Farmers in England and Wales ‘face toughest times in a generation’
Food producers have said the challenges they face are “the toughest in a generation” as members of the National Farmers’ Union met for their annual conference after the first full year of Brexit.
Farmers from England and Wales gathered in Birmingham on Tuesday, against the backdrop of huge upheaval in agriculture, with labour shortages caused by Brexit and Covid, an ongoing pig cull and the transition to life beyond the EU’s subsidy scheme.
The day opened with a blistering attack on ministers from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president, Minette Batters, who accused the government of having no post-Brexit plan and of showing a “total lack of understanding of how food production works”. Her views were echoed by farmers speaking from the floor of the conference.
Sam Godfrey, a pig farmer from Lincolnshire, said it was the “toughest time” he had known in 14 years on the family farm, while his father said he had not seen such challenging conditions since the 1970s.
Godfrey, who has a herd of 6,500 sows, said pigs were still backing up on their farm, as abattoirs continued to take fewer animals to slaughter each week than planned. This is despite the family having invested £50,000 in converting buildings into extra space to house their pigs. “We have some spare capacity,” Godfrey said. “But we have never had a situation where it was this prolonged.”
The NFU estimates that 200,000 pigs are backed up on farms in England, and are unable to be taken to slaughter as a result of labour shortages at abattoirs. Meanwhile 40,000 healthy animals are thought to have been culled, and have not entered the food chain.
Batters told the conference that she had received a “heart-breaking” email from a family, who did not want to share their
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