The John Nix Pocketbook provides British farmers with a clear business insight into the challenges they face and opportunities they can avail of.
It has been doing so for over half a century and the 2023 edition of the publication is now available. This version provides a wide range of up-to-date farm management and budgeting figures.
According to Graham Redman, author of the book, dairy and tillage farms may do very well from the higher milk and grain prices, whilst the grazing and intensive livestock sectors, on balance, stand to lose out.
“This is an opportunity for some and a big concern for other farmers,” he said.
“The range in budgeted margins is vast, depending on farm structure, enterprises and performance.
“Planning for the year and thinking about capturing the opportunities whilst mitigating the risks is vital in these particularly uncertain times.”
Budget
Redman recommends for farmers to carefully put budgets together, working out what prices the farm system can operate at.
Former National Farmers’ Union (NFU) Mutual Insurance Society chairman, Lord Don Curry, wrote the foreword to the new edition of the pocketbook. In it, he points out that the amount of change currently taking place within agriculture is without parallel.
Specifically, he cites the fundamental transformation in agricultural policy, especially in England, towards the provision of public goods, which is met with trepidation in some sectors, especially hill farming.
Lord Curry also notes the slow-burn changes from the emerging, post-Brexit trade deals that may undercut domestic standards.
The next big factor he highlights is the war in Ukraine, with its dramatic impact on energy prices and blockade of ports, affecting grain and fertiliser markets unrecognisably.
Input costs
The challenge of fast-rising input costs is a topic that is discussed at length in the 2023 pocketbook.
On a positive note, Lord Curry points out that the recent UK Government food strategy places increasing importance on UK-produced food. A rise in production in some sectors might be hampered by labour shortages.
The new book provides farm management guidance and budgeting figures for 2023. Also included is a series of whole-farm costings, showing the profit and loss of key farm systems. It includes both figures from the average and the better performers.
They demonstrate the wide variations in budgeted profitability in 2023 between sectors and farmer performances.
John Nix Pocketbook
The pocketbook is updated for 2023 with over 100 enterprises for the year ahead: Overheads, capital and other farming costs are all detailed.
The new publication also gives a full guide to the new agricultural policies throughout all the UK, as well as interpreting trade patterns and the current agricultural economics.
It has new sections on carbon markets, regenerative farming, agroforestry, undersown barley, diversifications and for the first time, farm health and safety statistics.
More details have been included, such as for whole crop forage, straw in gross margins and typical stocking rate capacities for forage crops.