General margin per acre/ha?

Overby

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South West
I've been having some varied discussions with some of my neighbours recently about what an expected / acceptable and realistic margin per acre is, in broad terms across the whole arable side of the farm and also per crop. As per usual, the figures vary wildy, from those who will always be realistic (possibly pessimistic) to those who you know will tell you they dig up gold in the shittiest of fields.

Nothing too personal, just wondering what the thoughts are on here in ball park terms?
 
I've been having some varied discussions with some of my neighbours recently about what an expected / acceptable and realistic margin per acre is, in broad terms across the whole arable side of the farm and also per crop. As per usual, the figures vary wildy, from those who will always be realistic (possibly pessimistic) to those who you know will tell you they dig up gold in the shittiest of fields.

Nothing too personal, just wondering what the thoughts are on here in ball park terms?

This year £487/acre from group 1 milling wheat. That accounts for all inputs and all machinery operations (stubble to stubble). It does not account for any fixed costs. 5 year average is £250/acre.
 
It’s not, gross margin is just from growing the crops, not machinery costs. But I agree using costs including machinery but excluding other ‘fixed’ costs is sensible. Varying labour costs will skew figures massively.

Those figures account for labour in the machinery costs, including grain store costs. What it doesn’t include is things like notional rent, no bps, elec, water, debt (none machinery debt), office costs, professional fees etc etc.
 

Overby

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South West
Inviting wrath here, but taking the 'joy' of what you do out the equation, can similar margins not be met with the Stewardship options? I know there's a lot of "it's sacrilege" chat going on and I'm not talking about that, in terms of cropping or stewardship...can't be that much difference if 'time spent' put in the mix?

I know i'm stirring the hornet's nest but I'm genuinely interested as some 'discussions' Ive been party too aren't far off warfare currently!
 
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Inviting wrath here, but taking the 'joy' of what you do out the equation, can similar margins not be met with the Stewardship options? I know there's a lot of "it's sacrilege" chat going on and I'm not talking about that, in terms of cropping or stewardship...can't be that much difference if 'time spent' put in the mix?

I know i'm stirring the hornet'd nest but I'm genuinely interested as some 'discussions' Ive been party too aren't far off warfare currently!

Yes they can. I genuinely don’t care about producing food anymore. That ship had sailed for this country. The ELMS pilots running since 2018 have a field scale option of green cover at £840/ha. Assuming that remains in place when tiers 2 & 3 are released and then throw in the soil and water plan etc it looks like a no brainer to me.
We’ll have some organic meat as well to sell and that’ll be me for the foreseeable.
 

GeorgeK

Member
Location
Leicestershire
Inviting wrath here, but taking the 'joy' of what you do out the equation, can similar margins not be met with the Stewardship options? I know there's a lot of "it's sacrilege" chat going on and I'm not talking about that, in terms of cropping or stewardship...can't be that much difference if 'time spent' put in the mix?

I know i'm stirring the hornet's nest but I'm genuinely interested as some 'discussions' Ive been party too aren't far off warfare currently!
A lot of people appear to compare stewardship margins to what they think they make on their best field of first WW and conclude they can do much better, forgetting about the 0.2t/a OSR, beans that were mostly fat hen and droughted spring barley. The biggest problem with stewardship is farmers don't trust the RPA or government not to screw them over, and not without good reason
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Inviting wrath here, but taking the 'joy' of what you do out the equation, can similar margins not be met with the Stewardship options? I know there's a lot of "it's sacrilege" chat going on and I'm not talking about that, in terms of cropping or stewardship...can't be that much difference if 'time spent' put in the mix?

I know i'm stirring the hornet's nest but I'm genuinely interested as some 'discussions' Ive been party too aren't far off warfare currently!

think it will depend very much on how good your soil is and your fixed cost structure

I can see stewardship cutting the area we grow food on significantly but not replacing it completely

i will do whatever makes best business sense - i don’t honestly care if i farm thousands of acres or hundreds and i don’t care if i sell food or environment
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Yes they can. I genuinely don’t care about producing food anymore. That ship had sailed for this country. The ELMS pilots running since 2018 have a field scale option of green cover at £840/ha. Assuming that remains in place when tiers 2 & 3 are released and then throw in the soil and water plan etc it looks like a no brainer to me.
We’ll have some organic meat as well to sell and that’ll be me for the foreseeable.
As has been mentioned to you hundreds of times an option that is £840/ha is not going to be widely available, the money is not there!
 
A lot of people appear to compare stewardship margins to what they think they make on their best field of first WW and conclude they can do much better, forgetting about the 0.2t/a OSR, beans that were mostly fat hen and droughted spring barley. The biggest problem with stewardship is farmers don't trust the RPA or government not to screw them over, and not without good reason

Stewardship pays out irrelevant of weather, market prices etc. Yes there are examples of people not being paid but you get that in any industry anywhere in the world.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 43.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.4%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 5 2.7%

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

  • 1,286
  • 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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