Do Scottish suckler farmers need support??? Here are the figures

Kiwi Pete · Jan 21, 2018

Bury the Trash said:
looks better than mine

Most recent handling here has been for fluke which can cost big time.

do you dip ? and if so is it big cost/hassle to dispose of etc ?

No dip.
Fortunately this year it's been too hot and dry for flies and dirty bums.

"Scorchio"

Bury the Trash · Jan 21, 2018

No scab then.

Henarar · Jan 21, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
No dip.
Fortunately this year it's been too hot and dry for flies and dirty bums.View attachment 624172

"Scorchio"

All together now,
the other mans grass is not always greener but the sun shines brighter on the other side, [of the world that is]

Henarar · Jan 21, 2018

that looks f**king dry
when its burnt like that here god help the rest of them

Kiwi Pete · Jan 21, 2018

No reasonably low maintenance around here.
I've lost two lambs since we've been here and both drowned.
I had to wade in to save the third, I'm convinced they thought it was a game.
Sheep

Had a fly-blow but that was quickly fixed with shearing it and cooking oil, should probably get a tin of maggo actually, if it ever rains these critters will be green from the lugs back

More crutching.. .

Farmer Roy · Jan 21, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
No dip.
Fortunately this year it's been too hot and dry for flies and dirty bums.View attachment 624172

"Scorchio"

err, doesn't look that dry to me . . .

Kiwi Pete · Jan 21, 2018

Henarar said:
that looks fudgeing dry
when its burnt like that here god help the rest of them

Apparently the driest since records began.
We are looking at around a 150mm soil moisture deficit here.

We are right on the edge of the wee purple? bit on the south coast there.
Been very hit-and-miss and we've just missed...

It'll come though, it always does, it's a day closer than it was this time yesterday.

Henarar · Jan 21, 2018

Farmer Roy said:
err, doesn't look that dry to me . . .

well it does to me the only time that came close here was 76
hence perhaps why some comparisons between our farming are rather silly
I moan about this farm being wet but its not all bad it will grow grass, its just that we can't always get to it to use it,
but when other folk are on here moaning that its all burnt up we are wondering what all the fuss is about

I still think mums idea of the hover cow is the best one, just need to perfect it

Kiwi Pete · Jan 21, 2018

Farmer Roy said:
err, doesn't look that dry to me . . .

I will get you a happy snap of Jimmy Nitrogen's dairy unit, cows dried off, winter bales all fed out... looking for 1100 bales of silage if you know of some?

I still have heaps of feed, 350 odd ton of silage carried over, but I am a bit different.. ..

I actually look forward to a bit of a dud year as it gives me more opportunity, thinking about taking on 50 of his carryovers and jamming them in my barn for a tenner pw.

Farmer Roy · Jan 21, 2018

err, I'll take your dry & raise it . . .

we are about 50 - 60 mm deficit per week for a few months now

Bossfarmer · Jan 21, 2018

marco said:
Are we fudge. Whats the average farm size in scotland? And the average in ireland?

whats the price of land over there?

Bossfarmer · Jan 21, 2018

stewart said:
No not suggesting that at all, read the post before jumping to assumptions. I am suggesting a Co-operative model.
If the farmer you mention was selling direct to the public and there wasn't a margin in it then that would make a mockery of the suggestion that all the profit in in retail.
I would also suggest that instead of looking for problems try and find solutions a good start would be to read the interview with Mike Murphy? on the link posted earlier, it may have been on a different thread @lazy farmer would find it.
A more positive attitude would help instead of the stereotypical dour Scotsman.

a positive attitude is great but you have to be realistic ive been over and over systems and margins the sub will be vital for scotch beef production going forward this is fact

Bossfarmer · Jan 21, 2018

hillman said:
I bring you back to finished price difference, scale and access to cheaper finishing by products .....
Oh and you have competition within the factory sector....

If you pefer to swap ...

You need to surround yourself with a few radiators to see what you can do , are you in a discussion group ?? If you are and they are on the same hymn sheet change quick ..

the fact is irish beef IS competing with scottish its our main competition and you DO have support as do we at the moment, take ours away and we will be unable to compete

Farmer Roy · Jan 21, 2018

Where is all this Irish beef going to come from ?
They obviously have other markets for their beef now, how are they going to suddenly increase production to " flood " the U.K. ?

Henarar · Jan 21, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
will get you a happy snap of Jimmy Nitrogen's dairy unit, cows dried off, winter bales all fed out... looking for 1100 bales of silage if you know of some?

plenty for less than 10 quid a bale in the sale yesterday, haulage may kill it though

Kiwi Pete · Jan 21, 2018

Henarar said:
well it does to me the only time that came close here was 76
hence perhaps why some comparisons between our farming are rather silly
I moan about this farm being wet but its not all bad it will grow grass, its just that we can't always get to it to use it,
but when other folk are on here moaning that its all burnt up we are wondering what all the fuss is about

I still think mums idea of the hover cow is the best one, just need to perfect it

That is a fantastic idea.
Let me know how you get on, because a hover-Dorper would be frigging ideal for us here.

At the end of the day - we arent always farming what we think we're farming!

I farm water, sunshine, and carbon mainly...
What we do with the carbohydrates those things produce, is minor compared to how much of the free stuff we can catch.

Hence all the crap I speak about carbon, it's bigger than rainwater

Henarar · Jan 21, 2018

Kiwi Pete said:
That is a fantastic idea.
Let me know how you get on, because a hover-Dorper would be frigging ideal for us here.

it all went ok but we hadn't accounted for the sloping land and they all ended up in the hedge down the bottom

Henarar · Jan 21, 2018

working on the helium cow now just got to get the balloon size right so when they sh!t they don't float away
been spending half the time getting them back from all over Somerset, thank goodness none made it to Devon they eat their young down there so goodness knows what they would do to a Somerset cow

Bury the Trash · Jan 21, 2018

Henarar said:
working on the helium cow now just got to get the balloon size right so when they sh!t they don't float away
been spending half the time getting them back from all over Somerset, thank goodness none made it to Devon they eat their young down there so goodness knows what they would do to a Somerset cow

then put the bag over her head .............moo will sound like a lamb.......

Kiwi Pete · Jan 21, 2018

Farmer Roy said:
Where is all this Irish beef going to come from ?
They obviously have other markets for their beef now, how are they going to suddenly increase production to " flood " the U.K. ?

The poor old UK is looking flooded just now.

On a more on-topic note, now I've been to the toilet after @Henarar's hedge full of hover-cows

the UK once joined a thing called the EEC and stopped doing all this trade with a little part of the world called "Australasia" and the farmers there thought they were well f.u.c.k.e.d.
So the NZ gov't gave their farmers SMP's and development grants and fert subsidies and nearly turned the farmers crazy with the money they could suddenly make off sheep and cattle
Then after Kirky and Piggy Muldoon along came Lange and Roger Douglas and they said they couldn't afford it anymore and the farmers then were doubly buggered as they still didn't have the British to sell to, and realised that the stuff they were churning out was only really worth half what they were used to getting paid for it.
Some stopped farming then.

Some stayed on, endured a cyclone or two, had a couple of good years, about 8 years that it really forgot to rain...a few earthquakes.. and doing better than they ever would have been if things had all stayed the same forever.

The moral is: stuff outside your control goes on with or without you (aaah haaaah)
But that is the deal with farming, you either mope about the weather and the global prices or you get up and see what you can do to put yourself in the mix and create opportunities that others can't see.
Work on that tiny circle of things you can control: your ideas, your values, methods, processes - there is always a way.

There never hasn't been a way, but many will never see it until far too late in life, by which point they don't have the drive or energy to facilitate the necessary changes

Change is life

Do Scottish suckler farmers need support??? Here are the figures

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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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