NFU conference 2017

buffalo_soldier · Feb 22, 2017

Started watching it last night, but fell asleep

.

Bullet points so far seem to be:

Wait for Govs white paper, then campaign against the bits they dont like.
Red Tractor, good.
Free trade, good.
Keep subsidies.

Sid · Feb 22, 2017

Guy Smith said:
It was good to bump into you Sid, always good to put a name/avatar to a face.

I hope you had a good day yesterday and are soon up bright eyed and bushy tailed to get the early bird sessions. I'm feeling rather virtuous that I only had a couple of pints last night and got to bed before midnight.

Guy

I found the mix of speakers very refreshing. Reading the reports on the NFU website sadly they only give a snap shot of any session. Yes the organic early bird panel said organic has a bright future and needs limited conversions but (the missing link on the NFU report) only when you have a secured a market.
@Guy Smith was a most excellent session Chairman.
The after dinner speaker was eye wateringly excellent!

An Gof · Feb 22, 2017

Sid said:
I found the mix of speakers very refreshing. Reading the reports on the NFU website sadly they only give a snap shot of any session. Yes the organic early bird panel said organic has a bright future and needs limited conversions but (the missing link on the NFU report) only when you have a secured a market.
@Guy Smith was a most excellent session Chairman.
The after dinner speaker was eye wateringly excellent!

It was a great Conference. Respect to you @Sid for making an early bird session, I didn't manage that!
Sorry I didn't come to find you and say hi, maybe another time.
Agree the speaker was VERY good

will remind me never to put £40 in my top pocket

gone up the hill · Feb 22, 2017

buffalo_soldier said:
Started watching it last night, but fell asleep.

Bullet points so far seem to be:

Wait for Govs white paper, then campaign against the bits they dont like.
Red Tractor, good.
Free trade, good.
Keep subsidies.

Given that the NFU co -own the Red tractor company they are bound to say that RT is good.....

Reality is that 70/80% of their members think RT/ assurance is complete Bs and working against famers intrests.

Sid · Feb 22, 2017

An Gof said:
It was a great Conference. Respect to you @Sid for making an early bird session, I didn't manage that!
Sorry I didn't come to find you and say hi, maybe another time.
Agree the speaker was VERY good will remind me never to put £40 in my top pocket

Sorry to have missed you to. Never short of old friends or new people to chat to.
There was a few that i believe enjoyed the walkabout until the very very early hours!
Talking about money must never put coins in a donation envelope either.

Sid · Feb 22, 2017

gone up the hill said:
Given that the NFU co -own the Red tractor company they are bound to say that RT is good.....

Reality is that 70/80% of their members think RT/ assurance is complete Bs and working against famers intrests.

Do you not think that we need a scheme to ensure that UK produce has a standard to prevent possible free access by sub standard access to our home market long term?

gone up the hill · Feb 22, 2017

Sid said:
Do you not think that we need a scheme to ensure that UK produce has a standard to prevent possible free access by sub standard access to our home market long term?

Sub standard produce is coming in now and under cutting UK prices ( lamb for example ) so clearly RT isn't working!

Dr Evil · Feb 22, 2017

Sid said:
Do you not think that we need a scheme to ensure that UK produce has a standard to prevent possible free access by sub standard access to our home market long term?

How can you question this? there's' 70-80% of farmers against assurance, and ignoring an accurate statistic like that is just like ignoring what happened in Sweden last Friday.

Guy Smith · Feb 22, 2017

Sid said:
Sorry to have missed you to. Never short of old friends or new people to chat to.
There was a few that i believe enjoyed the walkabout until the very very early hours!
Talking about money must never put coins in a donation envelope either.

Yup - me and Marcus chucked them back in.

Sid · Feb 22, 2017

Guy Smith said:
Yup - me and Marcus chucked them back in.

So a possible £10 in coins is less of a contribution than a paper fiver :scratchhead:

saying that it was very amusing

I hear the BBC have signed a new double act Guy and Marcus

turbo · Feb 22, 2017

gone up the hill said:
Sub standard produce is coming in now and under cutting UK prices ( lamb for example ) so clearly RT isn't working!

What sub standard lamb is coming here now and from where

Sid · Feb 22, 2017

gone up the hill said:
Sub standard produce is coming in now and under cutting UK prices ( lamb for example ) so clearly RT isn't working!

We are at this moment governed by EU legislation maybe after brext RT will become a more meaningful scheme?

Guy Smith · Feb 22, 2017

Sid said:
So a possible £10 in coins is less of a contribution than a paper fiver saying that it was very amusing
I hear the BBC have signed a new double act Guy and Marcus

I do sometimes push my luck with schoolboy/bawdy humour but compared to him I'm suitable to run Sunday School - he was funny though and looking around the people I was worried might disapprove were the ones wetting themselves.

Wooly · Feb 22, 2017

gone up the hill said:
Given that the NFU co -own the Red tractor company they are bound to say that RT is good.....

Reality is that 70/80% of their members think RT/ assurance is complete Bs and working against famers intrests.

I finally agree with something you said !

Assurance schemes were meant to help farmers, but the reality is they have cost us millions.

Farm Assured pies.....made with foreign horse.... proved the effectiveness of farm assurance !

tom · Feb 22, 2017

Wooly said:
Farm Assured pies.....made with foreign horse.... proved the effectiveness of farm assurance !

I don't think any horses were ever found in farm assured produce??

Condi · Feb 22, 2017

Wooly said:
I finally agree with something you said !

Assurance schemes were meant to help farmers, but the reality is they have cost us millions.

Farm Assured pies.....made with foreign horse.... proved the effectiveness of farm assurance !

Assurance schemes, on the whole, simply provide easy ways for farmers to prove they have complied with all relevant food safety, health and safety, animal welfare etc legislation. The assurance schemes in general do not make rules themselves.

If you think its all going to change when we finally push off from the EU I have bad news for you - it wont!!

gone up the hill · Feb 22, 2017

Condi said:
Assurance schemes, on the whole, simply provide easy ways for farmers to prove they have complied with all relevant food safety, health and safety, animal welfare etc legislation. The assurance schemes in general do not make rules themselves.

If you think its all going to change when we finally push off from the EU I have bad news for you - it wont!!

THE assurance schemes do not make rules themselves...

That is the biggest joke iv heard in many a year..........................

Condi · Feb 22, 2017

gone up the hill said:
THE assurance schemes do not make rules themselves...

That is the biggest joke iv heard in many a year..........................

Take away assurance schemes, you'll still have to comply with all the legislation and rules, but will have to prove - somehow - that you have done so. RT is designed to show you've taken practical steps.

gone up the hill · Feb 22, 2017

Condi said:
Take away assurance schemes, you'll still have to comply with all the legislation and rules, but will have to prove - somehow - that you have done so. RT is designed to show you've taken practical steps.

RT goes far over and above what is requested by legislation/ laws etc.

Steevo · Feb 22, 2017

gone up the hill said:
RT goes far over and above what is requested by legislation/ laws etc.

It's interesting you say this. NFU like to say it's the minimum requirement, but in some cases (NSTS) it's quite a bit more.

But....there's no added value to these costs.

Given the RT was set up supposedly to prevent supermarkets creating their own standards....surely they have already done this and are trying to more so. In the arable world, would it really be practical for a supermarket to do this given the number of processors, manufacturers, transport companies etc. that would be affected also? I realise they are already audited on their own for supermarkets (as I'm sure Camgrain likely were/are for Sains), but if they're then handling "unique" supermarket produce....which is common across all arable farms, and likely all farms will supply numerous outlets including the export market the chances of this start to look a little smaller.

NFU conference 2017

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0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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