This Week in Farming: Tory woes, Christmas fun and pay rises

Hello and welcome to the final This Week in Farming of 2022, our Saturday rundown of some of the best content from the Farmers Weekly team in the past seven days.

Normal service will resume in the new year with a bumper run-through of the best of the festive season’s content.

For now, here’s five hot topics from this week and a look ahead to what’s coming up in the next edition of the Farmers Weekly podcast.

Tory slump

Fewer farmers than ever would vote Conservative if a general election was held tomorrow, fresh research by Farmers Weekly has revealed.

The annual Sentiment Survey results, published this week, show support from farmers is down 15 points on the year to just 42%.

Rising costs and low returns will have done little to endear politicians or the supply chain to farmers in many sectors this year.

NFU Scotland has warned this week that many of its members are considering withdrawing land from fruit and vegetable production.

But the gulf in direct support for farmers’ different areas will be wider than ever next year after Welsh and Scottish governments both confirmed this week they would be holding area payments at current levels (the former for two years), while England will impose another cut.

Pay terms

The business team has been looking this week at what farmers are doing to try and retain staff in the competitive farm jobs market this year.

Farming estates have increased pay by an average of 5.4% in a bid to bring down stubbornly high vacancy rates but are still struggling to recruit staff, according to Knight Frank.

Meanwhile, consultants Brown & Co are typically seeing salaries go up by 5-8%, but with some deals higher than that, or perks introduced, such as one-off lump-sum payments, to help with the cost-of-living crisis.

Track in field

Prohibitive pricing may have put many farmers off the new tractor market but it’s not stopped everyone, with the latest sales figures showing the sector had a bright November with sales 12% ahead of the monthly five-year average.

For those mulling the purchase of a heavyweight tracked unit, FW‘s machinery team have some handy advice in the latest edition of their Driver’s View series.

Articles in the series feature three top operators sharing their thoughts on the New Holland T8.435, Claas Axion 960 TT and the John Deere 8RX 370.

Global outlook

Farmers Weekly is taking you round the world this Christmas with stories to inform, inspire and entertain you from beyond these shores.

There’s plenty more to come next week, but the first articles have already been released, including a visit to Iceland to find out why the country’s sheep sector is under threat.

Read how a Polish grower is cutting costs by using biological, rather than chemical, sprays.

And watch a video on how Guinea farmers are helping their country’s food security by improving rice production, as recorded by chief reporter Phil Case when he visited the African nation earlier this year.

In my editorial this week, I note that Christmas is the best time of the year to appreciate why there’s no place like home, but you can’t fully appreciate what you’ve got until you’ve seen more of the world.

Festive spirit

And staying with the festive spirit, here’s two Christmas crackers to warm the cockles.

First, opinion writer Will Evans finds the true meaning of Christmas in the school nativity, the smell of a Christmas tree and the annual festive rituals.

And here’s a selection of the fantastically decorated tractors that have been taking part in tractor runs round the country to raise money for charities.

Just another thing that makes you proud to be part of the farming community.

Listen to the FW Podcast

Don’t forget the latest edition (and last one for 2022) of the Farmers Weekly podcast with Johann Tasker, Hugh Broom and Charlotte Cunningham.

Listen to the FW Podcast here, or bring us with you in the cab by downloading it from your usual podcast platform.