As the end of 2016 approaches, Peter Barron looks at the challenges facing the agricultural industry in the New Year through the eyes of one of the region’s best known farming families. 

SINCE it changed its focus to organic produce 18 years ago, Acorn Dairy has developed into one of the North’s biggest agricultural success stories.

Having revived the tradition of doorstep and wholesale deliveries of milk, cream and other complementary produce, the family business has gone from strength to strength, despite all the challenges facing the farming industry.

Now, Acorn Dairy, based at Archdeacon Newton, near Darlington, sells more than 60,000 litres of milk per week and is the only organic company of its scale outside the South West of England which is the complete dairy chain of producer, processor and retailer.

It is a position of strength, built on hard work, diversification, innovation and an emphasis on animal welfare, but director Graham Tweddle does not underestimate the challenges ahead.

Here he highlights five issues facing farming in 2017:

1. THE IMPACT OF BREXIT: “No one has done more for the profitability of UK agriculture than the German and French Ministers for Agriculture. Agriculture is a huge part of their economy and is, therefore, worth a lot of votes. In the UK, there are relatively few agricultural votes to be had because the population density is largely in the cities so we have benefited greatly from the policies and procedures that have been put in place by Europe.

“Going forward, our Government has pledged to honour agricultural support packages until 2020 but there is a big question mark about what happens beyond that. Is a UK government going to put agricultural support ahead of the NHS, schools or the endless list of other demands? It’s hard to see that being the case.

“It’s a big worry because profitability in agriculture here in the UK is very closely linked to those support packages. Without them, a lot of farmers would break even at best.

In 2017, we will see the implications of Brexit beginning to unfold and the Government trying to strike a post-Brexit deal. The overriding message has to be that the single market is absolutely crucial to agriculture.”

2. LABOUR AVAILABILITY: “At Acorn Dairy, we’ve found this to be a really big issue and, again, it is going to be exacerbated by Brexit.

"We’ve tried to take on a herdsman but it’s really hard to find someone and, if you lose the Labour source from Europe, it’s only going to get worse.

“I happen to think it’s a really rewarding job but you have got to want to work outside. Some people may prefer to work in a call centre, with more normal shift patterns, and dairy farming isn’t for everyone because of the early starts, with cold, wet mornings and cold, wet nights at this time of year.

“But there is a big plus side to being out in the open air and working in the natural environment. I can’t think of anything more rewarding than being at the birth of an animal and seeing it grow, then going on to its own calves. It’s like having children. It’s the same with arable, seeing seeds grow into crops is really rewarding.

“In farming, there are jobs with phenomenal diversity, with responsibility for your own hours, and a lot of freedom. We have to get that message out there.”

3. GLOBAL WARMING: “We’ve just had our first case of liver fluke – a parasitic snail that lays its eggs on wet grass. The stock eat the grass and the eggs hatch in an animal’s liver.

“It hasn’t been a problem in the North-East so far but liver fluke has worked its way up the East Coast over the past 10-15 years or so.

“You can spot it because an animal will stop growing and lose the sheen from its coat. It’s easily treatable once it's identified but, under the organic rules, we are not allowed to blanket-treat all stock. We have to use management procedures to ensure stock don’t come into contact with the parasite in the first place, which increases costs in the long run.

 “With the milder and wetter winters we’re now having, the fluke isn’t being killed off and global warming threatens to make it a bigger problem. It is the same for arable crops - plant diseases are spreading through the winter period which would historically have been dormant.

“It’s just another example of where we as an industry, and as an individual business, have to evolve to manage a new challenge.”

4. CUSTOMER CARE: With so much up in the air on a global and national level, our focus as a business here in the North-East is to focus our attention on individual customers. If we look after our customers on the doorsteps, and in the shops, cafes and schools, we’ll retain their business.

“The world can wait to see what happens with trade barriers and the like but, for Acorn Dairy, our primary focus has to be on what we are doing locally to keep our customers happy.

“And, that ethos can work at national level. If British Agriculture can look after its closest customers “the British public” by producing what they want to buy, we hope in turn that the public will support British agriculture. That can be done by purchasing products with the Union Jack and Red Tractor which guarantees the produce is traceable, safe to eat and has been farmed, processed and packed in the UK. It doesn’t matter as much if we have access to every international market, but I fear that time is a long way off.

5. FOCUS ON INNOVATION: “Farming has to keep looking to scientific advances to help profitability. There is a lot of innovation out there but we have to keep moving forward and be open-minded. It doesn’t all fit with Organic production but one area where we have been able to embrace the best of modern science is the testing of semen before its use in artificial insemination.

There are now technologies available that can separate male and female sperm. This means a dairy farmer can be certain that the off-spring in the next generation will be female and best genetics are carried forward. It also helps solve the question of unwanted dairy bulls, which is a long-term problem for the industry. This all helps with efficiencies on the farm and ultimately profitability.

Those Acorn Dairy customers who attended our open evenings this year will have met 007 “Money Penny”, our first calf born using this technology. Every time I see her with her little pals in the shed I think we are actually in a good place to move forward into 2017 and tackle the challenges that it brings.