Farmer Focus: Being honest is always the best policy

I guess we all lie sometimes – from the most harmless “oh my, what a beautiful baby you have” through to the mundane “I’m fine, thank you for asking” to the barefaced “there will be six weeks’ notice before the SFI closure”.

That last one such a whopper they had to row back.

See also: How a beef farm is managing grassland to face extreme weather

Slightly less egregious are misleading statements like “we are investing £5bn into farming over the next two years – the largest amount ever”.

This is a quote from Steve and Danny, the Defra kids, and I have serious issues with it.

I was fortunate to meet Efra chairman Alistair Carmichael recently, and among the myriad topics I wanted to discuss was this half-truth.

About the author

Ben Harman

A fourth-generation farmer with 247ha on the Chiltern Hills, Ben Harman owns the UK’s oldest herd of Charolais, as well as Salers and meat brand “Chagyu” (Charolais cross Wagyu). He is chairman of the British Cattle Breeders Club, vice-chairman of the National Beef Association and is a Checs board member. 

Read more articles by Ben Harman

The agricultural budget from 2019-24 was £2.4bn/year.

If we apply RPI to 2019’s settlement, what would it be worth today?

I’m honest enough to know that I’m no economist – or mathematician for that matter – but by my reckoning it would be £3.35bn/year. So no, it’s not the largest.

Defra’s Farming and Countryside Programme is subject to a National Audit Office report. Item 10 in the summary contains the line: “Defra views building the trust of farmers and landowners as mission critical to success.”

Perhaps being dishonest with people isn’t the best way to build trust. Or am I just being naive?

On the subject of honesty, I have to come clean about something. I run a fairly successful diversified agribusiness; it’s a pretty tight ship and I work hard on and off the farm.

However, I’m sure there are many things that I could do better. If there’s one thing that’s gnawing away at me it is my grassland management.

My system has morphed over the past few years away from some intensive leys for conservation and set stocking.

For a variety of reasons, I’ve moved on from that and find myself in the unlikely position of having used no bagged nitrogen on the grass in three years, and loosely rotating my grazing.

It’s kind of working, though I know I need help, so I’ve joined an Innovation for Agriculture peer group.

I’ll be holding an open day in early June when I’ll be baring my soul – and my sward. I’ve got to be honest, I’m a bit nervous.