The small family farm has become a political cliche - Andrew Arbuckle

I try not to be an angry old man, as I largely keep my anger for short bouts of shouting at politicians on TV when they are obviously telling fibs or even just concealing the truth.

Idealised small family farms are vanishing fast

However, recently I have found my blood pressure rising whenever these aforementioned elected representatives of the people when questioned on their attitude to farming respond by trotting out seemingly innocuous little sentences like, “I believe in supporting small family farms.”

That, or a version of that seemingly harmless message, is often the beginning and end of their policy views. They have picked it up from the Party manifesto where the authors of the document have copied it, without question, from previous manifestoes.

The short sentence sounds positive, and it seems difficult to disagree with the sentiment. In fact, it seems churlish to even question that simple policy, so why my rage?

Basically, because it is a “heap of hokum” or if you prefer another description, it is a “load of tosh.” In the current climate, it is pretty meaningless with nary any “small family farm” policies being in place to offset commercial reality built on the economies of scale.

Small farms are vanishing off the landscape faster than the snow off the proverbial dyke. Almost all small units coming onto the market nowadays are snapped up by neighbours and quietly cease to exist as separate entities. Many do not even come onto the market but are even more quietly being taken over by larger businesses.

All that is needed is a meeting or two between the small scale, ‘looking to take life easier’ farmer and an ambitious neighbour and the details can be quickly hammered out.

“You want to have a life rent of the farmhouse,”

“No problem because I was not intending employing any workers, but can you keep an eye on the livestock?”

“That would give me something to do.”

After sorting out a few more minor topics, the deal is done, and another small farm disappears into the history books. The term small farm here covers anything up to a thousand acres in arable terms and two or three times that in hill livestock units.

Last month, a former union leader said the future looked good for large scale farms in this country. This view did not entirely surprise as his family are large scale farmers.

It is only fair to say there is nothing new in all this merging and amalgamation of farms. Look at any old map and you will see evidence of pendicles and small holdings long gone and no longer with us other than the heap of rubble where the farm steading used to be.

Farming operates in a competitive environment and largescale businesses can almost always produce food cheaper than the small scale operator and even if they do not, they should.

Despite their repeating the mantra that small is good, so far, the politicians have not produced policies which encourage small scale production

Another part of the dinky little misleading phrase is their support for ‘family’ farms. Anyone working closely with the industry knows benefits can arise when the older generation ‘looks’ after the livestock while the upcoming youngsters grind out the physical and mechanical work. Sometimes the opposite division of work holds true.

From the outside it seems to work as the amount of finance needed on a family farm is much less than on various individually owned properties. It is not unusual to come across several families living off the margins of one farm. In fact, it is almost normal.

The easing of the economic hurdle does not automatically make family farms the ideal model for the farming industry as it is also true that within the ‘family’ farm there are loads of cases where one generation dominates other family members. All of us have different natures and even if these are not too dissimilar, then add spouses into the family mix and there is another equation or, to put it another way, room for discord on a grand scale.

There is no balance sheet for the mental or emotional damage brought about through working in close proximity with your relations but it can be significant and should be recognised.

Just as politicians spouting meaningless homilies should be exposed.