NFU shafts Red Tractor

Steevo · Aug 27, 2021

bobk said:
If the likes of Frontier and Openfield started taking non assured UK grain like they do with imported grain Red Tractor would be finished overnight

According to the Openfield website:

As a British, farmer-owned cooperative, we behave differently to other businesses. We provide security, we act fairly, we’re efficient and we create value.

When you commit your grain to us, you automatically become a shareholder. We can use our size, scale, strength and long-standing experience to secure the very best deal for you.

If they really were a proper "co-operative" and are farmer owned.....you'd think it would be pretty easy for the farmer owners (shareholders) to group together and get Openfield to do exactly as you say and start taking non-assured UK grain.

Or is Openfield suffering from the same issues as NFU...? i.e. upper management feathering their own nests to the detriment of those below them.

Typing that made me think of pyramid schemes...!

Humble Village Farmer · Aug 28, 2021

Steevo said:
According to the Openfield website:

As a British, farmer-owned cooperative, we behave differently to other businesses. We provide security, we act fairly, we’re efficient and we create value.
When you commit your grain to us, you automatically become a shareholder. We can use our size, scale, strength and long-standing experience to secure the very best deal for you.

If they really were a proper "co-operative" and are farmer owned.....you'd think it would be pretty easy for the farmer owners (shareholders) to group together and get Openfield to do exactly as you say and start taking non-assured UK grain.

Or is Openfield suffering from the same issues as NFU...? i.e. upper management feathering their own nests to the detriment of those below them.

Typing that made me think of pyramid schemes...!

There's pressure to be applied by the members of these farmer owned co-ops.

Without members they don't exist.

roscoe erf · Aug 28, 2021

JP1 said:
View attachment 976943

he can f**k right off even the Krays had better Morales he is only in it for the money a bit more honesty please rt wouldn't survive if we had a choice its like throwing a drowning man an oven

MrNoo · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
How many homes take non assured crops?

Plenty, all my crops this year are non assured. Homes are easy to find. Prices are generally £5/t off market price. If you grow anything of any quality it will go, simple

Steevo · Aug 28, 2021

MrNoo said:
Plenty, all my crops this year are non assured. Homes are easy to find. Prices are generally £5/t off market price. If you grow anything of any quality it will go, simple

Anyone else think “growers who sell non-assured” would make an interesting thread recounting their experiences?

Wiltshire Bob · Aug 28, 2021

MrNoo said:
Plenty, all my crops this year are non assured. Homes are easy to find. Prices are generally £5/t off market price. If you grow anything of any quality it will go, simple

Go on then, how many thousands of mt are you selling non assured, 1500mt of milling wheat? 3000mt of malting barley? or are we talking 100mt of feed wheat and 50mt of feed barley? what/where and who are these homes?

Steevo · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
Go on then, how many thousands of mt are you selling non assured, 1500mt of milling wheat? 3000mt of malting barley? or are we talking 100mt of feed wheat and 50mt of feed barley? what/where and who are these homes?

Are you a trader or similar grain industry employee by any chance? I've noticed from your posts that your perspective seems to be somewhat different from many posters on here. It almost comes across as aggressively defensive.

Wiltshire Bob · Aug 28, 2021

Steevo said:
Are you a trader or similar grain industry employee by any chance? I've noticed from your posts that your perspective seems to be somewhat different from many posters on here. It almost comes across as aggressively defensive.

May be its the way you are reading them? Maybe, I'm a farmer that understands what happens outside my own boundary and as a businessman, producing a product, there are certain things I have to adhere to.

Steevo · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
May be its the way you are reading them? Maybe, I'm a farmer that understands what happens outside my own boundary and as a businessman, producing a product, there are certain things I have to adhere to.

Thanks. You've confirmed my suspicions.

Jackov Altraids · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
Yeah I hear you, and I understand, but my question was to the previous poster who was debating premiums and discounts. We are in the UK market and the consumer, when buying UK produce wants assured grain, To some extent its irrelevant whether imported its assured or not as they aren't buying UK assured grain. Its an argument that will never end, and will always be this way, its just not worth expelling any energy on it. I mean are you likely to become non assured just because you disagree with it?

But how many are? and how much do they use? how much grain is imported into the UK in a normal year, (whatever a normal year is), last year a lot was imported because the UK couldn't produce it. So it had to be sourced from somewhere.

Is that a number? The answer is very few.

So everyone ditches their RT status, all prices are whatever the price is, and one or two homes open up asking for rt grain and are happy to pay a premium for it.

No.5 of the NFU's key principles for food assurance;

Seek to add value through segmentation and market differentiation where there is a need to deliver different value propositions to different markets, without inflating the core standard and eroding value to scheme members.

It is vital that when taking your produce to the mill, market, store etc. that you can choose to sell assured @ price A or non-assured @ price B.
Nobody is willing to make A more than B so they do not offer a price B or RT prevent them from offering it [ unless it is imported].

So yes you are right. The solution would be for everyone to ditch their RT status.

An Gof · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
Go on then, how many thousands of mt are you selling non assured, 1500mt of milling wheat? 3000mt of malting barley? or are we talking 100mt of feed wheat and 50mt of feed barley? what/where and who are these homes?

You’m obviously some big man

MrNoo · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
Go on then, how many thousands of mt are you selling non assured, 1500mt of milling wheat? 3000mt of malting barley? or are we talking 100mt of feed wheat and 50mt of feed barley? what/where and who are these homes?

I'm 550ac of arable so not a lot in the grand scheme of things, just simply had enough of the nonsense, it is certainly interesting and opens your eyes re the trade and unassured. I dare not air my conclusions on here as already got into grief for a couple of posts and had to remove them.
But I will say RT isnt worth the paper it's written, an utter farce

Humble Village Farmer · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
May be its the way you are reading them? Maybe, I'm a farmer that understands what happens outside my own boundary and as a businessman, producing a product, there are certain things I have to adhere to.

If you understood what was happening to the crops outside your boundary, you would know that the current model of farm assurance adds cost for no benefit to the producer.

Tarw Coch · Aug 28, 2021

Wiltshire Bob said:
Go on then, how many thousands of mt are you selling non assured, 1500mt of milling wheat? 3000mt of malting barley? or are we talking 100mt of feed wheat and 50mt of feed barley? what/where and who are these homes?

How many acres are you farming?
How many acres of what crops do you grow?

7610 super q · Aug 28, 2021

FarmerStu's brovver from another movver.

BrianV · Aug 28, 2021

Jackov Altraids said:
But surely it's almost worse than doing nothing to publish a set of principles and then have Minette Batters and Stuart Roberts on full RT support mode when they clearly do not meet those principles.
That certainly haven't acknowledged that they have lost more members over this than any other issue and continue to run with the fox and hunt with the hounds.

Let’s be honest as far as the vast majority of UK farmers are concerned Minette Batters is a complete waste of time doing more harm than good!

mountfarm · Aug 28, 2021

Steevo said:
Thanks. You've confirmed my suspicions.

Yes he is a plant.

mountfarm · Aug 28, 2021

BrianV said:
Let’s be honest as far as the vast majority of UK farmers are concerned Minette Batters is a complete waste of time doing more harm than good!

She’s well out of her depth now and can’t cope or deal with the job. Rumour mill says she’s going.

Tarw Coch · Aug 28, 2021

mountfarm said:
She’s well out of her depth now and can’t cope or deal with the job. Rumour mill says she’s going.

I’ll lay odds on she ain’t going nowhere until her term of office is up.

She might not do a second term of course, which is unusual for a NFU president, Tim Bennett being the last and only one I can recall, not that did him any harm, still got a seat on the gravy train

graham mc · Aug 28, 2021

Tarw Coch said:
I’ll lay odds on she ain’t going nowhere until her term of office is up.

She might not do a second term of course, which is unusual for a NFU president, Tim Bennett being the last and only one I can recall, not that did him any harm, still got a seat on the gravy train

She will want her seat on the gravy train before she goes

trouble is there is another that will pop up thinking they can save farming only to be swallowed up or groomed by the hidden top bods at the nfu

NFU shafts Red Tractor

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As a British, farmer-owned cooperative, we behave differently to other businesses. We provide security, we act fairly, we’re efficient and we create value.​

When you commit your grain to us, you automatically become a shareholder. We can use our size, scale, strength and long-standing experience to secure the very best deal for you.​

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As a British, farmer-owned cooperative, we behave differently to other businesses. We provide security, we act fairly, we’re efficient and we create value.

When you commit your grain to us, you automatically become a shareholder. We can use our size, scale, strength and long-standing experience to secure the very best deal for you.

As a British, farmer-owned cooperative, we behave differently to other businesses. We provide security, we act fairly, we’re efficient and we create value.

When you commit your grain to us, you automatically become a shareholder. We can use our size, scale, strength and long-standing experience to secure the very best deal for you.