COLUMN: Crofters' concern over soaring costs laid bare in survey
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From the Farm by Russell Smith
There is not going to be much cheer in this column, I’m afraid. And that is not just about the weather – roll on spring.
The Scottish Crofting Federation carried out a survey about rising prices last year. Just about all input prices have gone up as we knew already, but some reported increases are huge – between 27 per cent and 65 per cent for feed concentrates on Lewis.
Output prices (mainly lamb sales) have marginally increased for some but not by anything like the cost of inputs. Worryingly, we have crofters saying that the increase may affect viability of the business and hence their ability to continue.
Forty per cent of respondents are already cutting or considering cutting stock numbers. Some direct sellers are reducing their distribution or getting out altogether since they reckon their customers can’t afford a price increase.
One respondent talked about putting the whole croft under trees. Other solutions were to grow more swedes or other winter fodder themselves. Or move to native breeds that require less input – but have a lower market sale price.
Building costs have also spiralled upwards so one respondent can’t now afford to build the shed that would have enabled him to buy feed in bulk and so reduce costs.
Early release of Basic Payments and LFASS will have helped with cash flow but doesn’t increase the overall funds available. Let’s hope the finishers are making money so they come back next year.
There have also been a number of reports on how to get to net zero carbon emissions. All studies are still works in progress but the consensus seems to be that agriculture can never be carbon neutral because of its very nature so there will need to be some measure of offsetting emissions.
Therefore, as I understand it, if we want to keep production levels the same but allow some land for, say, planting trees, we have to become more efficient. This could mean increasing your lambing percentage (which means you need fewer ewes for the same output) or improving the flock health (so fewer non-productive ewes), lambing hoggs, improving nutrition and feeding methane inhibitors or increasing clover to fix nitrogen in the soil.
Some cattle breeds emit lower levels of methane than others so that might be another route. Enteric fermentation (ie methane from the gut) is the main component of emissions in extensive lamb systems.
Carbon audits and training and advice tailored to crofting and crofters will be vital in rolling out changes. We don’t know yet how this will be tied in to the new agriculture support payments but my guess is that some of the Tier 2 payments will be linked to knowing your baseline carbon emissions and introducing changes to reduce the emissions.
However, if any of these were easy, then crofters would be doing them already.
The good news is that, reportedly, transport isn’t a big factor in carbon neutrality for extensive lamb systems so that could take the pressure off remote areas where most feed has to be trucked and ferried in and animals trucked out.
Crofting and store animal production keeps many of the remote mainland and island areas populated and we would all be poorer for its loss.
Russell Smith is a crofter at Bonar Bridge and a director of the Scottish Crofting Federation.
