I might rejoin so I can cancel a second time. 
Cancel your NFU membership now
- Thread starter warksfarmer
- Start date
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
I might rejoin so I can cancel a second time.
Do you get 14 days under the distance selling regulations…?!
- Location
- Yorks
Think you've done right.
Latest I've heard is NFU haven't been all that useful towards helping AHDB when AHDB have been trying to negotiate a level playingfield for cereal growers. AHDB seemed to be disappointed with NFU imo.
Seem to be too fixated on their association with RT. Net result is NFU are being supportive of processors, retailers, RT and AIC, at the cost to farmers.
It's quite unbelievable.
- Location
- pembrokeshire
I canceled my membership years ago for all sorts of reasons reason one is they don't support the family farmers reason two it's just a gravy train for the representatives that go to London number three is our local agent was arrogant 7610 had the same one what does he think?I might rejoin so I can cancel a second time.
Which office ? Pembroke or H' west ? Didn't do much with them. Lost interest after they lobbied WAG to go for the historic SFP option in 2005. That cost me £20k per year.
- Location
- Durham, UK
Useless shower of shite, theyve always been No Fecking Use but now they are actively going against their members interests.
- Location
- Herefordshire
They no longer represent farmers but their new corporate members.I honestly believe they no longer care about farmers interest as is pretty evident seeing this debacle with RT.Why any farmer is still a member is beyond me.
Saying we will be carbon neutral by 2050 early on what no other industry saying that as I am aware of just played into other buisneses not to bother, and gives every other organisation a stick to beet ag as if it is producing exsesive co2 compared with other poluters . Then the stupid ideas of cuting production.
Keep up, it’s worse than that
Our President went out on a limb and declared farmers would be carbon neutral by 2040, 10 years before government target of 2050. Whatever possessed her to make that commitment BEFORE all members had been consulted and had the opportunity to
Debate it is beyond me. It made me
VERY angry. But the great and good members who follow like sheep say it is a fantastic idea
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
Keep up, it’s worse than that
Whatever possessed her to make that commitment BEFORE all members had been consulted and had the opportunity to
Debate it is beyond me. It made me
VERY angry. But the great and good members who follow like sheep say it is a fantastic idea
You are a senior NFU member and highly respected senior office holder ( or past office holder ) @An Gof
Yet you derided and made fun of grass roots members like myself on threads on TFF 3/4/5 years ago when we highlighted/ were trying to pull the NFU up on their policy on things like RT/ lack of democracy etc.
So quite frankly the likes of YOU @An Gof have only YOURSELF to blame for the NFU now selling out the industry on things like RT/ carbon zero etc!
Oh and you will not only be angry about RT/ carbon zero etc but should be angry about the NFU's latest idea to heap costs on the industry which is by the way of pushing the Gov to Make it mandatory for ALL farm vehicles that have wheels to be stripped down to the bare axle's so the brake discs/drums etc etc are inspected once every 12 months!
- Location
- pembrokeshire
h west!
- Location
- Yorks
Looks like @An Gof has (I think), shifted his view a little. Nothing wrong with changing your opinion or stance. Maybe the NFU should take a leaf out of an gof's book.
I think he's correct, seems to be run a bit like like a dictatorship.
I see some of the sense innpromoting UK ag's environmental credentials, but why pledge carbon neutral by 2040. Let ELMS pay us to do it.
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
It was clear 4/5 years ago the direction the NFU was heading ref RT etc and even back then it was run more like a dictatorship thou of course under Minette that has got much worse ( and will get even worse )
The time to have done something was 3/5 years ago, now it is too late and the NFU is now a loose canon and actively working to drive British farmers out of business.
As for the Elms scheme, unless they drastically change the payment rates proposed and the complexity of the scheme then it is all but unworkable for thousands of family farms up and down the country, yes it will benefit large arable concerns/ very large estates like Dyson but for the thousands of farmers who are the backbone of the industry it will be a disaster!
I read somewhere the other day that the number of UK farmers is predicted to fall by about 25% when Elms is the only support scheme!
If you look at the predicted payment rates for Elms, once you take into account the very low payment rates for taking land out of production etc then in real terms we are looking at a sub cut of about 90%! And on top of that they reckon for a 200 acre farm it will take a land agent 6 full days to draw up the paperwork for the Elms scheme so that is 6k of sub gone before you even drive in the field gate and put land into low input/zero output farming!
- Location
- Yorks
Agree about ELMS, or at least what we know about the SFI. Seems unbelievably complex in termscof paperwork, time to do application, options, all with low payment rates.
Can't see what would have been wrong with leaving 5% margins, strips, wildlife corridors etc. Could gave been so much simpler and used DEFRA's existing BPS/CS software which they've now actually got working reasonably reliably.
Back to the thread. NFU do lots of lobbying etc. and that's great. They do do lots of good stuff. Don't know why they spoil themselves by supporting RT like they do, and also having policies which grass roots farmers don't agree with.
It doesn't take a genius to work out their members want NFU to have a fairer structure of democracy and policy decision making. NFU could gather together many more members if they listened. Farmers are leaving, but it still doesn't sink in. Not changing or acting on this is poor leadership, poor management and an unwillingness to move with the times.
We left NFU a few years ago. Want to re-join, but won't whilst they refuse to listen and evolve.
They may have thought RT was a reasonable idea 20 years ago. That's fine. But now we have something which is controlled by the trade, processors and retailers. NFU have lost control, with farmers being a minority on the boards. What inept mismanagement of the job.
NFU and farmers could be in total control of RT if they'd been remotely smart. It didn't need a genius to work that out.
No farmers = no FA scheme. NFU should have originally sorted structure out better, but now they've lost control they could regain the control. NFU have the power to advise their members to leave RT. i.e. they csn negotiate firmly, but they won't.
They won't help fix the AIC/RT unlevel playingfield. That's just hopeless.
If any members disagree with this malaise from NFU, then the member's best action is to vote with their feet.
NFU might eventually listen. Why haven't they got it, why not act on their members frustrations? Ah, of course, the top people don't want to upset their chances of a cushy board position at RT, NRoSO, or a CBE etc. That's the only reason I can think of. If that's the reason, then I've no respect.
There's some good people on tff who are smart, sensible and leader potential. Our industry would benefit from them being involved with NFU, but NFU alienate them from joining. That's a shame.
Poor.
So cancelled as said and heard nothing so I thought I’d get back in touch to see why nobody has bothered to contact me. The very polite lady said that they were more concerned about none farming members as that’s where they see the future. She went on to say the Nfu expect around 30% of farms will cease to exist within the next 10 years which is why they are pushing for none farming members.
I have to say I applaud her honesty and she was genuinely very nice, but clearly a union needs to support their membership which if is none farming then that’s what they’ll do. So the Nfu has officially morphed into a countryside club for village life by the looks of things.
Well they should change their name then and concentrate on non farming issues,time for a new body to support farmers
Tarw Coch
Member
- Location
- Bottom of Wats Dyke
gone up the hill
Member
- Location
- Devon
NFU should be renamed to something like : NGA aka National Gardner's Association because that is clearly where they want the UK countryside to be in 10 years time from the looks of it.
As for the 30% less farmers, 25/30% less farmers is what is being predicted when the Elms scheme takes affect and looking at the payment rates/ red tape of that scheme very few small/ medium size farms will be able to claim anything, beggars belief that the NFU are clearly supporting a policy change that will drive at least 1 in 4 UK farmers out of business!
- Location
- Herefordshire
At least she was honest and I'm not surprised at all given their response to farmers worries over RT and other farming matters.They are clearly representing their non farming membership,who in fairness probably have the largest chequebook, it's just annoying they purport to representing ordinary farmers.
Just goes to show they are not interested in trying to keep the backbone of farmers supported pandering to others. If they really supported the farmerst they would have a significantly more members then they would be no reason to look elsewhere where for extra money, stupid idea going down that root . Time for a change in direction ! If only grass roots members had a vote!