Well maybe this will push us so far against the wall that we will make it known, that we will try bloody hard to stop double standards from this type of hypocrisy. Guy Smith will chain himself to the gang plank of the first ship importing health detrimental (apparently) food. We will all be there in our balaclavas backing Guy Smith up (as we will have feck all else to do).
Blackgrass
- Thread starter Chris F
- Start date
Well maybe this will push us so far against the wall that we will make it known, that we will try bloody hard to stop double standards from this type of hypocrisy. Guy Smith will chain himself to the gang plank of the first ship importing health detrimental (apparently) food. We will all be there in our balaclavas backing Guy Smith up (as we will have feck all else to do).
shakerator
Member
- Location
- LINCS
Boris’ rhetoric not encouraging if he gets in
Doubt it will happen but there must be a way of imposing a Climate Change Tax on any imports (not just agricultural) that don't meet UK standards.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
More likely Gove will ignore all the co2 our crops absorb; remove bps; ban us from being paid for our free carbon storage; then realise that banning roundup means all the direct drillers get their ploughs out, and rectify this by taxing ploughing to the extent we all have to buy the new roundup replacement at five times the price. Doses get cut. Plants get resistant. All goes to sh!t.
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
just get skilled up on dog and stick farming and build fertility for the next generation
this is what many acres were put to in the 1920s to 1940
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I reckon dog and stick would pay just fine.
That’s what the government want as well. Does make you wonder.
Mind we would need to become very inefficient so as to not over supply the few meat eaters left.
Hereward
Member
- Location
- Peterborough
The take home message from this season is drilling date.
Crops drilled;
Crops drilled;
- Sept. 25th-7th Oct have lots of blackgrass
- 7th Oct- 21st Oct have more blackgrass than I'd like
- 21st Oct-7th Nov very clean
- Location
- Lincolnshire
And my take home message from that is that, in a normal year, we will only get enough drilling days after the children's half term holidays to plant 1/3 of our current wheat acreage. Much of my part of the country is now smitten with BG and at the same time moving to larger and larger units.
I think the last four words of you post sums up what a lot of the problem is
- Location
- Lincolnshire
That's just a response to modern life. 1/5 of the working population work for the State, and 100 percent of pensioners see their income rise by at least inflation with no increase in productivity.
If your job is to produce a bulk commodity, you have very little choice but to get bigger.
But I can't justify a second drilling rig just to start later. Our working window pushes everything as it is.
If your job is to produce a bulk commodity, you have very little choice but to get bigger.
But I can't justify a second drilling rig just to start later. Our working window pushes everything as it is.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
The truth with livestock is we are juggling wormers and antibiotics just as we are juggling actives on the arable side to stay just in front of pestilence.
Dog and stick is alright but just watch your sheep output plummet without a very tight vaccination and worming programme. I don't think a return to dog and stick today is anything like it would have been 80 years ago. Certainly now low input livestock will give very low output.
A move to spring cropping has helped a bit here but have some b,a grass infestation that we can't shift due to the land being wet and very heavy. It won't drill late in the autumn and it won't drill early enough in the spring to get a reasonable crop. The drains and structure need attention as well. Time and money that we will probably never see back. Grass it down.
Dog and stick is alright but just watch your sheep output plummet without a very tight vaccination and worming programme. I don't think a return to dog and stick today is anything like it would have been 80 years ago. Certainly now low input livestock will give very low output.
A move to spring cropping has helped a bit here but have some b,a grass infestation that we can't shift due to the land being wet and very heavy. It won't drill late in the autumn and it won't drill early enough in the spring to get a reasonable crop. The drains and structure need attention as well. Time and money that we will probably never see back. Grass it down.
That’s fine for you to say in East Anglia but most other counties west of you get a lot more rain than you do and do very little in November.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
That's true. But then what do you do with the staff from mid September to late October? And the gear all sat there. Then they're done in half the time.
Add in the year, which is not unusual, where late October is a write off and you might be sat on your backside until mid April.
None of this is made easier by other crop options paying so badly. It's been said before - we do know what we are doing wrong in most cases.
Do you need all the staff in the first place?
Not talking about november
- Location
- Lincolnshire
If you have two drills you need two dudes. Extra drill is cheap. Extra tractor and skilled man is not easily available for a small working window.
I've got my plan sorted. It's a radical reduction of winter cereals. But it is radical, untried, and potentially open to entirely different risk. Let's hope it works.
Cutting the winter cereals down makes a big difference. We are also very lucky we have people who can come in a short notice. 2.5 of us do 1200ha here (apart from harvest). 12m drill can do 100ha a day, nearly 50:50 winter and spring crops. This is on clay. It’s quite easy and simple system really. I’d rather have big wide kit I can drive myself for a week in the spring and a week in the autumn than be employing people full time for a part time job.