Blog: Reflections on the value from my dairy levy

Staffordshire dairy farmer and AHDB dairy sector council member Liz Haines, shares her views on the value she gets for her levy and why it’s important for levy payers to help Shape the Future of AHDB.

This Spring will mark my third year as an AHDB Dairy Sector Council Member. Much has changed since I started, and Coronavirus has also shaped the experience, with a dramatically reduced programme of on farm events due to lockdowns and many board meetings conducted via Microsoft Teams.

AHDB has a new Chairman, Nicholas Saphir, and a new Chief Executive, Tim Rycroft, who are working extremely hard to ensure the organisation is effective, accountable, and provides excellent value for money.

Last year my business paid approximately £1,500 in levy. As a figure, it’s not insubstantial, especially at a time when margins are squeezed by rapidly escalating costs.

But when I reflected on what I got in return, I realised there is literally nowhere else I could get the same value or range of services. My husband participated in a professional management training course which could easily have cost £1,500 alone.

We attended on farm events when Covid restrictions permitted, hosted an AHDB discussion group on our farm (who provided invaluable feedback on our new business setup), and heard numerous webinars and podcasts, which are also invaluable training tools for our team.

We used the Recommended Grass and Clover List when buying grass seed and referred to genetic evaluations when purchasing our semen. I used online tools to analyse our mastitis incidence, the Slurry Wizard to calculate slurry storage requirements and the KPI Express tool for benchmarking. Those are just the things that had a direct impact on my business.

More broadly, there is the work AHDB does to protect and promote the reputation of dairy both at home and abroad. They are at the forefront of challenging misinformation about dairy, successfully forcing companies like Oatly and Quorn, media outlets like the BBC, The Independent and Blue Peter, and organisations like the Vegan Society and Surge Activism, to correct misleading claims.

AHDB’s £3.5 million We Eat Balanced campaign returned to screens in January. The first incarnation of the campaign was seen over 5.5 million times across social media, and resulted in 9% more people thinking beef, lamb and pork was produced sustainably and 13% more people thinking the dairy industry has high production values.

The campaign builds on the momentum from previous successful campaigns like Milk Your Moments which promoted dairy during the abrupt closure of foodservice and hospitality markets during the first lockdown.

Not everything AHDB does is perfect, but as we enter a year in which production costs are spiralling, the loss of BPS is nearing and we face tougher legislation to meet environmental and climate change targets, we need a trusted source of independent information and resources more than ever.

This Spring, farmers will get their chance to have a say on the levy through the Shape the Future Vote. I’d like to encourage all eligible farmers to register to vote so that their voice is heard and to ensure AHDB reflects their business needs.

Shape the Future is your opportunity to tell AHDB what is important to your business, and what changes you would like to see. AHDB is our levy body, and we must make sure it delivers for our industry.