Depending on your perspective in life, there are perhaps two ways to look at how my sheep flock performed in 2016.

Being positive, the flock performed extremely well, with a particularly high gross margin achieved per head. The future for the sheep enterprise on this farm looks bright.

Being negative, my sheep flock isn’t able to deliver a living wage, and if the worst-case scenario (after Brexit) is played out, it may not survive.

These contrasting statements typify the hazardous nature of the road ahead for beef and lamb producers when the politicians in Westminster get their fingers into the agricultural coffers.

Assuming farm subsidies are phased out, then it is generally thought that technically efficient farmers will be able to make a living without any sort of ‘‘false’’ assistance. [Presumably all those inefficient producers will magically disappear, or at least be polite enough to keep quiet about their demise?]

Gross margin

In black and white terms, I achieved a gross margin of £68 per head. A good crop of lambs, with low ewe mortality, followed by a very reasonable year for growing grass resulted in lower grassland costs, and a noticeably reduced meal level (55kg /ewe).

In comparison, the top 25% of benchmarking farms had a gross margin of £57 per ewe. However, those same farms had lower overhead costs than me, and their net margin finished up at £31/head.

Mine was £27/head, and close scrutiny of the numbers reveals that such luxuries as a new farm quad last year, and changing the pick-up the previous year tends to make the machinery depreciation column look a bit unhealthy.

That £27 figure can be further eroded when conacre is added, and my final net margin (called net profit) is £16 per ewe. That is only £1,600 per 100 ewes, or only £3,200 for every 200.

And now we have arrived at the sort of nitty-gritty stuff that must be hammered out. On the one side, we have ‘‘experts’’ assuring us that all will be rosy in the garden, as long as farmers are efficient at what they do.

And, on the other side, I am holding up my flock (as an example) after a year when everything went pretty well, and I’m wondering how you equate a net profit of £16 per ewe with an industrial wage, a decent standard of living, or trying to rear a family.

Alternatively, we can cling to the tenuous hope that agricultural support will be phased out over a much longer period, or that the chest-beating and posturing of some of the current world leaders results in a reawakening of the need for food security. I realise this is a long shot.

Irrespective of what the future holds, all I can do for now is continue to farm as best I can under the circumstances.

Stocking rate

Analysis of my benchmarking figures would suggest that my ongoing Achilles’ heel is stocking rate. Mine is not high, but suits my system, and allows a degree of flexibility when prolonged bad weather comes to visit.

The lower stocking density may hold back the output per hectare (everyone’s current favourite nowadays), but certainly benefits my variable costs and subsequently the margin per head column.

This state of affairs may yet be turned on its head, especially if an unsubsidised agriculture becomes a reality, since conacre may lose all appeal.

But rather than cranking up the ante, and intensifying my farming battle, maybe I’ll pull the slippers out from under the bed, plant a few roses round the back door, and gently retire. It’d be easier, wouldn’t it?