By Matthew Sharp

The National Farmers Union Conference held this week in Birmingham, set out what the NFU seeks to achieve in the coming year and what progress has been made so far. But how will these decisions affect and be implemented on our farms?

With a range of influential speakers the conference provided many questions. Topics from bTB to tenant farming to the price of food were all addressed and a good focus on the next generation was encouraging. But what will the actual effect be on our farmers?

Dairy Sector - intrinsic to British agriculture

In the dairy sector, farmers were told that although the trend for commodity prices and farm gate milk prices has been upward for the past two years, there is still a pay gap between milk value and the price paid. Farming Minister Jim Paice said that dairy is intrinsic to British agriculture and the British landscape but he said we must stop focusing on the price of liquid milk and “lift our eyes to the bigger global picture”. Speaking at the Dairy in Demand meeting, he continued “Although Britain was 80% self-sufficient in milk it is only 50% self-sufficient in dairy products. These sales were being lost to countries that we should be exporting to”.

Looking at Input costs and profit is the way in which farmers can influence profitability; it’s not all down to the milk price, a similar story which could be applied to the beef sector too. Northumberland dairy farmer, Bob Maxwell said; “I appreciate the minister’s bullish approach but I’m not sure how farmers are supposed to rise to the challenge of extra production in the face of a declining number of dairy farms. The number of dairy units has reduced from over 200 to just over 20 in our area. We feel like the last of the Mohicans “.

Chief Dairy Adviser Rob Newbery introduced the Green Food Dairy Scheme, which has been introduced by Defra but is being championed by the NFU. It is part of a commitment to increase production while limiting environmental impact. He said that the NFU wanted to see transparent pricing and added that exclusivity was incompatible with defined volumes.

While the message from the dairy sector was clear there was much uncertainty in the livestock breakout session with regards to the sheep sector and namely the latest outbreak of the Schmallenberg virus. NFU Director General, Kevin Roberts, who chaired the livestock session, voiced concerns over the virus and reassured farmers that the NFU were working with as many government organisations as they could. Farmers were urged to report any cases to their vets so that a bigger picture could be built up.

Aside from the Schmallenberg disease, Alistair Mackintosh, Livestock board chairman said it was a good time to be a livestock farmer and the short and medium term future looks good. There are big challenges going forward but we can look forward to big opportunities he said. The tight supply of beef and sheep meat saw farm gate prices rise and work done by Eblex and other organisations had opened up 37 new export markets NFU economist, Claire Rowntree said. The future 'continues to look bright' for beef and sheep output prices and she expected exports to remain 'robust' over the next year although admitted a large shift in exchange rates could change this.

Arable Sector - don't ignore the environmental agenda

In the arable sector, NFU chief arable adviser Guy Gagen stressed that arable farmers could no longer ignore the ‘environmental agenda’. British growers could see many lost sales to international companies looking to demonstrate environmental and corporate responsibility, if they could not demonstrate their ‘green credentials’. This is predominantly down to increasing stress from pressure groups, as many companies are requiring a lower protein content of grain which means less fertiliser is used so that they address their corporate social responsibility in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

On the European agenda, Paolo De Castro chairman of the European Agriculture and Rural Development committee understood the NFU’s concerns with the current CAP reform and backed their call for key amendments. He said; “Reform proposals, which are currently being considered by European Council and Parliament, should ‘defend food production and not just be an environmental policy”. This is something which Gail Soutar of the NFU backed, saying Defra needs to ‘fight for UK farmers’.

The next generation - need to think for themselves

The Next Generation meeting also proved interesting with the North East well represented, seeing three Cumbrian MP’s speaking. MPs Jamie Reid, Rory Stewart and Tim Farron delivered thought provoking talks on what they thought the future of agriculture had in store. Mr Reid started the session saying how he was envious of the next generation of farmers although they mustn’t fall into a comfort zone and that the next generation need to think for themselves and not just follow on what the previous generation has done. Mr Stewart added that the next generation needed to have an articulate conversation to challenge the people that come up with the buzzwords while Mr Farron stressed the importance of producing a new government food products strategy.

The uplands were also another key area which will prove to have big effects on many farmers. Speakers from Natural England and Defra re-iterated the need for ‘sustainable intensification’ a buzzword which many of us hear regularly. Chairman Poul Christensen spoke for Natural England saying that the Uplands Vision Document of 2009 ‘let his organisation down badly’ due to it being so controversial. “We told rather than listened and I’m very sorry how people perceived it,” he said.

Defra, who is currently in the middle of putting together a new blueprint, told conference that it had three aims; supporting English hill farmers, delivering public goods from the uplands and sustaining uplands communities Robin Mortimer, the department’s Director for Wildlife, Landscape and Rural Areas said; “The shift in policy within the Uplands Green Food Project is that environmental outcomes cannot be delivered instead of food production – it has to be alongside it” something which is likely to be encouraging for north east farmers.

Overall the conference had some strong messages and the future of agriculture looks bright. The re-election of Peter Kendall as President, Meurig Raymond as deputy and a change from Gwyn Jones to Adam Quinney as Vice-president should hopefully put the NFU in a strong position for the forthcoming year which looks to be challenging especially as CAP reform grows closer. The environment was a strong focus of the conference but the ability to produce food in sync with the environment was clearly recognised which will hopefully be welcoming to farmers.

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