Ongoing challenges highlight need for support mechanism

16 Awst 2022

The recent sustained spell of dry weather has compounded the challenges imposed on food production, further underlining the need for future farming policy to encompass a key requirement to underpin food production in Wales. 

NFU Cymru representatives will be stressing this point when they meet with politicians and policy makers at this year's Pembrokeshire County Show.

Ongoing volatility

Farmers returning to the Pembrokeshire County Show will all share a common concern over the impact that ongoing volatility is having on their farming businesses. A recent poll of over 700 farmers conducted by NFU Cymru found that 71% of those questioned intended to reduce production next year, principally as a result of rising input costs. The extremely hot weather experienced in the last six weeks has now intensified the concerns voiced in the farmer survey and highlighted why NFU Cymru believes a stability mechanism should be an essential component of Welsh Government’s future policy plans.

Crunching the numbers

Our poll of over 700 farmers across Wales, covering all sectors, showed that:

  • 71% of Welsh farmers intend to reduce production next year as a consequence of these increased costs and other factors
  • 54% of beef farmers will be reducing stock numbers in the next 12 months, averaging out at an estimated 10% cut in cattle numbers
  • In the sheep sector, 46% of farmers will be reducing their flock with an estimated average 7% reduction in stock numbers
  • 40% of dairy farmers said they would be reducing milk production in the next 12 months
  • 39% of arable farmers said their crop production levels would reduce over the next year
  • 21% of poultry producers said they would be reducing bird numbers.

NFU Cymru Pembrokeshire County Chairman Roger Lewis said: “Everyone associated with agriculture in Wales has been feeling significant pressures in recent months and farmers here in Pembrokeshire are no different.

"The UK’s departure from the European Union, the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and increasing input costs have posed a wide variety of problems and, in many cases, have seen our farmers burdened with significant additional costs."

Impact on outputs

An already unprecedented and difficult situation has now been further exacerbated by the recent dry weather the UK has been experiencing in recent weeks. Pembrokeshire is renowned for its grass growth, but the drought-like conditions we have faced in recent weeks has meant in many cases there has not been adequate grass for animals to graze. In fact, many farmers have already had to resort to feeding livestock winter rations and this will certainly have a negative impact on farming systems and margins later in the year. The county is also famed for its crops, potato and horticulture output, but the dry weather is having an impact on yields.  

“We are living in an age when food scarcity is a very real concern in countries across the world. Any geopolitical event, global catastrophe or weather phenomenon that hinders food production should be rightly viewed as a very real concern, so to be juggling so many ongoing challenging factors at any one time should be a concern not only to Welsh farmers, but for policy makers and the wider public, too.

Support measures needed

“The continued and varied challenges farmers are having to weather could not provide a starker example of why a support measure is an absolute necessity if we are to ensure we can produce high quality, healthy, affordable and sustainable food for a growing population. Given what is at stake, it is imperative that the Agriculture (Wales) Bill, to be introduced this autumn has, as a key objective, a requirement to ensure the continued stable supply of home produced, high quality food to help ensure Welsh farmers can continue feeding the nation in the face of significant volatility, with food security being included as a key Sustainable Land Management (SLM) outcome within the bill.”

NFU Cymru’s full series of asks of Welsh Government’s Agriculture (Wales) Bill are contained in the union’s Shaping Welsh Farming’s Future document.

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