Andrew Livingston says LAMMA revealed more than just the latest tech, and takes a look at government land grabs and vertical farming
If you are a farmer and you like your tractors and your tech, then you probably make a yearly pilgrimage, braving the motorways to visit LAMMA.
The show – the Lincolnshire Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Association – is held in Birmingham’s NEC every year, and features all the latest farmyard equipment (all there and ready for you to buy … if you have a big enough bank loan!)
More than 40,000 people visited the show over the two days in January and this year, I was lucky enough to be one of them.
Yes, I have first-hand experience, and yes, I can confirm that the mullet is still the most popular haircut of choice among the farming fraternity. And no, Schöffels’ stock price won’t be crashing anytime soon.
LAMMA boasts it is the UK’s premier farm machinery show … and after finally seeing it for myself, I can’t disagree. Anyone who is anyone either had a stand trying to sell or was browsing the market to buy. I was minding my own business when some old codger and a mullet walked past me: I only realised it was Jeremy Clarkson and Kaleb Cooper when, in their wake, along came the Amazon film crew, barrelling and barging to stick with the two famous farmers.
Thankfully, I did have my senses about me when NFU President Tom Bradshaw walked past me. Always looking for a claim to fame, I stopped him, shook his hand and thanked him for everything he has done to fight agriculture’s corner over the last few months.
Free hats
A lot of people walked through the halls of the NEC – but the majority weren’t dipping into their pockets. No one was buying. It just isn’t the climate to be purchasing new machinery – people simply don’t have the funds to invest back into the farm.
That was always going to be the case.
But more interesting to me was that it wasn’t just the farmers that were feeling the pinch. The consensus walking around the halls was that “there weren’t as many freebies this year”.
Obviously, we aren’t talking about free combine harvesters, but it seems the marketing budget for the exhibitors is starting to tighten. There were definitely not as many free hats or novelty pens to be handed around (Not to brag, but I got a free can of WD-40).
Worst of all, I saw exhibitors refusing to give freebies to the kids wandering the stalls … now this was wrong! A friend of mine told me that his son was refused a hat from a certain tractor manufacturer because they were ‘reserving them for potential buying customers.’
Seriously? How short-sighted can you get? In a fiercely competitive market, brand loyalty is everything. And where does that loyalty start? Not in a showroom, but in the fields, on the farms … and often in the minds of the next generation.
That hat wasn’t just a freebie – it was a chance to win over a future customer. The kid wearing it today could be the farmer making six-figure machinery purchases tomorrow.
A little goodwill now could mean a lifetime of business down the road. I’d bet a decent tractor that a branded cap on the right head is worth far more than its weight in marketing gold.
Despite what Rachel Reeves and the Labour government think, farming is a family matter – and the future of farming is already dreaming of his or her first piece of kit.
I just hope he’ll still have a farm to use it on.
Food vs climate again
I am starting to feel like a broken record. Once again, the climate/food production debate is back in the mainstream media, as a Government consultation announced last week that nearly a fifth of farming land needs to be ‘repurposed’ to meet climate requirements set for 2050.
It is suggested that nine per cent of land must be removed from food production to create woodlands and other natural habitats. Considering DEFRA’s figures from 2023, which state that the UK is only 62% self-sufficient in food production, this is a worrying request.
At the moment, this is just the Government suggesting ideas for farmers to follow – think of it as ‘guidance’. But, how close will we get to 2050 before the Government suddenly gets terrified of the pending LEGAL climate requirements?
It was this time last year that the devolved powers of Wales tried to suggest mandatory tree planting on Welsh farms.
The farmers didn’t take it well.
It led to protests and the Welsh Government did the classic, “Oh it’s only an idea! We weren’t ever going to really do that!”
I suspect that the Labour government – which, if you hadn’t heard, is not the number one party with the farming community – has learned from the Wales disaster and has decided to throw a pebble in the water to see how big the splash is.
The one positive that will come from this consultation is that it will fully deter our current government from taking away farming land to build houses … well, you would hope it would?
Going up
If the Government wants to start giving more land back to rewilding, that’s fine. But if this country doesn’t want to start importing more of the food we eat, the Government has to put more money into the research and development of innovative farming practices.
It is possible to farm in a smaller space – maybe not your cows and pigs, we always have to consider animal welfare – but vertical indoor farming is possible, and in fact is already being utilised for the growing of flowers, vegetables and insects.
The controlled environment makes it a far more sustainable, productive and efficient method – in some cases – than traditional farming. With modern technologies like hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics, the notion of the vertical farm appears to have a promising future, particularly in urban areas. More funding given to grow this exciting sector now could be really showing the benefits in 25 years time.
Maybe all these closed bank branches in our rural towns can be turned into productive vertical food-producing hubs. You may think I’m insane, but surely it’s a better use of space than another American café chain. I’ll have a Grande lettuce over a Grande latte any day of the week!
