Oxfordshire farmers get together on climate

Farmers are notoriously busy and time constrained. From feeding the world, GM crops and new technology, to better communications and different scales of production – there is plenty to think about. And for an eclectic mix of farmers, clerics and environmentalists at a recent symposium in Oxford this certainly proved to be the case.

The purpose was to discuss the role of farmers in mitigating and adapting to climate change and to provide the church with information about what is happening to help farmers cope.  A key feature was presentations by a couple of Oxfordshire farmers who had thought long and deeply about climate change.

Philip Chamberlain farms 1500 hectares of wheat, rape, barley, peas and beans, with three quarters of his farm is in Environmental Stewardship. To save purchased fertiliser he has used a swap of the straw he produces for pig manure for his land. However 2,000 acres of straw only produces enough manure for 200 acres of land. So he also uses sewage sludge and compost made from green waste from Oxford. 

David Christensen milks 630 dairy cows with a further 600 younger cattle including some beef animals which are offspring from the dairy herd. He is focusing on minimising his reliance on the world market in response to rising and increasingly unstable prices for inputs. He sees grazed grass as the cheapest source of food in the UK, so he direct drills grass seeds, which is more energy-efficient than ploughing. He also uses extra clover to add nitrogen to his soils rather than buying fertiliser and forage maize which provides energy savings compared to making grass silage. Having recently measured the carbon footprint of his farm he found that it is less than two thirds of that of the UK average for dairy farms. 

The conclusion from the meeting seemed to be that while financial sustainability still remained paramount, farmers in this part of rural England could see the business benefits of reducing their impact on the environment. But a lot more needs to happen…

The UK should produce more than its share of the extra food the world needs. We need to talk about the costs and benefits of large versus small farming more clearly. Farming needs to get its messages across better. There should be a more balanced discussion about the risks and benefits of new technology. Emissions targets for agriculture are probably too demanding.  People need to be persuaded to reduce over-eating and food waste.

Do you agree with these points? Is there any particular area that you think we need to focus on? Please get in touch with the Farming Futures team or post a comment below.

Alan Spedding produces RuSource a free weekly email briefing about farming and rural life email him to subscribe alan.spedding@btopenworld.com

• Read more detail on the discussions in the RuSource paper here.