One unexpected impact of the UK leaving the EU (Brexit) could be an increase in farmstay holidays, with farmers increasingly moving from traditional agricultural activities to other land use.

In part, the switch acknowledges that post-Brexit, seasonal workers from overseas may be hard to find - but more importantly, losing EU subsidies may force farmers out of their traditional businesses.

 

Britain produces only about 60 per cent of its own food, importing the rest, and so Brexit and the possibility of export/import tariffs affect many firms including farmers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, airlines, fresh-produce storage and haulage firms.

 

As we have already reported, the EU has a complex and bewildering range of tariffs for imported products. Skimmed milk coming from outside the single market attracts a tariff of 74 per cent, while butter has a 63 per cent tariff applied and cheddar cheese 43 per cent. A tariff of 53 per cent is levied on wheat.

 

Red meat attracts the highest tariffs of all, with charges on frozen beef carcasses 160 per cent of their value.

 

 

If UK exports to Europe fall, it will affect both farmers and employees. There are an estimated 130,000 non-British people employed in agriculture in the UK (including part-timers and seasonal workers) and according to independent fact-checking charity Fullfact.org, in 2013/14 the average farm’s profit from agriculture was only GBP6,600, which a year later had fallen to GBP2,100. 

 

Farms that produced mostly cereal lost GBP9,500 on their agricultural income because machinery and labour costs increased. But they also received around GBP33,900 (after costs) in subsidies. 

 

The amount received in subsidies varies with the size of the farm. All farms receive roughly the same amount per hectare, although the smaller they are, the greater a proportion of their profit it makes up. On average, small farm subsidies make up around 78 per cent of their total profit, on medium size farms it’s 61 per cent and on large farms it’s 46 per cent. Across all farms, subsidies make up around 57 per cent of total profit.

 

The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pays about GBP2.1 billion in direct UK subsidies and GBP600m in rural development payments a year. The direct payments made up 55 per cent of farmers’ incomes last year across the UK.

 

 

According to agricultural consultant Mike Brady, writing in the Irish Independent, after Brexit no-one knows what will happen to British agriculture. The country has 65 million people and 214,000 farmers, with the average farm holding size almost 350 acres.

 

Brady says that already, profits are not coming from traditional farming enterprises of dairy, beef, sheep and arable, but instead from alternative uses such as house rentals, conversion of former grain and potato stores and other non-traditional farming activities.

 

Where I live in south west Scotland, a quick trip into the country confirms an upsurge in farms offering bed'n'breakfast, plus souvenir shops and restaurants/tea rooms. Caravan parks on farming land also are more common.

 

One of the area's largest dairy farms, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, some time ago added an activities park including hovercraft rides and an off-road 'Mucky Wheels' 4WD instruction course - but high insurance premiums forced them out.

The owners now operate a bespoke engineering firm and the area's top caravan storage facility, which has proven very lucrative. The cattle have long gone. - Jack Handley