FARMING AT A LOSS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 73, 18 December 1937, Page 6

FARMING AT A LOSS

Many Bankruptcies in England SOME OF THE REASONS i It is & fact tbat very few, if any, farms in this country are making 5 per cent. profit (writes "A Farmer55 in an English paper). Probably tbe majority are being farmei at a loss by men witb long experience wbo work for 13 hours a day and bave to be ready for emergencies during tbe rest of tbe 24. People wbo bave no knowledge of farming seldom realise tbe amount of capital necessary. Tbey say that farmers are slow to take advantage of new machinery and new methods, but tbey do not realise tbe expense tbat is involved in such progress. Let us take as an example tbe popular small farm of abdut 100 acres. To-day it is mostly grass, witb perhaps a few acres of roots ani corn, which are grown witbout apparent loss because the time spent on tbem is time taken from jobs such as bedge cutting and ditch cleaning. Not many years ago tbat farm would have been self-supporting. The ploughsbare would have been kept shining, tbe bedges cut, ditcbes cleaned. Thistles would bave been foreigners. The far-' mer migbt even bave bad time at ni'ght to walk across bis land ior no other reason than to admire it. To-day tbat same tenant, with about £1,500 to £2,000 invested in stock and implements, is worse off tban a bricklayer's labourer. The position of larger farmers is worse. Tbey keep going simply because tbey cannot do anything else until they go bankrupt — which tbey are doing witb tragic frequency. You can stop a works and restart it at your convenience, but you cannot stop crops growing and restart tbem. Compare tbis witb the small businessowner wbo works eigbt bours a day witb Sunday and Saturday afternoon off, and does not know tbe trouble of getting out of bed in tbe middle of the nigbt to attend a maternity case in tbe sbippon or pig-sty, or beginning work" at 5.30 a.m. A farmer is born to bis life, and he asks foft nothing better. He is prepared to work from dawn until dusk to get in bis harvest — and tbank Providence for tbe weather tbat malces it possible — but be must be entitled to make a living wage. He is producing the food but be is not getting tbe benefit. The consumer is paying a price tbat would amply repay the farmer, but it is not Teaching • him. We used to talk about tbe middlemen; now we talk about tbe middlearmy. They bave inspectors of various sorts wbo are perpetually driving their sm&rt cars into tbe yard, and wasting tbe farmer 5s time. Tbe ironical part of it comes when you realise that tbe better tbe quality of your product tbe more inspectors ' tbere are to hinder you. During May (tbe last iigures quoted by tbe Journal of tbe Ministry of Agriculture) the prices for milk paid to tbe farmer, wbo pays transit cbarges, vari i ed from ninepence to tcnpence a gallon, with a penny bonus for "accredited51 producers, wbile tbe consumor paid two sbillings a gallon. Think of this: if a dairy-farmer sells a lit'tle milk round tbe village be is labelled a "producer-retailer,55 and during May tbe Milk Board took about ninepence half-penny a gallon off him, although be did all tbe work himself. Simple foods such as milk, butter, bacon, meat and vegetables, ought to be witbin the reacb of every purse. When tbey leave tbe farm their price is low cnough. It is between tbe farm and consumer tbat tbe profit is made. It is unprofitable now for dairyCarmers #to rear their own calves, so tbero is tbe wasted expense of taking tbem into market and buying tbem back later. Subsidies are cxcellent on paper, but you cannot manage a farm's interna] problems from Whitehall. Only the farmer jan manage tbem. You cannot suddenly cbange tht cropping rotation. Yon cannot suddenly turn an arable farm economically into a dairy-farm or fatten bullocks on yout dairy farm jilst because Whitehall puts a subsidy on tbem. Leave the domestic part of tbe farm to tbe farmer, give him a fair proportion of the consumer 5s price, and tbis farming problem will fade away.