BPS/ELMS what am I missing?

Farma Parma said:

Isnt it the fact that food is so low on a families spending priorities these days that a lot not all mind just want CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP & as a country
we simply cant do things with the standards & all red tape along with it to simply give away & have no profit passed on in doing so.
Has this Covid thing changed peoples views ? i think is has & they quite possibly have bought more that's locally produced which might help our industry somewhere.

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colhonk said:

But as soon as this all ends ,they will forget and go back to previous ways

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neilo said:

^this. As soon as people start eating out again they will, mostly inadvertently, be buying the cheapest produce available. The catering trade is where most of the lower value/lower quality stuff goes, where labels aren't seen.

IF w get a trade deal with the US for chlorinated chicken and hormone laden beef, it will be lapped up by the catering trade, just as long as it's cheap.

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Chalky said:

Heard a couple of seminars on all this. obviously re directiontravel & diminishing dole cheque.

Think too many are getting too lost in the marginal gains of 'bit of this where its shaded/bit of that where its wet' in likely schemes. A large advisor was suggesting take out 'worst 10%'. Fine; what about the other 90%???

'Farm that'- ok, but that will not recoup what has been lost.

Braver thinking required-gloves off, no preconceptions, no loyalties. For many wheat fallow will be best-decide what you do with staff and machinery to leave yourself with least investment lying out for greatest gain per £ of fixed costs. Variable costs fixed, the fixed costs are variable(old cliche, but is largely true).

My thoughts, and a scenario that will be put to directors- and we grow peas, beet etc. But they can be the tail that wags the dog. No loyalties!

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Flat 10 said:

Surprisingly this is where Mac Donald’s (in the main) score

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Against_the_grain said:

How on gods green earth is organic farming better for the environment than conventional farming!? In terms of carbon capture and trying to reach net zero its exactly the opposite to what is needed. Cultivating land numerous times to control weeds/pests etc releasing carbon every time you do is completely contradictory to what the government is trying to achieve Not to mention the massive increase in soil erosion this will cause!
I do agree that we will be 30-50% stewardship though.

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Flat 10 said:

Surprisingly this is where Mac Donald’s (in the main) score

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Steevo said:

You say that......McDonalds make a HUGE thing about buying British and seem proud to do so.

Cheap imported beef doesn't seem to be where they want to position their business/product offering. They are trying to pull their brand up in terms of quality rather than be seen as taking the scraps off the floor and shaping it to look like a burger because nobody will ever know.

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organicguy said:

As an organic farmer I agree with your concerns, but you need to convince all the conventional farmers first that tillage is a problem. At least most organic farmers have some of their rotation increasing soil carbon.

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Flat 10 said:

Surprisingly this is where Mac Donald’s (in the main) score

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Flat 10 said:

That’s what I meant. Score for us farmers

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Chris W said:

As no one else appears to be shouting about it, I feel like I am missing something...

UK Gov have committed to keeping total farm subsidy levels the same as Pre-Brexit for 7 years.

BPS payments are being cut this year but the ELMS replacement doesn’t start until 2024...

In the mean time where is the money going? How do we access the equivalent to BPS? Is it going into existing CS schemes, small grant schemes etc?

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farmerm said:

No am pretty sure they have promised to keep the budget the same not the amount of subs paid. A big chunk of the budget will be gobbled up in the costs of developing and administering ELMS. No doubt it will require a computer system for £1bn and 100,000 civil servants to train to administer it... Some of this years savings will start to build a fund for ELMS capital project and the retirement scheme. Going forward we can expect what remains left to distribute after administrative costs will require expenditure and loss of production equivalent to at least 80p in every pound claimed. At best I do not expect ELMs to give us 20% of what BPS puts on our bottom line. ELMS is not a replacement for BPS it is a replacement for Mid and Hier Tier Stewardship.

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neilo said:

Is that not burnt off again by the use of a plough & cultivation that lack of glyphosate entails?

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organicguy said:

Absolutely but at least we are burying some, the non organic cultivators are burning it off every year.
My organic soils guru suggests that going zero till, cover crop, diversity,mob stocking with round up would be better for the environment but won't pay the bills.

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