Sad looking farms

Martyn

Member
Location
South west
Some farms are putting their whole farm in , so how many birds have they got ?
We have put some 1ha blocks of seed mix in between silage fields, amazing the number of birds on it, even now in its wet/dead state. Lots of mice to eat too. I’m hopeful it will help grow UK bird numbers after their decline from Bird Flue.
IMG_0293.jpeg
IMG_0981.jpeg
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
farming used to be a struggle against nature in days of yore...that "struggle" gave nature an edge....add in good gamekeepers and the birds we love flourished

then our machines got so powerful we can do virtually what we want when we want and gamekeepers vanished....habitat disappeared and raptors flourished

I always rail against us when we moan about becoming 'Park keepers'....because parks are tidy and kempt

nature likes 'mess'
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
farming used to be a struggle against nature in days of yore...that "struggle" gave nature an edge....add in good gamekeepers and the birds we love flourished

then our machines got so powerful we can do virtually what we want when we want and gamekeepers vanished....habitat disappeared and raptors flourished

I always rail against us when we moan about becoming 'Park keepers'....because parks are tidy and kempt

nature likes 'mess'
Nature and wildlife don't always help one another
My woodland that's been left untouched for 40 years has a terrible bramble problem that blanks everything out. I've have tried trimming some of it but it soon comes back. Needs some of the trees taking out to let more light in
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Nothing wrong with all this as if it's offered you'd be a fool not to take it.
But I'm not seeing farms putting in there nice buffer strip's and carrying on farming still, they are selling all there kit and putting everything into bird food or similar.
Then there is houses going up like no tomorrow, I'm going into a moan here but our roads and infrastructure just can't cope with this. Then locally there must be 300 acres they are trying to put into solar.
With the amount alone that's we are loosing to building/solar it's a slippery slope suddenly loosing so much of our food security to cs/SFI too.
Whilst I agree with you to a degree, do you think we should grow crops for next to no profit?? Just because that’s what we’ve “always done”?
Solar, housing, SFI etc all pretty much eclipse profits from farming (if indeed there are any) and I think you’d be a fool to not take advantage of this.
The Gov don’t want food, they want grass/flowers so as farmers that’s what we’ll provide them with.
I will add I have solar here and am also putting the whole place down to SFI, I’m really looking forward to doing it too. It’ll be nice to do something different, the English partridge should love it. And I cannot make those sums of money growing crops on my marginal ground. I am very much looking forward to a lot less stress for the next 5 years, I may even have a holiday!!
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Don't worry chaps and chappesses. I will buy the grains I need from Ukraine and ex Brazilian rain forests.

Super, smashing, marvellous

we already do and have done for many years

47% of our food is imported, we are not self sufficient and couldn’t possibly be so

food security is a bit of a flawed argument imo

when it comes to price uk producers just can’t compete with imports
 

Northern territory

Member
Livestock Farmer
then our machines got so powerful we can do virtually what we want when we want and gamekeepers vanished....habitat disappeared and raptors flourished

I always rail against us when we moan about becoming 'Park keepers'....because parks are tidy and kempt

nature likes 'mess'
true to a certain extent but a lot of predators flourished because they are protected
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Don't worry chaps and chappesses. I will buy the grains I need from Ukraine and ex Brazilian rain forests.

Super, smashing, marvellous
Probably be cheaper too ;)

Not sure where all this fits in with the No Farmers No Food banners that seem popular at the minute.
Seems some are happy not being farmers
Although I bet they still claim to be with the tax man.
 
shocking mess isn’t it ! - but i guess if i cut hedges or sold inputs for a living i would not be keen on it either


View attachment 1166039View attachment 1166040View attachment 1166041View attachment 1166042View attachment 1166043View attachment 1166044View attachment 1166045
Hate to spoil your party however that’s been grown on upland farms since nineteen canteen I actually have some myself. Here you appear going on as if you invented it and you appear comfortable you get paid 10 x or 80 x the amount we get per hectare for whatever reason. There’s tens of thousands of acres of it already here and has been for years
Well done anyway
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Land that is farmed against that which has been rewilded has more birds on it for all of the year.
The trouble is that most of them are predators!!

Perhaps that is natural balance.
The unfarmed land also has far more Badgers which I guess also means why there are less birds.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Land that is farmed against that which has been rewilded has more birds on it for all of the year.
The trouble is that most of them are predators!!

Perhaps that is natural balance.
The unfarmed land also has far more Badgers which I guess also means why there are less birds.
Starlings would hit that in there millions around here ,
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
So you throw in the towel, good old Welsh and holding their ground and fitting back ,

no i’m responding to consumer demand and de risking my business a bit whilst improving my local environment and soils, i see that as a great opportunity

unlike what i believe is being forced upon welsh farmers i’m choosing to grow different ( in demand) none food crops alongside my food production, it’s all rotational and could return to food within a year if situations change

quite different to planting a farm ( or % of it) with trees
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
Whilst I agree with you to a degree, do you think we should grow crops for next to no profit?? Just because that’s what we’ve “always done”?
Solar, housing, SFI etc all pretty much eclipse profits from farming (if indeed there are any) and I think you’d be a fool to not take advantage of this.
The Gov don’t want food, they want grass/flowers so as farmers that’s what we’ll provide them with.
I will add I have solar here and am also putting the whole place down to SFI, I’m really looking forward to doing it too. It’ll be nice to do something different, the English partridge should love it. And I cannot make those sums of money growing crops on my marginal ground. I am very much looking forward to a lot less stress for the next 5 years, I may even have a holiday!!
The government don’t want grass flowers bird seed etc, what they do want is votes & power & they have convinced themselves that for now there are more votes to be had in appearing to be green rather than feeding our exploding population, when food becomes scarce & more expensive they will cynically go in exactly the opposite direction. :mad:
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
The government don’t want grass flowers bird seed etc, what they do want is votes & power & they have convinced themselves that for now there are more votes to be had in appearing to be green rather than feeding our exploding population, when food becomes scarce & more expensive they will cynically go in exactly the opposite direction. :mad:

government want to hit climate commitments they signed up to

if they don’t the cost to tax payer will make sfi etc look cheap

anyone who actually took any notice of what got committed at various cop summits would have seen and could have predicted the clear direction of travel re ag support intention


there is massive opportunity here as long as we don’t let big retailers steal it from us like they are trying to via backdoor takeover of all our representatives and governance like nfu / ahdb / rt etc
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 110 38.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 108 37.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 41 14.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 6 2.1%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 4 1.4%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 17 5.9%

May Event: The most profitable farm diversification strategy 2024 - Mobile Data Centres

  • 2,981
  • 49
With just a internet connection and a plug socket you too can join over 70 farms currently earning up to £1.27 ppkw ~ 201% ROI

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mo...2024-mobile-data-centres-tickets-871045770347

Tuesday, May 21 · 10am - 2pm GMT+1

Location: Village Hotel Bury, Rochdale Road, Bury, BL9 7BQ

The Farming Forum has teamed up with the award winning hardware manufacturer Easy Compute to bring you an educational talk about how AI and blockchain technology is helping farmers to diversify their land.

Over the past 7 years, Easy Compute have been working with farmers, agricultural businesses, and renewable energy farms all across the UK to help turn leftover space into mini data centres. With...
Top