Northern Ireland cereal growers

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
Can any of you guys enlighten me as to how things work in NI (or the Republic for that matter).

Trying to find out what hoops you need to jump through to sell to a maltster, flour miller or oilseed crusher for human consumption markets.

In England we need to be Red Tractor assured to sell to these markets.

Any of you in the Northern Ireland assured cereals scheme?
 

BuskhillFarm

Member
Arable Farmer
I sell all mine to animal feed so need Cereals Quality Assurance from NIFCC.

It’s pretty basic compared as to red tractor. Mostly paperwork, sprays, sprayer test cert, grain shed check.

There’s not a lot here goes to foodchain. There Whites oats in Tandragee, not sure what they require as haven’t dealt with them.
 

eagleye

Member
Location
co down
as above, we sell oats to whites as well wheat, barley, osr and beans for animal feed.
whites require additional "bolt on" standards above the NI assured cereals scheme maybe similar to red tractor I believe.
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
I sell all mine to animal feed so need Cereals Quality Assurance from NIFCC.

It’s pretty basic compared as to red tractor. Mostly paperwork, sprays, sprayer test cert, grain shed check.

There’s not a lot here goes to foodchain. There Whites oats in Tandragee, not sure what they require as haven’t dealt with them.
I sort of imagined most crops would be grown for the big NI feed market.

The NI grain assurance scheme looks reasonably sensible. Think English growers would be reasonably happy if RT was similar, but we seem to have gold plated everything :(
as above, we sell oats to whites as well wheat, barley, osr and beans for animal feed.
whites require additional "bolt on" standards above the NI assured cereals scheme maybe similar to red tractor I believe.
Thanks, interesting that Whites require bolt-ons over and above the NI assurance scheme.

With a quick Google, I see there is Andrews flour mill and Neill's flour mill. Wonder what their assurance requirements are?
 

BuskhillFarm

Member
Arable Farmer
I worked in NIFCC years ago as part of a placement. There’s a lot more weightings on the Beef side of it. They had started a pilot on dairy but not sure if it came to anything. The cereals always felt like a token thing but you need your paperwork and stickers to sell anything.
Our Department of Ag police the important things anyhow, like the animal welfare and what not so the QA is more paperwork really.


As the old joke goes.. a new rule comes out, and the English man asks “how do I comply”….. the Irish man asks “how do I get around this”
 
Last edited:
Most crops over here are grown for the feed market either by growing a bit yourself, selling to the feed mills or direct to farmer.
Whatever way you do it, Cereals assurance is a necessary as unsurprisingly the Beef & Lamb FQAS and dairy red tractor all require feed to be purchased from a cereals assured grower, even growing that 10/15 acres for home use requires cereals assurance but not sure if many bother about that.

Plenty of craft beer & artisan oilseed products but most will be a diversification from the home farm so only really using home produced products or buying in small amounts if any.

Never personally dealt with Whites but from what I believe they are very keen that you are part of sustainability and environmental schemes.
 

eagleye

Member
Location
co down
think only maltster in ireland is Boormalt, Athy in republic of ireland, none in NI.
Think reason Whites ask for extra is to sell products into England
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
Thanks. Helpful info.
There is a grain assaurance scheme in the republic fairly easy to meet the requirements .
As i only grow feed wheat and barley i dropped out a few years ago as i basically couldnt be arsed doing it as i never have any bother selling grain and unless you get some benefit why add bother ??
We are net importers of grain so that probably helps ..
Different if growing malting barley but the price paid makes it worthwhile as far asi know ...
The whole red tractor scam your side of the pond makes me afraid , very afraid.... The fact is unless deductions are applied to imported non assured grain then the assurance is just a conjurers trick and a burden on growers .
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
There is a grain assaurance scheme in the republic fairly easy to meet the requirements .
As i only grow feed wheat and barley i dropped out a few years ago as i basically couldnt be arsed doing it as i never have any bother selling grain and unless you get some benefit why add bother ??
We are net importers of grain so that probably helps ..
Different if growing malting barley but the price paid makes it worthwhile as far asi know ...
The whole red tractor scam your side of the pond makes me afraid , very afraid.... The fact is unless deductions are applied to imported non assured grain then the assurance is just a conjurers trick and a burden on growers .
As you say, RT is a right load of nonsense (when imports come in and get blended into same animal feed).

We're trying to push back at RT. Reduce the RT burden rather than increase it. We're all sick to death of it.

Where do you sell your grain? Farm to farm, or to feed mills?
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
As you say, RT is a right load of nonsense (when imports come in and get blended into same animal feed).

We're trying to push back at RT. Reduce the RT burden rather than increase it. We're all sick to death of it.

Where do you sell your grain? Farm to farm, or to feed mills?
Feed mills through independent merchants ... The next whacky racers scheme is " carbon neutral " devised to further burden the unfortunate primary producer .
bulls**t is still bulls**t just by another name Anybody would think that the sector wasnt subject to the laws of the land .
Well time to castrate this RT monster and then derail the carbon train !!!
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
What is your grain assurance scheme called? Presumably (at least until recently) N and S recognise each other's schemes as equivalent? I had a read of the Northern Irish requirements (I believe you sent them G&G?) and it looked waaaaaaaaaay more reasonable than the shite RT give us. Any Northern irish inspectors fancy inspecting a few farms in England? I'm sure a few of us could make it worthwhile the trip over..............
 

Hard Graft

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
British Isles
I think the inspector are paid about £8 for the cereal inspection but then is only £25 if you are a co op member and £58 normal
But they do it as part off the livestock inspection normally as there are very few arable only farmers. I would say there has been not many more than 2500 to 3000 members ever
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
I think the inspector are paid about £8 for the cereal inspection but then is only £25 if you are a co op member and £58 normal
But they do it as part off the livestock inspection normally as there are very few arable only farmers. I would say there has been not many more than 2500 to 3000 members ever
I forget the current figure for the NI cereals scheme. 800? Or maybe even 600? Something in that ballpark.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 43.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 34.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.7%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

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/
Top