Post Brexit: Farm support in the future

 

I think most farmers will have mixed feelings about the announcement on future farm support by Mr Eustice earlier this week. It is hailed as one of the biggest policy statements on agriculture since perhaps the 1948 Agriculture Act and if it really does move the emphasis of agriculture away from food production to environment management then it deserves that title.

More than fifty per cent of farmers we believe voted to leave the EU and while they might have railed against rules from Brussels it was a fairly comfortable place to be. European agriculture has historically had a strong political voice and income support to match. There is so much uncertainty about the new environmental support that no one can be confident about the future and if approval is voiced it will be through gritted teeth.

Traditionally, horticulture has enjoyed less government support than agriculture so the acreage payments have been a lower proportion of income in a largely horticultural business like ours than on many farms. In practice the government support on many farms equals the profit and the details of the Environmental Land Management Schemes to come in 2024 are awaited with some trepidation.

Additionally, most farmers have seen their purpose as producing food, measured in tonnes or litres. The concept of generating more nebulous “Public Goods” will be less attractive. What does “efficiency” mean in this new world? No doubt cost cutting will be top the list which will not be good for the rural economy.

The current pandemic has focussed attention on the security of supply chains. It is difficult to imagine that the new public goods policy will increase our self sufficiency. Although there will be, I believe, in the future support, productivity grants and the government has promised to monitor self sufficiency.

I made a few suggestions in the consultation process for the new schemes; one of which was that areas should be organised on a water catchment basis and another one was that it is not just agriculture that is to blame for the decline in wildlife. For the 25 year Environment Plan to succeed industry, utilities and local authorities will also need to engage.

Taking land out of production, whether it be field margins, tree planting or rewilding will feature strongly in the ELMS proposals. Our land is highly productive and the cost in output of taking an acre of our land out of production is many times the cost of taking out poorer land but we will do our bit and our record of hedge planting over the last ten years is very good. I am sure there will be targets for reducing CO2 emissions and we will continue to be active on that front.

As a fisherman, I would love to see the forty year decline in insect life that I have witnessed to be reversed. I am not confident the plans will achieve that but I can hope and I will return to that topic another time.

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Full of flavour and fun. Read Robin's Yotem book review.

 

This is my copy of the beautiful new Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage recipe book.

Yes, it is a posh signed copy although I don’t think Yotam spent a long time on his signature!

It is challenging, fun and a revelation that there are so many flavour combinations in the vegetable world.

I am working my way through it, perhaps one a week which is perfect in these difficult times.

He is a big fan of celeriac and especially of slow roasted; here is a quote…

“Yotam will never forget the first time a celeriac was roasted whole at work, testing recipes for the NOPI cookbook. Coming out of the oven after three hours it was cut into twelve wedges and served with a squeeze of lemon. It was devoured whole in mere minutes”

I understand why.

There are sections on the science behind most cooking processes including charring, pairing, infusing, browning and much more. Olive oil and chilli feature frequently and there is very little boiling! Prepare to extend your spice rack. The experiences are adventurous and simply mind expanding.

If you are like me, a bit new to sophisticated cooking and clumsy with it, do add at least half an hour to any estimate of timing and I find it is always best to first read right through the recipe which is something that most people know anyway…

Meat and two veg is great but there is another world out there.

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Cropping plans for 2021 - a little less sweet

 

We make our cropping plans for the next year in June generally. It is not always easy to fit nearly ten crops and their rotational requirements on to the land that suits them best. Market conditions change, as do agrochemical approvals and we have to adjust.

Next year, for the first time in perhaps one hundred years we are not making plans to grow Sugar Beet. Fred Buck in the 1920’s started growing beet for the company that has become British Sugar and we have had beet on the farm every year since. On our best silt land we have been amongst the best growers, often achieving 100 tonnes of beet per hectare in recent years. 

We produce, in this country, about half the sugar we consume but of course most advice would be that we all consume a lot more sugar than we should so we cannot expect growing demand.

Our sugar beet is usually harvested in November and December and put into a clamp until it is delivered to the factory at Wissington, probably in January. It is not the best time to be harvesting a root crop and we have to set off the difficulties against the income which is declining whilst costs are increasing.

There has been an element of protection for sugar beet growers until recently and beet has justified its place in our rotations. The European Union has maintained a quota system. That stopped a couple of years ago and with Brexit approaching it is likely that our market will be open to cane sugar producers in Brazil, Australia and the rest of the world. In recent years the world sugar market has been oversupplied with consequent low prices.

Additionally, this year for the first time growers have not been allowed to use a seed dressing to control aphids and the disease they carry, Virus Yellows. This dressing has contained a neonicotinamide insecticide and the debate around this particular group of chemicals is very controversial. Nevertheless, our fields and most others this year look more yellow than green and we are certainly not expecting record crops.

So, alas, a long tradition is over but we are lucky on our land that we have alternatives.

Jack Buck Farms - March Harvest
 

Food Standards in the UK October 2020 - Our Response

 

The debate over food standards in the UK has moved a bit in the last week or two. Below is a letter I wrote to a local paper earlier this year when the Agriculture bill was having the second reading in the House of Commons.

Jack Buck Farms Celeriac Harvest

Dear  Editor,

Last week, in this newspaper our two local MPs professed support for UK farmers and high food production standards. What they were careful to not tell your readers was that they had both recently voted against and defeated an amendment to the Agriculture Bill  that would have prevented importation of food produced to lower standards than allowed in the UK.

The defeat of the amendment now potentially allows the extra-ordinary situation where consumers will be eating imported food that would be illegal to produce in the UK.

In the event of a trade deal with the USA we will most likely be importing food that is produced to much lower environmental standards, by methods that are called cruel if practiced in the UK and eating meat treated as standard with hormones and antibiotics, which only  increases the evolution of ever more resistant bacteria.

It is significantly cheaper to produce food in this way and  it will be very damaging to our farmers and the industries around agriculture if they must abide by different rules.

Recent newspaper polls suggest that there is overwhelming support in the country for maintaining high food standards and current world events are showing us just how important it is to maintain self-sufficiency in some critical products. What could be more critical than our food?

In my opinion, it cannot be in the interests of our fellow constituents to ship food from thousands of miles away, to ruin a vital local industry and to jeopardise public health.

Our MPs are saying one thing and doing another, perhaps pressured to obey the party line over the interests of their constituents. They are new MPs but already they are in  danger of breaking manifesto commitments. I hope we can persuade them to do better.

Yours sincerely,
Robin Buck

Jack Buck Farms Celeriac Boxes

Unlimited imports of North American commodities has caused two agricultural recessions in our history, in the 19th  Century and in the 20th. It will certainly cause a third in this century if we allow it and at the same time do enormous damage to our animal welfare and probably public health as well.

However, the pressure applied by campaigners has persuaded the government to establish The Trade and Agriculture Commission which now is authorised to report on the likely impact of any trade deal on farming and food standards. This will be presented to Parliament for a period of 21 days before the deal is approved so at least if the government does wish to allow substandard food to undermine our industry our MPs will not be able to claim ignorance.

I do wonder, though, once the deal is in action, if it can be quietly altered without parliamentary scrutiny. Am I being unkind to our legislators?

 

Farmers Guardian Interview September 2020

 

‘Our carbon footprint has been on our radar for many years’

Measuring greenhouse gas emissions is nothing new at Jack Buck Farms, Lincolnshire, where the process has been underway for more than 15 years. Angela Calvert came to have a look for her self and chatting with the Directors.

Robin Buck and Julian Perowne

Celeriac, potatoes and daffodils are the main crops grown by Jack Buck Farms, at Moulton Seas End, Lincolnshire.

These are interspersed with many others, some mainstream, some niche, to ensure that the maximum output is achieved from top quality land, while at the same time, fully utilising machinery, buildings and staff.

Company director Robin Buck says: “As well as the main crops, we grow onions, wheat, peas, fennel, and recently have added squash.

Over the years we have tried a lot of other niche crops, such as kohlrabi, pak choi, Jerusalem artichokes, and globe artichokes.” And while carbon zero might be the current buzz words, measuring greenhouse gas emissions has been underway on the farm for a long time.

Robin says: “Our carbon footprint and the need to reduce it is something which has been on our radar for many years.

“So, as a starting point, I developed my own system to record our greenhouse gas emissions, as we work towards reducing them.

“We use gas oil [diesel], electricity and propane [North Sea gas] on the farm and so I convert the litres or kilowatt hours of each to the carbon dioxide equivalent of each fuel.

“Diesel is by far the biggest contributor at about 63 per cent, which is used for tractors.

“The major use of electricity is for chilling, drying, washing and grading so crop yields and ambient temperatures during storage have an enormous impact.

“December is the peak time for electricity use and last year the combination of a mild winter and a wet harvest saw electricity costs increase by £30,000.

“However, last year, we changed to a new supplier of all renewable electricity, so that should make a big difference to our emissions figures in the future.

“These figures can then be charted against each tonne of farm output.

As this increases, so do emissions, but not at the same rate, which shows the overall trend is downwards, as a result of the changes we put in place.

Jack Buck Farms Squash in Field

Emissions 

“For us, one of the biggest changes we can make is increasing output from the same or less inputs, but these figures do give us a means of comparing emissions year on year and we can build on this.

“I appreciate that this is not the full story because we import on to the farm, among other products, nitrogen fertiliser, which demands high energy from gas to produce and, therefore, contributes to CO2 emissions.

“Farmers are under the spotlight, but perhaps it is time we started to ask some of our suppliers to show their policies to their customers.” Jack Buck Farms is probably best known for its celeriac, marketed under The Ugly One brand, with about 160 hectares (400 acres) grown each year, of which a bit more than half goes to DGM Growers, which markets it to all the major supermarkets, while the farm sells the remainder to wholesalers and processors almost all year round.

Robin says: “We started with two acres of celeriac in 1989 and it has gone from there as awareness of the crop has increased.

Celeriac is low carbohydrate and has half the calories of potatoes.

We have worked hard to grow the market and promote it, providing recipes, working with chefs such as Rachel Green and attending the BBC Good Food Show.”

The new facility washes, polishes, dries, grades and packs the celeriac.

Jack Buck Farms Celeriac

Celeriac

Celeriac planting starts in April, with plants which have been raised under glass and are initially grown under plastic.

The remainder of the crop is planted in the open in May.

Lifting starts in August/September and is completed by November, with the crop going into store to be sold right through winter.

Taking a long-term view, the company has just completed a £2.7million project to build a celeriac washing and packing facility.

Managing director Julian Perowne says: “You have to plan ahead.

Demand was growing and we were beginning to find pinch points in our existing system at peak times.

“We currently produce about 8,000 tonnes of the raw product, but this will enable us to take production up to 20,000t a year.” The new facility soaks, washes, polishes, dries, grades, weighs and packs the celeriac and has been built with the focus on energy efficiency.

It has a water treatment plant which recycles all the water, meaning no waste water, but, Julian says, this means the celeriac is now being washed in cleaner, sterile water resulting in a cleaner vegetable.

The new weighing system provides more accuracy and reduces the amount of waste.

There are solar panels on the roof, as there are on many of the other buildings, and 80 per cent of the electricity produced is used by the business, with the remaining 20 per cent exported.

Julian says: “Fortunately, we were able to start using the new facility in mid-January as we had a massive spike in sales during the first three weeks of the pandemic when there was panic buying.

“Food service sales did fall but retail sales made up for it and, although things have settled down somewhat, sales are still at higher than usual levels.” Daffodils are one of the other main crops, with about 101ha (250 acres) grown, specialising in the early variety, Tamsyn, which is unique to the business, as the entire stock of 10kg was bought in the 1980s and now three million bunches are sold every year.

Cropping of the daffodils begins in January, depending on the weather, and goes through to April.

Robin says: “Because of the varieties we grow we are one of the first to market.

The UK is already three weeks ahead of Europe, so a lot of the crop is exported and there is some uncertainly, as a result of Brexit, how this will be affected going forward.”

The farm grows about 121 hectares (300 acres) of potatoes but is seeing a difficult retail market.

The farm’s year

  • January: Start cropping the earliest daffodils

  • February: Continue with the main daffodil crop

  • March: Start drilling peas and sugar beet and planting onions

  • April: Plant potatoes, the early celeriac under plastic and the first fennel

  • May: Plant the main celeriac crop

  • June: Planting fennel each week to ensure continuity of crop. Possible irrigating of potatoes and celeriac. Start cutting fennel

  • July: Daffodil bulb lifting and pea vining

  • August: Harvest onions and wheat, lift early celeriac

  • September: Start lifting potatoes

  • October: Finish potato harvest and start ploughing

  • November: Harvest main celeriac crop and put into store and continue ploughing. Drill wheat

  • December: The last crop to be harvested is sugar beet and the land work finished. A busy time for celeriac sales

Jack Buck Farms Tong Potato Grader

Cropping

Cropping is all done by hand with an additional 250 staff taken on for the season.

Most of these are regulars who come from Romania for the 10-week season.

“It is all piece work and although hard work, a good cropper can earn more than £1,000 a week,” says Robin.

“Another consequence of leaving the EU is that it is unlikely these people will be allowed to come so we will have to rethink what we do as automated cropping is not an option for daffodils.

“We have a workforce of 14 regular staff but sourcing seasonal staff is becoming increasing difficult and we have, along with a neighbour, Matthew Naylor, set up a labour agency.” Historically, daffodil bulbs have been left in the ground for two or three seasons and then lifted in June and July, after the flower season, with the bulbs graded and some are sold.

The remainder are hot water treated for pests and diseases, then replanted in September.

However, this practice is now less common and the bulbs are often now left in the ground for up to five years and then destroyed.

Robin says: “There is less demand for bulbs than there used to be, with less interest from parks and gardens, so we are selling less.” Another crop facing challenges is potatoes.

Robin says: “We grow about 121ha (300 acres) of potatoes but we see are seeing a difficult retail market.

Meat and two veg is no longer the staple diet, which is a worry.

Jack Buck Farms Potatoes

Potatoes

“In addition, growing potatoes is becoming more difficult due to the withdrawal of a number of chemicals.

This season we have had no chlorpropham for sprout suppression and no diquat for haulm destruction.

This is a problem facing many other crops.

Julian adds: “All we are asking for is a level playing field.

It is unfair we are unable to use certain products when other countries can.

“There possibly will be alternatives available in the future but one problem is that the UK is very slow at licensing new products.” Robin explains that the farm has had to look at other methods of weed control and has taken an interest in a weeding robot company.

“While there are some mechanical options, these do not work for all crops and hand weeding without good herbicides is very expensive, about £120/acre,” he says.

Other options are being looked at, both in terms of improving efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint of the farm.

This year a self-propelled harvester will be used for lifting celeriac and potatoes which will save four tractors. GPS is also helping.

The purchase of a rewinder is also enabling plastic crop cover to be reused for longer and rainwater is collected from buildings and reused.

Robin says: “One of the next things we are looking at is carbon sequestration in soil and improving organic matter.

We are growing more cover crops, but we cannot leave them in over winter.

We have to plough and we need frost and weathering on the plough ready for the spring crops.

“We now only grow about 300 acres of wheat and it is good cleaning crop for us.

Sometimes we chop the straw but we are also being encouraged to bale to help out livestock farmers.

We have also planted a lot of hedges and trees.

“Although we have been keeping our own unofficial records, the next step is to move to an approved carbon audit system which will allow us to directly compare ourselves to other farms.”

 
Source: https://www.fginsight.com/netzero/net-zero...