The Governments assault on livestock farming.

kfpben

Member
Location
Mid Hampshire
True

Livestock markets gone
Small local abattoirs gone
Local livestock hauliers gone
Milk collection dead zones
The list goes on
Are you not viewing that through quite an East Anglian lense?
I imagine arable infrastructure over there has improved and been invested in as farming in the Eastern counties has specialised in cropping.

In the Westcountry, SW Scotland etc the milkfield has grown and intensified.
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Are you not viewing that through quite an East Anglian lense?
I imagine arable infrastructure over there has improved and been invested in as farming in the Eastern counties has specialised in cropping.

In the Westcountry, SW Scotland etc the milkfield has grown and intensified.
Not quite - it's a big area

No 4 wheeler livestock trucks in many areas these days

Around here almost impossible to have a choice of contractor for fencing, round baling and other supplies
 

kfpben

Member
Location
Mid Hampshire
It's everywhere. Like some sort of drip...drip...drip... torture. Even my local village FB page has numpties that pipe up with phrases like " sustainable farming ", and " less intensive farming ", probably gleaned from the likes of Countryfile.
The nearest they've come to farming is bagging up dog shite and hanging up on a branch. Yet we have to listen to half baked drivel from every Tom, Dick, and Karon.
When I point out I farmed organically for 25 years, that's pooh-poohed as well. I've just reached the conclusion the general public just don't like farmers.
What other industry has to put up with this meddling ? Does everyone have a say on how Honda cars are built in the Swindon factory ? No. Honda does as they please. Mass campaigning against the French building Nuclear power stations here ? No. Not a peep.
Oh well, another 10 years till retirement.... :)
We’re not alone- everyone has an opinion on teachers, the NHS, police etc. If the public hasn’t got an opinion on your job or probably doesn’t matter very much!

Opinion polls consistently rate farmers among the most respected professions. Easy to ground ourselves down into a pit of misery listening to Monbiot, Packham etc.
You only need to see the shear volume of farming programmes on tv to see the public’s interest in our industry.
 

easy farming

Member
Livestock Farmer
I’m a bit more positive about things. Since the latest climate report there seems to be a lot more clear blame on fossil fuels. It’s such a simple message - if we dig up and burn carbon based fuels, we put more carbon into the atmosphere - that the vast majority of people understand it and almost feel relieved that they can carry on eating meat with a clear conscience.
The vocal few are now starting to shoot themselves in their collective feet. Reports of the great unwashed climate protestors in London leavings tons of plastic waste in their wake, Emma Thompson flying thousands of miles to support them, the insulation protestors causing pollution by stopping the M25 etc.
We need to keep pushing the positive message wherever we can.
Agreed, one of our dairy execs said the issue we have is that our industry can be attacked in soundbites but can only be defended in paragraphs, the attention span for many these days does not last much longer than a soundbite but we have to just keep on pushing the message to the public whenever we have the opportunity.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Agreed, one of our dairy execs said the issue we have is that our industry can be attacked in soundbites but can only be defended in paragraphs, the attention span for many these days does not last much longer than a soundbite but we have to just keep on pushing the message to the public whenever we have the opportunity.
I quite liked this from FB earlier:

IMG_1583.PNG


I didn't share it because "L L University" is not a university at all but it does make the point well.

I'm not sure their caption is quite what we need for a sound bite for mainstream media though.....
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
I’ve eaten some dodgy food in my time but McDonald’s I won’t touch at any price,carbon foot print must be immense by the time all those ingredients have been sourced from point of production. Hope that One day these vegans and vegetarians look back at their grand parents and figure out it was eating real food that kept them strong and healthy not eating crap produced at dr Frankenstein kitchen.
 

texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that we can't win the argument of how much the country benefits from livestock farming if we don't know the real motivation of those conspiring against us.
I think we are proving that the whole UK meat is bad for emissions is wrong so the argument shifted to "livestock use 80% of land in the UK which should be reduced".
Proving that 80% of of land depends on livestock to function sustainably won't succeed either if that isn't their real argument.
Is it actually possible to be in anyway sustainable without the involvement of livestock?

I feel that the future is being looked at like the anatomy of a body with various sector seen as vital organs. They seemed to have forgotten that none of those organs are much good without blood. Livestock is the lifeblood of soils,nature and our future.
Livestock and grass are the lifeline of the planet and Wildlife.Just shows how politicians are easily misled ,they don't seem to do their own research.All they want to do is trade deals around the World which means more gas guzzling planes and ships.We export X to A and A exports X back to us.Madness.
 

Muddyroads

Member
NFFN Member
Location
Exeter, Devon
Agreed, one of our dairy execs said the issue we have is that our industry can be attacked in soundbites but can only be defended in paragraphs, the attention span for many these days does not last much longer than a soundbite but we have to just keep on pushing the message to the public whenever we have the opportunity.
I was thinking about this today.
The simple message needs to be that if mankind has damaged the climate by burning fossil fuels over the last 200 years, the last thing we should be doing now is destroying the planets ecosystem by removing livestock from the equation.
 

tepapa

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Wales
Does ag need it's own short soundbites? Such as the concrete in HS2 is pumping out X amount of co2? One flight to wherever is pumping out X tons of co2 Etc, don't mention farming at all just what other industries are doing to the climate
 

kfpben

Member
Location
Mid Hampshire
Our farm has arable crops, soft fruit and keeps cattle and sheep.

Hand on heart the livestock are best for the environment and wildlife. Less sprays on the grassland, more insects, more birds and of course producing muck for the cropped land.
Anyone who genuinely argues that continuous arable is somehow better for the environment than farming with livestock is either deeply misguided or has a sinister agenda.
 

C.J

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Devon
I was thinking about this today.
The simple message needs to be that if mankind has damaged the climate by burning fossil fuels over the last 200 years, the last thing we should be doing now is destroying the planets ecosystem by removing livestock from the equation.
1631823734272.png


The 1695 to 1730 warming was greater than our current warm period , and pre industrial too.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
We’re not alone- everyone has an opinion on teachers, the NHS, police etc. If the public hasn’t got an opinion on your job or probably doesn’t matter very much!

Opinion polls consistently rate farmers among the most respected professions. Easy to ground ourselves down into a pit of misery listening to Monbiot, Packham etc.
You only need to see the shear volume of farming programmes on tv to see the public’s interest in our industry.
Quite.

The numbers of "armchair experts" out there on teaching is quite staggering. I guess it's because everyone has been a pupil, so they think, by association they know what good teaching entails. I'm well aware of what it's like not to enjoy school, I didn't myself.

So, I get both of these things - lecturing in livestock production, having been a livestock farmer. TFF is quite tame, I really don't engage much on social media anymore, even on farmer pages. Seems on facebook, having a different view to someone is licence for them to stalk you, including apparently joining Linkedin just to find out about my career and professional associates.
Some of the accusations are laughable. Apparently I'm a communist (baffling) and "another lefty lecturer poisoning the minds of our kids". I don't see them until they are 18, I don't really discuss politics (except as pertains to farming) and, more importantly they are bloody adults and ought to be able to cope with hearing differing opinions and deciding for themselves whether they agree or don't.
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
Yeah, i'll give you one. Tesco's freezers burn more electricity than does all of UK agriculture.
And anyone who wants to come out with any guff that Tesco are our biggest customer so we should be nice to them, no, Tesco aren't our customer, the public are our customer, Tesco are just the parasite in the middle.

Is T*sco offsetting? If so, how? Carbon credits, or leeching from low carbon footprint customers doesn't count.
Does it have acres of solar power strapped to its roofs? If not, why not? Lack of FiT is no excuse for it not to.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 75 43.6%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 61 35.5%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 27 15.7%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
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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