Farmer Focus: Government couldn’t care less about farming

If the Sustainable Farming Incentive debacle last month proves anything, it is that this government couldn’t care less about nature, and that they care even less about farming. We were already aware of this, to be fair.

The SFI scheme is not a farming subsidy; it is a payment from the government to farmers to enable nature restoration across the English countryside.

See also: What could the future of crop protection look like?

About the author

Billy Lewis

Billy Lewis farms 140ha in North Herefordshire in partnership with his parents. They keep Hereford cattle, sheep and grow combinable crops. He also contract farms an additional 110ha. Cropping includes wheat, oats and spring beans.

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With the cost of farm inputs skyrocketing, coupled with stagnant payment rates, it’s hardly a lucrative activity. Defra obviously hasn’t grasped the concept of inflation yet.

We were fortunate enough to get our application in. We do, however, have an unfair advantage in that my mother provides support to farmers designing their environmental schemes.

She had a list of about 30 applications to complete that day. Needless to say, she had a horrible time.

By now, it’s obvious the money pot is vanishing. We can’t stick our heads in the sand and hope a change of government in 2029 is going to bring a reliable support system for farming.

For a start, there’s no guarantee we’ll even get a change of government.

For some farms, survival will look like diversification away from food production; some will add value, but I expect most will push for increased output.

Personally, we are gearing up for increased output, but it needs to be done sustainably, which is perfectly possible. Every acre will need to work hard for us, and we need to consistently get things right.

Over the past year or so, we’ve managed to avoid any major disasters. We’ve been pleased with how both our arable and livestock enterprises have performed.

But it requires giving an almighty amount of energy to the farm, and at the end of the day, we are still essentially at the mercy of the weather and the markets.

Thankfully, the weather is currently on our side. Winter drilling has got off to a good start, with all of our grass seeds and triticale having gone into really quite fantastic conditions.