Farm Diary

I am off to Australia tomorrow (next two columns from Oz '“ technology allowing), and when I return in 2 weeks time, I hope to find the grass green, and warm sunshine, so I can turn some cows out to grass and save some money!

We have been planning our next 12 months and the staggering increases in costs are frightening. Feed costs on the futures market are through the roof, diesel, fertilizer and anything based on oil is rocketing, with straw, wages and general inflation also continuing upward.

The simple answer is to make more silage and buy less food in, and for the first time in many years we are now sitting on several thousand tonnes of silage, much of which will be carry over at the end of winter. More importantly, and for the first time ever, most of it is maize silage.

I have also secured plenty of maize ground for next year, so we are in a position to see how much maize and grass silage we can feed the cows, with 75% of it being maize (if we choose), and then how we balance the ration with the best buys on the futures market (not that there are any best buys at these prices), and at least control costs to a degree.

Maize silage on average is cheaper per tonne to grow, has more energy, is more consistent and is more palatable than grass silage, but needs to be balanced with expensive protein.

First cut grass silage is usually better quality and has a higher yield than the second cut, with third cut grass becoming expensive as yield and quality diminishes; grass does have more protein but is lower in energy than maize silage and more weather dependent.

This winter, both grass and maize silages have been lower in energy due to the lack of sunshine last summer, and milk yield has been about a litre and a half per cow lower as a result. I grow maize for a beef farmer, and his bullocks are not gaining weight this winter in the way that they did last winter, and let's face it they are not working as hard as my athletic, sleek looking cows!

Compared to my worries, the chicken and pig farmers have a lot more to worry about; there is no home grown feed for them, and the high prices for feed is truly ruinous. Pig farmers are killing breeding sows by the score, and by the time the retailers realise that British pig meat is drastically reduced (if indeed they care '“ which I now sincerely doubt) it will be too late. Cheaper pig meat reared in Denmark, Holland and elsewhere to lower welfare standards will have all the market in this country bar some niche areas. How is that for a spectacular own goal?

The pig producer in this country, saddled with unilateral welfare regulations has now been driven him out of business ; so much for the British 'concern' for animal welfare as reflected through retailers, who claim to represent the 'consumer'.

The chicken farmer is next, and here we have a very different story. With poultry farmers losing money on every bird they grow, the switch by consumers to free-range production is now challenging him to make a very difficult choice.

Does he carry on producing at a loss, hoping that things will improve? Does he give up? Or does he invest hundreds of thousands in a free range production system, and will the industry get planning permission for all these new units?

If he takes the plunge, will he be rewarded, or will consumers switch back to intensive (cheaper) chicken as their incomes are affected by rising costs in all areas, and falling house prices?

Retailers have merely switched to more imported free-range chicken to meet the growing demand; but will it last? Will it grow further? The chicken industry were reacting to the growth in free-range sales, but following the TV sensation featuring celebrity chefs, these figures have shot upwards.

We must not forget that the vast majority of the market is for the intensively produced chicken, and there are approximately 830 million chicken reared in the UK each year with about the same number imported, mostly as portions (chicken breast etc: for the largely invisible catering trade); 80% of consumers list price as their top priority, and a somewhat larger percentage of the catering trade would agree!

If we consider that chicken became the staple diet of the working-classes back in the fifties as intensive production methods were pioneered, and coincidentally myxomatosis killed off 95% of the rabbit population, we can see that it has become a victim of its own success.

Whichever system is used to rear the humble chicken, it will be done to the highest standards in this country as indicated by the 'Red Tractor' label. Given that the objective is to raise welfare standards, it would be a great pity if British chicken was simply swapped for imported 'so called free-range' (what does that really mean?), and we again shrink our own production with the result being lower standards all around.

Will the celebrity chefs go abroad to investigate standards? Free range birds can be reared indoors as long as there is access to an open air environment. What does that mean exactly? Will the label clearly explain the difference between this and the picture in the consumer's mind of roaming, carefree chicken in a green field when that purchasing choice is made.

This feature was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on March 5. To read it first buy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.