Talking tough with ideas
Talking tough with ideas
Tough times call for radical tactics. Inspirational survival strategies were aired at the Crops Conferences in England and Scotland.
ENGLISH CONFERENCE
Political speak…
SOME of the key issues for arable growers – Agenda 2000, enlargement, and the WTO talks – were tackled by Joyce Quin, newly-appointed English agriculture minister. But others were not, notably modulation, cross compliance and early retirement. Questions from the audience highlighted that this was a missed opportunity; clea
nearly £600m to below £100m."
But he does have some hope for the future. World demand for wheat will increase, he says. And European enlargement may be a benefit, not a problem, for Scottish producers because the eastern European countries are becoming net importers of food as their economies grow.
Further reform of Agenda 2000 will be painful, but if it turns the farming sector to a "lean, mean market machine" then this could help our position world trading terms. He predicts big changes to EU support and protection as a result of the WTO talks in Seattle this month.
GM issues
GM foods will become acceptable to the UK consumer, predicts Guy Walker, former chairman of the giant food conglomerate, Van den Bergh Foods. "Some people may think that it is game, set and match to the organic lobby. Not so. Large-scale adoption of organics would mean more land would need to be cultivated – but it is not available. If organics move into the mass market, how many people could afford them?"
GM varieties will reduce pesticide usage, which is important to the consumer, he comments. "I believe the UK will not become a GM-free island." Public hysteria on GMs will gradually be overturned by the recognition that well-regulated technology can deliver enormous benefits and this will be stimulated by seeing that other countries are already gaining these benefits, he says. Crops with enhanced minerals and vitamins, better processing characteristics and edible vaccines are examples.
But labelling and segregation will be required. And he wants to see improvements to the regulatory framework. "The Food Standards Agency is a welcome step forward, but it must not result in too many impractical constraints to UK farmers."
Mr Walker sees a sustainable future for two types of arable production: sophisticated, high-tech efficient systems operating to low margins and using economies of scale, and niche players growing identity preserved crops for value-added markets.
Business lowdown
LOW prices are here to stay and Scottish growers must re-evaluate their businesses to cope, says Peter Cook of the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC).
Cutting variable inputs is not the answer, because this would jeopardise performance. Rather, cut fixed costs, he suggests. A typical target for spring barley is to make savings of about £32/ha; this would generate about £30,000/year in profit from a 120ha unit. "Labour, power and overheads take about 40% of our output at the moment. We cant carry on at these levels anymore."
Using contractors on a stubble-to-stubble basis would cost about £40,000 for a 200ha unit. SAC figures show that most growers who are doing the job themselves are spending a lot more – about £63,000. "Costs should be brought down to this level."
Ways to reshape businesses include:
• short term or shared labour
• buying groups
• machinery or labour rings
• contract arrangements which include offloading management as well as workload
• expand
• specialise
• diversify – that theres grant aid available for Objective 5b projects if youre in the right location
"Given the size of the gap between todays profits and whats needed to justify staying in business, arable growers need to be radical."
Scottish solutions
AS HOLDER of the world wheat record – 13.99t/ha – an achievement that has remained unbeaten for 10 years, Jim Rennie of Crop Chemicals knows how to coax huge performance from his crops. His secret? In depth knowledge of agronomy, helped by accurate recording of weather and season, field data and input details. Not that Mr Rennie was giving away the exact recipe for a high yielding crop – "what works in one year may not work the next."
His key advice is to know exactly what yield is produced from each field: "Some fields will be profitable, others not." Many growers dont have this simple information, and yet this is the only way the agronomist can know where to apply remedial action.
Hes preaching to the converted with Dougie Niven, who farms in the Borders at Duns. Precision technology enthusiast since its beginnings five years ago, Mr Niven now knows exactly the yield and soil nutrient status of each square metre, thanks to intensive mapping. His company, MAMCO, offers precision techniques on a contract basis over about 2,500ha.
Precision systems have helped Mr Niven take a leading role in environmental management. Whitsome Hill Farm became the first Leaf (Linking the Environment and Farming) demonstration farm in Scotland. And MAMCO has followed ISO 9002 quality accreditation five years ago with success in a another, more even more exacting scheme: ISO 14001. This puts the official stamp of approval on a business with regard to environmental management, and MAMCO is the first farming company in the world to gain this accreditation.
Mr Niven is convinced that the effort involved in putting his business through these ISO schemes is worthwhile. "They do improve the way we run our business, but more importantly provide traceability and accountability from seed to end product."
SAC organic adviser David Younie says that Scottish arable producers could take advantage of the shortage of organic feed materials in Scotland, given that a large number of upland livestock producers have taken the plunge into organics. Their organic animals will need feeding, and finishing.
"Low ground, mixed livestock/arable farms, or all-grass farms, are ideally suited to organic conversion." More difficult is the all-arable enterprise, because without livestock manure then half the rotation needs to be infertility building crops such as clover and this lowers returns.
Alternative crops are the speciality of Melvyn Askew of the Central Science Laboratory. Hes spearheading the IENICA initiative, a European body trying to develop industrial crop opportunities.
The message is that specialist oil, fibre, and industrial molecule markets do exist but before theory can move into practice, companies need confidence that agricultural industrial cropping would be sustainable. That would requires commercial and political will. Within IENICA, the aim is "to understand the possible, and the impossible – and target only the former." New industrial cropping options remain some way into the future.