Western Daily Press (Saturday)
So many problems, so few answers
For farming, there must be a balance between sustainability and self-sufficiency, writes
THIS year I haven’t heard the cuckoo. Years ago, we had a stuttering cuckoo that would return at the beginning of May without fail. “C-c-c-cuckoo” it would go. I miss it.
May is a wonderful month. The countryside is at its very best, verdant, green and full of promise. This year it started very dry and sunny, after a dry April. Farming is very weather dependent, and there are many sayings to back this up.
A peck of March dust is worth a king’s ransom, ne’re pass a clout till May is out. A swarm in May is worth a load of hay. A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon and a swarm of bees in July isn’t worth a fly.
A dry spring is always welcome on a grazing dairy farm, and this year our cows were out on January 26, and have been round the paddocks four times. However, farmers also want rain, for their crops and for grass growth, and until the recent rain things were looking dodgy, so the appearance of some heavy rain was very welcome.
Friday, May 13 was our wedding anniversary. Not many people get married on the 13th of the month, but we were quite happy, as it meant there was a good choice of days available for our wedding reception. This year we booked a romantic meal at a popular Japanese restaurant. All was going well and, while I had been watching the little black ant running round the table for some time, I didn’t feel the need to take action. However, my husband suddenly gave it a flick, so that it flew straight into my cleavage (I had put my best dress on for this special occasion). Well, I’ve heard of ants in your pants, but this was something quite different.
I looked down to investigate and found it was running round my bra in a panic, and my husband collapsing in laughter. What to do? Rather than embarrass myself in the restaurant, I decided to try and ignore what was happening inside my bra. At least it was a black ant and wasn’t
going to sting me, but I did wonder where it went next?
We didn’t hold it against the restaurant which was excellent and we recommend the black cod. I am sure the black ant was a one-off!
I’ve heard it say that if all the industrial buildings in the UK with south-facing roofs were fitted with solar panels, it would provide 50% of the country’s electricity.
This could be a good way to go. Farmers are currently being targeted by developers and could be sorely tempted by the eye-watering offers. If they have 100 to 200 acres of land available, or are part of a larger scheme, they are being offered the opportunity to lease their land out for energy generation projects – for £1,000 an acre a year, index linked for 30 years. They would never make this kind of money from farming. The land can still be used to graze
sheep, and pigs were also mentioned, though I could see them happily working their way through the panels.
Larger farms with some grade three land are most likely to benefit, or farmers who want to retire and have no successors. There will be conflict between the emotional attachment to the farm, and the very attractive business opportunity.
On our farm, we have been approached to take part in a scheme which would have run through the middle of the village, involving several farms. As far as I know, there was no immediate response and the scheme has been set up nearer to the next little town. There have been planning objections, particularly to solar parks and even more to windmills, where it can take years to get planning permission. Many wildlife trusts have already invested in solar panels in their fields, so can they be such a bad thing?
Personally, having brought my children up on the Teletubbies, I love windmills, seeing them as things of beauty, and it’s a fallacy that they are noisy, though all forms of renewable energy can affect birds.
Running concurrently with these, is the current horrendous price of electricity. We will have to look at solar panels on our roofs to combat the current electricity prices which could otherwise easily finish us off.
With all these projects, connection is key, and many electricity sub-stations need upgrading to be able to make this connection. The National Grid is leaving it to individual companies to take up the baton. It would be a good time to bring back a subsidy for roof solar, to combat the takeup of agricultural land by solar panel.
If we are all going over to electric cars, will there be enough renewable energy to make them environmentally friendly? If our fields are covered by solar panels, will there be enough capacity to grow enough homegrown food? For us to have enough imported tomatoes, bananas, oranges and other soft fruit means that much of Spain is covered in plastic. Nothing is simple. Batteries are produced using materials that have to be mined from the earth’s core – lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, copper, aluminium, steel and plastic are also used. Currently batteries cannot be recycled, though the position is improving with solar panels.
Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia is currently the biggest listed company in the world at 2.43 trillion dollars, pushing out technology giants like Apple. Saudi Arabia also has net zero targets, aiming to be the top supplier of hydrogen in the world. It has vast areas of flat land in the sun belt for solar panels. There are no such opportunities here. However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also investing in energy projects in the UK which might help the renewable industry progress here.
For farming, there needs to be a balance between sustainability and self-sufficiency. The withdrawal of the Basic Premium in favour of environmental schemes offering considerably less money is going to be to the detriment of our home production, unless more support is given. The £1,000 an acre index linked from solar panels is considerably more attractive than £30 an acre environmental payment, which also necessitates land to be given up, and is more in the nature of compensation.
Our pig industry has been decimated over the last year or so, egg producers are struggling as supermarkets will not increase the price of eggs to meet the increased costs. Milk payments to dairy farmers are going up but won’t meet the many extra bills. Up corn, down horn – arable farmers are seeing a doubling of corn prices which is of great relief for them, but bad for the livestock industry. Consumers are already struggling with increased prices, but if they don’t increase, our farmers will not survive. They can no longer cope with subsidising the nation’s food.
The world’s population is inexorably increasing with the subsequent strain on our planet’s resources
What to do?
So many problems, so few answers.
Ro Collingborn has been dairy chairman of the Women’s Food and Farming Union, on the Milk Development Council, the Veterinary Products Committee, the RSPCA Council and was a Wiltshire Wildlife Trust director.