This month we look forward to the Virtual Business and Policy Conference. I would argue there has never been a better time to run this conference with the Agriculture Bill still going through parliament, a no-deal Brexit looming as well as Covid being thrown into the mix.
We have a great line-up of speakers including Farming Minister Victoria Prentis; DEFRA Deputy Director Tim Mordan; Nicolas Saphir, Dairy Chair at AHDB and Simon Tunnicliffe, Head of Field Operations, Food Standards Agency to name just a few. And what is great is you can put your questions to them live during each session.
The conference is spread over three days and will be delivered in bitesize hour-long chunks from 10.30-11.30am on 2, 4 6 November. We hope the times and short sessions will make it more accessible allowing folk to tune in after milking. The sessions will also be available afterwards too. You can find out more and still register for your free place by going to rabdf.co.uk/business-policy-conference
Something that is high on our radar right now and is causing much concern within the industry is the issue of labour and the restrictions on foreign labour being imposed from January next year.
We are keen to hear from you about the labour situation on your farm, which is why we have launched a Labour Survey. Anonymised data from the survey will be used to gauge the severity of the labour issue on UK dairy farms and help form the basis from which solutions can be found.
The survey will be running until 20 November and we are urging every farmer to fill it in- it takes less than 10 minutes to complete. You can complete the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NQHMR7R and all completed entries will be in with a chance of winning £150 worth of Amazon vouchers.
The last survey we conducted in 2016, found over half of the respondents had trouble recruiting staff within the previous five years with 56% indicating they had employed foreign labour during the same period. I expect the results from our latest survey may show more grave figures.
Our latest podcast is also focussing on labour and what the industry needs to be doing to help solve the issue. We spoke to George Gordon from dairy recruitment specialists LKL who suggested the dairy industry must get better at marketing jobs on farm as well as making the workplace more appealing. It is a fascinating listen, and he touches on some valid points. You can listen to it by going to https://www.rabdf.co.uk/the-milk-digest-podcast or searching for The Milk Digest on your favourite podcast provider.
That’s all from me this month. Thanks for reading and stay safe,
Matt