Comment: Whatever Their Game, Uncertainty Is All Farmers Can Count On in 2009

Summary

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AS I enjoyed the festive season in rural Yorkshire with my younger daughter and family I had time to reflect on what has happened in farming over 2008.

What a year it has been. Volatility best describes the farming scene, with prices all over the place. At this time last December a lucky handful of arable farmers were able to sell quality wheat at almost of GBP 200 per tonne. Little did the industry imagine that 12 months later the value of that same tonne would have fallen to GBP 90.

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Extract

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Comment: Whatever Their Game, Uncertainty Is All Farmers Can Count On in 2009

Then fertiliser and fuel prices shot through the roof, adding very considerably to costs to the extent of rendering the growing of cereals on more moderate acres of doubtful viability. Oil prices have, of course, come back a long way from the near ...

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