From Dearth to Plenty

So closely integrated are the various elements in the management of a farm that deviation from the established pattern of husbandry has always been exceptional and not undertaken lightly. Every so often periods of innovative risk-taking have emerged to break through the barriers of conservatism, as in the agricultural revolution of 1700–1860 (see Chapter 1). Another such period we have identified in the modern agricultural revolution (1936-86). In the 1920s, a time of severe agricultural depression, any innovation was driven by desperation. An example was the Hosier Bail, a light movable shed for machine-milking cattle out of doors, saving on the cost of housing, cleaning floors and buildings.

As already indicated, the Second World War and the passing of the Agriculture Act of 1947 (and its later modifications) improved the agricultural situation in the U.K. In the war years maximisation of production had been required to feed the population. The Act of 1947 put in place managed and supported markets designed to encourage sustained production, buffered against the fluctuations of world surpluses. It provided a reasonable income for farmers, tolerable wages for their staff and sufficient profit for the ancillary industries dependent on agriculture. These fiscal measures encouraged innovation because incomes from year to year were predictable and reasonably secure. At the same time incomes were tightly controlled overall and closely associated with traditional cropping and animal production patterns. Thus any innovation that allowed intensification, or which provided a non-traditional product, offered the possibility of increased income.