How the different farming rules work within the UK is something which needs sorting soon according to Lord Curry of Kirkhale. In an exclusive interview with Farmers Journal Scotland Lord Curry calls for a clear framework for farming after we leave the EU so different farming rules don’t cause unnecessary tension.

“At the moment we have no UK framework for farming policy,” said Lord Curry. “Whilst agriculture is devolved to the different nations there needs to be an overall framework. What we can’t have is completely divergent policies when you cross the borders.”

He was keen to point out that completely different rules might impact on the functioning of the food market.

“If you farm in north Northumberland and you cross the border you can’t have completely different support systems which could put individual countries of the UK in quite serious unnecessary tension between each other,” he stated.

“We need to grapple with this and we need to do it soon. We need to have a debate on coupling.”

“Plans will be different. Scottish priorities are different but what they mustn’t do is create tension in the market place. So there is significant market advantage between two different countries within the UK.”

Opportunities out of Europe

Whilst getting rid of subsidies like New Zealand is not something he advocates, he does think lessons can be learned on how we run farming outside the EU.

“After the subsidy left New Zealand farmers really invested in technology. We have to adopt that too,” believes Lord Curry. “We need to get our technology transfer and our knowledge exchange improved. We are no good on a global scale at learning from a whole combination of things. The single farm payment has been a bit of a cushion. The lower quartile are dragging down our profitability. That’s why we need to improve the overall productivity.”

Competition in the market

To survive as a trading nation we need to recognise our competition, and it’s not the farm that owns the road according to Lord Curry.

“My manager at the hill farm would say: ‘Five pounds more than the neighbour and this was success when selling lambs.’ But you know your neighbour isn’t your competitor – it’s in New Zealand or Argentina or Brazil or Thailand or the States.”

Lord Curry believes that our marketplace would be secured through trust from the consumer.

“Competitors are global. So we have to work together a lot more as an industry to produce assurance to the British public, which they can’t guarantee from other sources, to explain that British meat has a level of integrity. Others will say they have the same standards, and I have seen it before. But what they haven’t got is the integrity, there simply isn’t the regular inspections or verifications. Whole life assurance should just be a given.”

Scottish brand ahead

Here he thinks that Scotland has an advantage over England. “Scotland has a brand as Scottish, we don’t have the same branding opportunities in England. The Scottish brand is important. You can’t say it’s been breathing Scottish air so it’s better. It needs to have proper standards and Scotland has a great opportunity to continue this.”

The farmer who set up farm assurance across the UK

Giving the public assurances on the quality of British products is something which Lord Curry has had a passion for all his life. He was instrumental in setting up the first assurance schemes in the UK and continues to believe that they have a massive part to play in the food sector.

“During the early 90s I took a lead on driving forward farm assurance. I set up this co-op in Northumberland and I made farm assurance a requirement, so you had to be inspected. It was the first time anybody had done that.”

After this Lord Curry pushed to build confidence in the meat sector through wider assurance schemes for all farmers through his work initially as a board member then chair of the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC).

How assurance came about

“We have to remember that consumer confidence at the time was at a very low ebb. We had had BSE, listeria, e-coli and other scares hitting the news. It was a very difficult time. It was vital we got consumers confidently buying British in the supermarket and the butchers’ shops every week. We had to do something so we set up farm assurance. We had to do it. We felt we needed assure systems throughout the entire sector. We needed quality standards in haulage, in abattoirs and livestock matters everywhere. This is why I set up assured British meat to look at the end to end stuff.”

But this wasn’t all plain sailing as farmers were looking for guaranteed premiums for the extra burden of assurance. Lord Curry recalls these debates clearly.

“I remember guys asking me at the time: ‘But will we get a premium for this?’ and I said: ‘I can’t guarantee we’ll get a premium but I can guarantee we are going to maximise the market opportunities and this will become a requirement. A fundamental requirement to market product to the British consumer’.”

The change in public attitude as a result was remarkable, according to Lord Curry. He recalls the public attitudes to the French beef ban as a turning point, “When we got to the battle with the French on BSE the public had turned around completely and were saying how they dare they criticise our meat. We had moved the entire debate. By the time I left MLC beef consumption had risen back to consumption levels to before the BSE crisis.”

Life as a farmer in the House of Lords

“I really enjoy being a crossbench peer. I don’t have to conform to a party whip. I can vote on any subject, or not, in any way I like. For me that individual freedom is really important. I see so many of my colleagues rushing in to vote. In many cases they don’t have a clue what they are voting on, they have just been told to go through the lobbies.”

“A friend, a Conservative peer, said to me when I joined: ‘It’s much more difficult for you as a crossbench peer, you have to think’, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Land reform

“The House of Lords is a great institution. Quality of debate is way, way better than in the House of Commons, but the House of Lords has its problems. People have been there too long and the age profile is perhaps too high, but what you do have is a lot of expertise. People have been appointed in the parties but particularly in the crossbenches who have been appointed because of their knowledge and expertise.

“So there isn’t a subject matter which doesn’t crop up in the House of Lords where there aren’t experts who have detailed knowledge of that subject. That’s not the case in the Commons or the Scottish Parliament.

“But yes it needs to be reformed, we should have a time limit and we need to reduce the number. We could put in a limit of around 15 years perhaps.”

“In the House of Lords I am a member of the farming committee. We have looked at the impact of Brexit, animal welfare and food security.

UK split down the middle on age issue

The increasing average age of farmers is seen as an issue for the sector. Lord Curry believes this is more of an issue in certain parts of the country than others.

“If you split Britain into two; on the east side – with more arable, with more diversification opportunities – the age profile is not as serious a problem, but down the west side – where it is more traditional upland farming – the age profile is a problem.”

“So these livestock farmers, they need to look at how they can introduce someone in the business and look to gradually handing over the reins. All sorts of issues like rural housing come to the fore here but we just have to address that challenge.

“What might seem like a major problem to a 70 year-old might be an interesting challenge to a 30 year-old.

“There is a need to do some mentoring here and make sure it’s genuine opportunities for young people. Even if it takes a couple of years for the younger person to find their feet.

Doing things differently

Lord Curry is clear that doing things the same for ever won’t work.

“I visited a farm recently and spoke to a farmer in his mid-20s about what his ambition is. He said: ‘I just want to farm like my father and my grandfather did before him’, I said: ‘Do you know what, you are going to be really disappointed because that’s just not going to be possible. It was a livestock farm and always would be a livestock farm. But today you people need to be properly equipped to understand new technologies’.”

“We need people who have got the ability to explore some of the exciting stuff which is coming through which will help them do their farming job.”

“We are not going to solve our productivity problems if we don’t see these structural changes taking place. We appreciate that now and will do even more in the future when we are out of Europe. When we don’t know what the trade deals are going to look like, having that relationship with consumer is going to be crucially important.”

Lord Curry’s views

Welfare

We mustn’t relax our welfare standards. We are encouraging CCTV in abattoirs and cutting plants to reassure the public. On the agriculture committee we were concerned if we do deals with the US, Canada and others that would allow product in and lower our own standards. But only if we were to concentrate on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and ignore the single market. What we cannot allow is our high standards in Britain to feed only a small proportion of the country with the rest of the public being fed by foreign produce made at a lower standard. Within WTO rules it is possible to set standards which prevent substandard imports. We need to be very clear what the standards are to protect our markets.

No second referendum

First of all I am with the majority of the farming community. However we voted in 2016, we took a decision and need to stick with it. We need to stop harping back to revisit the situation at the later date. Of course parliament needs to sign off the ultimate deal but the last thing we want is another referendum.

Contracts in the supply chain

We have to get used to contracts. We can’t say we signed a contract then go somewhere else for tuppence. We need to build confidence by having longer term contracts potentially linked to cost of production and allow people to go ahead and plan accordingly.

Yes you can have a market variability element which you want, but my view is that that’s of secondary importance when you know your cost of production is going to be covered and you can plan accordingly. You are going to have a profit element which you can invest.

Retailers and processors get deeply concerned if farmers are trying to create a power base to challenge their decisions. So what you need to do is create something which is unique, which makes you indispensable, which is the challenge. If you have a group of people in the supply chain how do you make yourself indispensable to your customers so they can’t replicate easily what you are supplying for them.

Farmers in retirement

The problem with farmers’ retirement, is that a huge proportion don’t plan for it. Some of them haven’t prepared adequate pension arrangements or where they might live. They also don’t have any hobbies. Their farm is their hobby and they can’t envisage life without it.

They might think that no matter how tough it is financially the idea that they may not need to get up in the morning and feed some cattle or sheep or whatever, is something they find really difficult to come to terms with. But farmers should retire and they should step down. They shouldn’t assume they will die with their wellies on.

Advice for young farmers

Lord Curry has had an incredible career in the farming sector and doesn’t want to pull the ladder up after him. With a passion for getting new people into the industry he has this advice:

  • Hard work – Nothing happens without hard work, so you have to be willing to work.
  • De-risk your business – In today’s world you need to carry out some sort of risk assessments. How would your business cope if interest rates doubled?
  • Have some diversification – It’s almost essential nowadays to have some sort of diversified business. We did farmhouse B&B to have some other income within the household. You need something to counter the volatility in the market.