Progressive farming is vital

Let’s be clear – big livestock units are not bound to be bad. It depends, as with small units, how well designed they are and how well run they are. The vast majority of the UK public enjoys eating livestock products and values them as an important part of their life. They also expect, in the main, these products to be produced sustainably. As global demand increases, farming practice will have to develop and progress further. If getting bigger enables progress, then let’s not stop it.

The Sustainable Livestock Bill, backed by Friends of the Earth and a cross-party group of MPs, will ask the Government to implement a strategy that will improve the sustainability of livestock farming and consumption of livestock produce. Having such a strategy is not a bad thing, but over-simplifying complicated issues like equating soya imports with an immediate solution to deforestation in South America simply won’t work and has little relevance to domestic beef and sheep farmers.

The pessimists in the industry make the assumption that the answers the Bill could come up with on production will diminish the UK livestock farmers’ ability to produce products that are in demand. I don’t think that will necessarily be the outcome. Not if the separation between production policy and consumption management is clearly made. We trade with other countries and that means production and consumption at home have a looser relationship than many “campaigners” think. We are net importers of food and livestock products are no different.

We are 74% self-sufficient for beef and 88% for lamb, yet we trade about a third of our lamb to EU countries, principally France. And there is growing demand for English beef in the EU and further afield. Latest export figures show that beef exports are up 31% compared to the same period last year. This export trade makes good sense for English producers because it makes for a more competitive home market and so improves economic sustainability. Economic sustainability encourages the environmental sustainability that we all know is an essential component of managing climate change and supplying enough food to meet world demands.

This call for Government intervention in the food system may well stimulate great technical input into farming because further efficiency gains are imperative. They should be adopted to make the most of available resources and if that means bigger units, then why not? The welfare and health considerations of the livestock must be met and the Farm Animal Welfare Council already recognises that a large dairy, pig or beef unit may offer some advantages for animals because the size will allow the employment of full-time veterinary services, expert nutritionists and stockmen.

This gain in enterprise size does not do away with the concept of the benefits of mixed farming. On the contrary, one of the reasons for placing a large dairy unit in Lincolnshire is to integrate with the huge areas of arable production that will produce feed and benefit from the manure produced. The mixed nature will continue, it’s just it may be that the different bits of the mix are run and owned by different people. The nature of food production means that a well-integrated network of interdependent businesses will continue to develop and support one another.

So can we just think about the bigger picture and look at the benefits of big as well as the cons of small?