Four new NFU county chairmen speak of ‘challenge’ for farming

The four, who represent more than 6,000 farmers across the region, were speaking after the NFU’s annual conference,

They said the challenge was huge, with the industry seeking the best possible access to the European single market; the opportunity to export into new markets; continued access to a competent and reliable workforce; and a new domestic agriculture policy designed to allow British agriculture to thrive and remain competitive.

The Northumberland chairman is dairy farmer Hugh Richardson of Wheelbirks Farm, Stocksfield, near Corbridge. The family runs a successful dairy business, built around their 120 pedigree Jersey cows, producing more than 700,000 litres of milk a year, with 22,000 litres sold unpasteurised and a further 10,000 litres turned into luxury ice cream. This is stocked by local retailers and sold through the family’s on-farm ice cream parlour. They also manage 100 acres of commercial woodland.

In North Riding and Durham, James Bainbridge and his family, farm at Seamer near Stokesley, running a variety of farm enterprises including a sizable rented and share-farmed arable business, an arable contracting business, 8,000 free-range hens plus 400 breeding ewes and a further 500 cattle for fattening.

In York East, Andrew Harrison farms on the Wintringham Estate near Malton, running a 390-acre arable business, growing cereals for seed. The family also contract farm a neighbouring farm, rear beef cattle predominantly for Dawn Meats and has recently started a new enterprise rearing approximately 12,000 weaner pigs a year.

In Yorkshire West Riding, Rachel Hallos and her family farm at Ripponden between Halifax and Huddersfield. As the tenants of Yorkshire Water, they run a 2,000 acre hill farm, specialising in breeding pedigree Saler beef cattle – selling female replacement cattle through auction markets and private sales.

Mr Richardson said: "With 67 per cent of our region’s area managed by farmers, and more than 40,000 people directly employed in the industry locally, agriculture and horticulture are very important sectors for our regional economy.

"And a new report, just commissioned by the NFU, demonstrates that for every £1 invested in the industry by government, farmers deliver £7.40 back to the economy and society."

Mr Bainbridge said his priorities in the coming years will be to encourage the public to look for British produce in the shops and encourage the government to focus their public procurement on home produced food.

"We also need a new agriculture policy that gives us the tools we need to develop our farm businesses, cope with increasingly volatile commodity markets and keep red tape to a minimum," he said.

Andrew Harrison hopes the government will get behind British farmers. "We have a fantastic industry that has so much to offer if we are given the chance."