Brexit 360: Timescales will be key to Brexit challenge for farmers

“If trade flow is from the UK to the EU, there would potentially be a downward price pressure.”

On-farm, Sarah Baker, AHDB strategic insight manager, also focused on timescales, stating if the industry had 10 years to adapt to changes, everyone would be able to get there.

She said: “The direction of travel has not changed.”

Inputs and outputs

Ms Baker emphasised it was not all about constantly pushing for better yields, but a farm’s ability to ‘turn inputs into outputs’.

She gave the example of no-tillage systems, where yields might drop, but input costs could drop further.

Benchmarking against other farms and continuous development were highlighted as targets for farmers to concentrate on during the transition period, with Ms Baker warning doing nothing was ‘a high risk strategy’.

Graham Redman, partner at Andersons, said many farmers believed they were in the top 25 per cent of farmers, but had no evidence they were.

He said: “Complacency is one of the most dangerous things you can have in your business.”

Martin Williams, a monitor farmer, said: “Historically, farmers have been very secretive. It is important to share knowledge between your businesses.”

He added farmers may as well grab hold of the knowledge AHDB had, as they were already paying for it.

Farmers Guardian editor Ben Briggs, who took part in the morning session, said: “There remains a great deal of uncertainty around issues such as trade and labour and the AHDB initiative was a great opportunity to explore where we are and what is still to come.”