About the West Midlands
From Stratford to Stafford, Ross to Oswestry and everywhere in the middle the region has it all when it comes to farming.
The farmers and growers of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire are passionate about their businesses, producing quality food, working to high animal welfare standards and looking after the farmed environment.
NFU staff based at the regional office, at Agriculture House, Telford, are proud to say that our members help grow one in six of the nation’s potatoes, nurture more than a quarter of England’s fruit, rear 15 per cent of the country’s sheep, and milk one in seven of the nation’s dairy cows.
These farmers, alongside our other growers and livestock men and women, do all this in the beautiful countryside that makes up Britain’s heart.
With one of the most diverse farming landscapes in the country, from the Black Mountains to the Shropshire Hills and on to the Peak District, the region has a mix of large and medium enterprises, many small farms, tenant members, uplands farmers and specialist growers.
You can buy all sorts of fantastic food in our region including dairy products, seasonal vegetables and fruit, melt in the mouth beef, pork and poultry, succulent cheese, oils and even exotic vegetables and herbs. Regional members also produce award winning breakfast juice, wine, vodka, beer, perry and cider.
Many farmers have also diversified offering holiday cottage accommodation, rural activities, go-karting, spa breaks, fishing, extreme sports, wedding venues and more. As well as running their day-to-day farm businesses they are also busy showing they are part of the solution to pressing issues like climate change and protecting resources.
NFU members are also busy educating pupils about food and farming in town and village schools and in our larger cities including Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke.
They can also be seen at a variety of events and shows throughout the year where they meet consumers and talk to them about all sorts of rural and agricultural issues.
Did you know?
• Nearly 80 per cent of all farms in the region are less than 50 hectares.
• More than 400,000 hectares of West Midlands' farmland is in environmental stewardship.
• Certified farmers’ markets and farm shops are dotted across the region where you can buy great food and meet the people who produced it.
• There are nearly 30,000 hectares of woodland on West Midlands’ farms.
West Midlands' agriculture employs thousands of people and generated financial output worth an estimated £1.7 billion according to the latest data.
Collectively, this adds up to an agricultural sector that contributed £692 to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for every hectare of farmland in the West Midlands. This is more than any other region in England.
With some 965,000 hectares farmed across the five counties agriculture's economic contribution to the region, its rural areas and to the wider economy can not be discounted at any cost.