Ergot Claims

DrWazzock · Sep 18, 2021

Flatlander said:
With the number of farmers having loads rejected there is a good business opening for a mobile colour sorter and gravity table.

They do exist but the layout and handling system for grain particularly on older smaller farmyards can make it a difficult job to get the sorter into the system. Not cheap either. One way or another I would say the cost of lower ergot thresholds is knocking £20 a ton off in sorting and extra haulage costs. Who agreed to lower limits and who accepted the extra cost to our industry? It wasn’t very well publicised either in my view. But anyway it’s here now. Everything going straight off the combine here to central storage from now on. End of the road for my own on farm storage not just because of ergot but for a variety of reasons.
You just can’t do this job on a shoestring any more., But will people be willing to pay for all these extras? I doubt it.

Flatlander · Sep 18, 2021

Very good points drwazzock. The make your first loss the last one approach. Do you think ergot has become more of an issue with varieties or reduced tillage.?

Rookie · Sep 18, 2021

What annoys me about ergot is a merchant's dual standards. (One used to be bad, hence stopped using).
On many occasions when filling the drill you could easily find ergot in the seed. When you speak to supplier, you usually get told they are allowed a certain % of contaminants such as wild oats, ergot etc. I then point out if my load of feed wheat has any ergot it is liable to get rejected.!
How much ergot is in the seed at the start as it goes through a dresser and colour sorter before being bagged up, where as feed wheat generally only goes through the combine.

Doom and gloom · Sep 18, 2021

Try a good tip for the driver to stop near to destination and Pick it off the top as it Moves up during transport.posibly 40 or 50 pounds which is still cheap

DrWazzock · Sep 18, 2021

Flatlander said:
Very good points drwazzock. The make your first loss the last one approach. Do you think ergot has become more of an issue with varieties or reduced tillage.?

I think it’s worse with reduced tillage, non inversion tillage, conservation agriculture, and if you have much grass around.
On the one hand they push us towards more “environmentally friendly” systems but this comes at the cost of increased pestilence. We have forgotten the reasons for good hygiene in farming systems and now as they are relaxed we see the negative results on crop quality. FWIW we are ploughing everything this year. It counts for nothing that you have tried a more benign approach when they find a piece of ergot in the load. Lesson learned.

DrWazzock · Sep 18, 2021

Full rate autumn herbicide for grass weeds as well. No more messing about.

DrWazzock · Sep 18, 2021

I think this ergot situation nicely sums up the position that farmers now find themselves in.
We are at the mercy of the idealistic aspirations of a variety of different pressure groups making conflicting demands on us. It’s quite difficult to produce ultra safe polished commodities straight off the farm while been told to use less chemical, less intensive production methods while providing habitat for “nature”.
The worst of it is nobody seems to understand the dilemmas we now face or fights our corner. It’s seen as “inevitable” or “progress” but really I think it’s yet another kick back of costs onto our industry. Who speaks up for us? Nobody other then maybe Mr Clarkson. NFU, RT etc aren’t even on the same page.
Saturday morning rant over. I’ve beans to combine so I’ll move on.

teslacoils · Sep 18, 2021

Zero tolerance of risk in any situation in modern life. "What's the risk / should we be worried about X" is media fodder.

GeorgeK · Sep 18, 2021

teslacoils said:
Zero tolerance of risk in any situation in modern life. "What's the risk / should we be worried about X" is media fodder.

Apart from the risk of not being able to get sweet F A done in this country any more

DrWazzock · Sep 18, 2021

I think feed wheat supply contracts need a serious coat of looking at. If they state “zero ergot” then why are any of us agreeing to them? The U.K. ergot limit for feed wheat is 0.001% so shouldn’t that be the limit in the contract and if the mill turns a load away for a lower amount than that then shouldn’t they stand the cost of the diversion as they have reneged on the contract?

tullah · Sep 18, 2021

Another case of standing together or the lack of. We should collectively sort out our own contracts for everything we grow and tell them to like it or lump it just as theyve all done over the past 50 years.
They would have no option but to like it.

Mixedupfarmer · Sep 18, 2021

tullah said:
Another case of standing together or the lack of. We should collectively sort out our own contracts for everything we grow and tell them to like it or lump it just as theyve all done over the past 50 years.
They would have no option but to like it.

Need some sort of a farmers union to represent us and sort these things, a national one

Dave645 · Sep 18, 2021

tullah said:
Another case of standing together or the lack of. We should collectively sort out our own contracts for everything we grow and tell them to like it or lump it just as theyve all done over the past 50 years.
They would have no option but to like it.

Yes and bring back 16% moisture limits we only moved to 15% because EU intervention required it, when was the last load that went to intervention.
I actually think a standard contract spec could be set by farmers.
It should have pluses and penalties, unlike the just penalties we have now, so send 75 bushel weight you get a plus etc send under 15% (16%) plus to the price, the system where you are over by 0.1%moisture you get a penalty but the next load is under by 0.5% you get zero extra is just the mills taking advantage, we all know they do zero to the load with 15.1% moisture.
If RT had that plus and Penalty built into its passport spec then half the complains over Premium would disappear.
That and make the trade and retail fund RT not farmers.

teslacoils · Sep 18, 2021

Think of the carbon savings at 16 percent. Plus, we have a chance of getting it on more than three days a year.

DrWazzock · Sep 18, 2021

The system could certainly use a dose of intelligence. Drying stuff down only for customers to add water to it is a real waste of resources. Not saying it’s always the case but in my experience cereals roll better at 16% than below 15, where they just seem to shatter.
I’d also like to see an on farm standard test for ergot levels in feed cereals as well. We can then load with confidence and save everybody a lot of wasted effort. Something like push a cylinder in the heap that holds approx 10 kg. Pull it out, spread the sample out, pick out and weigh any ergot. If it’s above 1 ergot grain over several samples then it’s too high and needs colour sorting first. We can manage it then, rather than taking pot luck at the mill intake and incurring avoidable transport charges.

ajd132 · Sep 18, 2021

DrWazzock said:
The system could certainly use a dose of intelligence. Drying stuff down only for customers to add water to it is a real waste of resources. Not saying it’s always the case but in my experience cereals roll better at 16% than below 15, where they just seem to shatter.
I’d also like to see an on farm standard test for ergot levels in feed cereals as well. We can then load with confidence and save everybody a lot of wasted effort. Something like push a cylinder in the heap that holds approx 10 kg. Pull it out, spread the sample out, pick out and weigh any ergot. If it’s above 1 ergot grain over several samples then it’s too high and needs colour sorting first. We can manage it then, rather than taking pot luck at the mill intake and incurring avoidable transport charges.

Same must go for malsters isn’t barley 14%?

7610 super q · Sep 18, 2021

Just tell the mill they're rat droppings.
Thank me later.

Humble Village Farmer · Sep 18, 2021

Surely anything farm assured is perfectly safe so doesn't need testing or cleaning?

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