Front runner in the 2011 ‘Most Telling Sound-Bite Of The Year’ was heard at a recent Guild of Agricultural Journalists’ press briefing, when the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board’s chief scientist Prof Ian Crute pointed out that “we have to learn how to run civilisation on real-time photosynthesis”.
The political significance of the report was highlighted at the GAJ briefing by Norfolk MP and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science & Technology in Agriculture, George Freeman.[2] He said that because the Foresight report was commissioned by the government, it had to be followed up with action. It returned farming to where it should be, he added, at the fulcrum of numerous key areas in politics and society. “From sideline to mainline” was my personal interpretation, noted at the time.
Motivated by the upbeat mood at the GAJ meeting, I’ve been reading the report’s executive summary and am grateful that bigger brains than mine are engaged in turning its worthy words into deeds. It’s a classic example of eating an elephant, which I hope can be done a spoonful and a time, though co-ordinating all the essential spoon-holders presents a gargantuan challenge.
Among these, one that sticks out like a dog’s what’sits is the observation: “Most of the economic value of food, particularly in high-income countries, is added beyond the farm gate in food processing and in retail, which together constitute a significant fraction of world economic activity.”
As I see it, in the real world, most brainpower and energy follow the money, where the objective is the employer’s financial success rather than society’s gain. For example, it’s much easier for an entrepreneur to get rich making people fat rather than making them thin. Similarly, the Foresight report’s mantra of ‘more from less’ is anathema to most agri-supply companies economic interests, who offer variations on the theme of ‘more from more’.
One place where new brainpower and energy is needed desperately, but where money is tight, is down on the farm. In all sectors of livestock and crops, there is a wealth of as-yet unapplied knowledge that is already proven scientifically to produce more from less. On page 34 of the executive summary, you will find a list of 12 “cross-cutting” (WTF does that mean?) actions for policy makers, number one of which is “spread best practice”. It explains how “this will require significant investment… to ensure that food producers… are equipped with the necessary skills to meet current and future challenges”.
But as every feed specialist in the country knows, for every willing recipient of wisdom and helpful, profitable advice, there are several who can find insurmountable obstacles to adopting change-for-the-better, no matter how compelling the case appears to be to its proponent. Can we force feed them with Foresight’s “necessary skills”? Of course not. But can we afford to wait for them to come round eventually or retire either?
I’m not seeking to be critical here to the Foresight report. On the contrary, when our grandchildren look back in 2050 from their perspective as one of 9 billion people, I really hope and expect that it will prove to have been a game-changing catalyst. But here and now I am concerned that the lucrative areas of processing and retailing already attract more than their fair share of intellectual food production horsepower and I’m struggling to see how this will change.
One possibility, of course, is that the Foresight report heralds the beginning of the end for unbridled consumerism, and a new beginning for a societal paradigm that concentrates on conserving rather than consuming resources. In this brave new world, retail sales growth will cease to be a measure of a country’s success, with a consequent impact on retailers. Being denied the growth they pursue so aggressively and have come to expect, Tesco for example may develop their business activities instead into the food supply chain and even into farming itself, perhaps helping to solve the necessary skills problem along the way.
This might appear a fanciful notion, but until recently who’d have thought they’d become a second-hand car dealer (I kid you not, see www.tescocars.com). So surely it’s not inconceivable that Tesco agronomists could advise on crop protection strategies, which www.tescoagchem.com would fulfil and qualified Tesco farm technicians apply. Likewise, Tesco nutritionists could develop feed programmes, with off-farm materials delivered by www.tescofinefeeds.com to be fed by qualified Tesco farm technicians.
Clearly, it is naïve to expect this to achieve ‘more from less’; but it could help attain the important stepping stone in that direction of ‘more from the same’. Consider for a moment how this differs from what Genus RMS technicians do right now? What if farm vets decided to place qualified livestock technicians on clients’ farms, paid for via a share of improved financial performance? Indeed, the management at Bill’s Fine Feeds plc have been asking, “if vets could do this, could we too?”
In the veterinary world, compliance with prescribed medication is a significant issue (actually, the big issue is non-compliance, when medication is not administered 100% as prescribed). Similarly, how often are your company’s carefully defined programmes followed only partially or inaccurately? So at BFF plc, they’re recruiting agriculture graduates with strong practical skills, and training them up as livestock technicians to work alongside customers’ farm staff. Of course, they have to overcome various combinations of resistance, suspicion, envy, enmity or apathy when they first arrive. But if they’re any good and have been trained well, then helping the farm team to improve results and sharing the credit fairly soon overcomes these understandable and natural initial obstacles.
Imagine what might be possible in a typical 250-cow herd, for example. By improving dry period nutrition and transition management, then fresh cow care and re-breeding practices, it’s not out of the question that herd calving interval could be improved by 30 days in the course of a year, worth £90/cow or £22,500/year. On top of this, routine locomotion scoring and early intervention could reduce lameness incidence at a gain of £323 per case saved3. Among 250 cows, it’s not unrealistic to aim for a 50 case/year reduction, worth another £16,000/year. In the parlour, better routines and defences against mastitis could reduce the incidence of clinical cases from a typical 60 per 100 cows/year to 30. So 75 fewer mastitis cases at an average saving of £110/case yields another £8,250. So if each technician looks after just four such farms, they could realistically generate £190,000/year of improved productivity from the three elements described. At a 40:60 split with the farmer, that could produce £76,000 of revenue for the provider of the technician…plenty to pay them well and make a margin…and keep a good customer’s loyalty. Simples.
References
[1] Foresight. The Future of Food and Farming (2011) Executive Summary. The Government Office for Science, London.
[2] George Freeman MP, 17 March 2011. Remarks to Guild of Agricultural Journalists briefing. National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham. Author’s notes on file.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming, viewed 21 March 2011. “Between 1979 and 1982, Ford had incurred $3 billion in losses…By 1986, Ford had become the most profitable American auto company. For the first time since the 1920s, its earnings had exceeded those of arch rival General Motors (GM). Ford had come to lead the American automobile industry in improvements. Ford's following years' earnings confirmed that its success was not a fluke, for its earnings continued to exceed GM and Chrysler's.”
[4] WE Deming (date unknown). Cited by Dr Johan Dreesen*, 8 November 2010. Opening address at Pfizer AH international veterinary symposium. Rhodes, Greece. *Group director ruminants, Pfizer Animal Health EUAfME.
[5] WE Deming, October 1992. Opening address to four-day seminar. General Motors Technical Center, Warren, Michigan, USA. Cited by Scott M Paton, October 1992. Four Days with W Edwards Deming. The W. Edwards Deming Institute®. Viewed 15 March 2011 at http://deming.org/index.cfm?content=653.
[6] Margaret Nuttall*, January 2011. It's a load of old tripe! Burnley Historical Society newsletter no 112. Viewed 15 March at tp://www.burnleyhistoricalsociety.com/page10.htm. *Community history manager.
[7] Dr Johan Dreesen*, 8 November 2010. Opening address at Pfizer AH international veterinary symposium. Rhodes, Greece. *Group director ruminants, Pfizer Animal Health EUAfME.
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