- Location
- Yorks
Question is, if tgey weren't bound by AIC rules, woukd they purchase non-assured uk grain?
If tick-box pesticide declaration was touted as new standard, I would imagine they'd be happy with it.
Guy Smith's response to FW article on AIC rules.
- Thread starter Grass And Grain
- Start date
If tick-box pesticide declaration was touted as new standard, I would imagine they'd be happy with it.
tullah
Member
- Location
- Linconshire
Perfect question for him. There's only one place where he will have to answer that.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
If only we had vertically integrated coops like....oh the rest of Europe.
SilliamWhale
Member
Torpor is our enemy here. But I totally agree with you
wanton dwarf
Member
Never too late to start.
A good place to put any membership fees towards rather than the pockets of Directors.
- Location
- Yorks
Mills are currently getting assure grain for free. Talk to most farm traders though, and they all think assurance is bunkum. Still, they'd have to do whatever the boss says.
SilliamWhale
Member
Indeed. Why should they care if they get away with it? And especially if so called farmer representatives are paid by Red Tractor then why should they care if seemingly farmers let useful idiots allow them to do that?
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Openfield…? How many Openfield members could there be on here? They could have power in theory.
@ajd132 was planning to do some digging with Camgrain too on the central store angle I think.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Sigh. UK coops do not have the same strategic view as those on the continent.
I was eating some Anchor butter (green green grass, big union jack, lots of spiel "Anchor is produced by Arla Foods, the UK's leading farmer-owned dairy company, using 100% British Milk".
Well bugger me if after all that Arla is actually owned by the Danes! On nowhere is that mentioned in the text!
Had some UK bacon - owned by Danish coop.
It's not even funny how UK farmers are happy to sell up for two copper pennies, then watch as European coops take *all* the margin from the job.
The thing is, we don't seem to be able to get our thick heads around the notion that if you want success then you need to pay for it - better managers, better lawyers, better media, better PR.
How do you negotiate for better farm gate prices when your milk etc goes to a Danish coop then to a oligopoly supermarket? Grrr.
This is abit of a confusing comment Clive as your support of U.K. co-ops has been very vocal and negative over the years which is a complete juxtaposition with your agreement to what Teslacoils is saying.100%
Ultimately the success of co ops is down to enough farmers getting behind and working togethor, which they seem to be very good at doing in europe, this means they have massive strength and resource, way beyond what any U.K. co op has.
- Location
- Yorks
100%
Seen as though we're on a farm assurance thread, maybe your comments amalgamate in general agreement, and the problem here is the farmers are not in control of RT. The farmer board members are in a minority, and appointed by RT, so they're probably RT 'Yes' men.
If we're obstructed by RT,AIC, NFU,AHDB, and oppressed to stay bound into RT, without being afforded our freedom, then maybe that will be the time to have farmer owned co-operative omov assurance. Why wouldn't everyone join? That said, I remember Clive has pointed out several times that getting farmers to do anything collectively is like herding cats.
I know we don't actually need that farmer owned assurance, as a pesticide declaration equals imports, so no need for farm level assurance.
If the 4 organisations continue to obstruct equivalence to imports, then at that point I think the only conclusion would have to be that the reasons for not allowing us equivalence to imports must be assurance company income and conflicts of interest from those purporting to work for farmers.
Sorry I’m just giving Clive some jip as his comments on it being hard to make farmers work togethor and comments on true co ops don’t align!
- Location
- Yorks
Good little jibe to keep Clive on his toes! I don't suppose he'll be short of words to reply!
It’s all spor!
I agree with what you were saying though.
- Location
- Essex
Is anyone on the RT board from Italian or Columbian heritage...?
They carry on as they are. They buy what they like, from where they like and they can sell it all as ufas, which suits them just fine so long as they are making money. No boring tests or checks to worry about. Someone else does all that for free.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I think the error in UK coops is not the farmers being unable to work together, but the inability of them to manage a dissimilar business.
In a way there's a link - were slagging off Guy for doing a job he's not really got the skillset for, at what in the private sector would be a knockdown rate. We think it's a huge wodge as were used to "farming rates" IE everything for tuppence.
Ditto with the NFU and advertising - this sort of media stuff needs doing by professionals, not farmers who have the luxury of a bit of free time. We bemoan advertising for our products or hark back to Beefy and Lamby, but the route to a good advert is knowing who the client is and paying a proper agency.
There is no doubt that coops should work, as proved overseas. The errors which seem to be repeated in many UK coops are:
1) short termism. The ability to sell out the dream is part of our UK financial nature.
2) lack of professionalism. Say you want to cooperate to process a product. Do you, having no knowledge of the process, a) get a skilled person with the right skillset to do it; pay them properly; and provide resources to achieve, or b) find a farmers son with some free time to do it?
3) bloat, or Billy Big Ballbag syndrome. You get a big grant for something and loose sight of the end goal by going down false avenues simply to get larger. This is due to lack of effective oversight.
There is no reason farmers coops shouldn't be able to both reduce costs and add value. We're lucky here to have a buying group and central store that are very effectively and professionally run, without getting excessive "back fat".
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Sorry, bit of a segue.
