Tamar to Exe and the agricultural sector Paul Cottington, MSc, - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Tamar to Exe and the agricultural sector

Paul Cottington, MSc, MIEEM Environment Adviser National Farmers Union in the South West

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU and the UK agricultural sector

• The National Farmers' Union of England and Wales (NFU) represents the

interests of some 10,000 members in the South West

• With 75 per cent of national land area in the agricultural sector (18 million

hectares), farmers are in the front line of climate change, food production, resource management and biodiversity management.

• We are leading on initiatives such as Tried and Tested, the Voluntary

Initiative and the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

What will I cover

• A pretty picture
• Key issues for farming

The market Regulations

• Possible priorities for the Productive Landscapes theme
• What might success look like from my perspective
• Picture of a cow
• End

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Sector divergence

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

One of the challenges?

31,618 40,992 59,404 78,061 79,096 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 Costs £

Dairy costs (less depreciation)

Miscellaneous costs Maintenance, repairs and insurance Rent paid Share of net interest payments Water, electricity and other general costs Bank charges & professional fees Machinery running costs Labour (regular + casual) Contract costs

• ther livestock costs

veterinary fees & medicines home grown feed & fodder purchased feed & fodder

• ther crop costs

crop protection fertilizers seed

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Farm Business Income per farm by cost centre 2009/10

• 20,000
• 10,000

10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 Cereals Dairy Lowland Grazing LFA Grazing Poultry

Agriculture Agri-environment & Other Diversification SPS

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Proposal for working for Productive Landscapes Theme

Encourage balanced action through clear communication to farmers and landmanagers. Focus on 3 fundamental issues

• 1. Have thriving habitats and species
• 2. Improve the quality of our resources especially soil and water.
• 3. Producing good quality food to meet the needs of the locality and to

bring income into the area and add in forestry. Be supported by good evidence and interpretation. Ensure that delivery is integrated across different ecosystem services. Activity is monitored and results are reported.

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

What might success look like?

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

Taken from WAgriCo: Key Messages from an Adviser perspective

• It takes time to get catchment information.
• It takes time to get farmer trust.
• Target advice giving based on knowledge of the catchment.
• You need funding to implement measures and undertake capital

projects – helps with farmer engagement to have $£€

• Project needs to run for long enough so you can implement changes

based on the baseline data.

• Has to be practical and have an economic advantage to be

achievable.

• Personality is 50% of the role the other 50% is adviser expertise.

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The farmer is happy to do something if you tell them why they need to do it, what they need to do and what the results were.

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The NFU champions British farming and provides professional representation and services to its farmer and grower members

The End