Suspended from Red Tractor

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Don't even waste your time on honesty, write the letter with the blah blah blah and spend your time more wisely.
Picking a fight with the judge , jury and executioner never works, you are high profile for a start and 'they' will love getting their teeth into you.

sorry but no - I've had enough of this stupidity and forced dishonesty - I'm going to tell them how it is , its about time we all did IMO and long overdue

you know whats really stupid ?

I have linseed loading out today and because i'm GTAS assured as well (an MUCH higher standard that RT) if I put a GTAS rather than RT sticker on the passport then all is good ...........................utter rubbish isnt it !
 
Last edited:
Don't Do It!!!

This is very easily fixed, you write a letter explaining your "Corrective Actions" Basically explain what you think happened, What you will do about it, and what can be learned from this. You can stick a few punches in there in you want.

Everything is about duty of care nowadays. Just admit that your procedure failed but you fully intend to carry out an investigation and work hard to get it sorted. ( But in reality you carry on as normal ) The corrective action letter covers all of this.

agree^^^

But the letter will not cover the eventuality of another low flying mouse in the supply chain of corn. It just covers the ar$e covering paperwork that every goddamn institution seems to require these days. Don't forget your inside leg measurement either. It will be in there somewhere :banghead:
 

tw15

Member
Location
DORSET
Just tell um that when you can sell rat droppings in with the wheat for £150 + per ton so why should you bother killing um and you are a animal loving farmer and its against your religion to kill gods creatures . The reply would be interesting .
Seriously it is a bloody joke just jobs for the boys and them to make money out of us .
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I would just write back and say there negative attitude to farmers has been noted and reported to a national farming forum. Unless this negative attitude towards farmers is amended then a positive boycott of Red Tractor will be actively encouraged and a rival organization actively promoting the benefits of UK farming will be set up.

they will see this thread I'm sure

trouble is do the give a shite as long as we keep paying the protection racket money ?
 
Are these people for real - this stupidity has to stop

So after after storing 10's of thousands of grain this season in our farm / commercial stores, last week we deliver the last load of milling wheat, as we all know as practical farmers the last load form a store involves some sweeping down etc

1 (yes ONE) mouse dropping found ! so load rejected for milling, this is the ONLY rejection we have had all year so a very small % of our crop wheat crop ALL of which has gone to gp1 quality markets,

NO issue with the merchant, we discussed bringing back to clean, (not that ONE mouse dropping hardly justifies ) but we are fortunate to have modern facility to do so or re direct to a feed whet home (are chickens REALLY that picky ?)

Haulage and workload considered we decided it was best to redirect to a feed home - disappointing but not the end of the world, merchant as disappointed as us I think and just as annoyed by the pettyness of RT

NOW THE RIDICULOUS

A letter arrives yesterday from Red Tractor saying we are suspended from the scheme until we write to them explaining what we are going to do about our rodent problem.

I could write back and tell them how sorry we are and how we will change our policies etc. I'm sure a bit of bullpoo along those lines would satisfy them despite the fact it would change nothing and I would in reality do nothing different at all. Doing so would simply make me dishonest when there is nothing better or more that I can realistically do, there is no problem. The problem is their completely unrealistic and frankly ludicrous idea that any farm has no mice on it whatsoever

We don't NOT have a rodent problem, our storage facility is second to none IMO, we pass assurance with no uncompliances most years, and are not only red tractor assured but assured as a 3rd party store and testing lab under the way more robust GTAS scheme, we have a regular baiting policy and records , its very rare we see a mouse and I have never seen a rat in our yard. Bait points are plentiful, toped up regularly and are well located, modern buildings are sealed as well as any building can be, realistically there is nothing more that could be done to keep any rodent issues to a minimum here

I will be writing to tell them I intend to do nothing, there schemes is ridiculous, do they seriously expect there to be no mice at all on a farmyard ? Can ANY farm serious claim they have ZERO mice ever ?

Something needs to be done about these idiots, they are not being realistic here, if a modern multimillion £ storage facility like we have here can't satisfy them god only knows what will

What's the solution ? we have added this layer of extra cost to our business that has turned most farmers into liars to satisfy their unrealistic expectations, all so we can "compete" with grain and meat imported from markets where they don't even store stuff indoors quite often !
it is a pee take,last place we grew wheat for baby food,you had to jump through all sorts of extra hoops to meet the standard,limets on which chemicals you could use no pre harvest roundup,growth regulaters where limited,combine cleaned out between normal wheat ect,stored usually until this time of year,various samples taken regularly always with notice so boss could open doors a day before to get rid of the smell of rats and mice and go round with torch picking up rat poo,last year first load was rejected for mouse sh!t no more to go no way,hour later phone call will be lorries in the morning,they had forgot that the shed full of wheat was the only one of that variety in the country that was chemical free,so it was use that or import some or use that ,as there is a few varietys blended to make ruskes,it is also about 2 years old before it is used as moved to another store for following year,it is all a farce:)
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Well if anyone has the money to fight them it's you @Clive! I totally agree with you on this one, time to make a stand.

It's not about money - its about standing together on such issues

I have no issue with good standards, we aim for the highest that are practically possible here and believe we achieve it

the money they are taking and unrealistic nature of what RT has become HAS to be stopped or controlled, the NFU etc seem to be uninterested in doing anything about it (one of the reasons I resigned membership last year) they are complicit to this farce

RT has become a protection racket that has turned 99.9% of farmers into liars - something has to be done, its costing us money and the standard means NOTHING more than the farmer is prepared to lie on demand !
 

Neuson510k

Member
Location
North Coast
all these "don't do it" 'just lie" posts......................... come on guys grow a pair, get some integrity and stop being bullied by this blackmail scheme

But your missing the Point!!!!

You argue that your procedure A wasn't working so now your trying procedure B, then C..D..E.F, the list goes on,

If you argue correctly you can never be wrong, Believe me getting kicked out of schemes is just an occupational hazard to me, it's how you get back in that matters!!
 

Richard III

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
CW5 Cheshire
If I was in your position I think I would demand an on farm meeting with the Boss man, not your regular inspector.

My bet is they have already read this and expect a phone call shortly!
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
If I was in your position I think I would demand an on farm meeting with the Boss man, not your regular inspector.

My bet is they have already read this and expect a phone call shortly!

It would be an interesting meeting I guess. The RT boss would likely have to defend the inspector , I mean can you imagine the furore if the press got hold of something like this for a high profile store and the expected RT suspension hadn't happened?

Just playing devil's advocate of course
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
But your missing the Point!!!!

You argue that your procedure A wasn't working so now your trying procedure B, then C..D..E.F, the list goes on,

If you argue correctly you can never be wrong, Believe me getting kicked out of schemes is just an occupational hazard to me, it's how you get back in that matters!!

i'm not missing the point, I know how to play their silly and pointless game and have done many times in the past - there are mice in my bloody farmhouse and always will be probably - what do they expect us to do ? destroy every rodent in the land ? ..................bet the public (our customers) would love that

There are not realistic, there will always be a low level of rodents on any farm and Im not going to lie and pretend otherwise to support some bullpoo box ticking protection racket


It's about time someone stood up to this stupidity
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I can understand the anger and frustration but wasted years is right, just RT arse covering. Can you imagine the headlines from the farmer bashing urban media who never let the truth get in the way of bad story.

I think the media would be much more interested in a story of how a farmers were controlled by a protection racket that was forcing them to lie to cover the ass of big business
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
If I was in your position I think I would demand an on farm meeting with the Boss man, not your regular inspector.

My bet is they have already read this and expect a phone call shortly!

Good idea - bet he wouldn't come though, I will wait for the call..........................
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
So who has a grain store that is 100% secure against mice?
I'd be amazed if anyone has ....the little barstewards can get anywhere. ...
Indeed, they can fit through a pencil sized hole. I always try and get rid of my pile before Christmas, before things get out of hand.
 

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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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