Representatives of six businesses from across all farming sectors talked about how they had established or adapted their businesses to make them more resilient.

Rob, who runs Cornish Valley Farming with his wife Louise and their two children, talked about how they had set up various businesses around a 20 year Farm Business Tenancy with the county council and a shorter-term share farming agreement.

Building up a mix

They run a contract forage wagon enterprise, a green waste business and a glamping site as well as some work off-farm in consultancy and teaching.

Rob said: “We have tried to build up a mix that is sustainable without excessive input, whilst driving on-farm production. All our feed is produced on farm.”

Rob told the conference that being as efficient as possible was one of the keys to running a resilient business.

“We try and make the best use of labour and machinery, we don’t buy much on spec and try and flatten spikes in usage and if necessary pool with neighbours.”

Improving genetic efficiency

This extended to improving the genetic efficiency of the farm stock.

“We use computer software to make improvements, we don’t do it ‘by eye’. Sometimes it turns out the animals you’d think are most efficient by the look of them are actually not.”

“There are two things we do not do. We are not reliant on environmental support as this seems to be grudge money on the part of the Government, they do not really want to pay it. Also we are not prepared to produce at any price.”

“The farm must never take more out of you than you take out of it, that’s important for us and it’s important for our employee who can work regular hours and has stayed with us for a long time.”

Rob said the most important element of building resilience was understanding the mechanics of the business.

“You have to do your homework and know exactly where you are. You don’t just want to be pushing cows around the yard, not knowing if they are making you any money. You have to understand exactly what the position is.”