The political developments at Stormont this week with the resignation of the Deputy First Minister likely to force new Assembly elections, will knock back Northern Ireland’s negotiations over Brexit, says Barclay Bell, President of the Ulster Farmers’ Union.
Speaking in Enniskillen on Monday evening at the UFU’s first in a series of new roadshows around Northern Ireland, Mr. Bell said this worrying development was happening at a time when the agri-food sector needed a steady ship(Assembly).
“This is the biggest change in farming in 40 years with Brexit. We were hoping that our Minister would be involved in negotiations but now we don’t know where we are going. The rest of the UK is carrying on to formative policy and we are stuck with this. It will knock us back badly.”
The UFU may now need to act as a strong lobbying group at Westminster in the absence of an Agriculture Minister if Northern Ireland go to the polls for a March election.
This was one of a number of points raised at the new format roadshow which is being rolled out across all counties over the next few weeks.
One of the interesting features of the evening was a conversation on the stage with two of Fermanagh’s leading young farmers, Andrew Little, who has been Chairman of the County YFC and Nigel Graham, a 21-year-old dairy farmer from Kinawley.
In a question and answer session with agricultural journalist, David Wright, Andrew spoke about his farm enterprises in which he works with his father near Tempo. 
They manage a herd of 70 cows along with beef cattle but Andrew said they would like to expand into another enterprise to create a mixed farm so they would not be wholly dependent on one or two enterprises.
With calving from September to April to suit their situation, Andrew said he always had an interest in farming and found it very rewarding.
“You get out of it what you put in,” he said.
“I see a future in agriculture. Farmers need to waken up and take more control. We need to get our views across to the right people quickly.
Asked where he saw himself in 10 years time, Andrew replied he would like to push cow numbers up to around 80 cows but felt they would need some other enterprise in the yard such as pigs or poultry.
“Land availability is a big issue if you can’t get a term contract. A good tenant would be good for any landowner as they would plough and reseed it. But direct support for landowners is one of the biggest issues.
“But I’ll not hang myself over expanding,” he said, meaning he would not borrow beyond his means just to grow bigger.”
Nigel Graham also manages a 70-cow Holstein Friesian dairy herd with his father, George, split between a 40 per cent autumn calving herd and 60 per cent spring calving herd.
Nigel who has gone through agricultural education, says he too can see a future for farming but there were too many inefficiencies.
He said Brexit might be a good thing for Northern Ireland.
In 10 years time, he would hope to have increased the dairy herd slightly but felt that a one-man operation with some casual labour was better than requiring full-time labour for a bigger herd size.
“There are some outrageously high costs of production and we need to get the efficiency right,” he said.
One limiting factor for him to expand was the lack of suitable land nearby at the right price.
He also highlighted the weather as a difficulty for Fermanagh farmers. 
“We have the best county to grow grass but it can’t be utilised compared with elsewhere,” he said, suggesting some payment structure aimed at farmers in heavier land areas.
The new roadshow also had a section examining succession planning, inheritance tax, capital gains tax and agricultural property relief.         Sean McCann from NFU Mutual outlined how farmers could make best decisions to avoid the pitfalls of taxes.
The full Presidential team along with chief executive, Wesley Aston, attended the roadshow meeting.