Never in 25 years as a Chartered Surveyor and Agricultural Valuer have I seen the industry in such as state.
We have such a diverse range of milk price, we had an incredibly wet April, beef and sheep prices are far from buoyant and cereal prices are low.
Signs are that the fuel price is increasing and if the economy gets a wobble on after the Brexit vote, we may be faced with a rise in interest rates.
There are signs that the land market is now more cautious and the cow trade has dropped.
While not wishing to sound discouraging, my concern is that the banks will start to apply the pressure to some businesses in the near future and other businesses will find strapped cash flows due to, among other things, contractors’ silage bills, feed bills and fertiliser bills to pay.
This could lead to the bubble bursting and more of an exodus in the industry.
The positive in comparison to this is that the spring flush of milk has not happened and there may start to be signs of supply shortening which can only help the turn round in milk price in the long term.