Poorest Shropshire farmers hit hard
Tuesday 30th November 2010, 7:00PM GMT.
A quarter of farming households live below the poverty line with those in Shropshire among those hardest hit, it was claimed today.
The poorest 25 per cent of farms have a household income of less than £20,000 a year, and a third of those failed to make a profit over the past three years, the Government’s rural watchdog said.
And Shropshire farmers and their representatives today claimed many more of them would be left in financial ruin were it not for subsidies from the government.
The Commission for Rural Communities (CRC) said many farmers in the UK had diversified or found ways to earn money away from the farm to survive, with 17 per cent of farms making more money from their additional enterprises than from traditional farming activities.
But some do not have the skills or opportunity to branch into new businesses such as farm shops, producing food or letting out farm buildings.
Struggling farmers are more likely to be older people grazing livestock in upland areas including The CRC is urging ministers to help farmers access benefits and develop their businesses.
Oliver Cartwright, spokesman for the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in Shropshire, today said the organisation was also concerned at the figures.
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Sounds bad, these farmers might have to resort to driving BMW X5s in place of their Range Rovers.
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sorry but hard luck to the farmers tjey get so many subsidsise from the goverment i say cut the handouts to farmers its there chgoice to go into that business let them work for what they are suppose to earn
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Although there are farmers that are undoubtedly not hugely well off there are a lot of farmers who with clever accounting can appear quite poor on paper. With 4x4s and farm vehicles not taken into account,surplus land,storage buildings suitable for conversion(one area of planning the Tories are apparently going to support!)they are hardly asset poor unless of course they are tenants.
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And the story is??? ALL farm labourers are living below the poverty line and have done for decades never seen much sympathy for these poor guys from the farm owner-tenant .
Speaking from the world of self employed if your business is not working or you are not making the money you desire you pack up and walk away.
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My heart bleeds…
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Support our local farmers!
I don’t think so!
“It’s their career choice”
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So you all want farmers that cant make a profit to give up?
So that wouldnt leave that many farmers so you would all be happy for ALL of your food to come from the continent and further afield.
Farmers used to be more sucessful but due to supermarkets paying less for milk and also the price it costs to produce the milk being more than what they get then you can see the problem. You need to take into account the feed, electric, water, bedding and time before you get the true cost. With a tonne of straw costing £80 per tonne, the water bill being £2-5k a month and a feed bill of £20k a month you do the maths.
Also its costs more to rear cattle for meat than they actually get due to the price of wheat and barley.
A lot of farmers do live in poverty. Before you ask I didnt pluck the figures from thin air, I am using a dairy and livestock farm usual bills that I know of very well.
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The words “poor” and “farmers” should never be used in the same sentence. I have still never seen or heard of a “poor farmer”.
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Is there any poor farmers? I’ve never met one and I’ve been in a few farm houses in my time.
The downstairs may look tatty but upstairs is where all the silver’s kept.
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You would soon be complaining if they did change their mind and do something else. Its these fellas (and their labourers) who work out in all hours from early morning until late at night FEEDING YOUR BELLIES – it doesn’t just appear on the supermarket shelf you know…. I wonder how many people would be prepared to get up in the middle of the night doing hard physical work below freezing, gathering up their animals to shelter out of the weather. No nice warm offices for them. These entries are made by people who clearly have no idea… and no, I’m not a farmer, do not know any farmers or their families but am clearly more informed than the people making ill informed comments on this site.
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Most of our food is imported these days. And, don’t forget, if there was no money in it, these people wouldn’t “get up in the middle of the night doing hard physical work below freezing”. They do it for money, not for love.
Keep it real.
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Brilliant way to advertise your ignorance, love :)
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Typical responses from ignorant Townies and I am not a Farmer.
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you must be joking, some of these guys get half a million a year in subsidies alone, land has gone up in value 500% in past 20 years, the weak pound means exporting lamb etc to europe is a gold mine, the price of meat is sky high with demand from asia and commodities generally doing well so arable farmers are doing great too, interest rates are low to aid investment in capital plant, workers wages in shropshire are pretty low and you are the only sector of the economy who is allowed officially to use cheap immigrant labour. plus the tory inheritance tax proposals will allow estates to be handed down the family tax free. Frankly
farmers have never had it so good
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Is it just me, or does the above read like something from the “Daily Mail Book of Facts”?
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….or the “Sun Reader’s Guide to Economics”.
Firstly, I live in the middle of Telford, so haven’t got a personal axe to grind on the subject.
The original article specifically mentions livestock farmers, especially those in upland areas, of which we have rather a lot in Shropshire. They get relatively little benefit from EU subsidies, which anyway are heavily weighted in favour of larger producers (the Queen is the single largest beneficiary in the UK from the Common Agricultural Policy).
At a time when we are constantly being urged to reduce our “food miles”, and of growing rural unemployment, doesn’t it make sense to support these small producers?
As for them owning expensive 4 x 4s and farm machinery – they’d look a bit silly using a Smart Car! I can’t really see the average small livestock farmer having much use for immigrant labour, cheap or otherwise.
Finally, those of you who appreciate the beautiful countryside of the Shropshire hill country would do well to remember that it is the result of centuries of work by (mainly) small livestock and mixed famers.
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“They get relatively little benefit from EU subsidies”
Where did you get that fact from?
In England in 2007/08, cattle and sheep farmers in Less Favoured Areas had an average farm business income (net profit) of £10,386 after receiving subsidies and payments. Without these subsidies and payments they would have suffered an average loss of £15,493. By my reckoning that means they were supported to the tune of £25,879.
“I can’t really see the average small livestock farmer having much use for immigrant labour, cheap or otherwise”
I’ve got absolutely no problem with migrant workers, but your assumption is wrong. Livestock farming is heavily involved in employing cheap migrant labour, just go have a look around lambing time.
As for the scenery, what do you think would happen if there were less livestock farmers? Wild flowers might spring up. And great broadleaf trees might grow. And nitrogen pollution of our waterways might cease and GHG emissions might come down. You never know, it might even be a nicer place without them.
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rubbish harriet, you are obviously a townie
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i think a key additional point to add is that the cost of living especially food, transport and heating fuel is almost twice the cost of towns too, so low wages in rural areas are a double whammy. Whilst plenty of tourists and commuters reside in luxury in their rural homes, its tough to really ‘live’ in the countryside these days
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“cost of living … is almost twice the cost of towns”
Are you sure about that attica? Twice as much? Do you want to give some examples?
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The Original Jake, Wht the silly comment? Harriet was stating facts! or do you prefer tittle tattle nonsense?
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Redboy -Harriet sounds like she’s the one talking tittle tattle nonsense. H St Peasbody – as pompous as ever – if you don’t agree with him then you don’t know what you are talking about. Shropshire is a rural county and we need to start supporting our local farmers a little more – not spouting unsubstantiated rhetoric.
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i think people need to differentiate here between Farmer = low paid job producing food and LANDOWNER = one who owns the land and actually gets all the subsidies etc, some farmers are both and are therefore rich, but the tenant farmers who just rent land for grazing are truly not well off at all
As for the subsidies the land owners get them not the growers, the real villains in the subsidies game are not farmers but multinational vineyards, sugar plantations etc
See this link to expose on CAP subsidies in the telegraph for the full story on that http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1486231/Tate-and-Lyle-given-127m-from-CAP.html
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You need to differentiate between the landowner and the farm labourer which is paid just above minimum wage or may get a little extra for some extra duty that they do and works a good 50 hour week just to pay the bills. Then travel down south and see how much the fruit grower pays his labour force although credit must go to the farmers way of getting around the minimum wage.
We also have tenant farmers small are true not making a great living but no worse than many who run their own business no special treatment needs to be given . I would also add when thee facts are worked out they use to take away mortgage/rent, electric, etc etc and the figures they had left were what the individual had as a disposable income, if you did that to many of the poor employees out there it would be a lot less than 20k.
Townie argument is a silly one we are talking income here not farming practices.
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At the end of the day if it is such unrewarding work, stop bleating, get an education and a real job.
There will always be someone prepared to have 20k disposable income…
Whinging farmers, the only constant in a fast changing world.
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I am disgusted at the amount of bigotry that is prevelent in this country – people whinging about farmers, Eastern Europeans, Muslims, middle and upper class people, teachers, unemployed young men, people on disability benefits, single mothers on benefits, bankers, politicians, middle aged women and WAGS…
Doesn’t really leave many types of individual left!
Please look to your own lifestyle and negative attitudes before criticising others. Frankly, is it any of your business how much an individual earns?
I for one live in a farming community and see first hand the sheer amount of work these guys do.
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the very fact that they have to use foreign immigrants as labour reflects how tough a job farming is, british people like those who comment here from the comfort of their air conditioned homes, are too soft and lazy to do this real work now so only a handful of brits are still farmers now.
Do a hard day shifting sillage in the snow before you comment next time
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“air conditioned homes”??
What planet are you on??
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