British dairy farmers say ‘harder than ever to recruit’

The research from Arla Foods unveiled that as many as 86% of British dairy farmers who have vacancies have had very few or no applicants with the right skills apply for roles.

It also found that its farmers have, on average, increased wages by more than 27% since 2019.  

Since then, we’ve had a pandemic and seen the end of free movement of people from the EU – pressures which, coupled with the skills shortage – are adding increasing pressure on the food and drink sector.

In response to these pressures, one in 12 farmers (8.5%) say they’re having to cut production; meanwhile16% say that without changes, they will consider leaving farming altogether.

“These trends have exacerbated the very longstanding shortages of people with engineering skills in particular,”​ commented Fran Ball, VP of production for Arla Foods.

“As jobs in food and farming have required the use of more and more technology in recent years, these issues have grown.”​

But it’s not just dairy suffering, labour shortages have also been impacting the wider supply chain, with the overall food and drink sector struggling to attract not only qualified people with the right skills for the modern environment, but more women and younger people too.

Whilst many businesses will no doubt have strategies in place to help attract new and skilled talent, the dairy cooperative has emphasised more support is needed.

As such, Arla Foods has devised a series of proposals for the UK Government, which it has set out in a letter to the Environment Secretary and Prime Minister. This includes asks such as the simplification of certain paperwork, helping to promote the food and farming sector, support with skills development and up-to-date portable qualifications, and help in accelerating technology to strengthen automation on farm.

Providing further detail on Arla Food’s asks, Ball told Food Manufacture: “We are looking for ways to ease the process of working with government at all levels. For example, farmers applying for support under schemes like the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) have to invest significant time in form-filling; we are exploring with Defra whether existing standards such as our own Arlagarden scheme can be recognised by Government to avoid duplication of effort and cut the time taken to apply.”​

She continued: “We welcome the announcements made by the new Government, including Skills England, reform of the Apprenticeship Levy, merging JobCentre Plus and the National Careers Service. All of these will help. But the scale of the challenge is growing fast, and not just in food and farming but across a wide range of sectors including construction, logistics and energy. That’s why we are asking Government to go much further and develop a joined-up, cross-Departmental, response.”​

As a sector, Ball said the industry is already doing as much as it can to entice new recruits – opening sites to schools, informing career advisors and the like. But now, it needs industry and government to come together.

She emphasised that the proposals don’t need money directly invested into the industry to have a big impact either, and fits in line with several of the Government's priorities around health.

“We’re not looking for direct Government investment. We are asking for help in coordinating a campaign to market our sector to potential recruits and the people around them, and looking for new policies on education and skills. We believe Government has a major role to play without spending money directly in our industry,” ​she said.

“The Government has made it clear that economic growth is its core priority, since that is the only way to deliver increased resourcing for public services. A key element of that is to increase employment levels and drive up productivity. The food and farming sector presents a fantastic opportunity to boost growth whilst also keeping the nation fed and healthy. We simply can’t afford to wait to tackle the current shortages.”​

While Arla is also asking for support to help accelerate tech on farm, Ball noted that automation is not a silver bullet to the labour crisis.  

“We still need to attract more people, including from non-farming backgrounds and from a more diverse pool of talent into food and farming,” ​she explained, adding that as technologies become more advanced, the added pressure for skilled engineers will only increase.  

Already, Stonehaven engineering research estimates that by 2030 the UK will be short of 1m engineers.

“If we want our farmers to continue to put food on the table in millions of homes around the country they need help,”​ added Bas Padberg, managing director at Arla Foods.

“We’re calling on the Government and industry to work together to bring people into our exciting sector, and then to give them the skills and equipment they need to be fully productive. What Ministers have said already about driving growth and supporting training is positive; we now need to go further and faster.”​

The Arla survey garnered responses from 472 UK dairy farmers.

Meanwhile, in other news, Food Manufacture rounds up the latest F&B rebrands to hit shelves.​​