|
BACK TO MENU Granny's Wisdom Dumfries and Galloway Standard Nov 2007
My Grandmother told me years ago that “You are better to be sitting idle than working idle”. I can’t remember the circumstances that prevailed at the time that would make her say those words to me but to a 17 year old; they made no sense at all. How could anyone work idly? Silly “auld wuman.” It’s only now that her, seemingly strange, remark makes any sense to me. If the measure of a man’s success at work is the amount that he makes in pounds shillings and pence then I have now achieved exactly what she warned against thirty years ago. I am now working idly. The National Farmers Union for Scotland’s’ figures for the year 2005/6 indicate that the average LFA mixed cattle and sheep farm had a net farm income of £10,500. It would be a brave man that would predict that the current financial year will produce anything other than a loss. So what! You might say it’s not the first time that things have been hard and money has been tight. That’s true but the difference this time is that most farmers could conceivably improve their prospects by, selling their stock; raking in their Single farm Payment and giving their grazing away at no charge to some seventeen year old that doesn’t listen to his granny. At least then, the foolish youth - if you could find one - would be the only one who would be “working idle.” When the 2003 CAP reform came in it was heralded as the greatest social experiment of all time. It broke the link between the subsidy that the farmer was paid and the number of animals that he kept. I have to say that, I was up for it, along with most other farmers. It all seemed to make sense at the time. This brave new world would give us all an opportunity to farm in a way that would allow us to produce what the market wanted. The great variety of farms and farmers that we have in Scotland would be able to set their livestock at levels where they would become efficient and in time profitable. They would then be producing high quality product rather, than merely producing fat brown envelopes. It seemed to most at the time that it could not fail. Now four years down the line the Honeymoon is over and for one particular type of farmer at least, there is now a realization that there is a futility about what they do, as far as food production is concerned. For too many years now, the traditional rise in price in January through to April has been held back by the supply of New Zealand lamb that comes onto the supermarkets and fills the demand at that time of year. With the result that, the value of the lambs sold off a true hill farm now is so far out of kilter in relation to running costs that for these types of farms to be profitable without direct subsidy would be a flight of pure fantasy. Post war hill farmers were valued highly as a source of wool to clothe the nation and meat to feed them. They were also vital at the top end of the unique stratified structure that the sheep industry has in the UK. As such, they were given grants to become more efficient and they were compensated for the fact that they had to endure a harsh environment in order to deliver their crop. Now, 60 years after the war, food moves around the world with breathtaking ease, wool is practically a waste product and no one seems to care whether the social fabric of the countryside is maintained or not. In an era where none of the politicians or the civil servants seem to be able to remember the sequence of events that has brought us to where we are today the hill farmer’s future would appear to be bleak indeed. However, there is hope and if the policy makers get it right, the role of the hill farmer will change over the next six years from being one of a food producer who is forced to farm in an environmentally friendly manner to one of being a custodian of the environment who produces food, as a consequence of managing the land. “High nature value” farming will restore the sense of worth amongst the men and women that work in the hills and uplands of Scotland that is so sadly lacking today. The plans to move money that is paid to farmers away from direct support towards making payments for positively managing the landscape and biodiversity will eventually sit easier with most hill farmers than the present set up whereby they are compensated for grudgingly accepting constraints that are placed upon them in order to protect the environment. The beauty of the scheme will be that all we will have to do in order to take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves will be to, fully embrace the idea that our role has changed from being a food producer to being a land manager. I’m not sure that my granny would be able to grasp the concept if she was alive today but for me it sure will beat the idea of “working idle.” Nov 2007 |