ollie989898
Member
It is all about cost per tonne produced, and none of us can work that out merely from that video.
Yea I always say livestock and sheep in particular are different to arable in as much as it takes the same time to drench vaccinate footbath a sheep whether you have 5 or 5000 you just need more man hours to do more stock where with arable you can buy bigger machinesI know not arable/flashy machinery, but I was discussing lamb COP with someone the other day, that had seen some detailed costings from a wide range of UK sheep producers. They had been shocked that there appeared to be no corellation between enterprise size and COP. Some of the smallest farmers were every bit as efficient as some of the largest ones. Size doesn’t matter at all, it seems.
If I was a very wealthy individual, I would willingly pay every one of the nay sayers on this thread to go and attempt to combine the same acreage in the same location with a whatever collection of clapped out old dogger combines and kit they wanted and watch them curse and bash their knuckles trying to complete the harvest. Conditions and the workload in the far flung regions of the world are unlike anything you will encounter in the UK. You do not want to be messing around fixing anything inside a combine at anything more than 10am in many states I can tell you, the ambient temperature in the shade can hit 100 Fahrenheit no sweat. Conversely, in the North states sooner you than me trying to do maintenance on a dogger harvesting corn in October when snow is falling.
A depreciation bill these guys might have but I dare say they cannot afford to run anything else but the shiniest kit. In some areas they are a hundred miles from the nearest town, much less the nearest dealership with parts. If stuff breaks, there isn't a workshop down the lane, in fact it could be miles away from the actual farm, what they call home might even be 3 states away and how long can they afford to have a machine sat up whilst they wait for a 1995 Massey 38 combine fan belt to be shipped half way across the country? No thanks. The latest gear with a known supply chain.
Some of those custom cutter put silly hours on there machines in a season. My combine had 1947 hours on it at the end of the season in November after starting in late may with 4 hours on it. One combine on the crew topped 2000hrs. As for attention to detail we had to have a lot to keep these machines running as smooth as possible to get these hours on them.
Not a hedge...nor tree...nor pond in sight.
It's farming Jim, but not as we know it.
The future for the UK maybe ? I hope not.....
No hedges, trees or ponds has nothing to do with farming. It's the prairies. That's what it looks like.
Lethbridge is known for hosting it's multitudes of wind turbines because down there all you get is the wind off the mountains. There isn't a shrub or a knoll for miles. On the prairies you rarely see hills, instead we have coulees and you can't see coulees well unless you're on the edge of them.
Probably why the economy of scale thing is easier to manage here than it is to conceive of in the UK. When most of your fields are squares with wide open access points, no hedges or yards to move around and the size is generally 160 acres and up, no piddling around with 20 acres here and there... it's much easier to get in and go. The guys that have fields grouped together in sections get way more done in a day than the guys that have to jump field to field to field. Transporting the equipment is the biggest use of time, if you can block farm your economy is going to improve tenfold.
I know not arable/flashy machinery, but I was discussing lamb COP with someone the other day, that had seen some detailed costings from a wide range of UK sheep producers. They had been shocked that there appeared to be no corellation between enterprise size and COP. Some of the smallest farmers were every bit as efficient as some of the largest ones. Size doesn’t matter at all, it seems.
I did some budgets for getting back into beef here to compliment the arable & build soil fertility. The AHDB benchmark figures were an interesting read. The top 25% weren't the biggest, they were the most intensive. The bigger more extensive herds on lower stocking rates were the least profitable. What was really scary was that only the top 25% of suckler & finishers are making a positive margin before BPS.
Big isn't always the most beautiful. Total profit may be higher but profit per unit may not be highest.
I reckon weaned or bucket calves to 500kg+ finishing cattle would be your best bet.
Batches of cattle would suit my mob grazing nicely. Housing is an issue - just a couple of sheds and some falling down cubicles on a dairy unit where we stopped milking in 1992. Buying in spring and selling through the autumn would be ideal but spring store prices vs autumn finishers leaves paper thin margins. The dairy unit cubicles would be better suited to lambing pens...
I don't agree with all this judging of a business by output or cop or acreage.
The only way to judge a business of any size is return on capital (£& hrs) invested.
Anything else is bullpoo.
I've found that youngstock outwintered don't gain much weight. Fine for adult cattle. I like the concept though. There's a very big dairy farmer who rents an old dairy unit to rear his calves for beef or replacements, so I wouldn't rule out contract rearing though TB complicates things somewhat when it comes to moving cattle on & off.
I've found that youngstock outwintered don't gain much weight. Fine for adult cattle. I like the concept though. There's a very big dairy farmer who rents an old dairy unit to rear his calves for beef or replacements, so I wouldn't rule out contract rearing though TB complicates things somewhat when it comes to moving cattle on & off.