Lincolnshire is known as the breadbasket of England due to its output of crops – and it also has a rich tradition of livestock farming.
Heather Oldfield, who farms cattle near Boston, says her family “want to feed people”.
The family has 200 animals, which will be sold to Morrison’s butchery. They will make many meat products, including burgers destined for barbecues.
The latest figures from the Agricultural Price Index (API), for April, show farmers like Oldfield were getting 8% less for their beef on average compared with the previous 12 months.
But shoppers were paying 9% more in May compared with a year before, according to the CPI.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” says Oldfield.
The mother-of-two says she must cover their costs to ensure the farm survives for her daughters, who want to be farmers.
Oldfield says: “How do we shore the business up into a place that’s right for them to come into without saddling them with a lot of debt?”
A Defra spokesperson says the government is “backing our hard-working farmers, investing a record £11.8bn – more than any previous government”.
Yet Oldfield is feeling the pressure. She also works full time for a plant breeder because the farm does not generate enough to pay the wages for both her and her husband.
The bread bun
Phil Clayton, baker, York, North Yorkshire
Image source, Linsey Smith/BBC
“I know I’m not going to be a millionaire running a bakery,” says Phil Clayton.
We are speaking in the busy bakery he runs with his wife Tina. It is only 10am, but the operation has been in full swing for nine hours.
Clayton says it is “absolutely not true” that the bakery enjoys more profit due to price rises.
In May, families were paying 2% more for bread rolls than they were a year earlier, according to the CPI.
But in April, farmers were receiving 0.3% less for wheat, the main ingredient, according to API figures.
The 2% increase in prices for customers is smaller than the 3% rise seen across the whole CPI index.
Clayton says he does not regret increasing his prices by 10p to 20p.
“My responsibility is to make sure all of this lot get paid,” he says, referring to his 30-strong team, which includes bakers, delivery drivers and Saturday staff employed in the cafe that adjoins the bakery.
Clayton points out the extra money shoppers pay at the tills goes towards increases in rent, wages, National Insurance, delivery fuel and the rising cost of flour – much of which originates from farms in the region.
The flour
Robert Archer, mill manager, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire
Image source, Linsey Smith/BBC
Robert Archer says haulage costs have been “a big hit”, forcing him to increase the price of the organic flour he mills in North Yorkshire.
“If we stayed at the same price we would be losing money and then we couldn’t run the business,” he says.
The mill buys more than 400 tonnes of wheat from farms in North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire each year. It generates enough flour to feed 20,000 people, he says.
The flour is sent to customers, including Phil Clayton’s bakery in York.
Nelly Trevelyan, the mill’s owner, says staying organic helps them to minimise percentage price rises because “we don’t have nitrogen fertiliser cost increases [and] we don’t use pesticides, so we haven’t got those increases”.
However, she says many people buy what they see as “cheap food” from “the industrial farming system” that uses more intensive methods.
The salad
Mathew Brankley, farmer, Snaith, East Yorkshire
Image source, Linsey Smith/BBC
Mathew Brankley believes food remains “relatively cheap” in the UK.
“I know that that might sound like a shock,” he says. “But if you go to some places over in Europe and the States, the cost of a simple lettuce could be $2.99. In the UK, it’s retailing at 80p to £1.”
According to the API, vegetable growers were receiving 12.6% more for their produce in April compared to 12 months ago. But in May, shoppers were paying 8% more, according to the CPI.
Brankley insists he is no better off, explaining any extra money he is being paid for his crops is being “eaten up” by rises in the prices he pays for fuel and fertiliser.
“There’s a lot of people that are taking a cut from what the customer pays in the supermarket before any of it gets back to the farmer,” he says.
Despite the challenges, Brankley says he would not consider changing jobs.
“I wouldn’t do anything else because I enjoy it so much.”
A Defra spokesperson says: “We’ve already cut red diesel to its lowest rate in over 20 years [and] we are seeking views on suspending fertiliser tariffs to help farmers.”
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire or Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North.
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Image source, Linsey Smith/BBC
