less (or no) meat consumption (or dairy depending who you spoke to), advocates of free range milk (whatever that is) and so on.

Then a butcher jumps up and said that there are too many labels already (retailers I know agree) and this leads to real confusion. He added that it’s fine to bang on about outdoor reared and this and that, but if it tastes like cardboard no one would buy it. Later the gathering had the temerity to discuss farmer wellbeing and isolation when the irony is that they (particularly their followers) are the main culprits.

The vegan, who jumped on his feet to claim that

“The sad fact is that most of our farmland is used to grow wheat and barley for intensive cattle systems,” was politely informed that 60 per cent of UK land is grassland. That is typical of the gulf which exists between our industry and the perception of those who oppose it without any sense or knowledge of what we do or any idea of what we are about as farmers.

The interesting fact about the suited and booted brigade and the Ban the Bomb fringe across the road is that they are both as groups, wanting the best for British farming. The ideal of course would be to amalgamate both conferences and have joint outcomes and shared sessions but while real farmers are absent from both events that is unlikely to happen. Oxford pulls together the extremities of farming and most do not attend as they are too busy earning a living.

At the levy body (AHDB) we produced figures showing that milk production was forging ahead in December, although pressure on milk prices and higher feed costs might rein that back a bit this month.

As stocks get tight, more animals will be culled and yields will fall, addressing supply and demand as we head towards spring? Milk prices are still good overall and as European production falls, we should be in a better position.

Our AHDB business benchmarking tool FarmBench is about to be launched and is being trialled with selected farmers. This is the first bench-marking tool which caters for all the enterprises on a mixed farm, allowing each enterprise to be looked at individually.

One farm may have a profitable dairy enterprise but losing money on a sheep enterprise, potato, arable or beef. Conversely an arable operation may be very good but the farm may not be so good with its beef cattle or flock of sheep.

Benchmarking is an essential tool to measure and look at performance, change things if necessary or improve overall. As we approach a new world, understanding the business will be paramount and any farmer who wishes to survive and thrive must know his or her performance and costs. Their productivity and profitability depend on it. I hope this new tool which has no equal in the industry and has been paid for by farmers will be taken advantage of.