Harvest Festival is coming

At a time when churches are planning their harvest festivals services, this briefing is intended to give the information you need.In your services please remember that above all else they need to be services of thanksgiving.

We are fortunate to live in a country with good food security and it is easy to take food for granted. The map (Maplecroft Publications) ranks countries for food security (green low risk to red extreme risk –grey no data). From our position of security it is easy to become complacent.






Farmers who produce our food face challenges of weather and world markets. This paper helps us understand how this affects local agriculture.

a. UK Harvest(Wheat, Barley, Oats...)
The dry spring resulted in slightly early development of the crop and farmers who had sown seed last autumn (oilseed rape, oats, barley) were able to get that harvested slightly earlier than usual. Spring sown wheat was much as usual.  Quality was generally good as were yields except on lighter soils.  Wet weather in late July and into August brought combines to a standstill. The dry week at the end of August & into September was generally just about long enough for most famers to grab what harvest remained, though quality of grain had deteriorated. 

Cereal prices have been high. Extreme hot weather in Russia has devastated their harvest and their government has banned exports.  Canadian wheat harvest is predicted to be 22.7Mt compared to 26.5Mt in 09/10. The widespread flooding in Pakistan has devastated farm land.  This has led to increases in wheat prices and volatility in the futures markets as speculators get involved. One farmer said “There’s been more movement in the market in the last five weeks than in the last twenty five years.”   Prices now for November delivery of wheat are around £165/tonne, though not all farmers will get that. Probably around a third of the crop has been sold forward earlier in the year for around £100/tonne.

b. Livestock
The dry spring reduced the amount of grass growing and the amount of hay & silage produced was down by about 20% at a time when lack of grass meant farmers had to feed livestock.  That has pushed prices for hay & silage up by about 40% - good news for the few with a surplus, not so good for those who had to buy it. High cereal prices have a knock on effect with high cattle feed prices.

Prices for sheep have been (relatively) good, with the exchange rate between the pound and the euro favouring exports.  Cattle prices saw a downward blip in July, but now have steadied.

Milk prices continue to be poor with the National Farmers Union joining forces with the Women’s Institutes  to call for an end to “bully boy tactics” from the supermarkets.  Earlier lobbying had led to an increase in the price paid to farmers for milk sold in supermarkets, but prices for milk that goes to make butter, cheese, yoghurt.... remain disastrously low.

TB in cattle continues to be a major source of stress for farmers. One dairyman in Warwickshire hung himself days after his beloved herd was found to be infected. Farmers generally are hopeful that the new government will take the necessary steps to bring the disease under control but are frustrated by the delays there were when the Welsh Assembly tried to bring in a wildlife cull.       

c. Other farming issues
Costs – Fertiliser costs are dependent on oil prices and the NFU report they have  gone up by about £20/tonne (roughly 10%) in the last month

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) – Across Europe about 40% of farm income comes from CAP. Without it farming would collapse in Europe. The current CAP runs till 2013. Negotiations are currently ongoing about what should replace it from 2014.  Farming is a long term industry. Not knowing what the CAP will require just a few years away is unhelpful.  

Harvest Resources

 Arthur Rank Centre 

 Christian Aid  

Christian Ecology Link

Harvest Jokes

An agricultural joke.  

A beautiful princess is going out for a walk when she meets a talking frog.

“I’m not really a frog”, says the frog. “I’ve been turned into a frog by the wicked witch. Really I’m the incredibly handsome son of the local farmer. All I need is a kiss from a beautiful young woman like you and I’ll turn back into the handsome farmer and we’ll get married and live happily ever after.”

“Really”, says the young woman, picking up the frog and putting it in her pocket, “The way things are with farming, I’ll settle for a talking frog.”

Another agricultural joke

A farmer turns up to evensong and discovers that he and the vicar are the only people there.

 “What shall we do?”, asks the vicar.

“Well”, replies the farmer, “If I goes to feed my sheep and only one turns up, I feeds her.”

So after four hymns , two sung canticles, one sung psalm,  two lessons, prayers for everything under the sun  and a twenty minute sermon the service ends.

“If I goes to feed my sheep and only one turns up, I feeds her”, says the farmer on the way out, “but I don’t give her the whole bag full!””

And another.

A city banker is stressed out by his life and decides to adopt a simpler life as a farmer. He sells his docklands flat, cashes in his share options and buys a farm. He decides that as people like chicken, he is going to produce chickens.

 He clears out a barn, orders a load of chicks, puts them in the barn, closes the door & goes to bed. In the morning he looks in on them and they’re all dead. He decides they must have been a defective load of chicks, so he orders in another load from a different supplier but exactly the same thing happens.

He decides to consult an expert so he writes to DEFRA – the government department that oversees agriculture.   We writes;

Dear Defra,

I am a chicken farmer. I get a new load of chicks. I put them in the barn. In the morning they are all dead.  What am I doing wrong? Do you think I might be planting them too close together?

Yours sincerely,

 A Farmer

He gets a reply;

Dear Farmer,

We couldn’t possibly comment until we have taken soil samples.

Yours sincerely

DEFRA