Fryermayne Farm

I have been living here since I was three years old, when my parents moved here from Spetisbury to run Beech Farm for the Saunders family, and I have followed in my father's footsteps. The three farms, Fryermayne, Friarmayne and Beech Farm, have been run as a unit for about thirty years. We currently also have a contract farming arrangement with Jock Lane Farms at Poxwell. I studied agriculture at Bangor University and Seale Hayne Agricultural College before coming to work with my father on the farm. There were about twice as many people employed here then as there are now, but, due mainly to mechanisation, we now manage the farm with six full-time staff including myself, my father who is semi-retired and a part-time worker who comes in when needed. This is a mixed farm with both livestock and arable production. There were two dairies here but this was reduced to one unit in September 1998 because we are restricted by milk quotas as to the amount of milk we can produce, and also milk yields per cow have increased. Our cows each give on average 5,900 litres of milk per year. We have 222 milking cows, 61 in-calf heifers, 70 bulling heifers, 90 store cattle (which go for beef), and 210 cattle under 12 months old.

Altogether, we farm 1,400 acres including the contract farm. This year we shall be harvesting 70 acres of winter barley and 440 acres of winter wheat. We have one combine harvester and six tractors. Since the BSE crisis, farmers have been encouraged to join various voluntary schemes to assure our production methods. These include the Assured Combinable Crop Scheme (ACCS) and Farm Assured British Beef and Lamb (FABBL). These schemes involve frequent inspections by the organisations to check on our production methods. Government support policies, such as subsidies, are powerful economic pressures which influence what we grow. The value of the pound is also a big influence on what farmers receive for their produce. When the pound was weak, about four years, ago we could sell wheat for £120 a tonne and milk for 25 pence a litre. Now that the pound is strong, we get £58 a tonne for wheat (for harvest 2000) and 15.5 pence a litre for milk.

Farming subsidies were introduced after the Second World War in order to ensure self-sufficiency in food in the future but they have led to over- production of some commodities, with farmers growing crops because of the subsidies. There is currently a scheme called Agenda 2000 which aims to reduce subsidies but with some compensation to farmers. A support system is needed because world market prices and their volatility would not be good for anyone. In the wake of the BSE crisis, beef production in Britain has become a marginal enterprise and we are forced to make difficult decisions when animals fall sick. We shall certainly need to diversify in the future in order to survive. A recent government-funded scheme known as Countryside Stewardship has been introduced. This will provide grants or regular payment for such projects as hedge-laying, creating and maintaining margins around fields to encourage wildlife, creating a pond or maintaining a footpath. Funding is limited, so it will not replace the income from normal farming production, but it will help farmers to provide the public with something they really want rather than growing crops which might be surplus to requirements.

I feel strongly that farmers have an important role to play as custodians of the countryside and would like to see the rural landscape preserved. My family and I feel very privileged to live here. A balance has to be struck between maintaining the beauty of our environment and earning a living from the land.

Charlie Goldsack

In the past five years, the value of the pound Sterling against the principal European currencies has risen sharply, particularly so in the last year where it has appreciated against the new Euro by around 15%. This has had two effects; imported food is cheaper and overseas countries have to pay more for our exports. For farmers this has resulted in large reductions in the prices for their produce.