We had a good couple of days at the Dairy and Livestock event, meeting farmers and keeping up with recent developments in the industry.  This show is now Europe’s leading event for the livestock sector with over 16,000 visitors.  There were elaborate stands, demonstrations of the latest technology and copious free ice cream. From this year, the event also incorporated the All Breeds Show, although the NEC still seems an odd venue for livestock to me. 

Some of the hot topics at this year’s event included how to secure a better deal for dairy farmers – should the Government intervene to ensure fairer contracts or will a voluntary code be enough? – and improving youngstock health within the dairy industry. New research shows that nearly one in five dairy calves fail to reach breeding age. These losses clearly have major welfare and economic implications, but from an environmental perspective they are also an issue, resulting in wasted inputs and the need for more replacements.

It’s always valuable to hear what farmers are doing on the ground to help wildlife and discuss any issues whether technical queries or opinions on policy. This year we were also asking farmers to vote to tell us what they think is the most practical way of providing birds with winter food resources - a key requirement for many farmland bird species including yellowhammers, reed buntings and linnets.  We had vases of coloured water to provide a visual indicator and by the end of the show, one option – wild bird cover – proved twice as popular as the other two – growing a cereal-based wholecrop silage or allowing small areas of ryegrass to go to seed. The choice was influenced by their farming system and management, with all grass farms favouring seeding ryegrass and shooting interests encouraging wildbird cover.  As well as being a useful opener for discussing what farmers are currently doing, this survey attracted interest to the stand and around 90 new farmers signed up for our farming newsletter. 

On the policy side, a number of farmers highlighted the importance of agri-environment schemes for their business and wanted to know what the RSPB is doing to help secure their future in the next round of CAP.  Several visitors to the stand felt that RSPB is not doing enough to promote the positive things farmers are doing to help wildlife and our messaging around farming is too negative. These are always some of the most interesting discussions as this is hopefully a chance to change opinion but also just to listen. These events are a useful opportunity to catch up with contacts from industry organisations and identify areas where we could work together better.  We are hoping to follow up a constructive chat at this year’s show with OMSCo, the organic milk suppliers cooperative, for example.