BY PAUL DAVIES
MANCHESTER, England - "We lose L 5- L 6 on every sheep
that we sell and L 10- L 16 on every pig," said Charles
Hague, a livestock farmer from Morley in south Yorkshire.
"We've stuck with the pig farming as long as we can, and now
we're going to have let that side of the farm go." Hague
farms 350 acres and also raises cattle. He explained that his
other business, a small road haulage firm, is currently
subsidizing his farm.
The drop in prices was a hot topic among farmers arriving at the Wharfdale livestock market in Otley, just north of Leeds. "It's not just the seasonal drop in lamb prices -we expect that - but the long-term collapse of prices over a couple of years," said Ben Atkinson during a visit by Militant correspondents. "The seasonal drop in lamb prices has gone from L 40 to L 34 in a week, but a year ago it was L 60." Atkinson raises 70 sheep and 20 suckler cows on a small area of land, just 35 acres. He also runs the market at Otley. "The market was started in 1893 as a cooperative, but its now a limited company that makes a small profit," Atkinson said. "However the only people that can become shareholders in the business are farmers and local butchers, no supermarkets or abattoirs (slaughterhouses).
"There is no reflection of the seasonal drop in prices we take for the sheep we raise and what the supermarkets charge the customers," he added. "Go and check the supermarket prices for yourselves - and you'll see."
"Farmers are very resilient and it takes a lot to push us off the land, but that is what is beginning to happen," Atkinson said. He described how a tenant farmer he knew had decided to sell his stock and machinery and started to train as a forklift driver in a potato processing plant. "He has no land as an asset, and he was only able to get half of what he could have a year ago for all his stock."
This farmer is not alone; Richard Brooke, another tenant farmer who comes from Warth-on-Dearne, near Rotherham, said, "My accountant has recommended that I close the business down because we think we are going to lose L 35,000 this year. He thinks we will not be able to pay off a L 50,000 overdraft because, apart from the livestock, we have hardly anything to sell."
"More and more farmers are only farming part-time and are subsidizing loss-making farms by working," noted Hague.
The hold the major supermarket chains have over the prices farmers get for their produce is a source of frustration. Atkinson described how supermarkets are trying to tie individual farmers to year-long contracts, dubbed "farm assured schemes," cutting out the sale of farm produce through local markets. Under these schemes farmers have to let their farms undergo inspection from the supermarkets every year and often only get contracts for the best cuts of meat from their livestock.
"It takes 60 days to get paid by a supermarket that you sell to, but the supermarkets demand immediate payment for the goods that they sell to customers," said Tom Gutchin.
Paul Davies is a member of the Transport and General Workers Union in Manchester.