-
News
Grant Rogerson: Raise a toast to our farmers who feed us through every challenge
Posted: November 26, 2025
It feels as though everyone in business is running faster to keep up, particularly in agriculture. This year the pace has been relentless at times, with change and challenges coming at us from all directions – but it’s important to remember that’s not always a negative and the opportunities may be there if we look carefully enough.
We are all having to work hard to bolster our businesses against ever-increasing operational costs, such as rises in National Insurance contributions, compounded by a woeful lack of government support. Almost every business, agricultural and otherwise, is flexing and pivoting constantly and, sadly, none of us is immune. For our business, the single best tool we have when it comes shaping change is communicating with and listening to stakeholders and the wider industry to ensure our next move is as well informed as it can be.
A key asset in gathering this information is our team who are in steady contact with a large network of people, day in and day out, at Thainstone and elsewhere. The summer show circuit, for example, gives us a crucial way of communicating with and supporting the people who support us and this extends into the autumn when our busiest time of year brings buyers and sellers from far and near to all of our auction locations, all of which have experienced a busy year to date. We have witnessed unprecedented values with throughput this year so far up more than £30 million on 2024 and whilst this remains largely driven by lower numbers of cattle and sheep, the exception is prime stock numbers (and values) which are up, thanks to the transparency of the auction ring.
It’s an important reaffirmation of the importance of our core, traditional but like any progressive organisation, technology must remain at the forefront of how we navigate change and challenges. Our long-standing commitment to achieving excellent values for sellers increasingly uses the capability of internet auctions to uplevel traditional human skills and unlock a nationwide clientele, thus ensuring our sales are no longer limited by geography. It’s a great example of not being daunted by technology but embracing it to further underline the founding principles of our business. It also highlights well the transparency of the auction system and draws an important parallel that is inspired by countless farming businesses of all sizes that are embedding technology in their everyday operations.
As the challenges sometimes seem to come thick and fast, I believe it is important that we look beyond our own horizons to other industries and seek examples from which we can learn. Perhaps the voice of agriculture is different to the oil and gas sector in some ways but many of the challenges experienced are common to both: taxes are too high on workers and their businesses, and put businesses at risk; a lack of support for increased production and apparent misplaced favouring of overseas supply instead of home production. We really can learn from each other, and the best way to do that is to communicate with each other within the sector, across sectors and throughout the corridors of power.
But despite all the tests that we face, I passionately believe that the industry has a bright future as we look ahead to 2026 and beyond – if we support and drive production. It is crucial that each and every business and individual makes a firm commitment to supporting local in every way they possibly can. At all levels, political and otherwise there must be greater communication to recognise and praise the farming industry’s hard work and efforts, and the outstanding job our farmers do. They must receive the credit they deserve for produce that is revered the world over: they are who we need to raise a glass to when the festive season comes around.
