- Location
- Darlington
To be fair one of my local ones created their own marketing arm. It is now a myriad of companies but seems to do ok. Albeit by breaking quite a few of the rules on here, i believe.
Another farmer co-op goes under
- Thread starter warksfarmer
- Start date
But it wasn't always plain sailing for Wessex then
........ they're in a much better place now
or you could just spend £8 of that £10 to get the "CS experience" form a commercial or merchant store
I have decided it is truly is a mystery of a magnitude greater than the bermuda triangle that seemingly so many otherwise intelligent people seem unable to understand the very clear scenario outlined in your post or believe that they can just rent storage commercialy if they really didn't want to build or be involved in storing themselves
Cargill, ADM etc are gong nowhere ! CS stores help them no end, lot easier than dealing with a load of individual farmers. CS is helping them and certainly not some sort of attempt to push them out of the chain
we need merchants and we need traders / markets, they create liquidity
and this idea that that a base commodity like wheat can be polished into something more valuable is proper emperors new clothes at it best, you have to have more money than sense or a serious grant to buy a colour sorter, the ROI is pathetic. I would worry about the management of any CS that thought it was a good investment
as good as owned by big merchants in some cases
warksfarmer
Member
Wow ...... you know what ‘assume’ ing things does?
It makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’.
It constantly amazes me how many people don’t actually read posts properly and instead just read what they want to see rather that what is actually written. I don’t recall calling anybody an idiot for using CS. I’m honestly amazed it even exists because I just don’t get it. Grain storage isn’t hard or complex like a CS store makes you believe. It’s like serviced agronomists conning farmers into using stuff they don’t need. CS is a farming item that just is not needed. Every single farm whether it’s owned, rented or contract farmed can have its own store between all interested parties and it won’t cost anywhere near what CS does. CS doesn’t add value but it costs a lot more in the first place. It’s a mythical beast which seems to attract some people for some reason.
As for calling people ‘mad’ ..... yep in a matey type of way because there’s some serious money being spent on seed drills which appear to have doubled in price over the last few years with little or no technological advances. Again I don’t get it.
I was probably rash in my comment, you know me and that I can admit when I'm wrong. The main point I wanted to get across is working togethor long term for all of our benefit.
- Location
- Bedfordshire
With CS it’s not your benefit your working for............
But your whole shed needs cleaning we only need one that holds a day of combining so it takes you longer as yours hold every grain.so you have one shed that every thing goes into can you seperate out a sprouted field do you only grow wheat what about break crops? Yes we pay to haul it to the store but do you sell every grain within 20 miles if not then you pay more than us for haulage as we only pay into store. You must be dam fast if it only takes five minutes to spear all your crops.how many fans do you have at £2 an hour. So you do pay labour imagine how much you would need for 100,000 tonnes, perhaps you should cost your time in . Ok you dont neef a lab but how many loads do you get claims on CS ensures it doesnt happen as each load can be blended to the required spec.
CS is getting bigger every year so more must think it works, does it suit everyone of course not but for many it does,
Some people pay a book keeper or accountant to do their books and pay for the convenience, some dont and save money its no difference to CS its a choice as is buying a fendt or NH they both do the same job one costs a lot more
warksfarmer
Member
Cleaning is not a big job. Leaf blower and big vac. Then utility sprayer used for paddocks. Two people easily do a 2000t shed in a day.
Sprouted field ...... once in a blue moon. Mobile grain stirrer knocks the sprouts off and nobody is any wiser ....
2 fans but only use one generally. They are 50hp each.
No farm needs labour for 100,000 tonnes that’s my point. CS has created jobs that aren’t needed on farms.
My time is paid for anyway. If I allocated a proportion of my cost to grain storage things it would probably account to 50 hrs a year at a very unscientific guess because again no time is needed as it’s not a hard job.
Now I’m not saying we never get claims .... of course we do. The standard one is when you’ve sold forward at £180 but come delivery day the spot price is £150. You know full well the mill will try every trick in the book even though there isn’t a real claim. You argue it and some days you win and some you loose but again these claims never will get anywhere near the difference between building on farm stores compared to buying into a CS.
I also seriously question the supposed increase in value of your CS tonnage. For every person saying it goes up in value there’s another who can’t sell his tonnage. I think it’s just a marketing tool to get you to buy in to begin with.
Anyway with glencore posting a 4 million trading loss, hovis shutting a mill at the docks, vivergo shut down and the openfield thing on top of brexit with no trade deals last thing I’d want is grain in a store that’s not in the yard. I’d make sure there’s some serious insurance in place.
Woldgrain Storage
Member
- Location
- Hemswell, North Lincs
This is where our system is probably unique.
We have no store pools, or exclusive members pools. Woldgrain never owns the grain, or takes any sort of risk position based on the value of the grain.
None of our members' grain marketing is done in-house by Woldgrain. Our members have a choice of four merchants to ring round and most do a bit with two or three of them.
We have looked at pools and marketing, but our 80 to 100,000mt throughput couldn't justify employing a trader or two.
Our members are also satisfied with the job our 4 marketing partners are currently doing.
Edit: Our members are able to deliver into store in August '18, price with a merchant for May '19 (based on load by load analysis), but start drawing cashflow from that merchant straight away in August '18.
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There was an agent provocateur, Bruce Ferguson, in 2 of the Scottish stores who has strangely now moved to Frontier. There’s some back room shenanigans in this.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/farming/435172/undefined-headline-263/
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/business/farming/435172/undefined-headline-263/
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I had a poor experience of openfield pools (OSR in scotland), they were well off the mark compared to most others.
Fortunately we have invested in our own facilities so will not use openfield again.
IF members grain could be marketed for a premium then their handling charges would offset the costs - I would guess that is how the business was sold to members.
The problem is any grain marketed is going to the same homes as mine with a merchant taking a couple of quid and no haulage paid by me.
I am also sceptical of pools - but that is another subject.
Fortunately we have invested in our own facilities so will not use openfield again.
IF members grain could be marketed for a premium then their handling charges would offset the costs - I would guess that is how the business was sold to members.
The problem is any grain marketed is going to the same homes as mine with a merchant taking a couple of quid and no haulage paid by me.
I am also sceptical of pools - but that is another subject.
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- Location
- Lincolnshire
Your getting way too far into the details, I dont use CS as if I spend £100 on storage I want to be sure its still there next year to use, the good thing about a building on your own Farm is the builder does not keep coming back every year for an additional payment or even stop me using it. Dad paid £800 for a 300T store in 1965, its still there and stores grain every year.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
You can blame someone else if there selling it for you and get it wrong.
Bit the same as serviced agronomy and a lot of other things in agriculture in my opinion.
Just do what we're told and don't question anything.
- Location
- Darlington
Something fishy in Aberdeen?