By Charles Bourns, broiler grower, Gloucestershire
What a difficult month it has been, mainly thanks to the very high standard of the entries into the National Egg & Poultry Awards. I do not think we had a poor entrant, in fact all the finalists could have been winners.
I think it reflects very favourably on the future of the industry as the average age of entrants is going down and I just hope that the NGOs, customers and others recognise this fact and also realise to keep this talent in the industry we must be profitable as this generation will not tolerate working for peanuts and why should they!
This new generation now entering the industry want to invest, whether it be in new equipment, solar panels or new buildings, or just refurbishing old ones and catching up on work the last generation should have done.
There is however a problem that is becoming a real blocker to their plans, and that is planning permission. It is all very well the customer saying they want chicken grown at 30kg /square metre, but this cuts a farm’s production by 20%. Likewise banning cages for layers means more free-range farms, which again are difficult to get planning for. These problems need solving fast to stop the imports coming in even more than they are now.
I have a question linked to last month’s column. Do we accept the blame for a problem too readily? I was out with some people the other day and they live on the Wye river. They do have poultry units around them but the river is full of brown trout. They told me that it is once you go past the sewage outfall that the fish become far fewer. Now, I am not belittling the efforts of the NFU, but it is much easier to attack a farmer or processor that a large water company. Worryingly, I am hearing that some customers are saying they will not take product from farms in the area affected. Talk about kicking a person when he is down! Perhaps they should concentrate on the real culprits.
On the home front, we are going to install solar panels hopefully in July. And we have planning approval for a new house for my son who has now come home to develop the farm and business.