00:00Here with Rory, generational farmer. How many generations, Rory?
00:04I'm probably the second generation here, but a long line of family farmers.
00:08And we're just on the outskirts of Wem?
00:10Correct, I said on the edge of Loppington.
00:13So this field here, I mean, it looks gorgeous, but, you know, looks can kind of be deceiving, really.
00:20The crop we've got here, dwarf sunflower and fir?
00:23There's a variety in here. We've got phacillias, the purple flower, some vetch, clovers, cereal rye in here.
00:30This was planted after our barley crop last July.
00:35That suffered greatly from the drought this spring.
00:40We've come from a really, really wet winter and pretty much the rain stopped and then crops suffered.
00:47They had very short roots.
00:49And from light, sandy soils, just didn't have any moisture and just couldn't keep growing.
00:54So, yeah, we managed to harvest the barley crop.
00:57This was planted as a cover crop to look after the soil health and feed the sheep through the winter.
01:02This just sat there above the surface for nearly two months doing nothing until we had some rain in early September.
01:11And it looks beautiful at the moment.
01:13Biomas has grown up.
01:15The sheep will be here in next week and they'll be loving it.
01:17So, I mean, we talk about rain, here we are with the puddles and it's coming down on us now.
01:23But the issue, from a farming point of view, it sees extremes, isn't it?
01:26It really is.
01:27Yeah, yeah.
01:28We just, the weather is one thing you can't change.
01:32We have to deal with it.
01:33We do the best we certainly can.
01:35But government support is something that would be really helpful.
01:38We just feel every single corner we're turning, they're knocking us in all sorts of different ways.
01:45So, support will be grateful.
01:48So, with the kind of the changing climate, I mean, you know, you hear about it if you watch the gardening programs
01:53and they're definitely noticing it and the times that stuff's flowering and that.
01:57Are you kind of thinking, this is going to have to be a whole different way of farming, you know, yeah.
02:03Yeah, we've got to look at different crops, different ways of growing the crops.
02:08But we're the two extremes.
02:10Like, two years ago, it was so wet, struggled to put all the crops in the ground.
02:15And then we put the spring crops in, into sodden ground as soon as it was dry enough to get planted.
02:20And then it just dried up and we didn't get any moisture.
02:24So, yeah, we're going to have to look further afield.
02:27What are the crops that are growing?
02:29What can access deeper down moisture?
02:33So, long term, it sounds like it's getting trickier and trickier.
02:38And obviously, I guess the fear is potentially it gets to the point where a lot of people just think this is too much hassle.
02:46You know what I mean?
02:46It certainly is.
02:47You can look in the magazines at the moment and there are farm sales galore.
02:52Yeah.
02:52People selling up is difficult in every way, like I'm saying.
02:57So, the crops we've got in the ground at the moment, the cereals, they are not looking like a healthy return at the moment.
03:04Yeah.
03:04We're ever optimistic, hoping that we'll get a better harvest next year.
03:08We've all planted our cereals into some nice conditions this last month.
03:12And we're just hoping the price will increase, but it's a willed market.
03:17So, the issue with the cereals that have been planted, so they've been planted, that'll be next year's crop, you're pulling them out.
03:22Correct.
03:22So, is the issue at the minute with those is just the value of them on the market?
03:28Really, yes.
03:28So, if we're going back to last harvest, what we would have planted in September, October 2024, that has been harvested.
03:37We've had very poor yields generally.
03:41There have been a few fields that have been very good, anything nice heavy soils, had enough moisture.
03:45But the average is definitely down on our harvest this year.
03:49Yeah.
03:49That is then to be sold and an income to pay for this crop that's in the ground now, that's only just been planted, to try and take through to next harvest before we can sell, have more grain to sell.
04:02So, how many years ago, you know, would you say it's a different world now farming to it was like five years ago or ten years ago or twenty years ago?
04:13It jumps around a lot more.
04:14So, previously, it's more what happened in the UK, the prices dictated that.
04:20But we're in a world market, it's very easy, we're told, to bring in produce from all over the world, wherever.
04:28It doesn't matter what standards they're grown to, or it doesn't seem to, but our prices are dictated by the rest of the world generally now.
04:38And it seems to be very reactive, very quick to change.
04:42Whereas, years ago, it was a little bit slower and you can see a slow uplift throughout the year.
04:48Whereas, these last few years, you can change a few hours.
04:52Yeah.
04:53And these extremes of weather, does that mean that potentially you're planting something and you're getting nothing from it?
05:00Or is it kind of a case of, you know, it's reducing it by up to 20%, 30% of the yield?
05:05It's a combination.
05:06So, last autumn, I did manage to plant everything, but anything that was planted before we had the storm at the time, the seeds just rotted in the ground.
05:16They didn't have enough chance to germinate.
05:17So, those, I think I had three or four fields that had to be replanted.
05:22No way.
05:23So, three or four fields planted and nothing from them and having to do it all again?
05:27Correct, yeah.
05:27So, then we had the chance of a spring crop.
05:30Yeah.
05:30Coming out of a very wet winter, you wouldn't expect it to just go dry as it did.
05:35Yeah.
05:35So, it's so hard to know because we don't know.
05:39We have wet springs, wet summers.
05:42Yeah, yeah.
05:43How can we...
05:45Can you put those three or four fields, just take that as an example, the work, the man hours you put into that, the cost of the materials you're putting into it, and then having to do it again.
05:56Could you put a figure on, you know, the fact that those three or four fields failed, what that cost to, you know what I mean?
06:03So, you've got the actual cost, so we've got seed that's been planted, the drill that's been there, and then levelling the soil afterwards.
06:12But then you've got the opportunity cost, so what that crop could have brought in.
06:17Yeah.
06:18We're losing, you know, average should be close to nine, ten tonne hectare.
06:23We didn't achieve that, and then we've had to then go and plant a spring crop, and that's the return on that.
06:29This year was poorer because we've had such a dry time.
06:32The plants, I think, barely saw a drop of rain in their growing period.
06:37So, we're talking about thousands, thousands for us.
06:40So, you know, when you're trying to budget and that, you know, standing here at this stage, and the way the world is, and with the extremes of weather, you haven't got a clue what you're going to earn by the end of next year, have you?
06:53No.
06:54That's difficult to plan as a businessman, isn't it?
06:57That's it, yeah.
06:58Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:58You can't guess what's going to happen.
07:00So, what would you, so, last question, I guess, Rory, what would you like then?
07:06So, you mentioned, you know, any help or support.
07:09Is there something in particular, you know, you'd be like, look, you could see a solution, some help, you know?
07:16It's going to be a long term.
07:17I mean, like, from a practical point of view, we're after different varieties that can cope with the extremes of weather, some better rooting crops.
07:25But then, government support and the policies we have to follow, there just, there seems to be, like I said, an endless list coming up, trying to knock us in every little bit of the way somehow.
07:37So, less red tape.
07:41One annoying thing for me is we've got some of the highest standards in the world, but then we're not paid for doing that.
07:48And we can import these lesser crops grown to lower standards, using products that have been banned in this country, are all imported.
08:00That's just not fair, really.
08:02I mean, we should have the same limits set on imports that we have to grow ourselves, or have a high, an uplift for growing so well.
08:11Have we got growing here then, Rory?
08:13So, this is a herbal lay in this field.
08:16Essentially, it's a grass crop.
08:18Again, this is one of the measures we're trying to do as farmers to future-proof ourselves a little bit.
08:25Herbal lay is a mixture of grasses, clovers, herbs within it, all sorts of different things.
08:33The idea is we've got a different balance of root, rooting styles and plants within the crop.
08:40This field here is on some very light sand.
08:43It was brown for the whole summer, I think, really.
08:46So we've had to replant it with the idea of having these different rooting structures in a dry period.
08:53The grass might not be able to cope because it's shallow-rooted, but some of the herbs and the clovers are a lot deeper-rooted, should be able to keep going for a lot longer anyway.
09:03So, if the herbs and the clovers keep going and survive, so what do you use those for?
09:09Is that grazing again?
09:10They're still grazed.
09:10It's grazing fields.
09:11Yeah, so we've got beef and sheep on the farm as well.
09:15Ah, got you.
09:16Essentially, they always need something to eat, so the grass, like I say, give up when it's too hot and there's no moisture in the access.
09:25So previously, it would have just been grass, yeah?
09:28It was an early style of herbal lay, but it was getting to the end of its time period anyway.
09:34But the intense dry period, everything gave up with us this time.
09:40Yeah, so we're having to start again, I've got a bit more of a range of different herbs and clovers in it, and hoping it's all the best we can do, really.
09:51So, Rory, this is your grain store.
09:53Now, it looks to me like there's a bit in here, but there should be a lot, lot more, yeah?
09:57Yeah, normally on an average harvest, it's never too far apart from each other, really.
10:05We are up to this wall, the whole shed here, up to those spouts right up in the ceiling, down to here.
10:12That is generally awful.
10:14This time of the year, that's how it would normally, yeah?
10:16We sold a little bit out already, so that's a little bit less than what we had at harvest,
10:21but it was just sad to see the size of the effort we'd put in for the whole year.
10:27Yeah, and same again, that's just because you're planting it out in the fields, because of the conditions.
10:33It was so wet, so wet last autumn, trying to get the crops established, and then we had a few fields fail,
10:40and then other patches, anywhere there's a slight bowl where the water sat in a field,
10:45seeds rotted, or the plants just couldn't keep growing, so we had a patchwork of crops this year,
10:52trying to, I hate leaving little patches, bare patches, so we went and planted them with a different crop,
10:57caused a few more headaches of having to go back and forth to the field with different products,
11:04and the combine for one crop, and then going back to the field for the other crop when that
11:07was ready to harvest, but we had something to speak for it, really.
11:13I'm just curious, I mean, farming, I understand, has got the highest rates of suicide in any career.
11:21It must take its toll on you, just, you know, you must be a lot of sleepless nights, and you know what I mean?
11:29It is difficult, and it's, there's a combination of everything, the weather, which we can't control,
11:36but it's still a massive weight on our shoulders. It influences from what we grow, how well it grows,
11:43the diseases we get, how well the sheep grow, the amount this year, we've hardly had any silage grass for the cattle
11:51to take us through the winter.
11:55Shouldn't worry about it, but that influences what we can manage and what we can do, the stock we can keep,
12:01what we have to buy in to replace it, and then everything else on top of that as well.
12:07Yeah. Low prices for our grain to when it's sold, higher prices for fertiliser and chemicals,
12:14machinery is rocketing at the moment, so it's very hard to justify new machines.
12:19Yeah. How come the cost of machinery is rocketing? Is that because there's more people coming out
12:26of the game, so the people selling those machines are basically putting the prices up to compensate for that?
12:30Shouldn't be, no. I think it's a combination of everything. There's a lot of stealing machines
12:36to start with, so the price of steel keeps going up and up and up. We're stopping, it's not only
12:43farmers are struggling in this government and this world, the steel is shutting down in this country,
12:49so importing steel, apparently the electronics. During Covid there was a shortage of machinery,
12:55the chipboards that actually run these machines. So it's a combination of everything really,
13:03the price is going up. There's a lot more technology on them, they keep improving, like your car, you get
13:09a new sensor here to help you drive easier. All machines are still doing that as well, they're
13:15getting more sensors. It's easier to drive them and monitor them, but there's a lot more electrics involved
13:22in it. Yeah, yeah. Well, Rory, we thank you for all your hard work, for looking after all of us,
13:29really, as you farmers do, and we wish you all the best coming into this next year. Let's hope you
13:35have a good crop next year, mate. Thank you. Yep, we'll keep trying.
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