Covid 19.. Milk price impact?

Grassman247 · Apr 5, 2020

The Agrarian said:
Sorry but that's rubbish. I have contacts who know a fair bit of what goes on behind the scenes of the abbatoirs, and polish beef was coming in long before any coronavirus problem came about. All coming in boxed. All being fed into local butchers too.

Has anyone ever asked their butcher for the traceability of the beef on the counter? Or do you just take their word for it, or more like just assume it's local without asking?

Not just that, Abbatoir workers told me at least when the horse meat was being mixed with beef it was decent stuff, now the likes of ABP are mixing any old rubbish in. Where does everyone think all these spring born bull calves end up?

The meat processors battle for the contracts and then cut corners. Consumers want cheap produce and the supermarkets oblige and couldn’t care less where it comes from or what’s in it.

bigw · Apr 5, 2020

I worked in Canada years ago and would make trips to the Abbatoir with calves now and again, some of the stuff coming in was utterly horrendous they would even cut up animals that were delivered in dead! I remember my boss telling me he was at a BBQ and enjoying his burger until he saw the Abbatoirs name on the the box below the table!

Barmyfarmer · Apr 5, 2020

I feel privileged to be in an industry that realistically is unaffected by the covid 19, social media posts wanging on making out like we are hero's is absolutely embarrassing. We have just got out heads down and cracking on.

som farmer · Apr 5, 2020

the only reason these are imported, is because they are cheaper, we are never going to be able to stop that, especially being only 60% sufficient in home production. And these imported products, are priced by world supply and demand.
It is time for farmers, to realise, that the guv wants cheap food, for political reasons, and the gen public want it for financial reasons, forget our high standards of production, of which we are justifiably proud, to a vast portion of the public, it doesn't mean jackshit, all they want, is cheaper food, and like s/mkts only pay lip service to welfare, or even worse, force us to do it, and then pay world price, which in most cases, leaves us around break even price.
The only times we can compete with world price, are in times of shortage, whether disease, or lack of supply, and traditionally, subs made up the difference. Subs in their present form, are going, they are not popular with the treasury, the guv, or the public, supermarkets include them when they decide how much they will pay us, so, although we cherish them, I am not at tall sure, how much they help us, it's like the grants, 40% funded, we have to put the rest up, usually borrowed. In the present time, especially after this plague, the cost of food, is going to be of immense importantance to the country, the guv, and the population, are going to be skint, taxes will rise, so the cost of food will be kept down.
The only way we can compete, with commercial product, is to further lower our cost of production, and that is down to individual farmers, unfortunately, a very hard thing to do.

Holsteinfriesian90 · Apr 5, 2020

Barmyfarmer said:
I feel privileged to be in an industry that realistically is unaffected by the covid 19, social media posts wanging on making out like we are hero's is absolutely embarrassing. We have just got out heads down and cracking on.

They must have thought that we didn’t exist before.

PercyBlakeney · Apr 5, 2020

The Agrarian said:
Sorry but that's rubbish. I have contacts who know a fair bit of what goes on behind the scenes of the abbatoirs, and polish beef was coming in long before any coronavirus problem came about. All coming in boxed. All being fed into local butchers too.

Has anyone ever asked their butcher for the traceability of the beef on the counter? Or do you just take their word for it, or more like just assume it's local without asking?

About 12-15,000 t polish beef imported every year to uk (out of 1.2 million tonnes consumed) Mainly for foodservice. That supply chain has shut down for the foreseeable so going to go somewhere.

som farmer · Apr 5, 2020

if it's cheap enough, someone will buy it, and probably call it british, and will the gen public know the difference, or even care.

Samherd · Apr 7, 2020

With all what's happening at the moment.... I do t see a way out till this is all over? If we all stood up now and said about lower ppl or beef prices we would be seen as instantly greedy and wanting to profit from it.... Point is we're not, but Joe public might not see it that way once the media play about with it all and twist it about which is annoying to say the least as media could play an important part if they just reported the facts of the matter and didn't turn it into a trilogy attack on farming families.
But... That said enough is enough, they are calling us front line workers, yet I don't see them taking money back from NHS staff on the front line, farmers are being shafted again. At the start of this there was a glimmer of hope from many that people would up there buying power and supermarkets needing to keep up with demand and so we have to provide more milk essentially, but this was the case for like a week of hype, now its the hard hitting truth... I haven't read guy smiths FW report as yet, but again this is someone that really fell from grace is our families eyes, and really doesn't need to be speaking out about anything, ideally keep quiet and head down from if this is reprinted in a national newspaper or videos resurface as they are limited on stories at the moment, we will all be doomed to distruction at all costs, vegans are one issue, national newspapers a whole new league, whilst I understand he prob wants to build a whole new image for himself, not is not the right time to start doing this, and frankly offering advice and voicing ones opinion is eye brow raising to that end.
Hope everyone is well still, luckily for many of us farmers we are the Kings and Queens of isolated living. Be safe peeps

More to life · Apr 7, 2020

Neilherd said:
With all what's happening at the moment.... I do t see a way out till this is all over? If we all stood up now and said about lower ppl or beef prices we would be seen as instantly greedy and wanting to profit from it.... Point is we're not, but Joe public might not see it that way once the media play about with it all and twist it about which is annoying to say the least as media could play an important part if they just reported the facts of the matter and didn't turn it into a trilogy attack on farming families.
But... That said enough is enough, they are calling us front line workers, yet I don't see them taking money back from NHS staff on the front line, farmers are being shafted again. At the start of this there was a glimmer of hope from many that people would up there buying power and supermarkets needing to keep up with demand and so we have to provide more milk essentially, but this was the case for like a week of hype, now its the hard hitting truth... I haven't read guy smiths FW report as yet, but again this is someone that really fell from grace is our families eyes, and really doesn't need to be speaking out about anything, ideally keep quiet and head down from if this is reprinted in a national newspaper or videos resurface as they are limited on stories at the moment, we will all be doomed to distruction at all costs, vegans are one issue, national newspapers a whole new league, whilst I understand he prob wants to build a whole new image for himself, not is not the right time to start doing this, and frankly offering advice and voicing ones opinion is eye brow raising to that end.
Hope everyone is well still, luckily for many of us farmers we are the Kings and Queens of isolated living. Be safe peeps
[/
It’s not just the general public you will offend by comparing yourself to the NHS.

Samherd · Apr 7, 2020

I am using the government words, thing is they put us on a front line workers list, and then everyone's ppl was put down pretty much at the same time, as well as beef price

pappuller · Apr 7, 2020

Neilherd said:
I am using the government words, thing is they put us on a front line workers list, and then everyone's ppl was put down pretty much at the same time, as well as beef price

Just all dump 10% of our daily production for a week, problem solved

pappuller · Apr 7, 2020

Neilherd said:
I am using the government words, thing is they put us on a front line workers list, and then everyone's ppl was put down pretty much at the same time, as well as beef price

A surplus or deficit only need be 1litre

Samherd · Apr 7, 2020

pappuller said:
Just all dump 10% of our daily production for a week, problem solved

Unfortunately I think it might be longer than a week... And that said how many litres is that over the next few months.... Many will need to penny scrape at this time of the year because for many they are only just coming out of winter season and the grass hasn't started to grow on their farms properly as yet due to weather

pappuller · Apr 7, 2020

Neilherd said:
Unfortunately I think it might be longer than a week... And that said how many litres is that over the next few months.... Many will need to penny scrape at this time of the year because for many they are only just coming out of winter season and the grass hasn't started to grow on their farms properly as yet due to weather

Unfortunately the way it's looking a lot of litres are going to be paid at low single pennies going forward so it's maybe not such a crass idea

Bramble · Apr 7, 2020

Doing my bit, tipped 7000 litres last night down the drain as the dairy wouldn’t pick it up.

First time in 70 years we have had to dump any, even in weather events

som farmer · Apr 7, 2020

do we really think, or just hope, anything will change, after this ? any lessons learn't ? The good guys, at the moment, are the supermarkets, who we blame, rightly or wrongly, for the present low prices. C19, gives a unique chance, for a reappraisal of the food chain, but with the good guy's managing the food supply (not necessarily true ) will it happen ?

Samherd · Apr 7, 2020

som farmer said:
do we really think, or just hope, anything will change, after this ? any lessons learn't ? The good guys, at the moment, are the supermarkets, who we blame, rightly or wrongly, for the present low prices. C19, gives a unique chance, for a reappraisal of the food chain, but with the good guy's managing the food supply (not necessarily true ) will it happen ?

I think it could be a good time for writing of better contracts for sure, be more transparent in the knowledge we have gained from the c19 issues that we have all had, our milk collection was at midnight last night.... Really late for us as normally around 8pm ish in the evening, collections for us are normally every two days as such, luckily touch wood we haven't had any issues with collection albeit later in the evening than normal... After this... I don't know... Maybe streamline the operation more, learn a few lessons, look at the contracts better to make sure that we can retail our own raw milk from a vending machine should the worst hit the fan again we have that as a back up. There's so much everyone could do but every farm is different and every farm has a different way of doing things. I know for us it's fairly straightforward to change things but for many this is not the case at all.

som farmer · Apr 7, 2020

Neilherd said:
I think it could be a good time for writing of better contracts for sure, be more transparent in the knowledge we have gained from the c19 issues that we have all had, our milk collection was at midnight last night.... Really late for us as normally around 8pm ish in the evening, collections for us are normally every two days as such, luckily touch wood we haven't had any issues with collection albeit later in the evening than normal... After this... I don't know... Maybe streamline the operation more, learn a few lessons, look at the contracts better to make sure that we can retail our own raw milk from a vending machine should the worst hit the fan again we have that as a back up. There's so much everyone could do but every farm is different and every farm has a different way of doing things. I know for us it's fairly straightforward to change things but for many this is not the case at all.

I think this is the time, for all dairy farmers, to have a long serious look at what they are doing. Many dairy farmers, are producing milk, around break even price. Although we blame s/mkts for the low price we receive, but that price is set by world price, the difference, made up by 'subs'. This c19 is going to leave many countries, including ours, in an economically bad place, subs will go, cheap food, will be a major want, by guv, and taxes will rise. My big concern, is how to make a living, from dairy farming, in the near future, and I think, given the above points, we will have to adjust our costs, so we can compete with world price, and that is going to hurt.

yin ewe · Apr 7, 2020

pappuller said:
Just all dump 10% of our daily production for a week, problem solved

You go first

?

Aircooled · Apr 7, 2020

If the wheels start to fall off imports will have to be reduced .

Covid 19.. Milk price impact?

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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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