There is nothing so constant as change?
The latest results from a survey of larger farmers, conducted by the National Farm Research Unit (NFRU), reveals that 18% of farms anticipate substantial change over the next few years, while 82% saying that they saw no major change taking place.
The National Farm Research Unit asked around twenty six thousand farmers from the top third of all GB farms by enterprise size how they saw the position of their farm in the next few years. “Four out of five farmers interviewed envisaged no major change in their farming business, which perhaps reflects uncertainty about the exact nature of change. A further 9% said that they did not know as yet. Only 5% of farms were definitely planning to expand, with a corresponding 4% ceasing farming, selling or reducing the farm size. Looking at the regions, it was only in the Eastern Region that change was more likely, but still 77% of farms said that they would not be doing so. We would expect this figure to grow as the implications of de-coupling become clearer for each farm business. Nevertheless 18% is a significant amount of change given our work has concentrated on the top end of the industry.” says Jim Williams of the National Farm Research Unit.
The levels of investment appeared to be less buoyant in 2005 than it was in 2004, too. The survey showed that only 12% of farmers said that they had not made any recent last investment whereas, when asked about their future plans, 66% had no plans for any future investment. The last investment made on farm was most likely to be a tractor (31% of farms interviewed). MORE....
Machinery implements were the next most frequent last investment (8%), followed by buildings for livestock (6%), livestock itself (4%), milk quotas (4%), combine harvesters (4%), more land (3%), milking parlour (3%) and storage facilities (3%).
With regard to future investments, 19% of farmers who were going to invest are intending to buy a tractor, followed by 10% who are intending to buy livestock buildings, a further 6% purchasing implements, 5% livestock, 4% milking parlours and 3% milk quotas. Interestingly 10% of future investments nationally are to do with non-farming diversifications, with a further 3% being related specifically to environmental improvements.
“The survey indicated that around 9% of farms were raising some income by non-farming activities. The key non-farming diversification generally involved food, leisure including Bed and Breakfast and holiday lets (41% of farms). A further 16% of farms were concerned with residential letting and development and a further 15% with commercial letting and development. Nationally 5% were invested in livery services. Farm diversification is a commercial reality now, but we must not forget that the large majority of land use is still going to be commercial farming,” concludes Mr. Williams.
