'Cutting the cloth'

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Sucklers here and I’m not too sure how to mitigate these costs. The pressing one is fert……. Only ten tonne in store and won’t be sure if any is available let alone affordable. I’m wondering on cutting numbers and going more extensive but modernish grasses don’t do this well.

Personally I can’t see the beef trade improving enough to cover itself, it’s just getting too expensive.
 

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
Sucklers here and I’m not too sure how to mitigate these costs. The pressing one is fert……. Only ten tonne in store and won’t be sure if any is available let alone affordable. I’m wondering on cutting numbers and going more extensive but modernish grasses don’t do this well.

Personally I can’t see the beef trade improving enough to cover itself, it’s just getting too expensive.
Wondering about our sucklers too, but what value to put on the dung, especially in an organic system?
 

Ted M

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Shropshire
I've bought in some layer manure to try and offset at least some of the nitrogen cost and got plenty of away silage ground which I can just go for lower yields on and hope we have enough.
 

Bill dog

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scottish Borders
As @Ted M , I can get chicken muck ( layers), and hopefully store it out on a dry end rig at the top of the farm. Either mix with the pig dung, or go neat. Never used before so we’ll see how it goes.
For the suckler lads, does the dung justify all the other costs ?
 

serf

Member
Location
warwickshire
Sucklers here and I’m not too sure how to mitigate these costs. The pressing one is fert……. Only ten tonne in store and won’t be sure if any is available let alone affordable. I’m wondering on cutting numbers and going more extensive but modernish grasses don’t do this well.

Personally I can’t see the beef trade improving enough to cover itself, it’s just getting too expensive.
This prota plus just keeps growing only had muck under it more you Hammer it more it seems to grow even in this cold chill wind, the PP is just sitting there dormant the contrast is stark!

Screenshot_20220225-084107_Gallery.jpg
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Bought half the usual fert and havent replaced breeding stock to the usual levels. They way i look at it i might as well keep less but the prices im getting are making up for the reduced numbers. Never been a fan of jumping on the band wagon and buying anything when its top of the price band. If and when beef drops and everybody is moaning the prices are poor i will stock back up. Helps that i had kept numbers up during the doom and gloom of the 320ppk beef price days. Cant imagine the input costs some of these big farms will have this spring with 10-15 tractors working ground and wopping fert on, massive costs to carry until harvest sales. Already got a nice bite of grass growing, just dont need biting april east winds to ruin it
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
More of the same here really.
On the sheep, trimming inputs wherever possible while at the same time increasing output where possible, mostly by better utilising forage. I would suggest that most pastoral farms have plenty of room to make improvements in pasture management.

On the arable enterprise, if the output prices don’t continue to cover rising input costs, then more will be grassed down and sheep numbers increased.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Phosphate and maybe potash holiday next year.
Nitrogen, well will be able to get any?
Will all be home saved seed in case we can’t drill due to lack of N.
No glyphosate available to buy so conserving what little I’ve got for emergencies.
Using my up my stack of plough steel which should last a couple of years.
Combine won’t be refurbed this year. Just try to make it go “just one more time” like the last 15 years.😆
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
As @Ted M , I can get chicken muck ( layers), and hopefully store it out on a dry end rig at the top of the farm. Either mix with the pig dung, or go neat. Never used before so we’ll see how it goes.
For the suckler lads, does the dung justify all the other costs ?
Issues can be experienced with poultry muck on grazing land I have been told, botulism being one!
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Wondering about our sucklers too, but what value to put on the dung, especially in an organic system?
Dung is obviously useful, I shy away from calling it valuable. But we don’t feed our cattle much hard feed at all (costs, you know) so the dung isn’t that pokey. Getting it on where it needs to be when it needs to be has been a challenge for the last few years too.
We have a couple of high red clover swards but dock control is a serious issue in these fields which introduces more costs again.
 

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

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  • 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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