Cornwall farmers and rural businesses being "battered from all sides"
Cllr Parsons says tax changes, drought and a bluetongue outbreak have all hit farms hard
A farmer who also serves as a local councillor says the past eighteen months have been unlike anything he's experienced in his farming career - after a combination of tax changes, extreme weather and a disease outbreak hit the industry.
Councillor Parsons said many farmers, including himself, had hoped to apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) as their previous agreements came to an end, but said the scheme's funding ran out far faster than expected.
He said the application window opened at around 10am, and had closed to new applications by around ten minutes to four the same day.
"That really is no way for us as businesses having to work and operate in," he said. "It's just created total unfairness within the system."
He said the funding shortfall means some farmers now have financial support to help them through the winter, while others don't.
"It feels like we're being battered from all sides"
"Some will have money which they plan for to go through the winter and into next year, and others will have to try and survive without it," he said.
He said the experience has left him with "little confidence" that the government is interested in working with farmers.
Cllr Parsons said farmers had already been dealing with changes to inheritance tax rules introduced around a year to eighteen months ago, which he said were "rushed in without too much thought" before being amended.
He said farmers then faced a summer of hot, dry weather, which brought "tremendous costs" from having to buy extra supplementary feed for livestock.
"That really is no way for us as businesses having to work and operate in," he said. "It's just created total unfairness within the system."
"Some will have money which they plan for to go through the winter and into next year, and others will have to try and survive without it," he said.
Bluetongue outbreak
Cllr Parsons added that the bluetongue outbreak had added further pressure, describing it as something he'd "never seen anything like" in twenty five years of farming.
"The first few sheep went a bit lethargic, one or two died and we wondered what was going on," he said.
"We started treating as best we could - there's not a cure, this is a virus, so you can only try and help them through the situation and prevent secondary infection."
He said the outbreak caused rapid losses in condition across flocks, calling it "quite a traumatic time".
Vaccinations have since helped, he said, but some rams that survived the virus have shown reduced fertility, affecting this year's breeding season.
"We're seeing a number of flocks where rams have gone in for the mating season and we're seeing a lot of sheep not getting any lamb," he said.
He added the consequences could last for the next six months, and said farmers may face the same problem again next year as a changing climate makes livestock more vulnerable to disease.
Rising fuel costs
Cllr Parsons said rising fuel prices are compounding the difficulties farmers already face, though he said essential farm work still has to continue regardless of cost.
"If you have cattle that need to be fed, you have to feed them. If you've got crops that need to be harvested, you have to harvest them," he said.
He said some farmers may now change their crop rotations as a result of missing out on SFI funding, though he said every farm's situation is different.
Cllr Parsons said the combination of challenges over the past eighteen months has been unlike anything he's experienced during his time farming.
"It feels like we're being battered from all sides at the moment," he said.
"I think there needs to be a little bit of a change of tact from our government if they want to be seen as supporting British agriculture, and for us to have a vibrant living and working rural economy moving forwards."