Class IX of Agriculture Leadership of Tomorrow (ALOT) set out in June to see how agriculture works in the U.K. Class members wanted to compare their experiences of U.S. agriculture with what takes place between shores of this storied part of Europe. Our associate editor, and class IX member, Steve Fairchild, reports on the experience.

When I got back from the U.K., someone asked me if there, "was much agriculture over there?" The answer is, of course, yes. Agriculture, because of the island's temperate climate and plenty of rain, seems to fill the spaces between urban population more extensively than it does here. In the parts of England that we drove, pasture and crops were fencerow to fencerow. Not much sat idle. There was no western Kansas. There was no north Texas, no areas lacking an agricultural density that we might see in central Missouri. In Scotland's highlands we saw more scarcity in resources, but it was utilized nonetheless. Think Flint Hills at their most lush, full of sheep and patched with tended forests--and whiskey distilleries. But for all the verdant farm scenery, I came away with a sense of inescapable beleaguerment. This island, about the size of Oregon, has had a bad run. Mad Cow, foot-and-mouth disease, EU encroachment, an anti-hunting movement and a growing urban population have a pinch on farmers from about every direction.

At our first farm stop, in Suffolk County, northeast of London, we visited with David and Roy Barker. Their diversified operation consists of about 1,200 acres of cropland and a 100-head sow herd. Their crops (mostly cereal grains and field peas) struck at least slightly familiar with our row-crop growers.

David said times aren't good for farming arable land. He offered examples.

In 1996, he said, wheat was £120 per ton (a pound is roughly equal to $1.50). Today wheat is about £60 per ton. Five years ago, he added, they could extract about £100 profit per acre. Today there is none.

Rent was £120 per acre a few years ago. Today it is about £60 to £70. But there are no renters. Such de-evolution in price and profit, reasoned David, stems from a tough world market for cereal grains, the farm's mainstay. David said that a world of low-cost producers makes agriculture a low-margin game.

"They keep telling farmers to diversify," he said. "Our farm probably makes more money from renting cottages than from agriculture." David said, in the same tone you've heard it from your father or at the coffee shop, that, "What we need is for the world to become marginally short of food to push price up."

The brothers grow biscuit wheat (a high-value wheat) that goes mostly for export. Most of that market is aimed at the Continent but wheat buyers in Europe are finding cheaper sources in the old Eastern Block, so price is suffering.

"We're pretty jawed off," said David, "Because we have to produce it to pretty high standards." He said that the Eastern European countries are likely using EU-banned pesticides, while in the U.K. such practices are strictly controlled. In fact, not long before our trip, a scandal erupted when wheat contaminated with a banned substance called Nitrofen made it into German organic laying hens. The culprits for the contaminated wheat appear to be eastern German farmers.

Wheat is harvested in August with an average yield of about 3.5 tons per acre. Right now, the brothers are considering carefully a third-crop wheat (i.e., wheat grown in three successive seasons). However, they might jigger the rotation and switch to field beans or oats. The problem is black grass, a wheat-invading annual grass that has become a troublesome problem for growers there. Troublesome, because it is difficult and costly to control. For scale, figure that cost for herbicide to control the grass will be equal to the cost for fertilizer on each wheat crop.

Accompanying our group on the Barker farm was Trevor Hubard, a commercial development manager for Syngenta. Hubard said that farmers here have been trying to control black grass since the 1950s. Now it is cross resistant to several herbicides. It can cause up to 30 percent reduction in yield if established in a wheat stand.

But challenges that a cereal grower in the U.K. faces extend beyond agronomics and the vagary of price. In a nation of truly limited land resources, property value is an issue. Yet not how you might think. The Barkers reported price of land was about £3,000 five years ago. Today it is £1,800--reflecting dour times on the farm. However, nearby village property values have rocketed because people from larger towns want a piece of the country quiet and beauty. The cheapest house in the village of Westhorpe would likely bring $150,000. While a new 4-bedroom house like ones currently under construction there would cost some $500,000. In fact, lots in these villages go for about $110,000.

Roy, who adorned his vest with pro-hunting "save our shooters" button calls the urbanites starlings because they roost for a moment or two then fly back to their cities en mass.

Contributing to these urban buyout pressures is a farmland loophole in an otherwise hefty inheritance tax code. Meanwhile, village home site values are propped not only by big city interlopers, but also by suffocating local planning boards. A farmer, for example, cannot build a house just anywhere on his land, which helps explain the ag-land to village-lot price disparity. Landowners who would intend to build must first go through the local planning board. That board, at least in this locality, will likely be reluctant to curry such a favor. If it does, the builder will conform to the planners' dictates on style-exterior color or material, roof, chimney, etc.

Due to the history of the land they own, the Barkers have dealt in great detail with planning boards.

Lodge Farm, as the Barker farm is called, is part of a historic estate known as the Westhorpe Estate. Through time, the Barkers' father was able to amass holdings that entailed much of the original Westhorpe Estate.

Part of their holdings include the Westhorpe Hall, built in 1530 by Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk. Mary Tudor, sister to Henry VIII, married Brandon and lived on the estate. David said this property was at its peak in the 1500s then went bad. While some of the moat that surrounded the living estate is still there, through the years, parts of a wall and buildings have simply been tipped into the moat.

Now, the remnants of the hall and its associated infrastructure are rented as a geriatric home for some 21 residents.

But local government says the Barkers must put two proper elevators into the building (it currently has operable chair lifts). David says it'd cost about £120,000 to install the elevators. Instead, he and Roy have asked the planning commission for permission to build a new living structure on the lawn. The local planners said no. Moreover, a national preservation bureaucracy, the Heritage Department, said it was impossible to build on the site because of historic interests. David said the ironic thing is the local planners let them build an extension onto the house in 1991 and didn't say much about it.

The tight building codes put the Barkers in the position of spending the money on elevators or removing the elderly tenants. In that light, the brothers are considering the idea of selling the property and using the money to fix up a nearby historic barn. The historic barn, which currently houses hogs, was probably built from timbers borrowed when parts of the house were knocked down. David said the barn is probably about 16th century. He figures it could sell for about £250,000.

Walk this way
A stark example of the difference between U.S. and U.K. rural culture was on display at Lodge Farm: signs that posted designated footpaths. The public is welcome to wander these paths at will. One of them cut right through the Barker homestead, between the machine shed and the house. Many of these ancient routes have been footpaths for centuries, others were once carriage routes. They're held in high regard among the general population and tourists. Recall that when foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) ravished the U.K. last year, tourism was always mentioned alongside agriculture as the suffering party. In fact, tourism is a huge industry in the U.K. Agriculture employs about 2 percent of the total U.K. workforce and accounts for less than 1 percent of GDP. By contrast tourism employs over 7 percent and its contributes 4.7 percent of GDP. Actual revenue lost to the outbreak was greater for the tourism than for agriculture. In the latest issue of the Spectator, a conservative British magazine, a writer openly called for an end to farming as it exists in the U.K. in favor of boosting tourism and other industries. He reasoned they've gone to imports for coal and other necessities, why not agriculture?

To our great fortune, we've avoided outbreaks of industry-paralyzing diseases like FMD, but there are parallels in the footing of our industry that we should consider. In Missouri, for example, agriculture and tourism run a close race for total revenue generated each year. Right now both industries seem to command equal respect from the populace and politicians. Watch out if tourism makes great gains.

Scottish welcome
For his part, John Christie tries to accommodate tourists on his north Scotland farm. When we stopped at his place in the Scottish highlands, Perthshire, we gathered in a small parking lot overlooking lush meadowland, moss bogs and old-growth forests. He built the car park himself, to give tourists a place to view his farm's bounty.

Christie farms a little more than 6,000 acres of which about a fifth is timber.

On pasture and the "upper hills," the land carries about 1,250 ewes and 100 Galloway cattle.

This farm, known as Lochdochart Estate, is now a part of Scotland's first national park. In this case, national parks are merely designated, not government owned. It amounts to a zoning policy, really. But along with stricter controls on land use, Christie will receive enhanced subsidies for certain agricultural practices.

Christie said he is in favor of having national parks because of the value of visitors and their needs (he pointed out that John Muir, a Scot, invented the U.S. national park system).

While some of Christie's holdings are planted to mono-crop Sitka spruce for timber harvest, he is managing a remnant of old wood that is several hundred years old. Originally it was too difficult to reach with logging equipment. Now it is listed by the government as ancient woods--a protected designation. This ancient timberland runs in a swath along the highway that passes Christie's land. He said it gives visitors something Scottish to look at. Meanwhile, it's a buffer, or facade, for the managed timber he will clear cut and replant according to government-approved, long-term forestry plans.

Christie said the traditional farming part of his enterprise isn't a vibrant moneymaker. In fact, he figures that when it comes to net income, it is probably nil.

"Well, we have a roof over our heads," he said. "But if we want to put out capital works, we're dependent on the government for it."

That's one reason he is keen on tourism. To capitalize on tourist flow, the Christies rent the north side of their house as a bed and breakfast, which, said John, helps with total income.

"We don't quite go out with a hanky tied over our nose and a pistol," he said, "but we get some money from them."

The other path
On his farm near Inverness, Scotland, William Rose explained how he is navigating U.K. agriculture--with organically grown food.

Rose's 2,500-acre farm is the largest contiguous organic farm in the U.K. From this sandy loam soil, Rose said he nets considerable more profit per unit of production than a conventional farm but yields are considerably lower than conventional farming, about 40 percent lower.

Aside from the production from this farm, Rose has formed a consortium of organic growers called TIO (This Is Organics). TIO sells its production by contract with Tesco, a large U.K. supermarket chain.

The crop rotation for organic crops is typically a 2-year fertility building phase of clovers for nitrogen buildup. There is a set-aside subsidy for this idle land. Rose follows the buildup period with potatoes, and then root vegetables such as carrots, or he plants cereal grains. The rule of thumb, said Rose, is 2 years of soil buildup followed by 3 years of "exploit." The last crop of the rotation is underseeded with a cover crop that leads back into the set-aside/buildup years.

TIO, the organic marketing cooperative, is set up between Rose and three other U.K. growers. They are spread out geographically to limit weather related shortages. He also has growers in Spain, Austria and other countries that have a climate spread wide enough that he can supply Tesco with organic vegetables year-round.

Rose is philosophically geared toward organic farming but said he wouldn't do it if he couldn't make money at it. "We're not a charity," he said.

For that matter, he disfavors current notions that the government might set a minimum quota for total organic production in the U.K. "The market will set the level," he said. "It is ridiculous to get [the level of organic production] through government."

Rose said he would support plans for the government to promote organic produce, but that they ought to stay out of a command and control supply policy.