Inspiring goat farmer Tim Dobson’s 15-year-old son Douglas that there was an exciting future in farming was the task given to NFU President Minette Batters.
It was a task the President accepted with vigour, but not before she’d talked about the members she’s currently fighting for, whose livelihoods are at stake today.
“We inch towards solutions with government but it’s all at the eleventh hour and people are going out of business. We have got to get to a partnership way of working,” explained Minette.
On the subject of chronic labour shortages in the entire supply chain, dairy farmer, marketeer, and Founder of Mission4Milk, Andrew Venables asked: “Does there need to be empty shelves to make this government act and do something about this. It feels like nothing gets done or changes until it hurts the Prime Minister’s approval ratings.”
Minette replied: “Unfortunately empty shelves is exactly what it will take. We are facing a reality where people won’t be able to buy pigs in blankets this Christmas. Government is listening to retail who are assuring them that everything will be fine but none of them want to be the first to say they fear empty shelves in their stores for fear of losing footfall.
“It’s a fact that people over purchase at Christmas and retailers admit that this year is going to be really tough. If things don’t change, it isn’t going to work.”
Intent on hearing the concerns of the younger members who gathered at NFU Cheshire County Chairman Richard Blackburn’s Baddiley Hulse Farm in Nantwich, Minette gave them the floor.
Cheshire YFC Chairman Jonty Cliffe told her that he wondered where the farmers of the future would come from after noticing a drop-off in the number of active farmers in his membership.
“There are frighteningly few farmers in the YFC at present. They are all choosing careers in the related industries,” said Jonty who works as a Rural Chartered Surveyor for Barbers Rural.
“At work I’m also seeing a lot of people choosing to come out of the industry because sons or daughters don’t want to succeed them, the farm needs too much investment or staff are too scarce to come by. We need to do something to make farming attractive to them."
Dave Nicholas who runs a milk tank repair and farm electrical business agreed.
“It’s become demeaning to do anything with your hands. Sadly, even students at Reaseheath and Harper Adams are choosing professions such as land agents over running farms themselves,” he said.
Discussion moved onto net zero and the challenges of soya, with egg producers Tom Charlesworth and Steven Pace stating they saw a future in feeding their poultry insect protein to cut down on soya – something the President wholeheartedly agreed with and hoped would be allowed in the future.
Concluding the meeting to hotfoot it over to Yorkshire to meet leader of the opposition Sir Keir Starmer on farm, Minette ended the get-together on a high note.
She said: “We have a lot to look forward to and fight for. The NFU have had to campaign hard to get agriculture’s voice heard. That’s why we have been working with our one million Back British Farming supporters and the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, and Jamie Oliver. We also need young people like you to sell agriculture’s great story. It’s so powerful.
“If you didn’t have the NFU who would be the voice of farming? What we are achieving in regard to public support is incredible.”
Knowing a million people support the good work you do isn’t a bad way to excite the next generation – so a tick in the completed box for Minette when it came to 15-year-old Douglas, who despite being privy to the many challenges the industry faces today, certainly went home inspired about future potential.