Glad to see the the British government's agriculture department is realistically looking after food security, farmers viability, and keeping food prices down.
Supermarkets trying to keep their margins and force down payments to farmers is a major part of the problem. Food is getting more expensive but has a way to go to reach levels where in the 1950s we were spending 30% of income on food.
More sarcasm ......... ; Don't worry guys , the Brazilians are burning down the Rain Forest for food production / cattle rearing , we'll all just import our food supplies from these guys............. ( P.s Don't waste your time trying to explain this little nugget of info to the " Mad Raving Looney Green Party " here in Ireland , who want to kill off 200K of the national dairy herd on account of " solar system destroying cow farts !! " .
The plan seems to be to discourage British farmers from growing food so that we'll have to import it from abroad and it'll cost more for the public. Similar to the plan to cut North Sea oil and gas exploration so we can buy from outside. Just who is running this country?
I used to argue with people who said 'Everyman can be bought' Now I think that number has risen, and accounts for the mess the world is in.The world's self proclaimed elite has always thought the rest of us were expendable, never more than now, and so many will go to the abbatoir like sheep offering no resistance, we should have rolled the tumbrils when the French did.
Superb insight to the life of a farmer, I worked for nearly 30 years in IT and thought that was hard, I live in France and know a few farmers, I also am aware of the high suicide rate of farmers in both England and France, it is complicated by far, then I saw a video of a farmer in Ukraine who was seriously injured by a mine. Farmers all over the world have my respect and we need them.
"His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done." Catch-22, 1961
Many likes on this comment. I want to make it clear that I posted it not as a jab at Harry, who's just trying to make intelligent decisions in his business, but to illustrate the silliness of government intervention programs in agriculture. I'm not necessarily a fan of our late president Ronald Reagan, but he did once say, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help." I subscribe to both of Harry's channels and I eagerly await each new post.
@@Terraceview Got it in one, and it's Internationally led, and consequently raises it's ugly head everywhere from food warehouses burning down to huge egg production farms burning, hold ups in Ports with container ships, and Klaus Schwab telling us we will own nothing, eat bugs, and like it. This week for the first time since I began supermarket shopping on line, some years, they were unable to supply me with a cauliflower, some weeks I have as many as ten substitutions. So what gives? Are the toilet roll wars of the past become the food wars of the future? The WEF are a powerful bunch, very wealthy, they own many politicians, and vital institutions, can they also manipulate farming to the point where we can be starved by our own farmers? I was a war baby, back then we had a patriotic government working together to keep the nation fed, I guess if the financial incentive was great enough, they could do the opposite, especially if sold for the environmental greater good.
Thank you for explaining these issues. Good to see your L322 being used for its intended purpose, but how did you manage to rip the handle on a Tub-Trug? I’ve some 20 years old and never done that.
As a non- farmer from the US I find your reports enlightening yet maddening. It's sad that a farmer of your size cannot make a living actually growing crops. Sad is the only word for it.
Ordinarily that would be true. But that would require a level of intelligence & competence that's simply not there. When they can fix the holes the road & treat the sick, I'll begin to believe it.
@@EP-bb1rm Let me guess you are under 25. What is the point of improving soil health if you cant sell what you grow at a profit. Improving pollinator numbers so they can produce what? same argument as above. The only way to learn how to farm is by farming with and listening to old farmers who know their farms like the back of their hand. There is a reason why farming is generally a family business. It might be ok if you are running a hobby farm with an additional income.
Most good British industry has been closed and now we rely on imports for everything. To do the same with British farming and food production is a very different matter - utter madness, but at least the billionaires don't have to pay taxes (the sole objective of this government)
I think you're right. Just look at Dyson. Multimillionaire - buys swathes of farmland & uses a number of government subsidies to grow crops to feed anaerobic digesters, all the while he lives in the far east as a tax exile.
Third attempt to reply, the first two having been deleted. Generally, we import mass produced, low value added products & export high value added goods & services. That's how a modern advanced economy works; export low paying jobs & keep high paying jobs. If we were to revert to a mediaeval mercantilist import replacement policy we would either be paying 10 times as much for basic goods or paying factory workers the same £5 a day that a Chinese worker gets. Search "uk-trade-in-numbers" for the actual facts on UK imports & exports. Dyson's farm business is just another farming business, the same as Harry's Farm. If you object to farmers receiving subsidies then campaign for their removal, although I don't think Harry would be pleased. Dyson will have invested many millions in setting up the business, it employs people here, pays taxes here & is as entitled to receive subsidies here just like any other farming business. The fact that the company owner lives abroad is irrelevant. It is an example of somebody living abroad who chooses to invest many millions in British farming industry.
Quick rain update :I live a couple of miles away from Harry and we had some heavy and pretty prolonged rain yesterday (Saturday) and thunderstorms today so hopefully he's had his 20mm to boost the wheat and osr. Great report as always Harry, and a fab Harry's garage at the show, congrats on your lovely Zagato winning the first prize 🙂👍
This is the first Harry’s Farm episode I’ve watched that’s about the farming. I subscribed initially for the Ineos review (petrolhead here and have been enjoying Harry’s Garage for some time now) but this farming lark is actually very interesting too! I’ve surprised myself and will remain subscribed 😁
I believe this will be the same for much of Europe which is why farmers were given subsidies, It seems as the UK government is replacing the subsidy it is pushing an agenda that means farming will pay so poorly that many farmers will switch to an alternative to food production thus the British consumer will need to get used to not having plenty of food in their local supermarket and what is there being a lot dearer than in recent decades.
Reliance on expensive machinery and high input methods. It sounds silly but the idea of smaller tractors, minimum tillage or alternatives to the high input model aren't attractive to most farmers.
@@ThyCorylus labor costs more than machinery in almost all developed countries. I can guarantee you that a small, no-till farm cannot compete on the markets that Harry sells to
Dear Harry. I just love your no-nonsense approach to your farm - and at the same time I get frustrated that for a lot of your colleagues this is not just a game but a matter of “food on the table” (no pun intended). It should - long term - be a profitable business running a farm, and hard work as well as entrepreneurship should pay off. Farming seems to be on of the few business in the world where not the producer, but the retailer, gets the profit. Thanks for sharing your inputs - I think you and the likes makes a tremendous difference for your farmer colleagues!
Even business who supplies retailers gets hammered on price (because that's what they do). As a farmer I often wonder what it must be like to be a clothing manufacturer in poorer bits of the world. We just don't hear from them because they're far away
Coming from farming in Australia where there’s no subsidies. It says a lot about government priorities and food security. I didn’t expect that the UK suffered severely from drought. There’s been very little rain here some areas haven’t been able to plant winter crops. It looks like Australia isn’t the only country that’s not immune from drought and low commodity prices
@@Terraceview Yes, it's all relative. It's not drought in the comparable sense to Australian drought but for the traditionally temperate UK, where farming technique, crop cycles, crop choice and soils have previously been used to more consistent rainfall, climate change is pushing these weather systems that Harry shows in this video far more often. A cooler and wetter early spring just switched to a dry and now hot late spring with no sign of decent rainfall. In the SW of Scotland we are normally the grass growing masters, blessed with mild winters, moderate summers, moist growing seasons and few surprises but here just now the pastures are turning brown where the soil is at all thin, last year in similar conditions local dairy farmers were feeding winter silage to their cows in the summer to keep them going. It's not quite that bad yet but it doesn't look good.
This is shocking stuff. Surely common sense would say we need to be enabling farmers to be produce as much food as they can! Higher prices in the supermarkets inbound.
I don’t think I am the only farmer who is getting sick of all the bureaucracy and Government intervention in the Job. You’d think farming is a lovely job but it is just nothing but worry, worry, worry. We just want to be left alone to get on and feed people and make a decent living!
@@Rickwardful but that's not true, and we can see the results in countries where these sorts of protections don't exist, then it happens. You or the farmers you know might not do it, but it only takes a small bunch to do series damage.
yeah, right... he's beating around the bush ever since I started following the channel. If farmers want to make an impact they should all group up, and decide not to plant anything but that "ecological" weeds the government is pushing... that will ruin the dairy farmers and many other parts of the industry and agriculture. What the british government and the others are doing is to artificially increase the cost of food in the world market, and later on bitch about it
Thank you for these realistic videos. I live in the Highlands and Sturgeon government has hit us hard up the backside and then done it again. We've had to close our Holiday let bungalow which kept us going due to new laws on Planning permission, yearly licenses and soaring electric bills. They seem to be coming for our chickens next so only time will tell. I sincerely wish you well and keep us folk going with your wonderful presentations. Thank you ! 🚜
Incredibly interesting from a laymans point of view. How farmers put up with pathetic government interference, I will never know. Soon there will be no farmers left. Thank you Harry for a wonderful way of enlightening we numpties.
Farming is clearly a difficult industry. With such small and variable profits. It's always interesting to get Harry's straight talking version of what's going on. Really enjoy these videos.
Harry are you part of a farming lobby to kick back against these ludicrous WEF ideologies? Have you seen what’s happened in Holland? What’s next…? I’m part of a few things behind the scenes looking to defend motorists abs it would be great to get your thoughts on it.
Thanks for this channel Harry, the British public generally are pretty ignorant of farming matters, because there is a lack of information and education! Hoping you get some rain to help with what crops you do have! Interesting to see your upcoming film about your RR with "Special Guest" . Cheers.
Harry , you mention Mr Clarkson and spring barley. I really like the way Jeremy explains the money side and admits that he is fortunate to have Amazon money to help with the farm . He also is trying his hardest to stick to traditional farming and actually make a product for sale and take on the ludicrous bureaucracy and find workarounds to involve other farmers to also make and end product and income . It seems that you are going to lay down and just take the money ?
Whilst I'm up for fallow land to give it a rest, it is crazy that farmers are paid not to grow crops in this time of expensive food and air miles. We keep being told there is a food shortage coming and yet farmers are being told to re-wild and cut cattle production. How long will it be before the tables have turned and farmers (if there are any left) are told to grow more again? Only then it will be harder to get rid of pesky wild flowers and weeds to grow what we can actually eat. Less arable means less food for us and cattle - which means higher prices and shortages. When I was at agricultural college in the 80's, there were trials for going continuous wheat. Whilst yields dropped initially, by year 4-5, yields improved again up to 10 years. I can't believe how many dairy farmers have fallen by the wayside since the 80's. Again, it is crazy that it is cheaper to bring milk in from France than to produce it here!
All the time you can afford it Harry, I think you should keep growing food. I buy my milk from my local farm direct and they haven't put the cost up in a year. Good luck with rain. Fingers crossed.
Intensive farming, factory farming in order to produce cheap food, that has been the mantra. Well it's not worked. In the 1970s the Arabs hiked the price of oil, still we did not get the message. Use environmentally sound methods, eat less processed foods. Look at films from 1960, compare with today, the average person is eating too much, costing the NHS a bomb, kids grow up thinking chips and tomato ketchup is standard fare, with chicken dippers every day and a trip to Macdonald's once a week.
Good day from the Canadian Rockies l*l Harry. Noticed your Kicking Horse Resort t-shirt. I use to travel thru Golden BC many times to head east on the Trans Canada Highway to work at Emerald Lake Lodge in Yoho National Park. If you have or plan on coming that way, i highly recommend heading to Yoho , Takakkaw Falls, Spiral Tunnels, , Lake Louise, Banff, Canmore. Cheers, fantastic programming.
Great video Harry, as always. Very informative., thanks. I despair at Government interference in the farming industry. We will be producing less and less food and becoming more and more dependant on importing it. We all know what happened with Russian gas!
Well, I suppose it was inevitable Harry that you would decide to grow plants that aren't food. You have been discussing this for months, and now here we are. Sad to see, but completely understandable given the alternatives you have now discussed. Strange days indeed.
Yet another great video Harry Crazy that the government will pay farmers not to grow food and leave land bare! If they paid farmers to grow peas, beans and was possible to grow osr surely it’s better for the bees and environment to have pollen and locally grown food..
I’ve be watching your farm channel for a while now, just catching up on earlier episodes, just seen your Cagiva elephant Dakar bike, jealous as hell, I’ve raced motocross for 40+ years and family members have been in farming for generations. I’ll have to pay more attention to your car channel now I realise you have bikes as well. Keep up the good work, very interesting discussion with your famous neighbour on the L322 RR, my daily drive for nearly the last 20 years is a Scooby Impreza.👍🤣🤣🤣🤣
Excellent video Harry, utter madness to pay you to take your land out of production for food or oil, they import the stuff where they use the tested seed, fully understand the conservation side, what about the conservation in those other countries, lots of brown envelopes and holidays in government offices
Theres a chap here in Devon who runs Riverford organics ......Guy Watson and he said the other day leaving farming and food producers to survive on the open markets of the world isn't going to work..........very true words i think
Wonderful watching this yesterday evening, after returning from a trip to Jericho in Oxford, back to Chippy, knowing that that desperately needed rain actually arrived! It started in Oxford probably around 5pm - not that much really. As we were having a few tipples, we got the s3 bus down - on the way back, around 7pm, as we got closer to Chippy it was clear a great deal more rain had hit! And right now, a bloody good soaking - not sure how much, but must be easily 30mm - so, jolly good all around for that wheat! It very much looks like it will have rained on Harry's farm too! The metoffice rainfall radar showed a huge wodge of heavy rain across Oxfordshire. Just shows how incredibly close to the wire farming can be! - so many variables, many of which are completely unpredictable.
Very informative on many levels. However when I discussed th topic of what should farmers plant in Denmark (our home) with my teenager he said 'spread the bets' try to find different crops that enjoy different conditions, trying to pick one or two crops to maximise the farm income is not very smart when the weather conditions are so changeable' - and that is from a 'non farming' teenager!
Why don't politicians read history books. After the last war, when subsidies began, it was agreed that we as a nation must never be dependent on food grown overseas. Look at the country of origin on your food packaging. One good Dock strike and we have had it.
Love your honesty in your videos you don’t get that with anyone else. Iv got all permanent pastures and the money has gone maybe time to rip it up and get paid for stubble ? What a time to live in. Thank god for overdrafts
Really interesting discussion, we are having the same thoughts about break crops on our farm. Blackgrass has decimated our wheat this year and we are really losing control of the situation. A year of fallow might just help.
Based on admittedly limited personal experience I really doubt that a one year fallow will make much of a dent in the soil seedbed load regarding blackgrass in particular. Regards, Dan
@@Dan.Whiteford depends when the closed period ends, if we can get good germination in the stubble and then spray off and cultivate as soon as we are allowed too and get another germination going. We've got to try something cos the options we have now aren't working.
A lot of farmers may have to go back to the 3 year rotation of old, just needing a local livestock farmer to graze the fallow fields or become a mixed farm, Pigs are good for the soil and slow grown ancient breed pork tastes far better, even better still if an old apple/pear orchard on the farm, than the cheap factory farmed breeds also cuts down on expensive fertiliser. Not ploughing or deep tilling helps keep nutrients and structure in the soil.
@@tonys1636 There are people who would pay handsomely for Chicken raised as they were on farms 100 years ago, or pork with some fat and flavour it had when raised on swill. All lost because some numpties did not boil swill correctly.
Hurrah, downpour just reached us in the last 20 minutes Harry (Hampshire). I trust you will get this too. Problem is, the ground is quite hard - not sure how much good a deluge will do!
Yes hit the nail..small businesses, farms and anything the small person trys..Government interference.. Government that has no experience no abilities telling people who can what to do.
Food shortage on the horizon Harry, the way things are going? Anyway another great episode one of my favourite channels now. Morphed over from the Garage channel, and I'm finding this is so interesting. Thanks again all the best with the crops from us here in Australia.
Many things are similar here in Finland. What i would like to have from Britain is the incentives for maintaining hedges . So good as windbreaks and for birdlife.
For a few years now, farmers in Austria plant spring brewing barley in autumn to reduce the risk of crop failure due to drought. Spring barley can withstand temperatures of up to -15°C so they say.
A farmer in Essex just lost 10 acres (and the combine by the looks of things) due to a fire. Made me realise we hadn't heard anything from Harry for a while
Hi Harry. Be aware that taking the AB6 option that you may get a problem with take-all in the following wheat crop and the extra costs then needed to grow your wheat.
Could well have collapsed on it's own. The flood gates were targeted several times in the last six months by himars rockets, was even reported in the Washington post.
Damien, I’m so sorry and genuinely angry that this has happened to you. It beggars belief that there are people in this world who would do such a dreadful, callous and vile thing to another person. I certainly wouldn’t be as generous as you to your attacker but as always you make your point perfectly. Hopefully the person who did this will not only get the justice he deserves but also get to read the many comments of support you have got. I wish you well over the coming weeks and months as you take the time needed to heal and while it may be a long journey I’m sure you will get there. Do take up any support offered and continue to share your feelings with those who are in a position to help. Very best wishes to you and your family.
Great update, seems like a very difficult job owning and running a farm with all the changing elements to manage and make a living. good luck Harry. all the best Bob
Hi Harry, love the channel and you're farm looks like paradise. I love how you are so into the facts and figures, seems a long way from the days I worked on a dairy farm as a kid in Ireland. I presume you have other income, however if you didn't could a farmer of a similar sized farm survive today ? Regards Colm
Thanks for the latest update. As a layman I much prefer acres to hectares and I can visualise an acre . Does this government know anything about farming? If all farmers are thinking like you and grow wheat then surely the price will drop and rape will increase in price next year. I don't envy your decisions .
Hopefully you have some rain soon. Nothing happened here (west Berk) so far, despite constant alerts of thunderstorms and this morning being overcast till midday.
850,000 acres of gardens in UK and the same number of polluting lawnmowers, 26% adult obesity/37% overweight, culture change is needed to grow our own food
Have you ever thought about digging a irrigation lagoon Harry, I know you don’t normally water OSR , Wheat and Barley but the way things are going it looks like we’re going to have to in the future.
I was going to ask the same thing. I wonder if you need any kind of planning or permission to do this as presumably you’d need to divert or extract water from the stream in over to fill it.
In some grain growing areas of Australia you don’t plow, just drill the seed and fertiliser. The soils are deep cracking clays (>1.8m) that allow rain infiltration. Some farms can get two crops off one decent rain event. 🦘🇦🇺
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Glad to see the the British government's agriculture department is realistically looking after food security, farmers viability, and keeping food prices down.
Most won't understand your sarcasm and knowledge of the agenda 20 30
Surely food security should be the number one priority.
Supermarkets trying to keep their margins and force down payments to farmers is a major part of the problem. Food is getting more expensive but has a way to go to reach levels where in the 1950s we were spending 30% of income on food.
More sarcasm ......... ; Don't worry guys , the Brazilians are burning down the Rain Forest for food production / cattle rearing , we'll all just import our food supplies from these guys............. ( P.s Don't waste your time trying to explain this little nugget of info to the " Mad Raving Looney Green Party " here in Ireland , who want to kill off 200K of the national dairy herd on account of " solar system destroying cow farts !! " .
@@mbak7801 that is an interesting statistic, any link to the provenance.?
The plan seems to be to discourage British farmers from growing food so that we'll have to import it from abroad and it'll cost more for the public. Similar to the plan to cut North Sea oil and gas exploration so we can buy from outside. Just who is running this country?
WEF, communists and lapdog leftist idiots that vote them into office.
sounds like America
Soon everything will be imported from C****, meanwhile they are building 2 new coal fired power stations per week.
@Lookup2Wakeup haven't the WEF now "slinked their way in" to theTwitter Board???
@@shawtaylor4017 -Yep!
The government is increasing the population of the British Isles whilst at the same time reducing its food supply, and people vote for these entities.
I used to argue with people who said 'Everyman can be bought' Now I think that number has risen, and accounts for the mess the world is in.The world's self proclaimed elite has always thought the rest of us were expendable, never more than now, and so many will go to the abbatoir like sheep offering no resistance, we should have rolled the tumbrils when the French did.
_The government is increasing the population of the British Isles_
All those babies daring to be born. The cheek of them!
Beggars belief doesn’t it !!
Superb insight to the life of a farmer, I worked for nearly 30 years in IT and thought that was hard, I live in France and know a few farmers, I also am aware of the high suicide rate of farmers in both England and France, it is complicated by far, then I saw a video of a farmer in Ukraine who was seriously injured by a mine. Farmers all over the world have my respect and we need them.
One would assume that the guest on Harry’s Garage will be a famous neighbour who also drives a green L322 on a high profile farming show!
"His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done." Catch-22, 1961
Brilliant 😂
Many likes on this comment. I want to make it clear that I posted it not as a jab at Harry, who's just trying to make intelligent decisions in his business, but to illustrate the silliness of government intervention programs in agriculture.
I'm not necessarily a fan of our late president Ronald Reagan, but he did once say, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help."
I subscribe to both of Harry's channels and I eagerly await each new post.
@@kevintheilen9643 it also shows how long this non-sense has been going on.
Torys love marxist theory apparently.. 'landlords love to reap where they have never sown'
@@kevintheilen9643 no point quoting one of the people that gave us neoliberalism while complaining about neoliberal socioeconomic policies
The absolute madness of farming and indeed prices. It's insane.
It is insanity that farmers are being paid to not grow crops!
Yes, why don't they explain it to farmer and then the population - or are they worried about being wrong i.e energy crisis...
a bit like people that are paid for not working.. just more taxpayer funded welfare.
Agenda WEF
@@Terraceview Got it in one, and it's Internationally led, and consequently raises it's ugly head everywhere from food warehouses burning down to huge egg production farms burning, hold ups in Ports with container ships, and Klaus Schwab telling us we will own nothing, eat bugs, and like it. This week for the first time since I began supermarket shopping on line, some years, they were unable to supply me with a cauliflower, some weeks I have as many as ten substitutions. So what gives? Are the toilet roll wars of the past become the food wars of the future? The WEF are a powerful bunch, very wealthy, they own many politicians, and vital institutions, can they also manipulate farming to the point where we can be starved by our own farmers? I was a war baby, back then we had a patriotic government working together to keep the nation fed, I guess if the financial incentive was great enough, they could do the opposite, especially if sold for the environmental greater good.
Thank you for explaining these issues. Good to see your L322 being used for its intended purpose, but how did you manage to rip the handle on a Tub-Trug? I’ve some 20 years old and never done that.
As a non- farmer from the US I find your reports enlightening yet maddening. It's sad that a farmer of your size cannot make a living actually growing crops. Sad is the only word for it.
I agree with you.
Connect the dots. Farmers being paid to leave fields, farmers being incentivised to retire. This is part of something much bigger.
Absolutely so!
world hunger project
Improve soil health, improve pollinators numbers, improve opportunities for younger farmers.
Ordinarily that would be true. But that would require a level of intelligence & competence that's simply not there. When they can fix the holes the road & treat the sick, I'll begin to believe it.
@@EP-bb1rm Let me guess you are under 25. What is the point of improving soil health if you cant sell what you grow at a profit. Improving pollinator numbers so they can produce what? same argument as above. The only way to learn how to farm is by farming with and listening to old farmers who know their farms like the back of their hand. There is a reason why farming is generally a family business. It might be ok if you are running a hobby farm with an additional income.
Most good British industry has been closed and now we rely on imports for everything. To do the same with British farming and food production is a very different matter - utter madness, but at least the billionaires don't have to pay taxes (the sole objective of this government)
Drivel.
I think you're right. Just look at Dyson. Multimillionaire - buys swathes of farmland & uses a number of government subsidies to grow crops to feed anaerobic digesters, all the while he lives in the far east as a tax exile.
Third attempt to reply, the first two having been deleted.
Generally, we import mass produced, low value added products & export high value added goods & services. That's how a modern advanced economy works; export low paying jobs & keep high paying jobs. If we were to revert to a mediaeval mercantilist import replacement policy we would either be paying 10 times as much for basic goods or paying factory workers the same £5 a day that a Chinese worker gets. Search "uk-trade-in-numbers" for the actual facts on UK imports & exports.
Dyson's farm business is just another farming business, the same as Harry's Farm. If you object to farmers receiving subsidies then campaign for their removal, although I don't think Harry would be pleased. Dyson will have invested many millions in setting up the business, it employs people here, pays taxes here & is as entitled to receive subsidies here just like any other farming business. The fact that the company owner lives abroad is irrelevant. It is an example of somebody living abroad who chooses to invest many millions in British farming industry.
I work on a farm for 42 years which close down because they couldn't made no money and the boss had to work long hour and made ill by it.
Quick rain update :I live a couple of miles away from Harry and we had some heavy and pretty prolonged rain yesterday (Saturday) and thunderstorms today so hopefully he's had his 20mm to boost the wheat and osr. Great report as always Harry, and a fab Harry's garage at the show, congrats on your lovely Zagato winning the first prize 🙂👍
thanks
This is the first Harry’s Farm episode I’ve watched that’s about the farming. I subscribed initially for the Ineos review (petrolhead here and have been enjoying Harry’s Garage for some time now) but this farming lark is actually very interesting too! I’ve surprised myself and will remain subscribed 😁
Welcome aboard, and buckle up, you'll learn just how great our government is.👍
My bigger takeaway from this isn't getting paid to not grow food. It's that operating costs exceed the value of multiple types of crops!
I believe this will be the same for much of Europe which is why farmers were given subsidies, It seems as the UK government is replacing the subsidy it is pushing an agenda that means farming will pay so poorly that many farmers will switch to an alternative to food production thus the British consumer will need to get used to not having plenty of food in their local supermarket and what is there being a lot dearer than in recent decades.
Reliance on expensive machinery and high input methods. It sounds silly but the idea of smaller tractors, minimum tillage or alternatives to the high input model aren't attractive to most farmers.
@@ThyCorylusgood point, but farmers where told to get big or get out.
@@ThyCorylus labor costs more than machinery in almost all developed countries. I can guarantee you that a small, no-till farm cannot compete on the markets that Harry sells to
You'd be surprised how little these large farms actually make, if it wasn't for subsidies they would go under.
Dear Harry. I just love your no-nonsense approach to your farm - and at the same time I get frustrated that for a lot of your colleagues this is not just a game but a matter of “food on the table” (no pun intended). It should - long term - be a profitable business running a farm, and hard work as well as entrepreneurship should pay off. Farming seems to be on of the few business in the world where not the producer, but the retailer, gets the profit. Thanks for sharing your inputs - I think you and the likes makes a tremendous difference for your farmer colleagues!
Even business who supplies retailers gets hammered on price (because that's what they do). As a farmer I often wonder what it must be like to be a clothing manufacturer in poorer bits of the world. We just don't hear from them because they're far away
Coming from farming in Australia where there’s no subsidies. It says a lot about government priorities and food security. I didn’t expect that the UK suffered severely from drought. There’s been very little rain here some areas haven’t been able to plant winter crops. It looks like Australia isn’t the only country that’s not immune from drought and low commodity prices
When Harry says "drought" it doesn't mean what we get here, we grow hardier stuff.
@@Terraceview Yes, it's all relative. It's not drought in the comparable sense to Australian drought but for the traditionally temperate UK, where farming technique, crop cycles, crop choice and soils have previously been used to more consistent rainfall, climate change is pushing these weather systems that Harry shows in this video far more often. A cooler and wetter early spring just switched to a dry and now hot late spring with no sign of decent rainfall.
In the SW of Scotland we are normally the grass growing masters, blessed with mild winters, moderate summers, moist growing seasons and few surprises but here just now the pastures are turning brown where the soil is at all thin, last year in similar conditions local dairy farmers were feeding winter silage to their cows in the summer to keep them going. It's not quite that bad yet but it doesn't look good.
This is shocking stuff. Surely common sense would say we need to be enabling farmers to be produce as much food as they can! Higher prices in the supermarkets inbound.
I don’t think I am the only farmer who is getting sick of all the bureaucracy and Government intervention in the Job.
You’d think farming is a lovely job but it is just nothing but worry, worry, worry.
We just want to be left alone to get on and feed people and make a decent living!
Just like any industry, you cannot just pollute watercourses for your own bottom line
@@chubeye1187 Agreed. No farmer would ever want that.
Remember that when you eat every meal from now on!
@@chubeye1187 This is not about water, the earth beneath your feet is bubbling every day. Watch a volcano erupting.
Always was.
@@Rickwardful but that's not true, and we can see the results in countries where these sorts of protections don't exist, then it happens. You or the farmers you know might not do it, but it only takes a small bunch to do series damage.
Always interesting to listen Harry. Thanks for articulating the view sensibly and with a measure of calmness and pragmatism. Best of luck to you.
yeah, right... he's beating around the bush ever since I started following the channel. If farmers want to make an impact they should all group up, and decide not to plant anything but that "ecological" weeds the government is pushing... that will ruin the dairy farmers and many other parts of the industry and agriculture. What the british government and the others are doing is to artificially increase the cost of food in the world market, and later on bitch about it
Harry you are better than any "Farming Today" on Radio 4. Thanks
And Country File!
@@TheAgwarn Forgot those Woke farmer bashing Biased Broadcasting Corporation.
As fascinating and educational as I find Harry's Farm videos to be, I cannot image trying to be in the business of farming for a living.
Take a look in his garage. He seems to be doing ok!
Thank you for these realistic videos. I live in the Highlands and Sturgeon government has hit us hard up the backside and then done it again. We've had to close our Holiday let bungalow which kept us going due to new laws on Planning permission, yearly licenses and soaring electric bills. They seem to be coming for our chickens next so only time will tell. I sincerely wish you well and keep us folk going with your wonderful presentations. Thank you ! 🚜
Incredibly interesting from a laymans point of view. How farmers put up with pathetic government interference, I will never know. Soon there will be no farmers left. Thank you Harry for a wonderful way of enlightening we numpties.
Im so glad uncle klaus is lookin out for us
Farming is clearly a difficult industry. With such small and variable profits. It's always interesting to get Harry's straight talking version of what's going on. Really enjoy these videos.
Harry are you part of a farming lobby to kick back against these ludicrous WEF ideologies? Have you seen what’s happened in Holland? What’s next…? I’m part of a few things behind the scenes looking to defend motorists abs it would be great to get your thoughts on it.
Thanks for this channel Harry, the British public generally are pretty ignorant of farming matters, because there is a lack of information and education! Hoping you get some rain to help with what crops you do have! Interesting to see your upcoming film about your RR with "Special Guest" . Cheers.
Harry , you mention Mr Clarkson and spring barley. I really like the way Jeremy explains the money side and admits that he is fortunate to have Amazon money to help with the farm . He also is trying his hardest to stick to traditional farming and actually make a product for sale and take on the ludicrous bureaucracy and find workarounds to involve other farmers to also make and end product and income . It seems that you are going to lay down and just take the money ?
Whilst I'm up for fallow land to give it a rest, it is crazy that farmers are paid not to grow crops in this time of expensive food and air miles. We keep being told there is a food shortage coming and yet farmers are being told to re-wild and cut cattle production. How long will it be before the tables have turned and farmers (if there are any left) are told to grow more again? Only then it will be harder to get rid of pesky wild flowers and weeds to grow what we can actually eat. Less arable means less food for us and cattle - which means higher prices and shortages.
When I was at agricultural college in the 80's, there were trials for going continuous wheat. Whilst yields dropped initially, by year 4-5, yields improved again up to 10 years.
I can't believe how many dairy farmers have fallen by the wayside since the 80's. Again, it is crazy that it is cheaper to bring milk in from France than to produce it here!
Sorry. My fault for this dryness. I installed a water butt in the garden in may
mine is almost empty and the back up
As a Brit living in Austria I watched a news programme and in Germany dairy farmers are giving up to.
All the time you can afford it Harry, I think you should keep growing food. I buy my milk from my local farm direct and they haven't put the cost up in a year. Good luck with rain. Fingers crossed.
Thank you Harry, as ever, very informative. How you maintain your sanity with so many things effecting the farm I do not know.
"Use it or lose it" comes to mind, just like the insanity the Dutch farmers are having to endure.
What does “use it or lose it” mean, was it mentioned in this video?
(I might have missed it due to using subtitles.)
Very different topic in The Netherlands. Problem over there is way too much livestock. Other forms of farming aren't near as endangered
Intensive farming, factory farming in order to produce cheap food, that has been the mantra. Well it's not worked. In the 1970s the Arabs hiked the price of oil, still we did not get the message. Use environmentally sound methods, eat less processed foods. Look at films from 1960, compare with today, the average person is eating too much, costing the NHS a bomb, kids grow up thinking chips and tomato ketchup is standard fare, with chicken dippers every day and a trip to Macdonald's once a week.
i don't think you are properly in touch with this
@@Bartie96 What’s the problem with having a large amount of livestock?
Good day from the Canadian Rockies l*l Harry. Noticed your Kicking Horse Resort t-shirt. I use to travel thru Golden BC many times to head east on the Trans Canada Highway to work at Emerald Lake Lodge in Yoho National Park. If you have or plan on coming that way, i highly recommend heading to Yoho , Takakkaw Falls, Spiral Tunnels, , Lake Louise, Banff, Canmore. Cheers, fantastic programming.
Love your farm and your videos!
Pulling for your success from South Texas.
Mr. Metcalfe, We’re going through a dry spell here in Alberta Canada as well. Hope you get rain soon!
Love the TShirt, just back from uni in Calgary, kicking horse was a highlight of my trip 👍
Great video Harry, as always. Very informative., thanks. I despair at Government interference in the farming industry. We will be producing less and less food and becoming more and more dependant on importing it. We all know what happened with Russian gas!
I could not agree more with this sentiment!
Well, I suppose it was inevitable Harry that you would decide to grow plants that aren't food. You have been discussing this for months, and now here we are. Sad to see, but completely understandable given the alternatives you have now discussed. Strange days indeed.
Yet another great video Harry
Crazy that the government will pay farmers not to grow food and leave land bare!
If they paid farmers to grow peas, beans and was possible to grow osr surely it’s better for the bees and environment to have pollen and locally grown food..
I’ve be watching your farm channel for a while now, just catching up on earlier episodes, just seen your Cagiva elephant Dakar bike, jealous as hell, I’ve raced motocross for 40+ years and family members have been in farming for generations. I’ll have to pay more attention to your car channel now I realise you have bikes as well. Keep up the good work, very interesting discussion with your famous neighbour on the L322 RR, my daily drive for nearly the last 20 years is a Scooby Impreza.👍🤣🤣🤣🤣
Looking forward to the video on the L322!
I hope the l322 review is yourself and clarkson with both your l322 Farm transport vehicles
Excellent video Harry, utter madness to pay you to take your land out of production for food or oil, they import the stuff where they use the tested seed, fully understand the conservation side, what about the conservation in those other countries, lots of brown envelopes and holidays in government offices
Rain in South Oxfordshire tonight, so hope it reached you too!
Theres a chap here in Devon who runs Riverford organics ......Guy Watson and he said the other day leaving farming and food producers to survive on the open markets of the world isn't going to work..........very true words i think
Thanks again H, continuing worrying times for Farmers but thanks for all you do.
Wonderful watching this yesterday evening, after returning from a trip to Jericho in Oxford, back to Chippy, knowing that that desperately needed rain actually arrived!
It started in Oxford probably around 5pm - not that much really.
As we were having a few tipples, we got the s3 bus down - on the way back, around 7pm, as we got closer to Chippy it was clear a great deal more rain had hit!
And right now, a bloody good soaking - not sure how much, but must be easily 30mm - so, jolly good all around for that wheat!
It very much looks like it will have rained on Harry's farm too! The metoffice rainfall radar showed a huge wodge of heavy rain across Oxfordshire.
Just shows how incredibly close to the wire farming can be! - so many variables, many of which are completely unpredictable.
Very informative on many levels. However when I discussed th topic of what should farmers plant in Denmark (our home) with my teenager he said 'spread the bets' try to find different crops that enjoy different conditions, trying to pick one or two crops to maximise the farm income is not very smart when the weather conditions are so changeable' - and that is from a 'non farming' teenager!
Why don't politicians read history books. After the last war, when subsidies began, it was agreed that we as a nation must never be dependent on food grown overseas. Look at the country of origin on your food packaging. One good Dock strike and we have had it.
Really informative Harry - the business side is so often not explained in a succinct manner and it has changed so much of late. Thanks
Really enjoy your farm clips.
Thank you Harry, l' m no Farmer , or sadly classic car owner, but I find your videos very interesting. You certainly have a busy life!
Love your honesty in your videos you don’t get that with anyone else. Iv got all permanent pastures and the money has gone maybe time to rip it up and get paid for stubble ? What a time to live in. Thank god for overdrafts
I know nothing whatsoever of farming here in the UK, but I find all of this interesting!
Really interesting discussion, we are having the same thoughts about break crops on our farm.
Blackgrass has decimated our wheat this year and we are really losing control of the situation. A year of fallow might just help.
Based on admittedly limited personal experience I really doubt that a one year fallow will make much of a dent in the soil seedbed load regarding blackgrass in particular. Regards, Dan
@@Dan.Whiteford depends when the closed period ends, if we can get good germination in the stubble and then spray off and cultivate as soon as we are allowed too and get another germination going.
We've got to try something cos the options we have now aren't working.
A lot of farmers may have to go back to the 3 year rotation of old, just needing a local livestock farmer to graze the fallow fields or become a mixed farm, Pigs are good for the soil and slow grown ancient breed pork tastes far better, even better still if an old apple/pear orchard on the farm, than the cheap factory farmed breeds also cuts down on expensive fertiliser. Not ploughing or deep tilling helps keep nutrients and structure in the soil.
@@tonys1636 There are people who would pay handsomely for Chicken raised as they were on farms 100 years ago, or pork with some fat and flavour it had when raised on swill. All lost because some numpties did not boil swill correctly.
@@glendakirby5579I’ve seen dead pigs put in the swill boiling tank!
Still no rain here, watched the storms divide and go to both sides. Hopefully the clouds were kinder to Harry and the much needed rain arrived.
Hurrah, downpour just reached us in the last 20 minutes Harry (Hampshire).
I trust you will get this too.
Problem is, the ground is quite hard - not sure how much good a deluge will do!
We don’t just need a new government, we need a new way of governance-the entire system is clearly broken and not fit for purpose.
Harry’s Farm is a Master Class in raising crops. Fascinating. 😊
Harry! Stoked to see you wearing a Kicking Horse T-Shirt! Watching you from Vernon BC Canada.
Farmers paid more to not grow food. How utterly mad is that?!
Bloody mental, completely against the grain to think about not farming properly, sick of the damn lot!
The Great WEF agenda
@@grahamatsea3575 Precisely that. In the long run, we'll end up being the carbon they want to reduce.
Cheaper to import food?
@@grahamatsea3575
That’s just a conspiracy theory. The reality is that it’s a bad policy from the government.
Always a fascinating watch, thanks Harry.
Although nice drop of rain in West Somerset this afternoon, Hope it made its way up and over to you Harry.
Well Harry you got your rain the last couple of days lol
I see your L322, I click. Still waiting for your collaboration with Clarkson on the L322.
Thanks for explaining the farming issues harry at least i under stand it good to see the range rover being usd great video
Yes hit the nail..small businesses, farms and anything the small person trys..Government interference.. Government that has no experience no abilities telling people who can what to do.
Love the channel from USA
Food shortage on the horizon Harry, the way things are going? Anyway another great episode one of my favourite channels now. Morphed over from the Garage channel, and I'm finding this is so interesting. Thanks again all the best with the crops from us here in Australia.
From Harrys garage into Harrys farm, great way to spend a hour. Thanks
Many things are similar here in Finland. What i would like to have from Britain is the incentives for maintaining hedges . So good as windbreaks and for birdlife.
I'm a small amateur grower in wicklow Ireland. It's raining ❤
I would love to see Harry and Jeremy get together for an episode of shooting the breeze about farming and cars.
I've got a feeling that could be his special guest for this Range Rover video as Clarkson has the same One
@@JY-ev5msnailed it!!!
Intrigued to see who will be the guest on Harry’s garage, Matt from High Peak autos is my guess
Good luck,Harry,Keith&Molly,France,🤠🍻
For a few years now, farmers in Austria plant spring brewing barley in autumn to reduce the risk of crop failure due to drought. Spring barley can withstand temperatures of up to -15°C so they say.
Harry can you pop up and see Cotswold Seeds Morton in the Marsh. And ask them pertinent questions on seeds past present & future?
I was in Wantage, just down the road at about 4pm, in the most tremendous thunderstorm. I hope you got at least some of the rain!
Well you got the rain… saw the radar. Go crops grow!
A farmer in Essex just lost 10 acres (and the combine by the looks of things) due to a fire. Made me realise we hadn't heard anything from Harry for a while
Hi Harry. Be aware that taking the AB6 option that you may get a problem with take-all in the following wheat crop and the extra costs then needed to grow your wheat.
Harry being surprisingly diplomatic for once saying the dam burst when it clearly didn't do it on its own! 🤔
Could well have collapsed on it's own. The flood gates were targeted several times in the last six months by himars rockets, was even reported in the Washington post.
Especially as the Ukrainians had been using it for target practice.
Kinda like saying Epstein didn't kill himself.
Damien, I’m so sorry and genuinely angry that this has happened to you. It beggars belief that there are people in this world who would do such a dreadful, callous and vile thing to another person. I certainly wouldn’t be as generous as you to your attacker but as always you make your point perfectly. Hopefully the person who did this will not only get the justice he deserves but also get to read the many comments of support you have got. I wish you well over the coming weeks and months as you take the time needed to heal and while it may be a long journey I’m sure you will get there. Do take up any support offered and continue to share your feelings with those who are in a position to help. Very best wishes to you and your family.
I was in Dundee/ Arbroath this past week and the OSR was just flowering!!
Great update, seems like a very difficult job owning and running a farm with all the changing elements to manage and make a living. good luck Harry. all the best Bob
Some of the best content on the internet - thank you.
Thanks for the update.
Hi Harry, love the channel and you're farm looks like paradise. I love how you are so into the facts and figures, seems a long way from the days I worked on a dairy farm as a kid in Ireland. I presume you have other income, however if you didn't could a farmer of a similar sized farm survive today ? Regards Colm
It would be a dream if Harry went to a farmers convention to look at equipment and so forth
Thanks for the latest update. As a layman I much prefer acres to hectares and I can visualise an acre . Does this government know anything about farming? If all farmers are thinking like you and grow wheat then surely the price will drop and rape will increase in price next year. I don't envy your decisions .
It is increasingly hard to ignore this madness!
Hopefully you have some rain soon. Nothing happened here (west Berk) so far, despite constant alerts of thunderstorms and this morning being overcast till midday.
My thanks as ever. Much ado!
850,000 acres of gardens in UK and the same number of polluting lawnmowers, 26% adult obesity/37% overweight, culture change is needed to grow our own food
Thanks Harry
Have you ever thought about digging a irrigation lagoon Harry, I know you don’t normally water OSR , Wheat and Barley but the way things are going it looks like we’re going to have to in the future.
you mean save some of all that excess rain water, i think that would be way too smart for this country
They're doing it in France already
I was going to ask the same thing. I wonder if you need any kind of planning or permission to do this as presumably you’d need to divert or extract water from the stream in over to fill it.
@@RomeoDeltaWhiskey The "Red Tape" / planning controls you'd have...... besides which it's only economic on high value vegetable crops.
In some grain growing areas of Australia you don’t plow, just drill the seed and fertiliser. The soils are deep cracking clays (>1.8m) that allow rain infiltration. Some farms can get two crops off one decent rain event. 🦘🇦🇺
Harry we are about 25 miles from you the osr has looked very good . Still in the cotswolds
I wonder if Clarkson is the L322 guest? L322 TDV8 is pretty hard to beat!
Yeah nice to see the old girl (L322) making an appearance