Farmer Focus: Times are hard times but fortunes will change
Andy Barr © MAG/Colin Miller As much as I want to forget about the sprayer in the middle of winter, the blessed agronomist keeps finding things for it to do.
To be fair, he’s not selling chemicals and I should be thanking him for being on the ball and blaming the real culprit, the mild weather.
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About the author
As another year ends and a slightly less busy week sometimes appears, I always naturally think again about what we are doing and where we want to be going.
I will consider various cultivation, agronomy and cropping strategies, but at the moment it is more about making a few tweaks.
Although there is clearly no silver bullet, I do believe that food production and land management are so fundamental to society that farming fortunes will inevitably bounce back, and my personal preference is to stick in there until they do.
Others may take the perhaps braver or more sensible approach of saying thanks, but it’s someone else’s turn now, and there has been talk in Farmers Weekly of opportunities that crop up in times of hardship.
Indeed, my great-grandfather moved to Kent from Scotland more than 100 years ago because the farm rent here at the time was virtually non-existent.
Nowadays land price economics are skewed by other factors, but I am lucky enough to have opportunities to make money here and, like it or not, those opportunities need grasping, even though they may not be traditionally palatable.
I would love to fill my barns up again with livestock and grain, but tenants are the better bet for me now in order to continue what I actually love, without going mad or bust.
Nevertheless, I am eagerly reading the Farming Profitability Review, as I’m fascinated with what Minette Batters has come up with.
Wouldn’t it be great if any government actually acted on the recommendations of a report it commissioned.