Last month Phil thought I might explain why farmers think it appropriate to bring the country to a grinding halt by blockading food supplies. As I am not a member of Farmers for Action, I can't really comment. My only comment is that it was also supported by the road hauliers, and if the various opinion polls were accurate at the time, it was also supported by 80% of the public.
The only reason we farmers had diesel for our tractors was because we have bulk deliveries the same as you do for heating systems. If we had needed a delivery during the that time we would probably have had problems. In case you are wondering, no I did not put red diesel in my van.
You may recently have heard of new funding available for agriculture. Any help is of course very welcome and we can now get grants towards woodland management, organic farming, countryside stewardship scheme, environmentally sensitive areas and various other classification schemes. When I was at College, 25 years ago, we were taught how to farm. In those days our main job was to produce food to feed the population. Sometimes you get the feeling that producing food is right at the bottom of the government's priorities.
Given that farming requires long term planning - it takes 3 to 4 years from when we breed from a cow to when a heifer comes into milk - and that we are mostly small businessmen taking decisions as we see fit, we could see a food shortage.
A food shortage of course would not happen because the government would import it, which would not help our balance of payments.
The milk price has gone up by around 2p per litre which will be a very welcome step towards recovery. I hope for the long term survival of the milk industry that the improvement continues.
At home we have now got the cows in due to the very wet weather, but have still got some youngstock and dry cows out. Fortunately we don't grow corn or maize so we haven't got the worry of trying to harvest it in these wet conditions or to get winter corn planted.