In our latest blog post, Blair Wallace, Vice Chair of Future Farmers of Yorkshire, feeds back from the network’s Great Yorkshire Show Breakfast Meeting.
I have to admit to feeling slightly nervous before chairing the Future Farmers of Yorkshires flagship event at the Great Yorkshire Show.
With a record attendance of 200 people looking on in the audience and some industry and political heavyweights making up a highly esteemed panel for a discussion, there was a sense of expectation hanging in the air.
The occasion was the Show’s day two opener, the annual Future Farmers of Yorkshire Breakfast Meeting, our highest profile event of the year for a thriving network of more than 1,000 farmers, vets and industry professionals, of which I’m privileged to be serving as Vice Chair.
There was a real buzz in the room as people met up, renewed acquaintances, made introductions to new faces and enjoyed starting their visit to the Show with a free breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee.
Any nerves I had faded quickly once the meeting got underway and our panellists picked up the topic, all about how to drive farm profitability in times of great change in the industry.
Key messages from our panel
Baroness Minette Batters, the former NFU president and tenant farmer explained how she was now leading a DEFRA report on farming profitability and how she felt an “enormous responsibility” to deliver for farmers.
She acknowledged how political priorities can change by going on to say the report’s recommendations needed to be “politically bullet proof” if the exercise is to truly deliver for farmers and said environmental land management has to be profitable for farm businesses.
It was really interesting to hear Minette open up in her typically frank fashion, saying how it felt “quite surreal” to be spending so much time working in DEFRA, having long held the department to account during her time at the NFU.
Farmer, MP and Shadow Farming and Rural Affairs Minister Robbie Moore, also on the panel, was fired up, saying food security must be “installed at the heart of government”, while Tom Richardson, Commercial Director of Warrendale Wagyu said retailers were having more conversations around sustainable supply chains which was good news for farmers.
Future Farmers is hugely grateful to Breakfast Meeting sponsors Krone UK, whose MD Dr Marcus Oliver also joined the panel and advised farmers to scrutinise how they are farming for the 21st century before investing in new machinery.
It was a fascinating discussion and one we hope our members went away from with a sense of positivity in what they can do to adapt to changes in the industry.
Minister meeting and more to come
A day earlier at the Show, a small group of Future Farmers and I had the chance to sit down and highlight issues affecting farm businesses with DEFRA Minister Daniel Zeichner.
We are fortune to be afforded audiences with Ministers and to be supported by industry speakers who are so willing to give their time to empowering others in the industry, and sharing routes through industry challenges with our members.
Future Farmers will continue to pursue opportunities like these, alongside our rolling programme of events and bursary, mentorship and training offers.
We recently awarded bursary places to cover the costs of attending Groundswell festival to a number of our members and this week, two more Future Farmers headed to the Oxford Real Farming Conference’s In the Field event at Neil Heseltine’s Hill Top Farm in Malham for two days of practical workshops all about managing livestock and biodiversity.
There is lots more to come from Future Farmers later in the year, including a Pathways to Farm Entry Workshop on 23rd October and 6th November and our Autumn Debate on 29th October.
