Farmer Focus: Local shopping trend gives us a great chance

It’s three-and-a-half years since I started contributing to this column, and my time has come to an end.

It has been a bit of a roller-coaster, from the lows when prices were terrible, to the “Beast from the East”, and then a horrible drought, which made my accounts look like a Stephen King novel.

Things then went to the highs of too much grass, sustainable prices and our farm shop and home delivery business, Damn Delicious, really taking off. 

See also: How a beef finisher keeps winter feed costs at 48p/day

Over the past few years, I have dealt with a number of major challenges, but none of these compares to the Covid-19 challenge so many people are facing.

I cannot start to understand the heartache so many have felt across the world. 

However, the pandemic has made lots of people re-evaluate their lives and how they would like to live and bring up their families.

We have seen a huge increase in people wanting to shop locally, have food delivered and ask questions about how and where their food comes from, and accept that we need to eat a more seasonally driven diet.

Never has the general public been more willing to talk to us, as food producers, and never has the door been more open for British produce.

Now is the time for our leaders and for us to step up and communicate how important our industry is for food security to this country, and to the environment.

Seeing what has happened in my little business has encouraged me that we as British farmers really do have a future.

I cannot finish my final article without mentioning one of the most inspiring groups of people I have ever been involved with: our “Graze Plus” grazing group, which has several Farmers Weekly Awards finalists and winners. 

I know I have made lifelong friends and I cannot recommend highly enough what an asset it is to be part of a group, not only to learn and laugh, but to have people around you who are always there to offer advice, encouragement and support when things get tough. 

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my babblings over the years, and I wish you all well for the future.