Comment – Rainfall and Spud-u-like?
I know, and I’m sorry, but once again the weather, specifically rainfall is exercising my mind. With a mere 27mm in the gauge on Friday, it’s time to call time on this summer, and press the restart button.
Better late than never the monthly total for the wheelbarrow/rain gauge is now in. 114mm for July ’24, which is middling to average, whilst ’23 delivered 224mm, 125mm in ’22 , ’21 offered 122mm and a whopping 288mm in ’20. I must admit to being surprised at this July’s result, perhaps I’m just jaded by this last 12 months weather?
It’s often said that farmers are trapped between the soil and sky and a fresh EuroStat report spells out that EU potato production has shrunk by some 37% from 2000 to now. Whilst the UK is now out of the EU, remember those stats include the UK’s contribution as EU members until fairly recently.
Why am I mentioning the humble potato? Firstly it still remains a staple for most people, despite millennials ‘cutting down on carbs’. Second, a big chunk of this reduction is down to growers derisking, the reduction in active ingredients and significant droughts in recent years are creating economic effects for spud growers whose businesses are tilting away from those challenges.
Tie that in with the rise of old fashioned mixed farming (or regen as its called nowadays), and we see farming business’s, in many cases, becoming a little more general and a bit less specialised.
So my thought for the day is this, are we seeing the end (or the beginning of the end) of the ‘bigger, harder, faster’ model of farming? We have been told/told our customers to concentrate on one crop/product and go for it?
I don’t know the answer, but since my undergraduate days of agricultural engineering the problems have always been about covering more acres, faster with less labour. Technology has been the answer, but now with autonomous and semi autonomous gear in the fields, are we enabling (as the machinery innovation and supply chain always has) another step change?
I apologise, whilst easy to ask the question, it’s one to ponder over a coffee this week.
Have a good one.
Andy
PS if you are a gambler, buy some wheat now, it will be going up, apparently the French soft wheat harvest is the lowest for 40 years by some 25%. If its any consolation, were are in it together with the weather.