THE WELSH G​OVERNMENT​ says that a new report into the Welsh dairy industry will help farmers improve the performance and resilience of their businesses and prepare for the future post Brexit.

In 2017, the Welsh Government provided £3.2 million of European conditional aid to Welsh dairy farmers through two schemes focusing on farm business benchmarking and herd milk recording.

An encouraging 75% of dairy farmers took up the opportunity – the highest level of uptake in the UK. Along with aid funding, farmers also received a bespoke report showing the strengths and weaknesses of their business with a comparison with other dairy farms.

KEY FINDINGS

Invaluable data produced from the benchmarking scheme was used to produce a providing a snapshot of Welsh dairy farm performance. Key findings include:

The importance of farmers constantly measuring the financial performance of their business to help them become more efficient;

the top performing farms demonstrate that profitable dairy farming is possible with excellent returns, even in difficult trading conditions;

some farms, have costs of production which are higher than the milk price has ever reached;

farmers should take advantage of the plentiful supply of grass and maximise the milk they produce from grass and forage;

farmers who have made a conscious choice about their production system tend to be more profitable; and
maintaining high standards of animal health and welfare reduced the financial impact of diseases and can give the industry a competitive advantage.

SUPPORT TO BE TAILORED

Support to help dairy farmers address the issues identified in the report is available through the Welsh Government’s Farming Connect programme and via the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Dairy.

Cabinet Secretary Lesley Griffiths said: “The approach we adopted to providing aid to our dairy farmers has provided us with useful data on the performance of the industry in Wales.

“The report published today will go a long way to help farmers improve the performance of their business by reducing their costs of production. This will improve the efficiency of our dairy farms, allowing them to become more resilient to business risks and milk price volatility.

“As a government, our priority is to work with everyone affected to prepare for a world outside the European Union and for a resilient agricultural sector. This report will provide invaluable information to help us decide how best to support the dairy sector to prepare for the future.

“While the report shows profitable dairy farming is possible, I am particularly concerned that some Welsh dairy farms have costs of production which are higher than the milk price has ever reached. That is why I am in the process of tailoring the support we offer these farms to help them re-evaluate the structure of their business and use their benchmarking report to see where improvements can be made.

“It is clear from the report that by becoming more efficient and focusing on producing milk at a lower cost of production, all farms can become more profitable, no matter what the milk price is.

“Brexit presents significant challenges to the agriculture industry but also opportunities. The industry, and individual farmers, must start to plan now for the future.

“The long term outlook for the dairy sector is good with global demand forecasted to increase year on year. Our dairy farmers need to be competitive and market focused to compete with the best in the world. If this happens then I firmly believe our dairy farmers have a bright future.

“I encourage all Welsh dairy farmers and the wider industry to use the available data to help them prepare for the post Brexit world; to help make their businesses both resilient and prosperous.”

NFU WELCOMES REPORT

NFU Cymru has welcomed the publication of report.

Gareth Richards NFU Cymru Milk Board Chairman and dairy farmer from Carmarthenshire said: “Milk production is a major contributor to the gross output of Welsh agriculture. This report shows the vulnerability and volatility of the sector but also highlights opportunities available to individual producers and to the sector as a whole in Wales.

“Through the production of individual reports for contributors this has enabled farming businesses to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their business by benchmarking against others.

“As the Cabinet Secretary, Lesley Griffiths, has said, tailored packages are now available for individual producers to move their business on and future proof them for the potential massive changes Brexit will bring. I would encourage all 1,700 milk producers in Wales to make use of services that AHDB Dairy and Farming Connect can offer both on an individual farm level and in participative group activity.”

NFU Cymru Deputy President Aled Jones said: “The data captured as part of this EU conditional aid scheme is invaluable not just for farmers to help them identify where to target performance improvements on farm, but also for policy makers to help design and implement policies that ensure we can achieve our vision of a productive, progressive and profitable industry in Wales.

“The opportunity to collect data that Welsh Government requires to meet climate change and environmental obligations is also invaluable and this project provides a baseline against which to measure future progress.

“As part of a comprehensive post-Brexit agriculture policy for Wales, NFU Cymru believes the incentivised collection of key performance data should be an integral part of a new policy based around our three cornerstones of productivity, environment and volatility measures. Collection of key data around production, farm structure, financial, environmental and Greenhouse gas emissions can help inform decision making at farm and national policy level. The data collected can also help underpin the credentials of ‘Brand Wales’, a concept based on providing Wales with a unique selling point to market the full range of goods and services provided by Welsh farming.
“We hope the success of this scheme can now be built upon and replicated not just for the dairy sector but also to all the key farming sectors in Wales.”