I have joined the NFU, which is not a phrase I ever thought Id say.
When I started farming eight years ago, I felt the NFU was an institution, one that wanted to keep the status quo and keep new entrants like me out of the industry.
Over the last couple of years, Ive met some incredible champions of agriculture, both members and non-members of the NFU. However, an issue that recently highlighted the importance of the NFU is the closure of Tottington abattoir.
This abattoir is used by 900 or so farmers in the South East and its closure leaves one independent abattoir in all of Sussex, Kent and Surrey.
It might seem obvious, but the South East only has two markets and one abattoir, and while the lack of competition is bad for prices, it is the physical logistics that are more a problem.
This is especially true for smaller producers who rely on butchering a few animals a week, or month to sell direct to the public. The South East NFU team has been fantastic, advocating all parties to support the remaining premises and that is something I hope to be able to do.
As a new entrant, I have been closely following the work of the new entrants team as part of the agricultural transition plan at Defra.
This week they announced their up-skilling pilots. This is in response to what they see is the need to improve business skills for new entrants. I have mentioned before that it is the lack of land, not the lack of skills that is keeping a generation of farmers from running their own businesses.
It is particularly disappointing that the trials being run in the South West and Yorkshire are being done so by an organisation with no obvious affiliation to agriculture.
While I wish the pilots every success, I cant help but feel they will create some incredibly talented new entrants/young farmers who will have no farm to farm.
Our hunt for a tenancy continues and weve found an incredible cottage on a farm to rent, with kind and generous landlords, which will hold us over until we find somewhere permanent.
There are several farms coming up for rent this autumn/winter with spring 2023 starts and we are hopeful that one of these might come off.
Isobel and I welcomed our second child, George, to the world a couple of weeks ago, so while also moving house it has been quite a busy time and we arent missing the cows too much.
