Farming families need to make the public aware of the knowledge they possess - Sarah Todd

After the kick in the teeth they have been given from this Government nobody could have blamed them if they had turned their back on helping but - with often no police, local authority or utilities workers to be seen - out they went. A rural taskforce; many with generations of knowledge about local flooding and road diversion possibilities.

Those that aren’t left at home looking after livestock - at the time of writing some farms were still without electricity or water - may well be back out today protesting against our (if her resume is to be believed) eminently qualified Chancellor of the Exchequer’s so-called Family Farm Tax.

Supporters of campaign groups Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers will not only be revisiting the streets of London, but also a wider geographical spread with rallies due to take place in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh.

For readers who are early risers, a trip today to York Livestock Centre is highly recommended. Farmers are paying £5 apiece, with all proceeds going to York Food Bank, to take part in a charity showcase driving their tractors into York.

They will be congregating from 9am in the market car park before convoying into York. For any readers who want to see what it’s all about there is the added bonus that the market café will be open and a heartier breakfast would be hard to find.

These local gatherings, like last month’s in Thirsk, are a great way for farmers - and related businesses - to explain what the knock-on implications of the inheritance tax changes will be. Not some pen pusher in a suit’s version, but the proper nuts and bolts of it all.

It makes this correspondent’s heart sing to think of tractors in York city centre. As a city it long ago turned its back on its farming roots.

Both grandfathers used to bring livestock into the market at Walmgate Bar before it was moved out of the city centre in 1976. Our now grown-up children are still fascinated to hear tales of the Irish bullocks arriving by train and being driven on foot along the roads from the station.

Would anybody attending a concert at the old site’s Barbican centre have a clue about all this agricultural history?

Maybe it doesn’t matter but maybe our country should be ashamed of how its rustic roots have been swept under the carpet.

It’s time farming stepped out of the shadows; for far too long it’s been shoved into the background like a bad smell. Food arriving on supermarket shelves with no acknowledgement as to what goes into getting it there.

If we are not careful there will be no traditional small and medium sized family farms (and all their generations of animal welfare experience) left; just supersized factory-scale holdings or the move-to-the-country smallholders who online or niche farm shops market a few rare breed sausages. Nothing between.

As an aside, farming forums online are absolutely jam-packed with hobby farmers asking what to feed their sheep and pigs along with worryingly basic husbandry questions.

Farming families need to make the public aware of the value of all the animal welfare and environmental knowledge that has been passed down through the generations.

Knowing how to look after livestock or soil health requires much more than a degree and a fleece gilet. The proof is already in the pudding. Leave it to the so-called experts and before we know it all animals will be being force-fed goodness knows what rubbish in our world’s obsession with reducing methane emissions. Just saying, but how about cow critics taking less plane flights?

Finally, it's been great to see the farming community acknowledging the need to support other businesses as part of its campaigning. It can be understandably hard for the general public to grasp the workings of a family farm; far better to also acknowledge the machinery dealer that sells them the tractor, the mill that mixes the animal feed, the workers that come in to milk and the contractor that puts up the fencing or cuts the corn. They all have bills to pay and families to feed.

Everybody - whether town, city or country - should start asking a neighbour or friend to recommend tradespeople, butchers, bakers and places to eat and drink. Time to face the anti-business storm together.