OPINION: We shouldn’t subsidise young farmers

I was a young person once. Not a particularly convincing one, I have to admit, but for a short while in the 1990s I was a slightly fresher and juicier version of myself.

Although being a young farmer is “on trend” these days, it certainly wasn’t when I was starting out. It was deeply uncool. I can remember, sometime around 1991, being mocked for having big hair and a Barbour jacket in a built-up area. I was a trendsetter. I am like Alex James in reverse; I will probably be playing bass guitar in a Britpop band in a few years’ time.

I left full-time education at 15 to farm and to take a day-release course at Holbeach College with a fantastic lecturer called John McEwan. John, a great realist, delightedly prepared us for the harsh future when MacSharry’s reforms would take our support away. I would contemplate his advice and plan my strategy as I shovelled potatoes into a grader or, if I was really lucky, drove a David Brown 1294 and listened to Atlantic 252 on long wave.

Maybe I was very fortunate to enter the industry at such a tough time. I had big dreams but low expectations. There were opportunities for my generation because other farmers wanted to get out. We were feeding the world when it really didn’t want to be fed.

Nonetheless, I do not feel sympathetic to new entrants who complain about the difficulties they face getting started. They have chosen a popular and profitable profession, what do they expect? Are our agricultural colleges not preparing them for their own harsh futures?

I don’t support the cry for “more help for young farmers”. Cobblers, I say. What help is there for young cobblers? Or young butchers? Or any other young, self-employed people? As a higher-rate taxpayer in his 30s, one of the last things that I want is for my taxes to subsidise a farmer in their 20s, particularly if they are going to grow the same things as me. It would be like a golf handicap.

The media celebrates young farmers as heroes and the salvation of the planet. Is that really appropriate? They haven’t done anything yet. It is the ugly old boys with hairy ears who have done the hard work. They deserve the adulation. Unfortunately they look less good in the photo shoots.

When you think about it, young people aren’t suited to a profession like farming. It requires very expensive assets and has erratic climatic and trading conditions that play out in 20-year cycles. Successful farming requires experience, good judgement and wise investments. It is not about radical actions, risk-taking or bolshie sales techniques.

Of course, young farmers deserve encouragement, advice and opportunities, but not too much too soon. I fear that by constantly praising the young and courting their views, the farming industry is giving new entrants an unrealistic sense of entitlement and expectation.

Obviously we need new entrants at the bottom of the farming ladder. We want them to climb up it and to reach the top too. But they mustn’t expect to kick the rest of the industry off the ladder until they actually know what they are doing.

To become a successful farmer takes time. It requires patience, commitment and hard work. Young farmers who listen, learn and take advantage of their opportunities will find that success, responsibility and old age will come much sooner than they expect.

Matthew Naylor farms 162ha (400 acres) of Lincolnshire silt in partnership with his father, Nev. Cropping includes potatoes, vegetables, cut flowers and flowering bulbs. Matthew is a Nuffield scholar.