Shropshire Monitor Farm launched

What to do with a 1200 acre farm? That was the question asked to over 50 farmers who attended the first Monitor Farms open day at Howle Manor Farm near Newport in Shropshire.

From the start of 2015, Sam Watson Jones will be in the driver’s seat at his family farm, with his father in the back, and that’s one of the main reasons he decided to bid for the opportunity to become an HGCA monitor farmer, realising it would give him a chance to draw on the expertise of the wider farming community in the early days of his career.

“Is our mix of crops right? And what’s the future for a family-owned business of this size?” he asked.

He encouraged the audience to look at the triple bottom line of the farming operation, considering the economic (profit), social (people) and environmental (planet) issues as those that any business should be measured against.

He said he’d tried to be realistic when looking at farm budgets. He had plotted a graph, taking gross margins, fixed costs and profitability into account, one suggesting that if everything stayed the same, and allowing for a three per cent annual increase in costs, his farm profit would turn into a loss by 2024.

“Of course it isn’t as simple as the graph,” he explained. “One year prices will be higher so the gross margin will be better and profitability increased. In another year, we might be able to make savings with our fixed costs. But I do think this picture of the future must make us focus. It tells us we can’t just carry on – something has to change for us to remain profitable and for there to be a sustainable business for me to pass on to the next generation.”

At the moment the farm’s rotation includes 240ha of wheat, 90ha of oilseed rape, 70ha of potatoes and 40ha of oats. “Once we’ve decided on our cropping, the gross margin is fixed,” he says. “We can do all in our power to increase yield, but a lot of this is out of our control – for example, our wheat yields are strongly related to the weather, and we have no control over that!”

Sam told the audience that he couldn’t see the model that had worked for the past 30 years working for the next – and was certain he had to change something about the way the farm was run. His aim would be to increase the total gross margin in a way that didn’t increase the overheads, and felt this was going to necessitate some ‘out of the box’ thinking.

“I’m asking whether the business model we are currently using is broken,” he said. “We need to futureproof the business – but if we look at, for example, increasing the size of the farm by buying more land at the price it is today, are we merely postponing our judgement day?”

He believes that at Howle Manor Farm, he needs to act now, before his operation is in crisis.

“Just look at the range of responsibilities that the perfect farmer has to have – and they’re often completely unrelated. We have to understand the intricacies of the international wheat market to get the best price, have to know how to get our machines to start on a cold and frosty morning, and need the agronomy expertise to know which variety of what crop to grow where.”

He explained that around 80 per cent of the profitability of his farm comes from his poultry business – but then asked whether that meant only one day out of five should be spent on the arable enterprises. “Would that be right? No,” he said.

“Farmers have always been jacks of all trades, but is that sustainable? Do we need to become experts in just one or two areas, and could collaboration with our neighbours help? We’ve already started by sharing machinery, but should we be doing more by sharing technical or marketing expertise?”

Sam’s questions, and farm situation, provoked a lively question and answer session, and his honesty led to farmer attendees saying they were very impressed with this first Monitor Farm visit.

“I’ve been very impressed, particularly with the HGCA’s choice of farm,” says Richard Spry, who travelled to the open day from his own farm in Corse, near Cheltenham. “Sam was very honest about the issues he faces, and is very keen to learn from others, really wanting to get new ideas.”

This was a viewed share by Jon Dickinson who had travelled from a similar area. “I think the idea of benchmarking, and us staying together as a group, is brilliant. As long as we are all honest with each other we can learn a lot – traditionally that hasn’t always been the case. I was also very impressed with Sam and how honest he is being about the future. These are issues that face us all.”

Agronomist John Harmer from Shrewsbury found the day ‘very thought-provoking.’

“We need to be challenged in our thought processes, farming can be quite insular. There’s no doubt we need to change and to be more honest with ourselves, as well as with others.”

*This was the first open day at Howle Manor. The HGCA Monitor Farms model is based on the sharing of best practice, and the challenge of decision-making through group discussion and review.

Eight new arable growers have now joined the eight monitor farms already appointed in England and two monitor farms in Scotland. The plan is for a total of 24 farms to be rolled out over a three-year period, with the focus on business improvement, benchmarking and understanding cost of production.

Each farmer signs up to be in the scheme for three years, hosting meetings of local growers to share best practice, challenge business performance and address key constraints to productivity. The monitor farmers, their steering group and associated HGCA arable business groups will deliver the benchmarking activity and peer review of decision-making on farm.

“The potential for impact in the industry is huge, because this is the first farmer-led and farmer-driven business improvement initiative to be delivered on this scale,” says Richard Laverick, HGCA’s head of regional development.

“The farmers decide the agenda and programme of activity for each site, with a clear aim of achieving a demonstrable improvement in business performance over the three years of the programme.”

New involvement from local farmers is always welcome. Many farms are on their second round of meetings, but Richard is keen to stress that the meetings are open to all, are encouraging good robust debate and inter-action, and offer all producers a chance to gain through sharing knowledge, costings and experience. Go to www.hgca.com/monitorfarms to get a full list of Monitor Farm activity or to find out more.