I find you posts informative and helpful - keep telling it like it is.
I have relations who are arable farmers in east Yorkshire and friends who are hill farmers in the Yorkshire Dales. Uncertainty is what is causing them concern. Farming has always been an uncertain activity, being dependent on weather and on supply/demand and currency fluctuations. They feel that this year, things are even more uncertain. It's just another factor which is out of their control.
Thank you.
I'm hearing this right across the sector, not knowing what sort of markets will be available, what will or won't be supported financially in the future
We're hearing a lot of positive noises about public money, being available for public goods..
Ecology, public access, carbon sinking, tree planting, landscape preservation, business start ups and diversification, etc.
Which all sounds good in theory, if we can design a workable scheme that can be administered fairly.
But that's a massive big if.
But all this under the looming threat of cheaper, lower standard imports, and loss of EU markets.
As it happens my farm business is fairly brexit, even covid proof.
But mainly because I went in the opposite direction from that which farmers have been generally been 'instructed to do' by 'experts' for years.
So loss of export markets, fluctuating, commodity prices, rising input costs, labour shortages, haven't affected me.
But other brexit happenings have.