MAKING A MARK YOUNG FARMER PURSUING HER PASSION – P76
February 23 2024 | £4.10 | Become a member from £2.09 | farmersguardian.com
THE HEART OF AGRICULTURE MACHINERY
FARM PROFILE
SALES
On test: Case IH Puma 260 AFS Connect
Traditions key to fell farm’s future
Averages up at Stirling bull sales
FINAL PLEA PAGE 68
PAGE 22
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● Prime Minister keen to woo farmers ● Labour pitches new farm deal PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak assured farmers he ‘had their backs’ as his party now attempts to claw back the support of rural voters. Addressing the NFU Conference on Tuesday (February 20), he outlined his vision to take the farming sector forward, including £220 million for innovation and productivity grants, cuts to planning red tape, new legislation around dairy contracts and a promise to maintain the £2.4 billion agricultural budget. But what was trailed as a ‘major new package of support for British farming’ fell flat, with many farmers and industry figures questioning what was new and highlighting there was no extra money. Daniel Mead, a mixed tenant farmer from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, said: “I would describe the Government’s announcement on more grant funding as a real-term snub of the challenges farmers face.” Patrick Blythe, a dairy producer from Ashford, Kent, said that he felt farmers were being treated with ‘contempt’ and that Mr Sunak’s
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PICTURE: NFU
By Rachael Brown
Rishi Sunak addressing delegates at this week’s NFU Conference.
appearance was purely a bid to win rural votes. Outgoing NFU president Minette Batters, who was succeeded by Tom Bradshaw this week, expressed her frustration around Mr Sunak’s use of language, after he said farmers ‘were not farming for the money’, suggesting they were not serious businesses. Ms Batters said: “The Prime Minister in his speech said he knew farmers farmed ‘for the love of it’. But farming is a business. Farmers are business owners.”
Speaking to Farmers Guardian, Defra Secretary Steve Barclay suggested the words had been ‘taken out of context’ and moved to reassure farmers the Government was on their side. Responding to Ms Batters’ warning about an imbalance between environment and food production in Government policy which must be addressed ‘before farms simply disappear’, Mr Barclay said they would not ‘cross that red line’ and reduce livestock numbers. Against a backdrop of farmer-led
protests and with continuing unrest over the direction of policy in Wales, Farming Minister Mark Spencer looked to capitalise on the criticism of Welsh Labour. He said he ‘pitied farmers in Wales; they will face an army of regulators with tape measures crawling all over them’. The Shadow Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner said it was not his place to comment on Welsh policies. But when pressed on whether a Labour government would introduce a 20 per cent target in England to take land out of food production, he said: “I am not going to do what they do in Wales, I can give that guarantee.” Labour pledged a ‘new deal for farmers’ which included cutting red tape at borders, a food procurement plan, ‘rewiring Britain for renewables’ and to make the Environmental Land Management scheme work. Mr Zeichner criticised the Government for ‘prioritising flowers over flour’. He said: “We need both – and we need farm businesses to survive and prosper.” MORE FROM THE CONFERENCE ON PAGES 2-8, 10 AND 26.
21/02/2024 16:57