AB12: Supplementary winter feeding for farmland birds, cost versus payment

Andy26

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
Northants
Got to start feeding out AB12 once a week from tomorrow, had to order in a complete mix (bit of a faux pas not holding a few tonnes back wheat back), had a range of quotes from £450-700/t.

Settled for £480/t delivered.

The Mid tier AB12 payment is £632/tonnes, so from my £480/t that leaves £152 to feed each tonne out at least two different feeding areas 22 times or £6.90/ week... To include, attaching broadcaster to tractor, weighing and loading seed into hopper, cleaning out and record keeping etc.

I think its of great benefit to birds so am happy to do it, but would be nice if it at least covered costs or somewhere close.

On a separate note, I'd like to run around the headland tramline on the AB6 stubbles as well as adjacent to the AB9 is this acceptable or must I not travel on AB6?
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
My argument exactly, with all the ES/CS/ELM/SFI stuff. There's no free lunch.

For eg: AB15, seed cost £170 ha, plus establishment, plus mow 3 times. Net income in the first year is FA. In the second year it should be growing a first wheat (which you obviously can't do)
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
OSR no good?
yes osr is ok apparently ,
millet is what finches love ive seen, atm theyre at it big time ,thats on the plant in the field .

any grain put through a crimper or knocked about lightly with a roller mill ... would be of more interest to them i should think,? course processing add s cost and there would be more waste of smaller particles in practise.
just thinking out loud really.
 

Spencer

Member
Location
North West
yes osr is ok apparently ,
millet is what finches love ive seen, atm theyre at it big time ,thats on the plant in the field .

any grain put through a crimper or knocked about lightly with a roller mill ... would be of more interest to them i should think,? course processing add s cost and there would be more waste of smaller particles in practise.
just thinking out loud really.
That’s what I thought, bit of wheat and osr off heap for £630/t. Finches love the volunteer osr in our WBS plots.
 

tw15

Member
Location
DORSET
Yeah wheat but smaller seed for smaller birds like finches and that more difficult to source??
Bit of oilseed rape for the finches . Really as sheds get emptied out any sweepings should be going out the the birds now not in june when we are all panicking to get ready for harvest . Why oh why don't we all do it even if you are not getting paid for it it aint going to cost the earth to spread a bit of hs sweepings about for the little birdies .
 

Vader

Member
Mixed Farmer
Bit of oilseed rape for the finches . Really as sheds get emptied out any sweepings should be going out the the birds now not in june when we are all panicking to get ready for harvest . Why oh why don't we all do it even if you are not getting paid for it it aint going to cost the earth to spread a bit of hs sweepings about for the little birdies .
Farms with shoots tend to.
Its why land with shoots have more wildlife, but packshite won't admit it...
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
Got to start feeding out AB12 once a week from tomorrow, had to order in a complete mix (bit of a faux pas not holding a few tonnes back wheat back), had a range of quotes from £450-700/t.

Settled for £480/t delivered.

The Mid tier AB12 payment is £632/tonnes, so from my £480/t that leaves £152 to feed each tonne out at least two different feeding areas 22 times or £6.90/ week... To include, attaching broadcaster to tractor, weighing and loading seed into hopper, cleaning out and record keeping etc.

I think its of great benefit to birds so am happy to do it, but would be nice if it at least covered costs or somewhere close.

On a separate note, I'd like to run around the headland tramline on the AB6 stubbles as well as adjacent to the AB9 is this acceptable or must I not travel on AB6?

same company does a pre mix at £655/t........so 330kg of that +670kg of cereal off heap.......£220 +£140 is £360....leaving £272/t which isn't to bad surely?
 

alomy75

Member
Per tonne of compliant AB12 mix:
Bit of Wheat, max 700kg,
OSR max 150kg,
Then at least two other small seeds to make up the other 150kg from:
Sunflower hearts
Red millet
White millet
Linseed
Canary seed
There’s also nothing in the wording to stop you making up the final 150kg with 149kg of the cheapest seed (linseed?) and 1kg of the second cheapest. Trailer of wheat, 500kg bag of osr, same of linseed and a 25kg bag of sunflower hearts from the garden centre.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
There’s also nothing in the wording to stop you making up the final 150kg with 149kg of the cheapest seed (linseed?) and 1kg of the second cheapest. Trailer of wheat, 500kg bag of osr, same of linseed and a 25kg bag of sunflower hearts from the garden centre.

Last night I placed an order online for 25kg Sunflower Seeds for £28.79 and Peanuts for similar - this is of course for a garden situation. Sunflower hearts were £39 for 25kg.
 

Andy26

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
Northants
same company does a pre mix at £655/t........so 330kg of that +670kg of cereal off heap.......£220 +£140 is £360....leaving £272/t which isn't to bad surely?
Leaves you £12.36 to feed out each week at a minimum of two different locations for 22 consecutive weeks, when you add in handling, storage, admin and any machinery costs working for well under the minimum wage.

I think its a good option but needs to compromise and either pay quite a lot more or be less prescriptive.

When the option was introduced in April 2015, Wheat was £110/t with 2015 harvest price not much over £90/t.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Leaves you £12.36 to feed out each week at a minimum of two different locations for 22 consecutive weeks, when you add in handling, storage, admin and any machinery costs working for well under the minimum wage.

I think its a good option but needs to compromise and either pay quite a lot more or be less prescriptive.

When the option was introduced in April 2015, Wheat was £110/t with 2015 harvest price not much over £90/t.

I have helped a few farmers put together Mid Tier applications. With the first two I did I purposefully left out the AB12 option to accompany the AB9 area each farm had. Why. Well both farmers I know well and I concluded neither would actually put out the feed or would grumble at me every time I saw them that the payment was not enough. So, I conveniently 'forgot' to include AB12. Somewhat reluctantly have included it in the recent applications to start Jan 2022 as both farmers have heard about 'getting £600 a tonne for wheat'. Have explained that it is not as simple as that, well I tried to explain. Now I have to ensure they pass any future inspection. Hey ho.
 

Mixedupfarmer

Member
Location
Norfolk
Have AB12 in our agreement, and it is certainly marginal with grain well over £200/t and other seeds increasing in cost. Thankfully it is our last year, the agreement finishes on the 31st December, and surprisingly we have just been paid for this last year. We would normally feed AB12 until the end of April, but I am unsure if, like the AB9 it can finish at the end of this year with the agreement end date? Anyone finish their agreement last year with AB12, and did they carry on feeding after the agreement end date or not?
 

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

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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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