Results of a recent survey commissioned by BASF found that arable farmers in England, Scotland and Wales say that they wouldn’t want to farm anywhere else in the world, despite the current inhospitable market conditions, where commodity prices are low.
BASF quizzed farmers on their farming country of choice as part of the company's quarterly 'confidence' survey of over 100 farmers with over 100 hectares of arable area.
This most recent research, carried out by an independent market research company, found that 37% of farmers said they would not want to farm anywhere else other than in the UK. New Zealand was the most popular alternative, with 19% of farmers interviewed selecting this agricultural powerhouse, followed by 8% choosing Canada, 6% preferring France and 5% seeing Australia as favourable, despite widespread drought over recent years. The weather was seen to be the most important factor.
“It is interesting that most UK farmers, when given the choice of farming anywhere else in the world, prefer to stay put,” said Joe Dixon of BASF.
“When asked specifically about why they wanted to stay in the UK, the majority of answers were connected with familiarity with the farming sector and practices. The second most frequent reason for staying in the UK was that farmers were generally happy here. It really is a case of there is no place like home!” he adds.
The research also found that 23% of farmers categorised themselves as being happy with their current business situation. This hadn’t changed significantly in the last three months, when 26% of farmers suggested that they were happy.
What has changed in this quarter was farmers’ willingness to invest in major purchases for the farm. Now 72% of respondents say they are unlikely to make a significant capital investment, whereas three months ago it was 55%. The willingness not to invest is greater for the larger farms and in certain regions such as Scotland and the south.
In support of this trend data, farmers were asked what their biggest concern for the farm was in the next three months. The top answers given were crop prices (selected by 26% of all farmers), followed by the need to survive (given by 21% of all farmers). Arable farmers were the most concerned about commodity prices (46% citing this as the primary concern), as well as farmers in the Midlands and Scotland. Unsurprisingly the concern over prices was an issue across all regions.
However when asked what their biggest success on the farm was in the last three months, crop yields came out top, selected by 19% of all farmers. Overall one third of all farmers were pleased with their yield performance and with harvest - a positive message.
Drilling down into the data further, 35% of arable farmers said yield was their biggest success plus a further 14% said it was harvest performance. This was considered to be a success particularly in the Midlands and the North but less so in Scotland.
“UK farmers seem to be pulling in their horns a bit following a good harvest in a climate of low prices for cereals and oilseed rape. The level of confidence overall hasn’t changed a great deal, but we will see how this develops over time as we continue to keep our finger firmly on the pulse of the UK agriculture,” said Joe Dixon.
