From LEAF Farmer Duncan Farrington
April Newsletter
Spring is here,
the clocks have changed, and with the longer, warmer days the countryside is bursting into action. Spring lambs are bounding in the fields, birds are singing in the hedgerows, and everyone looks forward to the new season.
Following a much needed feed of fertilizer the rapeseed is rapidly growing in-front of our eyes. Back in the middle of March it woke up, still resembling the look of cabbage leaves, only six weeks latter by the end of April it will of grown to full height, around five feet tall with the spectacular yellow petals giving a splash of colour to the countryside. The wheat and other crops are also rapidly growing. Although the transformation may not be so spectacular, it happens just the same, and now the true potential of the crops can start to be seen, so careful feeding and looking after crops is essential if we are to achieve a good healthy yield come harvest.
The price of many of our arable commodities continues to be strong. Fuelled by the general shortage of food in the world; combined with financial institutions speculating in soft commodities following the scares in the sub-prime mortgage markets that seem to be affecting the global economy of late. This is something way beyond my comprehension, but never the less amazes me how closely everything is inter-related, giving us all a roller-coaster ride, in which the cost of the houses we want to buy can effect the price of a loaf of bread we want to eat.
Whilst arable farmers are enjoying a boom in the value of the crops they grow, the same is not true for many livestock farmers. Around 60% of the grain grown in Britain is used to feed animals. So whilst an arable farmer enjoys higher grain prices, the livestock farmer has to endure higher feed costs, whilst the price they receive has not increased to the same degree. In particular in the farming press at the moment, there is great concern over British pig farmers, who seam to be suffering from higher welfare standards imposed on them in this country alone, compared to the rest of the Europe, equating in higher costs. With pork being used by some supermarkets as a weapon in the price war armoury, and are buying the cheapest they can source. The situation is so severe, that many farmers are simply giving up producing pork. This has not gone totally unnoticed, as the better retailers recognise the potential loss of high welfare British pork, and would rather promote on quality than cheapness. Let’s hope others start to see the light, and have the confidence to change their obsession for unsustainable price deflation before it is not too late.
