Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
10% / 8% / 5% it varied a bit over the years.
Reduction in arable acreages
- Thread starter Kevtherev
- Start date
10% / 8% / 5% it varied a bit over the years.
livestock 1
Member
The weather has already made a dent in the arable output for this year which will exacerbate the situation
spin cycle
Member
- Location
- north norfolk
18% non rotational or 15% rotational
yellow belly
Member
- Location
- south west lincolnshire
early 1990s
18 % first year
hammered the machinery and imput industries
machinery need on an arable far meant 18 percent less wear but 18% of work was done before harvest son36 % less between harvest and start of drilling no one needed to buy kit for a couple of years
we added 30% extra area in the year before first year hired a tractor for 4 weeks second year 2 week after that did not need the extra tractor
by year 4 changed a tractor
no need for any extra kit till set aside was planted with energy crop in year 5
by the 2000s 50% set aside was allowed in wet years 2001
ollie989898
Member
I remember seeing big acreages of set-aside grown at one time which I presume was linked to the weather.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Could it be, the holy grail of universal output reduction, a "crop" with better margin than other arable break crops, and......prices that mean we can make a profit?
'cos if you look at the price of wheat youd be stumped to see why folk are bothering, SFI or not.
'cos if you look at the price of wheat youd be stumped to see why folk are bothering, SFI or not.
nor am i'you'......i'm not in red tractor
was a metaphoric 'us' for our metaphoric 'brothers '
and it cant be a good thing for everyone anyway.
livestock 1
Member
I can see no good coming of it unfortunately
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
What will the small hill producer with say 300 ewes and 60 suckler cows do when straw is in very short supply?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
What will the small arable producer do, with no profitable break crops, and wheat at under cost of production if you assume any drawings or a realistic rent to pay?
They will shove it in SFI and keep in business.
livestock 1
Member
Most are selling some land and going to work for someone else
elephant grass
beardface
Member
- Location
- East Yorkshire
Farming is a machine with many cogs, all equally as important as each other. Take one out and the machine stops working.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I set up a poll in the cropping thread asking about anticipated crop output reduction for harvest 2025 as a result of SFI.
It was meant to be viewable by all if they didn’t vote.
The upshot is roughly a 10% reduction in combinable crop output heavily biased to OSR and beans which are already considerably reduced due to flea beetle and loss of chemical actives. Cereal reduction won’t be very significant.
It’s a very basic poll but gives a rough idea of the direction of travel.
Here our arable area on 200 acres mixed farming (presently 65 acres grass) is will reduce from 135 acres to 55 acres (30 acres wheat, 25 acres spring barley) as half the wheat area becomes arable legume fallow 30 acres) and the 25 acres of OSR/beans becomes bird seed and pollinator mix. A further 25 acres of arable will become herbal ley as sheep numbers increase a bit. We aren’t really typical as we are already mixed which is unusual in this area and we are in soils that are partly very light and don’t grow wheat very reliably. So a total of 55 acres of our 200 acres goes into “non productive” enviro schemes( red clover, bird seed and pollinator mix) . They will still require drilling etc and even lime but there’ll be no harvest to deal with. They will rotate round the light soils. The wheat and clover will rotate on the heavier soils. Reducing our arable acreage from 135 to 55 acres will need about 70% less sprays and fertilisers. My projections suggest we will have a gross income from SFI of about £30k and a net income of about £20k much as we had with BPS.
Much as it goes against my moral compass we simply can’t avoid participating if the farm itself is to continue to provide us with a worthwhile income. Commodity prices are simply too low, input prices are simply too high and OSR is no longer an option or at any rate too high a risk. It’s completely failed this year due to cabbage stem weevil / lack of seed dressing.
It was meant to be viewable by all if they didn’t vote.
The upshot is roughly a 10% reduction in combinable crop output heavily biased to OSR and beans which are already considerably reduced due to flea beetle and loss of chemical actives. Cereal reduction won’t be very significant.
It’s a very basic poll but gives a rough idea of the direction of travel.
Here our arable area on 200 acres mixed farming (presently 65 acres grass) is will reduce from 135 acres to 55 acres (30 acres wheat, 25 acres spring barley) as half the wheat area becomes arable legume fallow 30 acres) and the 25 acres of OSR/beans becomes bird seed and pollinator mix. A further 25 acres of arable will become herbal ley as sheep numbers increase a bit. We aren’t really typical as we are already mixed which is unusual in this area and we are in soils that are partly very light and don’t grow wheat very reliably. So a total of 55 acres of our 200 acres goes into “non productive” enviro schemes( red clover, bird seed and pollinator mix) . They will still require drilling etc and even lime but there’ll be no harvest to deal with. They will rotate round the light soils. The wheat and clover will rotate on the heavier soils. Reducing our arable acreage from 135 to 55 acres will need about 70% less sprays and fertilisers. My projections suggest we will have a gross income from SFI of about £30k and a net income of about £20k much as we had with BPS.
Much as it goes against my moral compass we simply can’t avoid participating if the farm itself is to continue to provide us with a worthwhile income. Commodity prices are simply too low, input prices are simply too high and OSR is no longer an option or at any rate too high a risk. It’s completely failed this year due to cabbage stem weevil / lack of seed dressing.
livestock 1
Member
I’m assuming the government are going to use this ‘set aside’ land for their own ends then?
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
That maybe their grand plan certainly with trees it devalues farmland stopping it being prime agricultural land.
livestock 1
Member
Are you also suspicious that it could be a land devaluation scheme or land grab?
shows how fecked farming is
- Location
- West Suffolk
Won’t been any supply issue from the bread basket of England surely? Can this now go into SFI?
