DEFRA cover up on upland prospects

[Humble Village Farmer]

Defra officials buried analysis showing dire financial prospects for hill farmers

Exclusive: FoI request reveals fears many would sell up if they saw assessment of post-Brexit farming payments scheme

www.theguardian.com

 

[egbert]

Defra officials buried analysis showing dire financial prospects for hill farmers

Exclusive: FoI request reveals fears many would sell up if they saw assessment of post-Brexit farming payments scheme

www.theguardian.com

There's a lot in that, but the bit that catches my eye is the assertion that DEFRA think hill farmers don't care for the environment.
Pretty rich coming in the Guardian, which has given a lasting platform to a journo who has done more to alienate farmers and those who claim to be environmentalists than anyone else in the UK

 

[livestock 1]

I’ve been saying this for years on here not many have listened

 

[livestock 1]

The best part of the country for wildlife and environment is the hill farms. That’s where the walkers and visitors go for some reason the majority of the money is directed to arable farms which makes no sense. Do they just want rid of us?

 

[ritchiekirkland]

Father in law says there was ten times the wildlife , ground nesting birds ect until there was lots of walkers and dogs about in the hills too !

 

[livestock 1]

Father in law says there was ten times the wildlife , ground nesting birds ect until there was lots of walkers and dogs about in the hills too !

Yes and before environmental schemes to protect them

 

[ritchiekirkland]

Yes and before environmental schemes to protect them

I think it was just called hill farming ??

 

[livestock 1]

Some of the people saying they are working for us want sheep off the hills and favour the freeholder on the moors rather than the grazier
Years ago one of our agents suggested I should get myself onto these boards to dilute the rubbish spoken. Someone with actual knowledge of the moors that has spent a significant time of my life working on them. Instead we have people who haven’t spent time on the ground making the decisions as if they know

 

[livestock 1]

I think it was just called hill farming ??

Yes. They decided to protect what was there by changing everything

 

[yellowbelly]

Very condescending of Defra officials to even think some of this, let alone write it down in a report.
From the Guardian story...

The minutes of the meetings revealed the dire situation for upland farmers. At one of the meetings, one official said: “Many upland farmers are heading rapidly into financial crisis and kneejerk-type survival reactions will do little to deliver anything of value in the longer term.”

They added: “The nature of the transition means that upland farming businesses are not seeing a future for themselves – upland farmers don’t understand the steps to run a thriving business.”

Also, from the story, another opinion held by Defra...

Officials believed upland farmers were dismissive of the environment.

Upland farmers can hardly be accused of being dismissive of the environment - they, probably more than most of us, know a helluva lot more about their environment. Working in it, and earning a living in it, they know, from generations of experience, what they can and can't do.

If they're so bad at looking after it, how come millions of people want to spend time visiting the environment of our uplands every year?

 

[livestock 1]

Hill farmers are most reliant on bps for profit margins than any other farming sector but have had the most money withdrawn with sfi
Seems they already should know the answer they are the author of our downfall

 

[DrDunc]

Yes and before environmental schemes to protect them

Scottish scheme called the countryside premium demanded total stock exclusion

Land became rank overgrown unproductive weed infested mess that little wildlife inhabited, or with much variation in flora and fauna

That was thirty years ago

You'd have thought lessons would have been learned?



It's taken a generation of work here to reclaim the scheme land back into production. The plethora of habitat and biodiversity now present, on this once again productive land, is a pleasure to behold

Will English hills simply become parkland for the urban over population?

 

[hoff135]

Probably want rid of the hill farms so their buddies in the city can hoover up all their land for carbon offsetting

 

[egbert]

Very condescending of Defra officials to even think some of this, let alone write it down in a report.
From the Guardian story...

The minutes of the meetings revealed the dire situation for upland farmers. At one of the meetings, one official said: “Many upland farmers are heading rapidly into financial crisis and kneejerk-type survival reactions will do little to deliver anything of value in the longer term.”

They added: “The nature of the transition means that upland farming businesses are not seeing a future for themselves – upland farmers don’t understand the steps to run a thriving business.”

Also, from the story, another opinion held by Defra...

Officials believed upland farmers were dismissive of the environment.

Upland farmers can hardly be accused of being dismissive of the environment - they, probably more than most of us, know a helluva lot more about their environment. Working in it, and earning a living in it, they know, from generations of experience, what they can and can't do.

If they're so bad at looking after it, how come millions of people want to spend time visiting the environment of our uplands every year?

'upland farmers don’t understand the steps to run a thriving business.'

Hmm. condescending indeed.

There's this assumption that we'll all go bust if they stop funding.
And to be sure, some will. but what they don't appreciate is that we're not thick per se.
Most of us know very well how to run sheep on very low inputs.
And outside cross compliance and enviro schemes, that could be a lot of sheep again!
Coos that need winter feeding/housing? no chance.
But hill ewes where they were designed to live...?

 

[egbert]

Scottish scheme called the countryside premium demanded total stock exclusion

Land became rank overgrown unproductive weed infested mess that little wildlife inhabited, or with much variation in flora and fauna

That was thirty years ago

You'd have thought lessons would have been learned?



It's taken a generation of work here to reclaim the scheme land back into production. The plethora of habitat and biodiversity now present, on this once again productive land, is a pleasure to behold

Will English hills simply become parkland for the urban over population?

swan vestas mate.

 

[farmerm]

Very condescending of Defra officials to even think some of this, let alone write it down in a report.
From the Guardian story...

The minutes of the meetings revealed the dire situation for upland farmers. At one of the meetings, one official said: “Many upland farmers are heading rapidly into financial crisis and kneejerk-type survival reactions will do little to deliver anything of value in the longer term.”

They added: “The nature of the transition means that upland farming businesses are not seeing a future for themselves – upland farmers don’t understand the steps to run a thriving business.”

Also, from the story, another opinion held by Defra...

Officials believed upland farmers were dismissive of the environment.

Upland farmers can hardly be accused of being dismissive of the environment - they, probably more than most of us, know a helluva lot more about their environment. Working in it, and earning a living in it, they know, from generations of experience, what they can and can't do.

If they're so bad at looking after it, how come millions of people want to spend time visiting the environment of our uplands every year?

That’s rather an ironic statement for civil servants to make

 

[livestock 1]

Scottish scheme called the countryside premium demanded total stock exclusion

Land became rank overgrown unproductive weed infested mess that little wildlife inhabited, or with much variation in flora and fauna

That was thirty years ago

You'd have thought lessons would have been learned?



It's taken a generation of work here to reclaim the scheme land back into production. The plethora of habitat and biodiversity now present, on this once again productive land, is a pleasure to behold

Will English hills simply become parkland for the urban over population?

It almost already has in the hills.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

How does the future look for grouse shooting, doesn't that rely on sheep to maintain the heather?

No sheep, no grouse shooting? Will the rich shooting types then subsidise sheep farming instead of the taxpayer to keep the status quo?

 

[Wood field]

How does the future look for grouse shooting, doesn't that rely on sheep to maintain the heather?

No sheep, no grouse shooting? Will the rich shooting types then subsidise sheep farming instead of the taxpayer to keep the status quo?

Not really as it works in the “ environmentalists “ favour, no sheep no shooting it’s a win win , until the moors are ablaze every summer because nothings grazing on them, mind that could then be another win because they can then blame the cows for the hot dry summer… cynical me

 

[Wood field]

I was browsing the sfi thread and done a little google search , in my hillwalking days , hawswater up riggindale and on to high street was a good days walking, I remember the bemoaning of the loss of the last golden eagle, anyway my google search led me to a guardian piece about re wilding riggingdale and mentioned loss of the eagles.
Two farms both now in the hands of the rspb , herdwick ewes from 3,000 down to 300.
Let’s get the landscape back for the eagles to return they rejoiced.
Now hang on a mo I thought, for hundreds of years those fells were worked and farmed , the eagles were a natural species at home there , so why all of a sudden is it sheep and no trees that killed them off, what about flooding it to make a ruddy big reservoir, what about hundreds of walkers and cars
No it must be the sheep