2022 Sugar beet price not enough

robbie · Nov 18, 2021

DrWazzock said:
I saw it. But no, I have decided to opt for a simpler life. Concentrating on combinables and parking up the beet harvesting kit.
16 acres of spring barley instead. Will take no time at all and much less hassle.
Cyclone is having last laugh till the end. Hydraulic filter doing its regular blocking up trick in the DB780 power unit and now starting to slow the hydraulics down quite seriously. Will have to drain transmission oil and fit new filter or risk knackering the pump a few acres from the end. The old oil is going back in though after passing through a pair of the Mrs's old tights. I never have managed to get all the water oil/emulsion out of the system so every two years the filter blocks. Every previous time I have put new oil in, but it never thanks me, hence the old stuff will be reused especially at todays prices.
So that's the end of 70 years beet growing here, not that our 500 tons will make much difference. We are right on the edge of the catchment area as well so no great loss either way. Next year South of France from October to March.

Are you sure????? This time!!!!?

two-cylinder · Nov 18, 2021

As you know we dropped out this year.
Kept getting calls from BS right up to April, so you've all got plenty of time to decide.
Deadline, what deadline?

two-cylinder · Nov 18, 2021

Spud said:
You'd buy a 6row Matrot M41 sp for under 5 grand but need someone to run alongside with a trailer

Know someone who did that a few years ago, he said it's no faster than the cyclone!
(He spend more days repairing it than he did using it!)

DrWazzock · Nov 18, 2021

robbie said:
Are you sure????? This time!!!!?

Yes. I think so. Time for a change. I'll leave it to you young'uns! I don't dislike the crop. Just doesn't fit our circumstances now. Keep up the good work.

Spud · Nov 18, 2021

two-cylinder said:
Know someone who did that a few years ago, he said it's no faster than the cyclone!
(He spend more days repairing it than he did using it!)

A single row cyclone is as fast as a 6row Matrot sp? Really?

DrWazzock · Nov 18, 2021

two-cylinder said:
Know someone who did that a few years ago, he said it's no faster than the cyclone!
(He spend more days repairing it than he did using it!)

I can believe it. Many a secondhand machine we have bought especially post year 2000 has ended up quite a drain on the "maintenance department".
You still get the odd good secondhand machine turns up but most stuff that would suit us has either been exported or is completely knackered.
Twenty years ago I'd relish crawling under a machine to fix something. Nowadays I'm more likely to fall asleep under it.

DrWazzock · Nov 18, 2021

Spud said:
A single row cyclone is as fast as a 6row Matrot sp? Really?

I was thinking about this. My Cyclone goes twice as fast as my neighbours contractors 6 row machine. So I am doing a third of his harvesting rate for a capital cost of £750 thirty years ago compared to £400k. Makes you think. The bottleneck here is actually Newark beet factory. Not the cyclone or the haulier. This drags the job out for weeks on end which is another reason for ditching it.

Hindsight · Nov 18, 2021

Goffer said:
Bs rang yesterday prompting us to reply. Quietly let on they'd lost one grower of 10k ton plus

Well that might help with the Newark factory output - a bit over days supply gone.

Flat 10 · Nov 18, 2021

Cheap garford just needs a new web and a rapide in a sale locally.

Goffer · Nov 18, 2021

Hindsight said:
Well that might help with the Newark factory output - a bit over days supply gone.

Be still at it in May!!!!

carbonfibre farmer · Nov 18, 2021

Flat 10 said:
Cheap garford just needs a new web and a rapide in a sale locally.

Few bits and bobs in that. All look tidy.

spin cycle · Nov 18, 2021

Flat 10 said:
Cheap garford just needs a new web and a rapide in a sale locally.

carbonfibre farmer said:
Few bits and bobs in that. All look tidy.

what've i missed now

.....i've lost my 'stalking powers'

carbonfibre farmer · Nov 18, 2021

spin cycle said:
what've i missed now .....i've lost my 'stalking powers'

Don't worry. Online only. Your can bid sat at home in your smoking jacket "I WILL buy that lot of hand tools!"

Spud · Nov 18, 2021

DrWazzock said:
I was thinking about this. My Cyclone goes twice as fast as my neighbours contractors 6 row machine. So I am doing a third of his harvesting rate for a capital cost of £750 thirty years ago compared to £400k. Makes you think. The bottleneck here is actually Newark beet factory. Not the cyclone or the haulier. This drags the job out for weeks on end which is another reason for ditching it.

How fast do you go? Our contractor lifts at 5-6kph with his 6row Vervaet

How much do you reckon it costs you to lift your beet @DrWazzock including your time?

Slow movement is as much down to who's beet your haulier takes as it is the factory, but no return loads has been called a lot recently

Laggard · Nov 19, 2021

Same here Robbie, lots of reminders and even a visit from the fieldsman. Apparently the 10% market linked beet would be worth £34/t if prices stayed the same. The whole tonneage should be that price and they wouldn’t have to go round begging for beet.

robbie · Nov 19, 2021

So the tonnage that isn't market linked could BS market link that themselves and cream £7 a ton on top of there normal profits.

Daniel · Nov 19, 2021

robbie said:
So the tonnage that isn't market linked could be market link that themselves and cream £7 a ton on top of there neomal profits.

How cynical!

DrWazzock · Nov 19, 2021

Spud said:
How fast do you go? Our contractor lifts at 5-6kph with his 6row Vervaet

How much do you reckon it costs you to lift your beet @DrWazzock including your time?

Slow movement is as much down to who's beet your haulier takes as it is the factory, but no return loads has been called a lot recently

I harvest at 8 kph. Harvest 60 tons per day carting myself from a mile away. My time say £12 per hour for 8 hours. £100 per day. 2 acres a day so £50 an acre. Harvester costs in fuel and spares etc £800 a year so £40 an acre.
So harvesting and carting cost £90 per acre or £3 per tonne for a 30t per acre crop. Harvester depreciation isn’t much at all. Loading probably costs a £1 a tonne.
Costs can fluctuate wildly though. A new back tyre would take half my annual maintenance budget. Rebushing one of those little gearboxes on the the machine didn’t cost a lot in parts but me ages to find the right size bushes etc.
Well being honest the jobs still a goer financially as much as anything ever is in farming with risks etc but do I want that kind of work any more? Plus point, it’s independent, own boss etc. Minus point it’s tiring physically, a bit tedious and drags on all winter so doesn’t fill my time but you can’t really leave the place for long.
6 and half a dozen really but £30 a ton would probably swing it decisively. Ain’t go to happen though is it?

DrWazzock · Nov 19, 2021

Then there is the “specialty” cost. Everything else uses one drill , one combine harvester one cultivation technique. Beet requires a specialist set of machinery, timetable etc. Life would be much simpler without it but following that argument we could shrink away till we did nothing which isn’t right either. If I could find an alternative that brought in say £10k through the winter and didn’t involve working too hard or travelling miles then I wouldn’t continue with beet.

DrWazzock · Nov 19, 2021

My haulier turned up at Newark at 5.30 am on Monday and was told not to come back that day. I’m at a standstill on the beet front with 150 ton been in the shed now a fortnight. 400 ton still unharvested. 240 ton gone into factory.
My neighbour has lifted it all now using a contractor and has a heap like Mount Everest. They are trickling it away but I’d say it needs moving a lot faster. Bumper yields and slow factory isn’t a good combination.

2022 Sugar beet price not enough

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Up to 25%

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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