English Farming Update | Autumn 2023
Welcome to this quarter’s English Farming Update, which is produced by our Farming Research Group and reports on market and administrative issues that affect farmers’ business decisions and on which they may need to act.
It has been a varied, mild, wet and windy harvest. There has been significant variation in reports in relation to drying requirements across the country, ranging from 10% to 100% of crops cut so far, as farmers balance the need to protect valuable milling and malting premiums against the cost of drying wet grain.
There is positive news in the pig sector as finished pig prices are now reported to be above the cost of production, which is the first positive net margin in ten consecutive quarters. In the dairy sector more detail has been provided by Defra about new regulations on milk contracts which are due to come into force later this year; these regulations are intended to ensure clearer pricing terms for farmers and allow them to challenge prices if the correct process has not been followed to generate the original price.
In farm business news, three of the main suppliers of fertiliser in the UK, CF, Yara and Origin Enterprises, made a combined net profit of $5.45bn in 2022, which was up from £920m in 2020. Meanwhile, farmers will soon be able to apply for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2023 scheme and the Calf Housing for Health and Welfare Grant is set to open in summer 2023 (England).
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