Survey highlights income issues

AN NFU Cymru survey has revealed that only 53.9% of Welsh farmers get more than 65% of their income from running their holdings.

The market research, which was done independently by Associa, indicated that 42.6% of those surveyed had no additional sources of income.

But 15.7% earned between 30% and 65% of their money off-farm.

Non-agricultural activities accounted for 32% of extra earnings, labouring on other farms 14.9%, and tractor and lorry driving 3.2%.

Over 75% of the farmers questioned were older than 46 and 39.2% were over 60 years old. Just less than 22% were aged 31 to 45 and only 2% were under 30.

Asked if they would prefer to work on their farms full-time if rewards were adequate, 50% responded ‘yes‘. Only 9.6% said they were against spending all their time farming.

The survey results, timed to coincide with three large Welsh agricultural shows, highlighted the public‘s poor perception of the industry.

Only 11.7% of farmers claimed that the industry had a good or very good image.

Over 40% of respondents admitted that they thought the perception was poor, or worse.

Almost 57% thought the problem should be countered by promoting the concept of farming changing to meet customers‘ demands.

Only 25.5% felt the emphasis should be on its traditions and land management.

Asked what picture they would use to portray the industry‘s image, 45.1% said fresh food on a plate, 43.1% said animals in a field and 2% preferred a young farmer‘s face.

While a surprising 34.3% favoured using a farmer-funded advertising campaign the majority, 46.1%, claimed direct contract between farmers and consumers is the best way to improve farming‘s image.

Almost 11% respondents were fairly positive or positive about the future of farming and 29.4% were reasonably upbeat. But 28.4% held negative views about prospects.

Speaking at Pembrokshire Show, Alan Prichard, county branch chairman, said he was very encouraged by the research.

It suggested that his generally shy fellow farmers recognised the need for them to talk directly to the people who ate what they produced, he said.