While many agricultural sectors rely on seasonal unskilled labour, especially around harvest, the requirements of dairy farming are very different. This is mainly due to the daily ‘harvest’ of milk which demands 24-7 attention year-round, relatively high levels of skill and an acquired knowledge of the farm and animals. The ability of UK dairy farmers to source domestic labour to fill roles in their businesses has progressively declined in recent years; now, many workers on dairy farms come from central or eastern Europe, an arrangement that has worked well for both employers and employees.

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The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) is concerned that with the UK’s pending exit from the European Union, access to a large workforce meeting dairy farming’s specific requirements will be lost. This could have significant impact on the UK’s c. 13,000 dairy producers and their production of what is a tenth of Europe’s total milk supply. Furthermore, the production of milk is responsible for 80,000 jobs within the British food and drink sector, creates a turnover of £6 billion, and supplies around 36% of our daily calcium requirements. With UK self-sufficiency for dairy products at only 77% and ambitions from New Zealand and Ireland among others to increase their exports to the UK, a decline in domestic dairy production arising from a lack of labour could lead to long-term displacement of domestic production from imports.

To explore this issue in more depth, RABDF undertook a survey of UK dairy farmers in 2014 when the prospect of an EU referendum was first raised, and again in 2016 after the referendum had taken place. It has also conducted a survey via YouGov in 2017 of the British public, to determine willingness to work on dairy farms. The dairy farmer surveys found an increasing reliance on semi-skilled and skilled labour from central and eastern Europe between 2014 and 2016, and rising concern among producers over the future potential loss of access to that labour. The consumer survey indicated a fundamental lack of willingness among the general public to entertain the typical working environments found on a dairy farm, such as jobs involving animals or machinery, locations in rural areas and relatively unsocial working hours.

These findings are wholly supported by a wide range of reports issued over the past decade on the image and profile of farming, and changing expectations among the wider UK workforce. In conclusion, urgent action is needed. RABDF calls on the Government to recognise the very specific needs of the UK dairy farming sector for permanent year-round semi-skilled and skilled labour, and the current inability and unwillingness of the current UK workforce to fill this gap. A lack of suitable labour risks disadvantaging UK dairy farmers, and negatively impacting the economic viability of the sector, UK food security and farmer and animal health and welfare.

A solution would be to ensure farmers could continue to source semi-skilled and skilled labour from European countries in the short to medium term. In the longer term, the sector itself must address its underlying lack of attractiveness. It must promote its relatively competitive pay and address the problems of unsocial hours and rural isolation. Those who derive great job satisfaction from working in the sector should be used to promote it. Negativity must be curbed as this diminishes the sector’s prospects in the eyes of the public; a positive outlook would do much to improve appeal.

Steps should also be taken to increase the awareness within schools of career opportunities in dairy farming, and challenge misperceptions among teaching staff and careers advisers which may support negative views or impressions of a low opportunity sector. Taking action in these areas will not only prevent the deterioration of the industry – it could open new opportunities to increase self-sufficiency and revenue from this valuable sector.

Matt Knight, managing director of RABDF, said the survey highlighted the urgent need for  government and industry to work together urgently to avoid a possible ‘cliff-edge’ shortage of labour in the near future.

“Government needs to first of all recognise the very specific needs of the UK dairy farming sector for permanent year-round semi-skilled and skilled labour. Furthermore, those roles are not going to be filled from the domestic workforce in the near future – a survey of the general public we conducted last year only 4% were willing to consider the type of job roles found on a dairy farm.

“But we as a dairy industry also need to take collective and cohesive action to improve the image of dairy farming and the attractiveness of the sector as a career option to the domestic workforce.

“Adopting a positive attitude and changing the message from problems to opportunities would help, potentially using advocates who have forged a successful career in the sector.”

The full report can be found on http://www.rabdf.co.uk/