{"id":26417,"date":"2021-08-17T23:58:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T23:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=26417"},"modified":"2021-08-18T19:54:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T19:54:11","slug":"im-a-sheep-and-cattle-farmer-in-england-and-brexit-has-left-farmers-in-fear-for-their-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/im-a-sheep-and-cattle-farmer-in-england-and-brexit-has-left-farmers-in-fear-for-their-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a sheep and cattle farmer in England, and Brexit has left farmers in fear for their futures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peter Gittins<\/a>, University of Huddersfield<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You either love him or hate him, but Jeremy Clarkson\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s farming efforts were rewarded with a mere \u00a3142 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. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/USzFmRbRQGQ?wmode=transparent&start=0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019re very worried about how Brexit is affecting our industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goodbye, European subsidies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

UK farmers are transitioning away from the EU common agricultural policy (CAP) as the UK\u2019s basic payment scheme<\/a> is phased out over the next seven years, affecting thousands of claiming farms. From 2022, some farmers will be able to apply for a pilot scheme for new grants known as environmental land management schemes<\/a> (ELMs), which will then be introduced properly in 2024. It\u2019s not clear how comparable the money will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the long phase-out period, the transition is seriously affecting farmers already. Though it varies with farm size, farmers will receive<\/a> roughly 10% less from the current scheme in 2021 than the year before, and almost half of basic-scheme payments will be gone by 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Landscape<\/a>
The Gittins\u2019 upland farm in west Yorkshire. Peter Gittins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is frightening when you realise that EU subsidies can comprise up to 90%<\/a> of farmers\u2019 annual business income. Our farm relies on subsidies for around 75% of our income, with the rest coming from selling livestock and property letting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upland farmers in 2020<\/a> received an average annual income of just \u00a322,800 \u2013 nearly \u00a310,000 below what the median earnings<\/a> in the UK. Some farmers such as those in dairy or poultry can earn three or four times more, but everyone will be worried about the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental schemes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ELMs will reward farmers for being environmentally sustainable with their land, through sustainable farming and helping with the recovery of local wildlife and natural landscapes. The English environment secretary, George Eustice, recently told the industry<\/a>: \u201cLet\u2019s not cling to the railings of the sinking ship that is the CAP\u201d. But what is coming instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At our farm, we receive payments under various existing agricultural environmental schemes<\/a> to encourage biodiversity. We are paid to create ponds and nesting areas for wildlife, for example, and for cutting our grass later in the year for haymaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the ELMs are anything like these schemes, it is hard to be optimistic. They have provided us with income for land from which it would otherwise be difficult to profit, but not without problems. For instance, an issue with our satellite mapping dating back ten years led to a deduction of \u00a38,000 from our payment one year, which was already delayed by eight months. As Jeremy Clarkson recently said<\/a>, the UK government is \u201cunnecessarily bureaucratic\u201d with farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having seen the stress of such situations first-hand, not to mention the cuts to subsidies and isolation in farming, I don\u2019t find it surprising many farmers suffer from mental health issues. A recent survey<\/a> of 450 farmers under the age of 40 found that 88% viewed mental health as the biggest challenge facing farmers \u2013 something that is coming up in my research too. Other research has confirmed<\/a> high stress and suicide rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Some<\/a>
A few of the herd on the Gittins\u2019 farm. Peter Gittins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COVID, in my view, amplified these difficulties. During lockdown, when many people visited rural areas<\/a> for their daily permitted walk, farmers grew worried that the disease could spread to their communities. This makes sense when you reflect that<\/a> the average age of a farmer is 59, and an estimated 90% of farms are owned and occupied by a single person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poor broadband<\/a> on many farms also made lockdown harder. When rural social events like Open Farm Sunday went online, many farmers couldn\u2019t take part<\/a>, which exacerbated their isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The need for entrants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our farm has largely only survived in recent years because the current system favours us. The basic payments scheme has benefited farmers like ourselves who own land, and our farm has fit well with the existing environmental schemes \u2013 and hopefully will continue to do so under the ELMs. It also helps that the farm had few liabilities when my father inherited it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for many other farming enterprises, the transition to ELMs may see<\/a> them fail. Many farmers are trying to prepare<\/a> by diversifying into everything from tourism to wind energy. Others are turning to careers elsewhere. I\u2019m actually one of them, aiming to move into shaping agricultural policy after completing my doctoral research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sheep<\/a>
Relying on sheep and cows may no longer cut it. Illiya Vjestica\/Unsplash<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The government is going to offer struggling farmers a \u201clump-sum\u201d exit scheme<\/a>. Some may take it up, but it will depend on how much they are offered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decent offer is nothing less than they deserve, and might also free up the land so that new entrants with entrepreneurial ambitions can try their hand. A new generation of younger farmers might be able to make more money through direct selling via a shop and creating brands around their farm products<\/a> \u2013 particularly if broadband connectivity were improved so that they could build online businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But given the enormous financial challenges, the mental health difficulties<\/a> farmers face and other tough issues such as flooding, it\u2019s difficult to know if new entrants will come. All in all, the future of UK farming is more uncertain than I have ever seen it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Gittins<\/a>, PhD Candidate in Agricultural Business Management, University of Huddersfield<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Gittins, University of Huddersfield You either love him or hate him, but Jeremy Clarkson\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,277],"tags":[216,4806,10347,6390,215,10348,6391,10349],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26424,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26417\/revisions\/26424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}