Letters from Transylvania!

After a short pause!

Stuart Meikle — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:17:00 GMT

Having just read Kansas's comment about the readership of blogs, I will try and pick mine up. Will it get read well who knows!

We are just beginning to think about coming out of winter here and it has been near four months of extremely cold weather. For some reason we seem to have been the coldest place in Europe and often colder than Moscow. The latter is a little strange. The cold means more food and that means we are right on the margin. We are just hoping that we can get the stock out early. The local fodder shortage does mean that many stock owners have had animals looking for food outside where they can find it. From the outside it may look like some sort of sustainable, peasant agriculture but I would not want to be a farm animal living in those standards.

The cold has slowed us down with the installation of a cheese-production unit as it is impossible to heat such a space. Worse the two local contractors have let us down badly. We are tending to build it from the UK now as it is more efficient. Specialists come in for a few days work like mad and fly out. It all gets problematic when we have to find them something locally. We have managed to find the odd good local contractor out of this but it is by luck more than anything else. At least the equipment is now in and we started employing the staff. Two more hard months work to get operational. At least by meeting local standards we will have a processing unit that can look down upon the rest of the World! Not sure if the local inpsectors realise that at the end of the day the over-specification costs will have to get passed on and that means more high-priced dairy products in the EU's poorest country. It makes little sense, but that is what happens when you do let the bureaucrats run the country.

Increasing our milk supply is our next problem. The farms should get to about 300 milking buffalo this summer and that is probably as much as we can process and market. We are now starting looking at putting communal milking stations into some villages where the villagers still have a lot of buffalo. They will stop off going to and returning from the communcal pastures. It will be good to keep an old tradition alive but we still have to get another two commercial scale herds in operation. We will be looking to rear all our females for quite a while yet and that will keep us under pressure building housing and expanding the forage and feed production areas. Currently we are at around 500 head and 1,000 hectares. Land should not be a problem but much of what we have is having to be brought back from dereliction and it takes time. My over-riding problem is that we started with old tractors but we have expanded way beyond their capability and that leaves us very short of power. A good worshop team is rebuilding the tractors but at the end of the day they cannot renew a 20 year old tractor.

The resolution to the machiney issue should be the EU grants that should be available to upgrade farms. One hopes they are more successful than the pre-EU entry grants as they did not really reach the farming community. I looked at the county project map yesterday and it is covered in dots for agrotourism guest houses!

For now it is back to managing our workforce of near 60 with a young inexperienced management team. They are making up for a lot with enthusiasm and the policy of introducing local younger staff seems to paying off. Some come from families who have been here for centuries and that seems to be providing the motivation for trying to make things change. I sometimes wonder why I took on the role of Honorary Consul maongst all this but it certainly seems to have its advantages as it appears to open doors and allows me to encourage local government to get moving on some proper rural and agricultural regeneration inititatives. Just roll on summer now so I can at least get out and about with my two year old son. Next summer I expect it will be taking both the boys out with me as it is never too young for them to start learning about what it means to be in agriculture!

First snows!

Stuart Meikle — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:31:00 GMT

The first snow of winter has arrived. A couple of hours of large snowflakes and we have a couple of inches on the ground. It certainly makes a picture with the snow on the roofs of these old German houses. A little earlier than we would have wished but it is unlikely this will remain for long, four months of lying snow would make this a long winter. Cold and dry and frosty would be easier but so long as it is not warm and wet. As we are staying here for Christmas the signs are good for a white one!

Government intervention and incentive payments

Stuart Meikle — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:45:00 GMT

KF, well the multi-billion dollar question! Was going to put million but not sure where the dollar will be by the time you read this!!!

May I suggest reading Allan Buckwell's Key Note Address to the CLA conference in May 2007. I think Allan has highlighted the issues ahead.

http://www.cla.org.uk/About_the_CLA/CLA_Centenary_Conference///8311.htm/

The key point is that food security is about to come around and be centre stage again. This time it is not global conflict that is creating the issue but more simply the 'success' of the human race in achieving an unsustainable growth rate. I think we can talk as much as we wish about working without government-originating payments or government intervention, neither will disappear.

One reads a lot about allowing market forces to work and farmers to be unshackled in their decision making. Farmers do, however, have a unique position in that they provide society with a basic service from a business base that is so small and atomised that as individuals farmers are powerless to influence too many broader economic factors around them. Compare this to the other basic utility providers, they are usually and increasingly large and oligopolistic in nature. In some cases they have grown to the extent that governments have to regulate to stop them abusing their position to the detriment of broader society. Free markets are good but ultimately they have to be reined in because there becomes a point that they begin to act against the interests of the broader society. The free market and capitalist system assumes that their is open and transparent competition whereas history tends to show that businesses tend towards seeking a dominant position so as to suppress competion.

Hence, agriculture is the odd one out in that it has millions of producers all of whom are faced with supplying an increasingly growing urban population. As we have seen this has created a food supply chain requirement that was at first (probably) beneficial to society but has now become increasingly dominated by businesses that have become oligarchs. They are working against the broader interests of society via their ability to control too much of the economic spend at one end and too great an influence over society's food supply at the other. Ultimately they are driven by their desire to provide dividends to shareholders and unfortunately for society that seems to be based around rewarding management for short-term gain rather than long-term sustainable dividends. Possibly one of the great fracture points to come in the future in the 'developed' economies is how goverment is going to rest control of the food supply from these oligopolists. Dramatic yes, but it will either have to be achieved by government intervention or farmers! I wonder what colour government is going to address this one!?

To follow this further, government intervention has come about because farming is so atomised as an industry. A food crisis is met with a political desire to rectify the problem. In a non-communist system that means government providing some sort of incentive. It will happen again. I would suggest that the problem lies with the quality of government intervention and increasingly the desire to play political games in the interest of short-term political gain (we see it constantly at presnt with the issue of food quality/safety). A fundemental problem of democracy is the cycle of elections induces short-term thinking whereas all farmers know that the industry can only work with long-term stability. In a time of major food crisis like post-WW2 stability was created by all politicians knowing that ensuring that rationing did not return was paramount. The further western society has moved away from that point the poorer has been the quality of food production-related political decision-making and the greater has been the complacency about food supplies. An increasingly urban society has also left the land (i.e. more than two generations past) and this has further moved the food availability issue away from the political agenda.

We therefore have a situation where politicians are increasingly short-term and urban driven. The food supply-chain is dominated by fewer businesses that are managed by people incentivised by short-term achievement/reward targets. Farmers remain largely small and independent in comparison. Global food supplies are going to become the major issue over the next decades. Hence, eventually government is going to step in again and try to alter the balance. It is going to happen and I suspect that the worst position that can be taken is the current one of thinking that we can survive without government-derived payments or government intervention. Ultimately that will be accompanied with an opt-out from being party to the big decisions.

A pretty bleak scenario given the quality of government intervention of the last two decades. In a nut shell I would say that that is where the problem lies, the quality of government intervention. It is interesting to note that two respected commentators on the industry have commented on food security and the need for governments to address this, Allan Buckwell at the CLA and formerly at Wye, and in this forum David Richardson. It was interesting to note that David Richardson's response was to say that the government needs to talk to people who understand what is what and by that he means farmers! He is right because ultimately the food industry needs to work with the long view and it increasingly appears that farmers brought up on a tradition of good husbandry remain a section of society that are not driven by the chasing of a 'quick buck'. It is also interesting to note that so many comments from the younger contributors here also relate to a desire for a 'fair return' and to be able to get on with just being farmers. The younger generation clearly still understands this fundemental long-term, good husbandry aspect of our industry.

In conclusion, we are not going to see and end to either. Personally I would prefer to see the incentive payments come in the form of capital grant and to see an end to market distorting annual payments. Yes capital payments can be argued to distort the market but at least they can be directed at immediate needs. Government intervention is an an inevitable part of our future and to be honest I cannot see it reducing as food becomes a greater issue amongst our urban bretheren! All I think we can hope for is for a better quality of governance. For that I think farmers needt o opt into the debate and not out of it. As an industry we need a strong and collective voice within the political process. I would also add that we need to regain a stronger collective voice within the down-stream food supply-chains and for that we do need to be doing what we should have been doing 20 years ago and that is learning to work together. As was rightly pointed out elsewhere recently, the negative legacy of the excess subsidy era was that farmers operated in a comfort zone that allowed them to believe that they could operate as individual entities and to distance themselves from a stronger involvement in the food marketing system. Now that, and regaining a stronger political voice relating to the allocation of society's resources to the fundementals of food production is where we need to focusing our attention.

My apologies KF and Ally, I still do not think I have got close to answering the question!

Stuart

The road to Transylvania

Stuart Meikle — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:03:00 GMT

I was just reading a comment by Ally about my knowledge of farming on the World stage. Having been away for a few years from the coal face, I consider it a compliment to be thought of as 'in farming' again! It is as tough a profession as there is, it is much maligned and certainly not as appreciated as it should be. I remember from my days teaching at Wye that I would often comment about the breadth of knowledge a farmer needed to run a farm business as the farmer was often the sole manager in the business. Not for the farmer the luxury of specialisation.

Anyway just for the record, I thought I would chart my way from farmer to farmer again. As my bio says my family were farming in Suffolk and the Scottish borders. I was heavily involved with the family farm in Suffolk before Wye. I graduated from student to academic staff and had the privalige of being in John Nix's last student undergraduate group. I was then lucky enough to spend a few years on the academic staff alongside as good a team of agricultural business/economics/policy and food marketing/management people as you could find anywhere Worldwide at the time. A strength that ten years later has been seriously weakened by the negligence of a few.

At Wye and afterwards I was lucky enough to travel as a consultant working for some of the major international organisations. My oversees work encompassed south-east and central Asia, the Caucuses, the Middle East and Eastern Europe (my experience was and still remains eclipsed by many of my former colleagues at Wye). It was not just agri-business work but included strategic advise at the national level and food security work. At times I seem to have strayed into the credit and finance sectors but I still think my most 'notable' meeting was with an agricultural minister who sat on the last Politbureau! A great sense of humour if you did not let yourself be inimidated. I have fond memories of a mission to refocus the Thai rubber production sector as the Thais are wonderful people. Having said that seeking a way forward in Jordan with its terribly limited agricultural resources was probably the most enjoyable, the people are so hosptitable and cultures and the food supereb. A little less local trouble and I expect I may have been there still.

Romania and Transylvania started nearly 11 years ago. I have worked here on and off for a decade and lived here for the last six years. In so many places it is a fantastically beautiful country and agriculturally extremely rich. As equally fantastic is the muddle its agri-food sector has been reduced to by 20 years of governmental neglect! I thought I had worked in some difficult places before but absolutely nothing can prepare one for the difficulties associated with managing a business in Romania. I was warned about this by some old hands a few years ago and it is very true, Romania is like no other. Thankfully there are a very few who have survived and maybe in another five years we will be able to at least show a light at the end of the tunnel for others to follow. At times, however, I think about Flash Jaques in France and think if only......!

Cropping

Stuart Meikle — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:52:00 GMT

Well at last we might be getting a break in the weather. We must have had about 15 inches in the last three months and it even snowed last weekend. One of the pluses of our soils here is that the rain keeps soaking in. Our soils were mainly formed under forests and are very deep with little clay subsurface layer as we have at home in Suffolk. It means the soil rarely lies wet and when we do get a dry day or so we can work. They have just been a little scarce of late. We still need about four days to finish autumn seedings (triticale) and that is worrying as it all depends on what winter we get. A very cold November and we will be in trouble. We have had some light frosts (-3C) but they should not be too damaging, although very worrying given we have a lot of late-seeded lucerne in the ground. I just hope we can avoid going below -5C for sometime yet. The cereal seeds are all a little annoying because our problems stems from seeds being delivered on the 4th October, exactly one month after they were promised and then we have only been supplied with 70% of what we ordered. It is probably the last time we rely on a Romania company and I hope autumn 2008 will see us putting a lot of seed crops in the ground.

Thoughts are already turning to spring cropping. I want to trial several alternatives for protein/break crops. The locals have used vetch mixed with oats recently and that is a good fixer of nitrogen. Very poor yields though. We will try lupins as that worked well at trial level a couple of years ago. Peas if we can find them. Also we will try soya if we can find the right varieties. I might also look for some field/horse/tick beans to see if I can put them in sometime during late winter. Lastly we will see how sunflower goes as we might try to press that on-farm. Should be an interesting year. As to the cereals, well I am looking for a high-yielding feed barley as it has to perform better than the local oat varieties have been doing. For that I am already talking with a German plant breeder in the hope that we can import the seeds directly ourselves. The fun of having a pretty poor and totally unreliable seeds industry.

Lost in Transylvania!

Stuart Meikle — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:18:00 GMT

Having just received an e-mail from Brian/Kansas asking if I had left the Planet, I thought I would just explain what I am up to!

My absence has been partly due to Christian Rowan, our second son arriving four weeks ago!

We have also been working our way around some pretty poor weather (300 mm in seven weeks). In the last month I have had to 'replace' a large part of our forage area because the responsible party managed to provide us with 90% plus clover leys - not great when making hay - first cut pure white clover took ten days to make with the average temperature of over 30C! Nearly 50 hectares of lucerne has now gone in. We have also had to overseed about 80 hectares. We have started autumn sowing but that is a little complicated given that our seed supplier has renaged on a supply contract and I am still chasing wheat seed. Thankfully I have C2 seed in the barn of our own but I was after some better German-bred varieites. Given the poor yields from pure clover, we are also still chasing hay - I have 50 hectares of red clover hay to make in October! We can make grass or lucerne hay very late here but clover hay is near impossible!

Alongside this we are working on the construction of two farms, or two new parlours to be exact. One of these is a double herringbone parlour that is nose-to-nose. An interesting concept but we feel it is better than one long one as an unhappy buffalo can only disturb five others and not eleven. With our labour costs we would have two people in a long parlour anyway so each will have one parlour. On top of that we are constructing manure and effluent control and storage systems for our main farm. I also have to prepare a young buffalo barn for November as it still has old tie-stalls in it from the communist era and no water.

Lastly we are constructing and installing a milk-processing facility for our buffalo milk. This should be commissioned in about two months. I then have to go forth and encourage local farmers to go back to buffalo and give up cows (buffalo were the traditional milking animal here). As no quota is required there is the incentive of selling their newly acquired EU milk quota and using the cash for investment.

On top of this is dealing with then endless paperwork from various directions!

I guess that pretty well explains my recent 'disappearance'!

Upside down weather!

Stuart Meikle — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:50:00 GMT

Well it seems that my theory about the weather is proving cloe to the mark. Hardly done anything in August for the rain. About three inches this month and about four in the last fortnight. To be honest we needed it. This just about the opposite of the UK, as per normal. I reckon we have about 75 tonnes of oats standing in the field and 50 tonnes of straw so not critical. The grass is, however, more valuable and if we get a better second half of August we should get another hay crop off, hopefully before the start of autumn sowing.

The previous drought has led to talk of a subsidy for the cost of reseeding (about £100 per hectare). Necessary for those who got a tonne a hectare harvest. Down side is that they insist on buying certified seed. Problem is that they may not allow imports and that means seed from a compromised crop. Germination on certified, tested seed here also seems to be very variable. Was planning to import from Austria/Germany to ensure quality and to buy into years of proper plant breeding but that may mean no subsidy. Of course local Department of Ag. do not know the answer. May try and test our own crop and see if I can use that. Secondly the Minister of Ag wants to insist on having crop insurance. Not sure who is going to underwrite it or what the premiums will be. Pay out I expect will be based on a percentage below the normal national average (about 2.5 tonnes per hectare) so virtually no chance of ever getting a payout. What a farce! A pity they had just not thought a little before destroying the land holding structures in the early 1990s and with it 3,000,000 hectares of irrigation systems. Now that was a crop insurance policy.

God save us all from bureaucrats and politicians. Or maybe God would provide us with one or two who know what the agricultural industry is really about!

Foot and Mouth

Stuart Meikle — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 06:35:00 GMT

Just what next! The old adage that "it never rains but it pours" has never been truer than for the UK farmer right now. I think the question has to be over whether they government has learnt any lessons from last time. If a country has to slaughter seven million animals last time, surely there is a better way. The next question that everyone is already asking is where did it come from. It is extraordinary but one outbreak and you can see the costs to the industry are running into millions. I am awaiting the arrival of a nucleus flock of Hampshires from the UK and I guess that will now go on hold for however long. It is part of an iniative to bring out some UK pedigree cattle and sheep here so there is just one case of breeders doing a lot of work and then what.

Let us hope that it is an isolated case. If it is it will it then also be enough to convince the government that it is only a once in 35 year problem? We can only hope that it is a yes to both.

Input supply

Stuart Meikle — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:55:00 GMT

Just picked up on the comment about input supply and how it compares with the Ukraine.

It is probably a little different here if you happen to be in the right place. We are not.

Seeds I am looking to bring in from Germany/Austria (thankfully I have good contacts in the seeds business). I have tried local suppliers and they are a disaster. Parts are a constant problem and they mainly have to be brought in. About the only things we source through the normal channels are for out Greggoirre Besson ploughs and then do not ask for parts for the skimmers, they are still a novelty here. We work closely with a Dutch friend and he is now the importer for much of the kit we own - we provide demo equipment. Amazingly it includes some pretty good brands who have failed ot get into the market, probably because they are expensive and local importers want to sell at full list prices! With fuel I need to install a proper tank and I expect that will mean loads of paperwork.

Pretty well everything has to be imported. It certainly puts an emphasis on self-sufficiency and having a good mechanic and workshop. Thankfully we now have the latter.

Hay and straw

Stuart Meikle — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 03:58:00 GMT

Again, what a contrast to back home. Started the second hay cut last week. Not expecting a lot on the buffalo farm as the reseeding has not been going as one would wish. Hope for better next year. Given the the farm was unused for many years it takes time. Our large arable unit had land in need of a 'rest' so that carries a lot of leys and they provide the bulk of the forage whilst also putting the soil back in better order. Our risk now is no rain so we are baling all our straw and anything else we are offered. The next two weeks will prove to be very busy with the combine returning at the weekend, hay-making and straw to move. After that August looks quiet. If we get some rains in the next 10 days we will even be looking at a third hay cut by then! If not we will need everything for grazing. Thankfully the young buffalo can get by okay on straw and grain, although the grains will not be cheap this year if we have to buy in after a disappointing cereal harvest. At least we are not up to our necks in mud and our animals are not starving through lack of forage and grazing. Even hearing reports that in places in Romania they also are without water. A serious crisis looming I am afraid and especially for those people with a handful of cows and no money.

Harvest update

Stuart Meikle — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 03:56:00 GMT

Just taking a break here between the wheat / triticale and the oats. What a contrast with the UK. Temperatures 10C above normal and yields 50% below! I am far from happy with our yields but then we have doubled the national average and in one case quadrupled it! The latter at just over 5,000kg/ha is, however, the only crop I am happy with. Several factors like planting three weeks late in the autumn, a hot spell in late spring that took a month off the growing season and half the crop was on derelict land and the other half on land that has seen few inputs for years (not a great intro for organic). I reckon the planting cost us 750 kg/ha and the hot weather about 1,000kg/ha. The locals tell me to be happy about it because we are getting what they would be happy with! The other thing of note here is how far behind the plant breeding is. Will only used western bred seeds from here on.

Romanian dairy sector

Stuart Meikle — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:28:00 GMT

For those of you who may have read my comments in recent weeks about the changes in the European milk market, it may be of interst to learn that Romania is seeing a massive surge in imports of dairy products from the EU. Given the dire consequences of the drought and problems for expanding herds from the quota allocation, this can only be the start. The sources of many of these products will be northern Europe so it should be no surprise if available supplies of milk in these regions are getting a little tighter.

Harvest highlights!

Stuart Meikle — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:02:00 GMT

Not so much highlights as lowlights!

Just read a report that the average wheat yield in Romania is going to be below 1,500 kg/ha. What a contrast to north-west Europe as this is all drought related. I have heard as low as 500 kg/ha. Typically the Government is only talking about helping those who have crop insurance, not having worked out that no one can afford to pay the premiums, 50% subsidy of otherwise! At least in the bad old days pre-1989 they the country had 3.2 million hectares irrigated. This has nearly all been destroyed since!

We are having 35C predicted for the next week and that means we are seeing yield disappearing fast, a pity as we at least had something half decent. Now just hoping we can secure our own winter feed supplies for the buffalo. Thankfully the support side is showing signs of kicking in and this may well compensate us for the losses from not having crop to sell - a pity as prices are beginning to look crazy.

The real downside of this is that I hear of people only receiving £50/head when slaughtering their cows. A combination of no fodder for the coming winter, unable to meet minimum hygiene standards, producing micro-quantities of milk, being too small by far to invest and thinking that they can cash in on selling their newly allocated quota. The only question is just how many cows are going to die this autumn, probably not an insignifcant part of the national herd.

Overall a real disaster for a country that should first be an agricultural nation!