Optimistic atmosphere over Brexit 'opportunity' for Shropshire farmers

With the event taking place a short journey away from the county at Birmingham's International Conference Centre, there was no shortage of county representatives listening to the key speakers.

And many seemed to receive the messages from Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom and NFU president Meurig Raymond in good spirits.

Newport-based arable and chicken farmer Sam Watson-Jones is working to adopt new technologies such as robotics onto his farm, and to work with others such as Harper Adams and other farmers to make such technology commercially viable.

He said: "I don't think there was enough focus on technology in these presentations, and that's critical to farming if it is to have a viable future. With regards to subsidies, I think it's unrealistic for the NFU to think that the same level will be available or that it might be increased after Brexit.

"Farmers need to prepare themselves for a world that doesn't include subsidies – it's difficult but it's a reality.

"Andrea Leadsom made all the right noises but it's all quite vague. At the moment there's no firm commitments as to what future policy will be like, but I think there's a willingness on both sides to do the right thing."

Incoming NFU Shropshire chairman Andy Pillow, who takes up his post at the conclusion of the conference today, added: "Andrea Leadsom was quite supportive in several ways. Maybe the audience was left feeling a bit reassured."

David Mills, a broiler farmer with 180,000 birds near Craven Arms, added: "She is speaking a lot more positively, with a bit of understanding of what her role is and what she has taken on.

"Trade and labour are the most important things. This labour situation people haven't really got their heads around yet, and perhaps won't until it becomes a story of food not being lifted from the fields and things not being harvested or processed. We rely on that labour massively.

"There's lot of questions and very few answers at the present time, but I think the industry is very strongly behind the fact that we are going for Brexit and there has to be a positive future."

Carol Griffiths, a mixed farmer with sheep and crops from the Clun Valley, said she felt farmers were well-prepared to battle through the fluctuating Brexit talks.

"If ever there was an industry that copes with uncertainty, farming is it," she said.

Malcolm Roberts, a sheep farmer from near Oswestry who is also chairman of the NFU's West Midlands board, added: "People realise that Brexit brings opportunities. Statistics show the agricultural community voted for Brexit, and there's a lot of upbeat people that think this is an opportunity, and we have to grasp them as well as we can."