Help us find the greatest farming decade

Farming is a cyclical business, but some periods stand out when it was generally buoyant and profitable and fun to be in farming.

Yes, it depends which sector you're in and where, but people have strong views on which decade was the best for British farming.

With your help – and in association with Browns of Wem – we want to discover what the Greatest Farming Decade has been in the past 75 years.

We've outlined a few possibilities below, but we'd like to know what you think

The 1940s

In these enlightened times it's almost certainly politically incorrect to suggest that a decade during which our young men were being killed and injured abroad and consumers were hungry at home was the best for farming.

But the fact remains that those left in Britain to farm did well out of the war and its immediate aftermath.

Yes, there were problems such as labour shortages, which were partially solved by land girls and prisoners of war. Inputs such as fuel were hard to come by, although horses still provided a lot of the power, so it was not as crucial as it would be now. Plough metal was like gold, as all available iron and steel went into munitions. But farmers were valued more than ever before or since, food was short, prices were high and good money was made.

After the war ended, food shortages continued and to eliminate rationing it was deemed vital to encourage more home production.

The post-war government, in negotiation with the NFU, introduced the 1947 Agriculture Act to guarantee cost plus returns. All farmers had to do to succeed was to be reasonably efficient and produce. Some have been craving a return to those conditions ever since.

David Richardson

The 1950s

"Farmers", said Stanley Evans, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food at a press conference in April 1950, "are being feather bedded at the taxpayers' expense".

Like any politician who speaks the truth, Evans was promptly sacked and, although his phrase passed into tabloid press folklore, no further criticism of farmers was heard from within government for at least another 10 years.

So began a golden decade for British agriculture, talk of which still produces a warm glow around our family hearth.

Held in high esteem for their role in the war and for helping to bring food rationing to an end, farmers were made to feel like the pin-up boys and girls of British industry throughout the 1950s.

Concerned about a declining national currency and balance of payments, governments funded a drive to reduce food imports.

Grants were paid to bring marginal land into production and this was backed up with a policy of "deficiency payments" that guaranteed farmers a fair price for their output.

This, then, was the age of limitless farming possibility. Land was cheap and red tape was still confined to a typewriter.

With spectacular advances in mechanisation, agronomy and livestock breeding, farmers became giddy with achievement. Never has farming been so profitable or seemed so glamorous.

Stephen Carr

The 1960s

The best decade for farmers to farm in was undoubtedly the 1960s.

It was the last time farming was both profitable and fun. Many look back today and see it as the time when it all went wrong.

Yes, too many hedges were taken out and yes, too much DDT was sprayed - usually by air. It was the decade when "factory farming" got into its stride and, what was more, you could get subsidies for just about anything, including grants for draining wild flower meadows not to mention erecting 60ft blots on the landscape called "silos".

But to criticise these times now is to miss the whole point, which was that no one made any criticism at the time. Society wanted farmers to produce more and so the farmer simply got on with the task in hand. Phrases like "environmental responsibility" and "animal welfare" were unheard of, just as was "political correctness".

To prove my case I need look no further than my office wall where there hangs a Farmers Weekly page advert from 1969. It is a competition sponsored by the oil company Amoco called "Farmer's wife of the year". Farmers were encouraged to enter their wives, rating them in criteria such as "Pride in appearance" or "Resilience of personality". Those wives shortlisted were then viewed in person by a panel in London and the winning couple won a star prize - a weekend at the world ploughing championship. The runners up got a pewter tankard.

Ah, what a very different and very carefree world it was back then.

Guy Smith

The 1970s

Ok, it's true that the seventies hold some terrible memories for me: Puberty, school friends trying to be punks, Boney M, and my sister Helen's tie-dye outfits. But farming memories are fantastic. The post-war production philosophy was at maximum momentum, machinery and chemical development meant yields surged, with prices matching them.

You could burn stubble (and thus never saw a slug). You could get cross with off-footpath ramblers. If someone landed in your field it was a polite glider pilot and not a militant money-grabbing balloonist.

No one had heard of set-aside, IACS, SPS, HLS, the Environment Agency or Natural England.

Hot summers and cold winters were nothing more than natural climate variation, not something we've all got to pay a fortune to combat - in vain. The Farming Minister tended to be of country stock, not an urban veggie.

Farmhouse gardens sprouted tennis courts and swimming pools. Tractors and Land Rovers were replaced as often as we change oil filters these days. Tenant farmers put on ties and lived like gentlemen farmers.

And, most significantly of all, when clipboard man arrived in the farm office, his mission was to get to you grow more, not less. Days we'll never see again.

Charlie Flindt

The noughties

On the face of it, it's hard to make a case for calling the nearly-a-decade from 2000 to the present day a golden era for farming.

As ever, it's been characterised by disease, extreme weather, red tape and roller-coaster commodity prices.

But as the decade rumbles to a close, there are some things to feel good about. We've edged out of our farmyards to make friends with the public.

Our push to encourage local food has gone remarkably well and every supermarket wants to put our names and faces on packs of butter and potatoes.

We've discovered, in larger numbers than ever before, that many farms are in an ideal position to diversify into everything from tearooms to alpacas.

We've realised, too, that though energy production won't make our fortunes, many farms will have a role to play in this sector in the future.

And – whisper it quiet – maybe the world isn't quite as smugly self-sufficient in food as we all thought it was.

Lastly, ask yourself this. As you sit in air-conditioned, whisper-quiet, GPS-guided comfort in your big Deere, MF or New Holland - would you really rather be bouncing about on an MF35, wrecking your hearing in a Ford 5000 or sucking in the dust on a cabless combine in some earlier decade?

David Cousins

The Next 10 Years

It's easy to romanticise about farming in previous decades, but the past is all too often seen through rose-tinted spectacles. We must appreciate our heritage, but we need to focus on the future.

Farmers, as well as having long memories, are a progressive lot. Whatever the point in time, they have a tremendous capacity for positive thinking, meaning the 10 years ahead are always an exciting prospect, full of opportunities.

Right now, there are countless good reasons to be optimistic about the next decade.

The world is shrinking with emerging markets and the co-operation between countries couldn't have been imagined a few decades ago.

We're now armed with a better understanding of agricultural science and its impact on the environment, and can sit in air-conditioned tractors, run by computers, and produce the food, energy and renewable resources needed for the world's increasing population.

As today's consumers start to demand local produce grown and reared to exacting standards, people are beginning to see farmers as a positive and important force.

So, yes, respect the past and be grateful for the present; but if you want to talk about the greatest farming decade, then for optimists like us, there's only one contender: The 10 years that start today.

Suzie Paton

What do you think?

Do you agree or disagree with our suggestions for which period should be The Greatest Farming Decade – or, better still, do you have additional ideas of your own? Tell us what you think (ideally, giving us a few words explaining your choice). Post your suggestions on our website forums or email to tell us.

Why nominate?

Everyone who contributes a suggestion will be entered into a draw - the first one drawn in each of the six categories will win a year's free subscription to Farmers Weekly.

Other Greatest

As well as The Greatest Farming Figure, we'll be looking for your suggestions in five other categories in this series.

With your help, we'll be establishing what is The Greatest Farming Innovation, Figure, Machine, View and Cock-up.

Keep an eye on the magazine and the website over coming weeks to see how you can get involved. We'll be drawing up a shortlist from all the suggestions and then giving you the chance to vote.

>>More on The Greatest... series>>