Listen to "Lord Curry of Kirkharle on Brexit negotiations" on Spreaker.
The effect of Brexit on UK farmers remains unknown; however, trading relationships and farm support payments will change, and the consensus is that improved technical efficiency will be needed within the farmgate.
Lord Curry of Kirkharle was chair of a group that was commissioned by the Labour Government in 2002 to develop a strategy for UK farming. On Thursday evening, he was at Queen’s University Belfast giving his thoughts on the future of UK farming after Brexit.
Lord Curry said that the performance of farms could be grouped into quartiles, with the best-performing and most technical-efficient farms in group A and the poorest performing businesses that are most reliant of farm support in group D.
“Farmers in groups A and B do not need any more help. They are forward-thinking farmers that want to change the world. It’s the businesses at the bottom that will find this tough,” he said.
A similar thinking was applied to the butchery trade in the UK in the 1990s when Lord Curry was chair of the Meat and Livestock Commission. Butchers were struggling to compete with supermarkets and a programme was established to help butchers improve their businesses.
Making improvements
Lord Curry said that benchmarking and sharing financial data in discussion groups allows farmers to make their businesses more efficient. But this is not new thinking, and the Northumberland farmer acknowledged that it will be difficult to get a lot of farmers in group D to participate in these exercises.
“For some, they will need assistance to leave the industry before their businesses go under. It is not kind to tell some people to soldier on until everything is gone,” he said.
Lord Curry said that the Government should introduce a retirement initiative as part of post Brexit agricultural policy in the UK, as well as a new entrant scheme. “If these farms could potentially be viable, we need to think of how do we get young people in to run them,” he said.
Further coverage from the George Scott Robertson Memorial Lecture will feature in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal and at www.farmersjournal.ie.
Read more
Environmental enforcement body to be set up in UK after Brexit
Gove agrees to review CAP allocations
UK withdrawal from CAP to be negotiated
Full coverage: Brexit
Listen to "Lord Curry of Kirkharle on Brexit negotiations" on Spreaker.
The effect of Brexit on UK farmers remains unknown; however, trading relationships and farm support payments will change, and the consensus is that improved technical efficiency will be needed within the farmgate.
Lord Curry of Kirkharle was chair of a group that was commissioned by the Labour Government in 2002 to develop a strategy for UK farming. On Thursday evening, he was at Queen’s University Belfast giving his thoughts on the future of UK farming after Brexit.
Lord Curry said that the performance of farms could be grouped into quartiles, with the best-performing and most technical-efficient farms in group A and the poorest performing businesses that are most reliant of farm support in group D.
“Farmers in groups A and B do not need any more help. They are forward-thinking farmers that want to change the world. It’s the businesses at the bottom that will find this tough,” he said.
A similar thinking was applied to the butchery trade in the UK in the 1990s when Lord Curry was chair of the Meat and Livestock Commission. Butchers were struggling to compete with supermarkets and a programme was established to help butchers improve their businesses.
Making improvements
Lord Curry said that benchmarking and sharing financial data in discussion groups allows farmers to make their businesses more efficient. But this is not new thinking, and the Northumberland farmer acknowledged that it will be difficult to get a lot of farmers in group D to participate in these exercises.
“For some, they will need assistance to leave the industry before their businesses go under. It is not kind to tell some people to soldier on until everything is gone,” he said.
Lord Curry said that the Government should introduce a retirement initiative as part of post Brexit agricultural policy in the UK, as well as a new entrant scheme. “If these farms could potentially be viable, we need to think of how do we get young people in to run them,” he said.
Further coverage from the George Scott Robertson Memorial Lecture will feature in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal and at www.farmersjournal.ie.
Read more
Environmental enforcement body to be set up in UK after Brexit
Gove agrees to review CAP allocations
UK withdrawal from CAP to be negotiated
Full coverage: Brexit
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