WITH end prices for beef, sheep, dairy, pig, and arable farmers remaining below the cost of production for more than a year, there is little optimism in any sector, but are we coming to the end of what appears an never ending tunnel, with a glimmer of light just emerging in the distance?

Sadly, some will not make it through to the end, but new head of farms at SRUC, Dr Martin Kennerley, remains confident for the long-term future of the industry for those able to survive the current, horrendous downturn.

"Farming always goes in cycles and we are, at present, at the bottom of a very deep trough. Long-term, farming will be viable as people always need food and world population is rising," he told The Scottish Farmer.

"The slowdown in the growth of the economy in China and the Russian sanctions have affected all commodity prices and will continue to do so for much of this year and next year.

"Commodity prices are not going to shoot up. Instead, farmers will have to become more efficient and cut input costs further to lower costs of production. They have to get back to basics and look at their individual farm system and ask themselves what works on their farm.

"They also have to concentrate on producing the type of food consumers and supermarkets want because an increasing number are looking to buy meat or dairy products produced from animals that have spent much of their life on green grassy fields or on straw-bedded courts."

Looking at the future of the dairy sector, Dr Kennerley added: "Increasing production is not always viable if it costs more to produce the extra milk than what this additional production sells for.

"You have to work out all costs of production and in dairying that might mean moving away from three times daily milking to twice daily, or look seriously at robotics.

"Energy production on farms also have to be looked at especially on dairy and pig units. The installation of an anaerobic digester would not only reduce methane levels but also offset energy costs.

"Solar panels could also be considered but these renewable sources of energy and income are very much dependant on feed-in tariffs and the price the business is paying for gas/electricity," he added.

The SRUC's six farms are not alone in the adversity either, according to Dr Kennerley. He is impressed by the various enterprises - the teaching campuses at Oatridge, in West Lothian and Barony in Dumfries-shire; along with the sites in Aberdeen, Kirkton and Auchtertyre Farms at Crianlarich, Stirlingshire, the Crichton Royal Farm in Dumfries, and the beef, sheep and pig research units based in at the Bush Estate, in Midlothian - but said that changes will have to be made.

"The SRUC farms have suffered like everyone else, but they are in a lot better shape and are more profitable than I expected," said Dr Kennerley, who after just four weeks in his new position, is still finding his feet with the separate enterprises.

"None of the farms have been making a profit but then they are research/teaching farms and are always more expensive to run than normal/conventional farms.

"If we want people to farm in the future, we have got to provide high quality facilities with cutting edge farming techniques, so in that respect we have and will continue to support our research and teaching units and the staff involved with them.

"There is a lot of work being done on breeding and feeding of animals and crops as well as ecological and environmental work. We also have to make farming easier for those involved with more automated feeding techniques, robots and EID, thereby producing a better quality and more fulfilling role for farm workers.

"And, we still have work going on at our Hill Farming Research Unit into 'blackloss' - the unexplained loss of lambs in extensive hill sheep systems."

One of the biggest areas where costs can be saved is on machinery, and Dr Kennerley has every intention on sharing equipment as much as possible between the six sites.

He is also supportive of selling off redundant, off lying areas of ground on college sites, to make way for increased technology on the core sites.

"SRUC are better placed than any similar units in the UK as research, consulting and actual farming are all tied up together making them great platforms for our farmers of the future.

"We need to understand our farms more and then work out a strategy to cut costs by getting rid of duplication machinery. Work needs to be done as efficiently as possible.

"We're not overstaffed, so we will be keeping all farm staff but it's not good having machines sitting in a shed for 10/11 months of the year not working. Transport is also a huge issue, so we should be growing more of our own feed on the farms which we are able to and transporting it between farms."

With a wealth of knowledge of all sectors of the industry and particularly pigs, both in the UK and in South Africa, Dr Kennerley helped farmers in Kenya get back on their feet when their currency collapsed and inflation doubled overnight.

A dairy farmer's son from Staffordshire, he achieved a PhD in pig production and managed a 2000-sow unit in Yorkshire, with a turnover of £3.5m.

Some years later, he worked in Kenya for Lonrho plc and was given the task of improving their pig enterprise of 2500 sows - which saw days to bacon of almost a year per pig - and within six months, the turn around to bacon was down to below 180 days.

Dr Kennerley has also managed dairy and beef units for Lonrho and for two years was a lecturer at the Royal Agricultural College, in Cirencester, before managing the Institute for Grassland and Environmental Research farms in Wales for 12 years.

Needless to say, he feels more than capable of managing the SRUC's six farms across Scotland,

"This role is challenging due to its size and complexity, but it's also exciting. I was drawn to SRUC because of the relevance of its research which focuses on pushing farming forward using cutting edge science and technology while considering other issues such as biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions.

"Also it's unique interaction between skill based training, academic teaching and the cutting edge research," he concluded.=