We caught up with David Barton, chair of the NFU Livestock Board at the Devon County Show. Here’s what he had to say:

So, how has your day been so far?

It has been super so far, very busy meeting with the Farming Minister Mark Spencer, it has been very good.

What do you see for the future of farming? Is sustainability key?

I think livestock have a really important role to play in the way in which we manage our farmland in the future and certainly the direction of travel with environmental support, supports livestock grazing in the south west.

I think the future is actually very good. I am very lucky that I work in a sector where the beef and lamb we produce is the best in the world, so we start off with a product that is fantastic that people want to buy then that is a good starting place. And you know, supply is quite tight and demand is quite good, the prices are reasonable at the moment so as farmers, we are reasonably content.

But I do have to say that comes of the back of a very difficult 12 months because of the weather. We are looking forward to a nice sunny day today and it is really uplifting to be here.

The Dvon YFC agri-debate spoke about educating people about where their food comes from. Do you think this is important?

Yeah its really important. The NFU has a really good educational team – I actually go into schools myself and that sort of thing. As farmers it is our job to help educate people as to where some of their food comes from and why this is important.

At the show today, there is a chilling unit with some lamb carcasses and that’s the product we are producing and what people enjoy, so yeah I think the education is really important.