Time and Patience

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
When wheat went from £60 to £100 to £150 a ton noone starved. No mills went bust. Will be a step change to £200/t and still noone extra will go hungry.
 

robs1

Member
In my view there are two ways to make money in farming, very large scale but small margin per acre which results in feast or famine depending on small yield and or price movements or small scale higher margin using no paid labour and well maintained long lasting machinery. That involves not selling commodities but to the final.buyer that could be meat milk or processed grain, combined with diversifications it can leave a decent profit and far less stress, those in the middle with rent to pay and perhaps an overdraft are fudged.
 

Mr Tree

Member
Location
Sth Yorkshire
We are an average sized rented farm still 75% on AHA rent.

We diversified 20 years ago because obviously we were making a fortune then too!

We may not be the worlds best farmers but certainly not the worst - we have a few ‘new’ things but 30 years ago my family farm had 3 tractors up to date out of farming now we have 2 tractors (1 paid fully and owned by the diversified business )
The diversified business also pays nearly half the salary of the 1 man we have now where 30 years ago we had at least 2 just paid on the farm.
It also puts money into the business for ‘use’ of infrastructure etc.

The simple fact is that if you’ve got average grade 3 land ,rent and inherited borrowings then you too are on borrowed time.

Chasing land on fbt tenancy is completely wrong ( done it both contract and fbt)and leads to higher borrowing and investment in depreciating assets( bigger tractor needed bigger drill etc) to chase bugger all!!
I really don’t know what the future is for small/average sized no other business interests farmers .
 

Drillman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Absolutely, we offer very low cost entry to our forum for people in which the faith seems very weak. For new entrants' we allow an honorary place at our next semi-annual Valtra rally. Which colour Valtra would you like?
I’ve heard membership costs the same as the average vomit repair bill!

£20 😉
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
Milk and cereals/arable have been woeful at keeping up with inflation over the last 40 years or so. 26p/litre in 1996 should be 47p today,which undoubtedly would be if we still had the MMB. Milling Wheat at £120/ton in 1980 should be £518/ton today. Fat livestock have faired better,depending on start date,but £600 for a fat Friesian bullock in 1996 would be £1134 today,so might be a tad higher today.Likewise fat lambs,£50 in 2003 is £79 today.
Not having a go but I'm interested in your maths. £120/t in 1980 - what inflation rate are you applying? If I use an annual rate of 3% (which could be generous?) then that comes to £391/t 40 years later. 3.75% ish? I know inflation was a lot higher years ago but it's been very low for well over a decade now.
 

jendan

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Not having a go but I'm interested in your maths. £120/t in 1980 - what inflation rate are you applying? If I use an annual rate of 3% (which could be generous?) then that comes to £391/t 40 years later. 3.75% ish? I know inflation was a lot higher years ago but it's been very low for well over a decade now.
I havent worked any maths out,but just put the figures in the Bank of England inflation calculator. Even if it is £391,thats still an awful lot more than £160-£170.
 

traineefarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Mid Norfolk
Somewhere on the web is a forum full of bitter copper miners who are complaining like fudge about the cost of a 200 tonne dumptruck and loading shovel and how only Mexicans will work for them doing 50 hours a week.

Meanwhile, on another forum, some folks in the oil industry are complaining like fudge about the cost of environmental regulations these days and how oil is dirt cheap yet the only good place to get the stuff is in the frozen wastes of Alaska of all places.

Interesting. And the analogy is correct.

But I've spent a good time searching and nowhere on the internet can I find a forum full of supermarket directors complaining about the stagnant cost of their stock purchases, the ease with which they can manipulate the market, the capitulation of government to their whims or the gullibility of their customers to fall for yet another loss leading BOGOF marketing ploy.
 
Interesting. And the analogy is correct.

But I've spent a good time searching and nowhere on the internet can I find a forum full of supermarket directors complaining about the stagnant cost of their stock purchases, the ease with which they can manipulate the market, the capitulation of government to their whims or the gullibility of their customers to fall for yet another loss leading BOGOF marketing ploy.

I am sure if you want to try your hand in that game there are few barriers to entry. I would not for one second believe the supermarkets are in a cosy position as they jostle for market share.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 81 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 68 35.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.6%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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