Not all green shoots for farmers

By Danny Savage Business reporter, BBC North

With a record number of livestock entries and advance ticket sales for the Great Yorkshire show, it would be easy to assume that everything is well in the world of agriculture after a day out at the Harrogate showground.

But farming has not been immune from the recession, although attitudes do seem to be positive.

Matt Ingham is a dairy farmer in the Yorkshire Dales. He has a large herd of Friesian cows grazing in the fields around his farmhouse which produce thousands of litres of milk a week.

But like nearly 2,000 other dairy farmers, Mr Ingham's business was plunged into crisis last month when one of the country's biggest milk co-operatives - Dairy Farmers of Britain - collapsed.

No buyers

"When Dairy Farmers of Britain went under, it would be an under statement to say it was devastating," says Mr Ingham.

"There was no home for our milk and we were ringing round from first thing in the morning until late in the afternoon to try and find somewhere for the milk to go.

"We had no buyers for it. Eventually I rang the National Farmers Union who put us in touch with First Milk and luckily they took us on straight away," he adds.

Unemployment has risen and repossessions of property are rising faster in rural areas than in urban areas Prof Mark Shucksmith, Commission for Rural Communities

Mr Ingham is fortunate. There are reports this week that some dairy farmers in Cumbria, who were also affected by the Dairy farmers of Britain collapse, have decided to retire early and sell their herds because they could not find alternative buyers for their milk.

But just because Mr Ingham, 40, has found someone else to sell his milk through, life is not sorted just yet. Dairy farmers sell their milk by the litre but the price can vary from week to week.

Ideally, Matt wants to increase the size of his herd: "I'm hoping in the future that the price will stabilise at a high price and we can move forward.

"We are looking to increase the number of cows we have to get us somewhere in the region of a million litres per year, which hopefully will give us a bit of clout."

His positive outlook is echoed by the Commission for Rural Communities which has been examining the impact of the recession in the British countryside.

Mixed signals

But the group does stress that signs of recovery are certainly not being seen everywhere.

"The rural economy has been quite badly hit by the recession, but it's been a very uneven effect," says Newcastle University's Professor Mark Shucksmith, who is part of the Commission.

"The land-based sector and the tourism sector have not been hit so badly because of the effects of change in the exchange rate.

"A lot of small businesses and people have been hit. Unemployment has risen and repossessions of property are rising faster in rural areas than in urban areas."

The upturn in interest in the tourism and visitor sectors is being reflected very obviously in the crowds at the Great Yorkshire Show this week.

There has been some suggestion that the rural economy could lead the way out of the slump, but there are plenty of experts who argue that such talk is premature at the moment.

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