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UK Ewes Insuffiently Breeding · Mark and Pete

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  UK ewes. Insufficiently breeding.
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  Welcome to Mark and Pete, where we asked the question where have
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  all the ewes gone? Yes, this is Mark and Pete, 2
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  blokes with half an opinion. Now here's our first thought.
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  Tale of the Lonely Shepherd. Baa baa, black sheep.
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  Have you any wool? No, Sir.
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  No, Sir, There's only a handful. None for the vicar and none for
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  his flock. And none for Little Britain.
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  We've eaten all the stock. Yes, indeed.
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  What is remarkable is there are now 14.7 million breeding ewes
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  in the United Kingdom. Well, that sounds a lot, but it
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  actually is the lowest figure in living memory and that is in a
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  staggering state of our farming and agriculture now overall.
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  The flock is also falling down, where actually the number of
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  sheep is diminishing regularly. We rely enormously on countries
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  like New Zealand, Australia and many others.
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  Mr. Pete, I ask you, what is going on with our British
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  farming community? Why is it that we are so now
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  dependent on other nations? And does this mean really that
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  basically we can say bar humbug to our economy Well.
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  We can't it's, it's this running down of stock is happening.
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  It seems to me it's happening in many areas of the UK economy.
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  Just, it's as though we're coming to a, a point where the,
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  it's, it's not just the sheep, although, but they're indicative
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  of a, of a trend. Everything is being run down in
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  all areas of industry things. What's happening in the UK seems
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  to be we're coming to an end. The economy is just, you know,
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  when you get to the end of a, a long day and yeah, you do, you
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  know, it's nearly time to go. You just start to slow down and
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  you're not going to stock up the shelves anymore because, well,
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  it's nearly the end of the day. You might as well cash up and go
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  home. That's what it feels like for
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  Britain. Yes, there is an irony here is
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  that the global land consumption is expected to grow by 15%
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  between now and 2032. Now this is according to report
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  by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and
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  the Food and Agricultural Organization.
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  So let's be honest, there is a demand, but the problem is, is
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  that tastes do change and we understand that.
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  But the fact is, is that if you're not self-sufficient, or
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  at least if you can't rely on your own stock, then what does
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  that mean? It means ultimately prices will
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  increase. We're already seeing that now.
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  This isn't just because of the geopolitical issues, the
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  turbulence in the supply chain and the general economy.
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  The fact of the matter is, is if you have to keep importing stock
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  from other countries, prices will go up.
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  You've got the cost of feed, transport and many other things.
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  So, Mr. Pete, I am concerned about this because what I also
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  note is in a wider scheme of things is that farming generally
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  seems to be depleted. What's interesting is, and I
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  know that we talked about this offline, the average British
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  farmer is now 60 years of age. Now you might say, well, that's
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  not too bad. But the fact is, is that what
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  it's really reflecting is there's just not enough new
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  talent coming into the industry. What does the British government
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  need to do to address this? Yeah, yeah, there's no well
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  farmers do not get supported and the the latest you know messing
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  around with inheritances has meant that they feel even less
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  supported. There aren't new people coming
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  in because it ends up being a high risk with and it's a lot of
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  work and the reason why people were were stayed being farmers
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  is there's so many was because the history in the family.
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  But if you can't effectively inherit all the wealth that
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  you've built up, well, that's going to take people out of the
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  game in terms of farming. And, and it's kind of a pride.
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  It's part of being British. You know, Britain's wealth, if
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  you go really far back, you know, before the Industrial
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  Revolution to medieval times was because of its sheep.
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  And you've got the speaker's chair in the House of Lords.
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  It's called the wall sack, which is literally a sack stuff with
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  wool because the industry was so vital.
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  The wall trade made England wealthy because, you know, the
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  trade with Europe. So it's, it's, it's indicative
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  of the loss of Britain's heritage as well as, you know,
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  the, the practical concerns you're talking about.
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  And that, you know, there's something about an industry
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  wanting to be part of a proud industry which keeps people in
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  there even with the great difficulties.
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  And if that's being lost and if there's not enough sheep and
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  you're feeling morale is low, while there won't be more
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  farmers joining, you're I think we're going to have that average
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  age getting older and older. We're we're just not getting you
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  people going into farming. I mean, that's a question we
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  often ask questions to our listeners and feature them in
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  later shows. Have you ever considered going
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  into farming? Do you know anyone who's
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  actually changing to go into farming very, very rare apart
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  from Jeremy Clarkson? Well.
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  Quite, yes. And I'm sure he's doing a
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  sterling job. But the fact of the matter is
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  you're absolutely right. It's really lot sort of at one
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  time. I certainly remember when I was
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  at school, I came from a sort of more of a rural community.
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  And you know, the farmers were very much respected in the
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  community. They were seen as being people
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  who were sort of pillars of the community, adding value.
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  You could even go and buy their goods, you know, with those sort
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  of farming shops, et cetera. But the, the crucially, you
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  never really saw a poor farmer 50 years ago, whereas today the
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  game has changed. And, and I think this sort of
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  outsourcing model is, is just not sustainable.
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  It, it's not something that the government can continue with.
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  But here's the other thing, because the other side to this
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  is what you also do with sheep. I mean, there's the wolf trade
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  as well, because, you know, that's also on a decline,
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  different story. But the principle is exactly the
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  same. If you reduce your stock, if you
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  reduce down the farming, if you reduce down that that particular
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  industry, you then can only rely on imports, and imports alone
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  are never going to be enough. So yeah, it's a shame, isn't it?
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  Maybe it just seems that the government is pulling the wool
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  over our eyes. Yes, but what we need is AU
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  turn.