Starlings and redwings. Robins and a handful of finches and it was nice to see a sparrowhawk too. I do see quite a few piles of pigeon feathers around the farm on my daily stock checking rounds, indicative of a Goshawk and I’m fairly sure I saw one at the north end of the farm a few months ago. I am sure everything has had a hard time over the past several months, farmers and nature alike, but it is still nice to see and hear the birds on a daily basis.
I was trying to get to the end of this article without mentioning the withdrawal of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, but I just wanted to touch on it if I may. The scheme was paused in early March, the government suggesting that the scheme budget is full and that it might be restarted in early 2026. If you are currently in a scheme, this won’t make much difference to your farm today, if you are between schemes, this news will be a hard blow to take. We have a few fields that had fallen out of a previous environmental scheme at the end of December 2024, which I should have applied to put into a new scheme. It was a job I hadn’t got around to doing and now I’ve missed the boat. It won’t cost us a huge amount, but it is still annoying. However, it is my fault and perhaps we will get a chance next year.
If I contextualise this pause in new agreements in terms of this farm, perhaps some of the anger from the industry will make sense. We do not use any synthetic nitrogen and almost no spray chemicals, especially now we are an all grass farm. I might say following a regenerative path and in favour with much of the negative ‘high input’ farming rhetoric across media and politics at the moment. So, our fertility comes from sunshine, rain and imported straw and hay. The problem facing many
people is that without the support payments, farming in a way that is kinder to the environment is sometimes less profitable. Especially when we have a really poor year like 2024. In an ideal world you would put your prices up to reflect this, but our food system doesn’t allow that. So, and this is a bit of an oversimplification, but we might see more high input farming, to try and recoup some of the losses from the financial pressures put on food production at the moment.
Alternatively we may see even less production for those who don’t feel the higher input farming works for them. It is a real conundrum. It is all fine while we are able to import enough food at an agreeable price, but maybe foolish if we find ourselves out bid by other nations for that imported food, especially given the changing climate. All while some people cannot afford to eat properly anyway. What is the answer? I really don’t know, but either way, whichever way you look, the short term is full of uncertainty.
When we started to change management and cut out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, we were reducing our arable area and planting more grass. Those newer leys and newer seeds were a real boost to production, but they came with cultivation inputs and embedded carbon and energy in the seed. Can we justify that? Should we do more of it? Whichever way you look we are all tied to the carbon pulse; to the amazing things that we get from ancient sunlight in the form of fossil fuel. Sometimes it’s hard to see a way around it, or perhaps I’m just in need of some vitamin sunshine myself. Roll on spring. And let it be a warm one!
Rich, Risbury 97
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
BUS INE S S ON THE FARM
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