Source: Global Ag Media/The Pig Site, 22 August 2021, photo credit: The Mr Lender Blog
A post in The Conversation by Yorkshire-based farmer Peter Gittins has outlined the stresses and uncertainty facing UK agriculture as the country overhauls its subsidy regime.
You either love him or hate him, but Jeremy Clarkson’s documentary series about trying to get to grips with sheep rearing, tractor driving and running a farm shop at Diddly Squat Farm has certainly found an audience.
As someone who lives and works on the family farm and experiences the harsh realities in the show, I have found it enjoyable and relatable. Clarkson’s farming efforts were rewarded with a mere £142 in his first year. He did break the bank with a Lamborghini tractor and his crop yield was hit by unusually severe weather, but it gives a sense of how hard it is making money in farming.
Our 250-acre upland farm in west Yorkshire is an average size for this part of England. In meadows and rough grazing land, we run around 60 head of suckler beef cattle and about 100 breeding ewes. The farm is run by my 68-year-old father, my younger brother and myself.
They do the bulk of the work with the animals and I oversee administrative duties while studying for a PhD in rural entrepreneurship, focusing on the challenges farmers in the beef and sheep sector face and the types of business strategies they are using to respond.
At the farm we have been busy as always, making hay when the sun shines, shearing the sheep, calving and spending considerable amounts of time form-filling and complying with government red tape. We have been incredibly lucky to isolate ourselves in the stunning countryside during the COVID lockdowns. But like many farmers, we’re very worried about how Brexit is affecting our industry.
The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.
