Five non-negotiables for dairy resilience

Martin: 00:00:00

Well, Hannah, with the weather outside, we've kind of decided to give Cereals a bit of a sidestep this year. But your other half has been there, hasn't he?

Hannah: 00:00:08

He has, yeah. He made the pilgrimage down to Jeremy's farm to get some arable knowledge and get some points. But, yeah, I think it's been a bit wet.

But he's also been roped into the Hawkstone Choir, who they've been singing.

Martin: 00:00:22

Ah, he was. He was part of the OG choir, as you were saying.

Hannah: 00:00:26

So if you go and watch the Hawkstone adverts, Andy will be in there somewhere. I think he's on the back row, but he sent. He sent a video of them.

Martin: 00:00:35

Let's see. Oh, is that a bit of Bastille Pompeii? Yeah. And if you close your eyes, does it almost feel like you. So is he back in the fold?

Hannah: 00:01:01

I think he might be, yeah. He's been allowed to sing with them. We'll see what happens next. Because he couldn't make it to Britain's Got Talent, unfortunately.

Martin: 00:01:09

Yeah. Something about a wedding that was being planned. I think that's a cover story. I think there were creative differences.

Hannah: 00:01:17

The man knows his priorities. What can I say?

Martin: 00:01:20

It's like when Robbie Williams came back to take that for the live shows.

Hannah: 00:01:24

Do you know what, he'll kill me for saying this, but he'd love that comparison. He's a secret Robbie Williams fan. Hello, I'm Hannah Clarke.

Martin: 00:01:48

I'm producer Martin James Winch, Bsc. And welcome to The AG Show.

Hannah: 00:01:54

Yeah, full titles only, please.

Coming up this week, we'll be finding out what our dairy farmers could learn about resilience from a six and a half thousand cow business based over in the us.

Rodney: 00:02:04

I think resilience, sustainability, all have to be linked to profitability. There has to be some money behind everything that you do.

There's been periods of time when our goal is not to go out and make money, it's to go out and lose as little money as possible today. And that's just the nature of the business we're in. As price takers.

Martin: 00:02:22

We'll also find out about the results of our plant and variety survey and ask if we've been underestimating the amount of carbon stored in soils.

Hannah: 00:02:33

And we'll hear from one of our retail team about the work they do collaborating with retailers, processors and consumers.

Stasha: 00:02:40

It gives us the opportunity to get in front of those consumers, either online or through point of sale, you know, activation when they're actually in the store. Stickers on packs whatever that is.

To raise awareness, to talk about British farmers and to talk about British products, to talk about how they naturally contain lots of lovely things.

Martin: 00:02:59

A reminder, as if you need it, that new episodes of the Ag show drop every Wednesday at midday. Available wherever you choose to get your podcasts.

Hannah: 00:03:08

And we've got audio and visual versions available for every show. Just subscribe to make sure you don't.

Martin: 00:03:13

Miss an episode and get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.

Whether you like this show, you loathe the show, or you want to get on the show, comment on any of our social posts or email a showhdb.org.

Hannah: 00:03:28

Tight margins, extreme weather Resilience is top of the dairy agenda and later this month a couple of US farmers are bringing their real world experience to the UK. The HDB Roadshow will share proven strategies from a 6,500 cow dairy business built on performance, people and long term planning.

Martin: 00:03:47

eland to South Dakota back in: 2006

Dorothy: 00:04:10

Yes, yes. Good morning.

Martin: 00:04:13

Good morning to you. Good afternoon to us. Such as the time difference. So I'll start off with the obvious question. You're coming over to the UK later this month.

What is it that you're trying to land with our uk?

Rodney: 00:04:27

So we're trying to show them that even though we're a large scale operation with multiple sites, that we're still a dairy farm, we're still family farmers, we still believe in taking care of our cows, taking care of our people, taking care of our community.

Dorothy: 00:04:43

Yeah, the points of our going over was to explain what, what has worked for us in keeping us sustainable and things that are just basically the non negotiables of our business that we do every day to make sure that it's a success.

Martin: 00:04:57

u've grown from, was it about: 1400

Rodney: 00:05:07

Yeah, I suppose that has been a story of expansion and success and growing capital numbers, believing that we can take the next step, always looking for more efficiency and believing that sometimes more efficiency comes from more cows or more use of the equipment that we're using. By no means was there ever a plan to get to that number of cows, but it just Seemed to be the right thing to do at the right time.

Dorothy: 00:05:33

And I suppose to go back a little bit further than that, cause that's how it's worked.

the UK farming press back in: 2004

They were very much trying to recruit dairy farmers from Europe, from other parts of the usa, from Canada where we were struggling with maybe high land prices. A lot of legislation, a lot of red tape.

And they wanted us to come and look at what it was like to dairy farm in the US because what they realized was that their dairy industry was slowly dying.

As young people left the farms as families, you know, children grew and were educated, they no longer want to come back and work on a small 50 cow dairy. And so they realized that there are average dairy farmer was like 58, 59 years of age. And there was really no sign of any growth in the industry.

So that was why they were recruiting from further afield to try and see if they could attract good dairy farmers into farming in South Dakota.

Hannah: 00:06:45

And obviously through that time, you know, your business is, I guess resilience is a key part of your business and how it's grown. What does it mean to you and how do you define resilience for your enterprise?

Rodney: 00:06:57

I think resilience, sustainability, all have to be linked to profitability. There has to be some money behind everything that you do. Of course, I'm 43 years in the dairy industry.

There's been periods of time when we've been our goal is not to go out and make money, it's to go out and lose as little money as possible today. And that's just the nature of the business we're in as price takers.

But resilience has to come from consistently doing the right things the right way and doing what is best for the cows. And of course our most valuable asset on the farm are our staff, are our people.

So trying to make sure that we consistently do the simple things well.

Hannah: 00:07:41

And what sort of things are you, you know, implementing or changing on your farm to stay resilient?

Dorothy: 00:07:46

When you look at the inputs that go into running a dairy farm, there's only so much we can control.

One of the areas that is probably the most difficult to control is the labour part of it because some years there is an abundance of labour and sometimes there is not an abundance of labour. And we've had to Adapt and pivot to using new resources.

Within the usa, we can really only use two visa programs and we do use both those programs to fill in our gaps and to bring skilled people to the farm. We've used a lot of technology on the farm and we also contract in outside services.

So if we're having difficulty covering or we don't have the skills, knowledge or equipment to manage an aspect of some of the work that's need to be done, we just contract it in and hopefully we can find someone in the locality who has decided to go into that business.

Rodney: 00:08:39

Certainly. And the resilience, our stakeholders are very, very important to us.

Our crop farmers that grow our feed, custom harvest crews, the manure pumping crews, calf raising facilities. So many people are very pivotal to the success of our operation and we like to think that we're very pivotal to the success of their operation.

So we do the things that we do well and we allow other people that do their things better probably to do the things that they do well.

Hannah: 00:09:07

Yeah, and you mentioned labor being a bit of a challenge and that's something that the UK sector's certainly not immune from.

I'm interested in kind of other aspects of daring in the US and the challenges you face, are they similar to what you were sort of experiencing back home in Ireland or are there new things to tackle?

Rodney: 00:09:24

It's a lot different. You know, even the terminology was different when we came out here.

What they called things, how they view things, I think more professional insofar as what's the expectations of our lenders and our accountants are, you know, maybe a little bit less regulated, but very sensible regulations. So a lot of those things were different.

Of course, we went from a grazing operation to a confinement operation where the cows are in went to running a farm on. There was a quaking time when the last cows were milked and the parlour washed up.

You got to go home to something that runs 24, 7 and has done for 20 years, you know, and the fact that you leave the farm knowing that there's still lots of things to do and having to put the trust in other people to do those things. If we stayed on the farm till the last cow was calved, we would never, ever, ever get home.

Hannah: 00:10:22

So I suppose you've had a massive change in geography in your dairying careers. Have you had a change in mindset, how important is sort of attitude in all of this and in staying resilient?

And would you say your mindset is, you know, maybe different to that of other farmers?

Dorothy: 00:10:41

I Think whenever we first came to South Dakota, one of the things that we really found very refreshing was how welcoming. You know, agriculture is very much respected out here. The state of South Dakota is very much ag based.

It's mostly agriculture and tourism and a little hunting and fishing thrown in on the side. But it really is a big ag state. And we were coming from Northern Ireland where we kind of were like a nuisance. We were a nuisance on the roads.

Local people complained about, you know, if the cattle were out or if the tractors were hauling silage. You know, it just.

So that was very refreshing that we felt that what we did out here was much more valued than maybe how it had been back home when we were farming, you know, in our own locality. The other thing about our mindset is some things out here have changed in relation to agriculture.

Not necessarily better or worse, but just as there's been a growth of large dairies up the i29 corridor, in some counties there was a lot of resistance to a new, a new dairy going up.

Now those counties realize the wealth that the dairies bring, the increase in property taxes, the increase in funding to local schools, roads and infrastructure. And then in other counties where they have already had a lot of large dairies, they're really like, okay, enough, we're not having any more.

So it just depends on the locality and the experience when you're moving out here to where you move from and what it's like today are quite different.

Rodney: 00:12:17

We came from, as UK farmers do, there was a lot of limitations.

You know, the limitation of land, limitation of milk quota, the limitation of available space to do what you want, permits to increase your cow numbers to an area where there really was no limitation. There was always feed. You know, we're on the edge of the corn belt. We can buy as much corn silage as we can haul in. We don't need land.

There's loads and loads of areas of arable land to take them. And you're away from the farm. There's lots of opportunities for that. No milk quotas and the cheese plants continue to expand and want more milk.

So back to some of my famous quotes, like Muhammad Ali, you know, if your dreams don't scare you, you're not big enough. Right.

Hannah: 00:13:08

Love it.

Rodney: 00:13:09

So I was a visionary. I wanted a challenge. Some people have a midlife crisis and buy a Harley Davidson motorbike. I decided to milk thousands of cows.

And that was the change in mindset. What's possible? What can we do next?

Hannah: 00:13:26

Yeah, I mean, what tips would you Give to farmers looking to improve their resilience. I suppose change of mindset is one thing. That's quite a long term shift, isn't it?

And it's difficult, as you say, to sort of lift your head up sometimes and get out of the, the day job.

Dorothy: 00:13:40

So I think one of the things that really has helped us out here is the ability to learn from others.

Because out here I would find that we're quite open and when people come to visit and ask questions, you know, they're quite happy to share their experiences and things that have worked for them. I sometimes think that back home everybody is kind of in their own little kingdom and there's very little sharing of ideas or information.

And I could be wrong. I mean, it may have changed a lot, but you know, you had maybe a monthly meeting where farmers got together and listened to a speaker.

I think that happens maybe a little bit more out here.

Rodney: 00:14:17

Yeah. And I suppose my tip would be what we've always tried to do is focus our energy on the things that we can control.

What is the point in spending a lot of time and energy? We can't do anything about the weather. You know, we have weather out here that would scare you, but we can't do anything about it. Only be prepared.

We can't really do a lot about the milk price now. We have some ability now to do some risk management and that's great that we can do that.

So the money that leaves the farm, some of it is almost unavoidable. You cannot really control that, but you can control an aspect of that. So concentrate your energies on the areas that you can control.

Cow health, cow comfort, breeding, so on and so forth. So we've always focused on the things that we can control rather than the things that are beyond our control.

Hannah: 00:15:07

And you know, with long term business planning, obviously, I suppose investment is quite a large part of your thinking and planning, but that obviously comes at a price.

And with margins in the dairy industry in general being so sort of tight, how do you balance that when you're investing in your business for the long run versus, you know, overstretching yourself?

Rodney: 00:15:28

I think it comes back to one of the non negotiables is knowing your numbers. You know, unless you know your cost of production, you know your financial position, you know your payback.

As best you can remember, again, we're price takers. So we're just assuming that we're working on a five year average price or a three year average price. And we take the ups and downs in that.

We try to mitigate some of those through risk management. But knowing your numbers, knowing your limitations, insofar as it's not staff as a limitating factor, not maybe finance anymore, it's.

If we can add more cows, can we find the people to operate those cows, you know, from an investment point of view. And now it's a little bit about diversification for us.

You know, we're in some partnerships, we're in some other businesses, and then long term, we're buying land because I think that's maybe our way to build generational wealth for our family going forward. And we'll probably never see that land paid off as an investment, but it's a good idea to build the generational wealth into the system, I think.

Dorothy: 00:16:37

Yeah. It also allows us to control more of our feed inputs. We know that we're not always relying on buying crops from crop farmers.

We own some of the land ourselves, and we can choose the variety of corn seed we want to plant or choose the variety of alfalfa we want to.

When you talked earlier about sustainability, one of the things that is kind of also because we're not crop farmers, we are dairy farmers, but because we. Our. Our son David now is in the farm. He has. He has done a lot of research into cover crops for. And so he has been instrumental in.

In implementing a lot of, you know, cocktail mixes and rileage and stuff like that, which, when we first came out here, nobody was really growing that kind of forage. They may have had some alfalfa, but it was primarily grown for, you know, an existing dairy in the. In the area.

Martin: 00:17:29

Rodney, I just want to go back to a comment you made about weather that would scare you. We have it quite heavy with rain and the occasional thunderstorm over here. But tell us the sorts of extremes that you are getting in South Dakota.

Rodney: 00:17:42

So I've always said, having lived in the UK for 40 years, I assume that your natural range and temperature in Celsius is on some years is say, minus 5 to plus 30. We can see that temperature range in one single day.

In April or October, we can go from -5 degrees centigrade in the morning to 30 degrees in the afternoon at that time of year. So we'll see your whole annual temperature range in a day, and that's fine. But we'll also see the lowest we'll see is -36.

And on any winter we'll see -25 humidity. We'll see a lot of humidity in early August. Tough, tough conditions. The cows love the cooler weather.

They love the winter, we've a lot less issues dealing with cows in the winter than we do in the summer. So keeping cows cool, keeping cows stressed, getting repro to work through those periods of heat can be the challenges.

And then road conditions, you know, like our issue with snow is any snow that comes after Thanksgiving, after the end of November, that doesn't melt, that's here for the rest of the winter we'll have freezing conditions from October to April. Very rarely does it ever get above freezing at night through those periods of time.

But we build for it, we dress for it, we have equipment for it, we know it's coming. So it's a true continental climate because we're not influenced by oceans and we will see four proper seasons.

Martin: 00:19:15

Are you going anywhere near South Dakota on your honeymoon, Hannah? I'm just dread to think the size of suitcase for all your clothes that you're gonn.

Hannah: 00:19:23

I've just pulled the map up of the US and Drum goon, you're right smack in the middle. If you were to draw a line down the middle of the country, to me it looks like you're right in the middle. I'm going primarily to Wyoming. So we're.

In fact there's a. There's a state border with South Dakota, but on the opposite side of the state.

And I have been told to pack layers because we're on mountain time and the weather changes all the time. So I look forward to it. You could see extreme heat, hopefully no tornadoes.

Rodney: 00:19:53

Yeah. But you know, we've got the challenge. Like they will actually close roads down here. They'll close.

They have gates on the interstate, which is the motorways.

They actually have gates on them and they actually lock the gates so people cannot get on the road because then they realize that they don't have to go and rescue those people. So it's not unusual to have those sort of things. Remember, we have to get a load of milk out of one of our farms.

We have to get a load of milk out of there. Every six hours there has to be a load of milk got out of there.

So somebody has to stay there at night to make sure that the driveways are clear, that we can get those milk trucks pulled in and pulled out. If they can't get to us on the highway, then they're liable for not getting to haul our milk.

If they can't get in from the highway to the farm, it's our problem. So we try to assist and help any way we can.

Martin: 00:20:45

Well, Rodney, Dorothy, I think you're going to Be tested a little less. When you come over to the UK later this month, we'll offer you the best of British weather. The Drum goondairy roadshow.

There's nine events taking place across the UK between 22 June and 3 July. Places are limited, just go to the AHDB website or look at our show notes. So, Rodney, Dorothy, many thanks for joining us on the Ag Show.

Dorothy: 00:21:14

Thank you, thank you.

Martin: 00:23:23

It's the Ag Show. Can we call Ag show listeners, viewers, Aggies. We're going to go with that, Hannah.

Hannah: 00:23:30

Why not?

Martin: 00:23:31

There you go. Thank you, Aggies, for sticking with us.

Yes, it's the part of the show when we take a look at what we've seen in the news fairly recently and we've actually got a couple of AHD stories that we want to cover. So over to you, Hannah, for the first pick of the news.

Hannah: 00:23:49

at the next harvest, what the: 2026

It's showing quite a clear shift in crop balance with the area in Great Britain for barley dropping to a 16 year low, which is quite notable.

The area for barley is down 12% year on year to around 930,000 hectares, driven mainly by a reduction in spring barley and what we're seeing in the survey responses. Growers are reacting to a really challenging economic environment.

We've had lower grain prices, reduced malting premiums, rising input costs and weaker demand from the brewing, malting and distilling sector. So alcohol sales are down.

Martin: 00:24:50

Not in my house.

Hannah: 00:24:53

Someone's drinking my share.

We've also seen a fall in the share of malting barley varieties, which could tighten availability of higher spec grain depending on how yields and quality perform this season. Elsewhere in the cropping sphere, wheat area has edged up slightly and oilseed rape has rebounded quite strongly. Strongly.

And that's been helped by improved returns.

ns as we head towards harvest: 2026

Martin: 00:25:35

Well, whilst you were talking, I was obviously holding onto your every word. I'm going to go with Aggas, not Aggies. For people who listen to the Ag Show.

Hannah: 00:25:44

Yeah, I think I prefer that.

Martin: 00:25:46

Yes. So another ahdb story now, we could actually be underestimating just how much carbon our farms are storing by a significant margin.

That's because early findings from our environment baselining pilots suggest that around a third of soil carbon sits deeper than the standard 30 cm. Most measurements focus on this multi million pound project.

One of the most detailed of its kind in decades, has worked with nearly 180 farms across the UK, taking over 53,000 soil samples across more than 5,000 fields and in some cases digging down to a full metre. What we're seeing so far is that around 95% of total carbon on farms is stored in the soil, not in trees or hedges.

But there's big variation depending on soil type and location. Average stocks sit at about 128 tonnes per hectare, but some light peat soils in areas like the Fens and Somerset levels are coming in far higher.

The takeaway?

Well, that's measuring deeper and better understanding what's driving those differences could be key to shaping future carbon policy and on farm decisions. And importantly, it reinforces the role farmers are already playing in storing carbon, even if we haven't been fully capturing the numbers until now.

Well, there's more on this on the AHDB website and throughout this month, we're actually continuing with several on farm events for those who want to understand more.

We'll look to catch up with some of those behind the project on an episode of the Ag show sometime soon, but do check out our show notes or go to the AHDB website, ahdb.org.uk now, we talk a lot on this show about what's happening on farm, but we also like to shine a light on everything that happens after the farm gate. Because getting British produce from fields to shelf isn't just about growing it.

It's about understanding what retailers want, what consumers are buying and how the whole supply chain connects.

Hannah: 00:27:48

That's exactly the space AHDB's retail team operates in, linking farmers with the people selling and eating their products every day. So to lift the lid on what that looks like in practice, I'm joined now by AHDB's Stasher.

And you wouldn't tell me how to pronounce your surname, so I'm going to ask you now, how do I pronounce your surname?

Stasha: 00:28:10

Oh, yes, I get this in the doctor's surgery and everywhere, it's Stasha, Napier, Koska and do please call me Stasia. People I like, I say do please call me Stasia. But other than that, you know, if I, I'm.

I've just noticed I let them kind of struggle with the surname. So yeah, for me, Stasia, Stasha, can.

Hannah: 00:28:28

You tell us a bit about what you do and your team?

Stasha: 00:28:31

Yes, we're a fairly small team, I have to say. Fiona Clayton and I are, if you like, are the leads. We're the senior people in the team, senior retail development managers.

That doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? We are responsible to manage, if you like, the AHDB relationships with bespoke retailers.

So I deal with Morrisons, Asda Co Op and Aldi and Fiona deals with Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose Ms. And and then we have, obviously we have a very important kind of support, more junior members of the team. Helena who at the moment has been seconded and then we've got Luke who's our new starter and he literally only started on Monday.

il as well for probably since: 1886

Hannah: 00:29:38

So you cover quite a lot of ground. Stasia, you and the team, what's your sort of day to day like?

Stasha: 00:29:43

Well, if I was to say what I've been doing today, which probably would be just a simple example of that, is we are quite heavily getting ready for doing campaigns, HDB campaigns.

So we have to plan well ahead with those because we have to work to retailer deadlines for budgeting and agreeing what kind of media we're going to be funding. Then we have to do the in because we've got a brilliant as you and again I hope you've interviewed them on the ad show, the in house design team.

So they create the designs and the artwork which we then send to the retailers and then that all gets approved and it gets printed and it ends up in store.

So probably six months of our year is involved in either prepping for it, making sure it works, evaluating it afterwards and then doing that again because our campaigns are, you know, they're September and October, January and February where we do retail activation.

So there's a lot of that going on at the moment and talking to people and trying to get meetings and then the thing about retail is they have a lot of change of people. So people, you've got to be nice to everybody. Hannah, I tell you because you never know when they're going to turn up again in a different role.

Martin: 00:30:48

Just listening to you now, you probably answered that question, but you know, why do we need a retail team at ahdb?

Stasha: 00:30:55

Well, it is actually quite important and not a lot of people are really necessarily aware of this. But if I was to say in simple terms, there are three ways that farmers, anything that they produce on their grow, where that gets sold their stuff.

Right, okay. And in simple terms, it's either through supermarkets, because in the UK it's about supermarkets. They are the massive majority of the retail space.

And I'm not talking about independent ones, I'm not talking about farm shops, I'm talking about the supermarkets. Right. Then there's food service and then there's export.

So if I was to tell you that 85% of fresh red meat is sold through UK supermarkets and approximately 80% of liquid milk is sold through UK supermarkets versus 14% of food service.

So you can see by default, even though they're not in the levy payer space, I'm kind of up at the other end and we need them, we need to have a relationship with them as really, really important stakeholders. There's another point here which I'm going to talk and don't titter. It's called, it's a retail term, it's called penetration.

And what that basically means in simple terms is how many UK households buy products in a particular category over a certain period of time. And it's a very good way of judging what kind of numbers of people you've got buying into your category.

So again, if I was to say as an example or to compare, loo rolls has got something like 98% penetration. Don't ask me what the other 2% is, but those are people who aren't buying loo rolls, but they might be wip other things. Let's not go there.

But if I was to say by comparison, and I just need to make sure I'm quoting the right numbers here, dairy has got 96% penetration and fresh red meat has got 96.4%. So that is significant. So you've got a lot of sales going through retail and you've also got high penetration number of households.

Now what ultimately that also does for us at AHDB is it gives us access to literally millions of consumers, millions of people who are going in and buying from supermarkets every single week. So that gives us the opportunity through, I'll give you two examples, our HDB campaign.

So if I was to take the let's Eat balance campaign promoting British beef, lamb and dairy.

It gives us the opportunity to get in front of those consumers either online or through point of sale, you know, activation when they're actually in the store, stickers on packs, whatever that is, to raise awareness, to talk about British farmers and to talk about British products, to talk about how they naturally contain lots of lovely things. So there's the health element and talking about the sustainability in the animal health and welfare.

So that's a really good example of how we can be in that influencing and awareness and etc space. The subsidiary benefit of that is hopefully shoppers will put more products into their baskets and therefore you'll get more sales out of it.

Martin: 00:33:59

Don't go anywhere.

Stasher, we'll be back with you very shortly but I've just got to take time out to muse what that 2% were stockpiling during COVID if it wasn't toilet roll. This is the Ag Show. If you want to get in touch, do email us agshowhdb.org, i'm producer Martin with Hannah Clark this week.

Stasia, thank you for hanging on.

Hannah: 00:36:06

So Stasia, what's hot in retail right now?

Dorothy: 00:36:09

Wow.

Stasha: 00:36:10

I'm going to cover three things which I think your audience is going to be very interested to hear. I'm going to start with why Levy payers may be seeing non British red meat on shelves.

You asked me this on a regular basis so I thought, well, let's just face into it and have a little chat about that. UK consumers are by default, they're quite fussy eaters, I would say. So we only like certain cuts from a carcass.

So there is a need sometimes in order to fulfill the amount of product that they need to satisfy the consumer or their shopper demand, it is necessary to go outside of the UK to source some of the products or some of the cuts in particular that they need for very peak sales. So if I took say Easter or Christmas for example, there are certain mechanisms.

I'll give you one example is that some retailers will, they will work with their processors to agree, say deep chilling of meat, British meat, so that what they're able to do and they'll flex the specification to allow that for a certain period because they want to have as much British product for Christmas, for Easter, whenever those peak moments are and that will allow, if you like, a buildup of British product so that they can get more British product on the shelf, you know, at that particular time. So it's a case of.

Those are two examples of kind of hopefully we'll kind of explain a little bit as to why sometimes we just, we just don't see 100% British product on shelf. So my next idea, or my next thought is let's talk about retailer profits on food sold. I thought that would be quite something to touch on.

I've got some stats here again, so I'm just going to make sure that I get them right. So In a recent YouGov survey where they had 6,000 respondents, they found shoppers are completely in the dark on supermarket profits.

So 35% of those believe that retailers are making hefty profits on quite basic products, so eggs, bread, milk, et cetera. A further 36% believe that they're making moderate profits and 9% are saying they're not making any profit at all on these staple items.

Alongside that, the Institute of Economic affairs had just done a recent survey where they found that consumers were massively overestimating supermarket profits, with some of them thinking that they were making like 50% profit on products. This is against the context of the best performing supermarket Tesco, achieving in reality an operating profit of 4% overall.

That's across its wholesale.

ly released a report in March: 2026

So in: 2020

So I think the conclusion in something like non food, beers, wines and spirits, they will make bigger margins, retailer margins on those kinds, but it's higher, but definitely not in, not anymore. And this helps illustrate that no one is making big profits in the supply chain or food. Right. So that's it really. I think I've done myself to death.

Martin: 00:39:54

Well, I think our audience is paying for more.

Hannah, you know, on a day to day basis, whenever you're talking to Stasha, what is the one thing that you can guarantee she will bring to a conversation?

Hannah: 00:40:07

I mean I get random phone calls, messages or whatever from Stasha, but they often contain awful jokes.

Stasha: 00:40:16

Yes, I am now I'm known for a joke.

You see, I think it's important that not just the drudgery of a day or you're having a bad time or just really concentrating or you've got a big project on. I think sometimes it's nice to hear from somebody with just something that's actually not work connected at all.

That might make you smile or might make Hannah, in your case, mostly growing.

Martin: 00:40:38

I think the most our audience could probably handle is 2today.

Stasha: 00:40:42

Right, so my first one, which I think is brilliant. What did Spartacus say when the lion ate his wife? Nothing. He was gladiator.

Hannah: 00:40:55

That's a seven, I reckon.

Dorothy: 00:40:57

Oh, really?

Martin: 00:40:58

Yeah.

Stasha: 00:40:59

I like this one.

Martin: 00:40:59

That's a high start.

Stasha: 00:41:01

I like this one. You might have heard this one before. Due to the massive increase in deliveries, FedEx and UPS have decided to join forces.

And now they're called Fed Up.

Hannah: 00:41:13

Oh, slipping a bit now, I think that's a five.

Martin: 00:41:17

Right, Stasher, as I say, we've only got time for a couple on this week's episode, but I think, as I know you're the sporting type, we'll get you to record some more and we'll play them in to brighten the day of our listeners and viewers in future episodes of the Ag Show. But for now, Stasia, many thanks for joining the Ag Show. So that's it for another Ag Show. Hannah, this is your last for a little while, is it not?

Hannah: 00:41:49

It is. You won't have me for about three weeks, I'm afraid.

Martin: 00:41:53

Going tornado dodging in parts of the.

Hannah: 00:41:55

Sounds of the us Sounds like it sounds. So I've got to take a warm coat, a wet coat, a raincoat, flip flops, sun cream. Just like a day at home, isn't it?

Martin: 00:42:09

Yeah. If Andy needs a jazzy shirt, I can lend him the.

The offending item that I was wearing last week, which is always good for, you know, if you get the slightly hotter weather. But all in all, great episode.

Interesting to hear from Dorothy and Rodney about their work in the us, how they've grown and how they're coming over here later this month to talk about resilience in dairy farming. And also your friend, our friend Stasha from the retail team with all her dad jokes as well.

Well, have a great time abroad and we'll see you when you get back.

Hannah: 00:42:48

See you on the other side.

Martin: 00:42:49

By.

Hannah: 00:42:53

Sam.