£91 to raise a fat lamb???

[Turra farmer]

Yes, i wasnt born into it so probably why i notice it.

I was born into it , but went away for 20 years and now doing both ,

 

[Kiwi Pete]

This whole thread I've been summoning up the courage to admit - I bought store lambs for $41.03 last year.... how the actual eff, does anyone justify selling a store lamb for that type of money?
Yes they were rubbish and took me 4 or 5 months to get to 47 kilo, I'll admit..
But, that's about £23 to run a scrawny ewe for a year and cut the tail off her lamb, quad bikes don't run on sunshine, I have no clue as to how that can be done here there or anywhere. Farm is about 2000 ewes and a few hundred cattle down the way.

Any ideas, I've had a year to think about it now.



I'm both sad for the guy, to sell them for that money, and also quite impressed.

 

[Turra farmer]

His days are numbered, they have made a brick laying robot that can work 7 days 0-24...

Not a chance , maybe more factory prefabrication and panel systems ,

 

[Farma Parma]

Am no sheep farmer but neighbour here assures me its £59 as a minimum to raise a fat lamb cutting no corners & doing job properly
good job he starts lambing early as the first 2months he sells them there normally way above that price.
Ramadam or whatever its called it a good time to sell lambs he often says.
Tenanted Mixed Farm costings here. not luxury owed farm outright or anything

 

[neilo]

Same with time, to a reasonable degree.
It can all get a teeny bit silly when farmers try to work out costs - as someone said above, if you're out for a walk and happen to see a thistle, you kick it out.
On the way back you look over your sheep and make a management decision to leave them be,,
Not every action must incur a cost, just as not every moment of your life need make a difference to something.

The more you try to account for it all, the more pointless it becomes... the mortgage coming down is the best yardstick of performance, although the fag packet helps get it there.
Some folk would have you wonder if getting a grease nipple working again is really worth the time.

No wonder the job isn't for everyone

What's a grease nipple?

 

[Grassman]

This thinking is so woolly that I am going to offer it to Texacloth.

The land in your example has no 'cost'.

Thus, you can undercut other farmers with rent or a mortgage to pay, regardless of whether you choose to apply it in a lettings business, sheep, cattle or any other enterprise.

This is called a 'competitive advantage'.

So really the supermarkets are correct when they work out a farmers cost of production for goods they buy off them. You will make a living at their prices so long as you own the land.

 

[Henarar]

What's a grease nipple?

do you know what a nipple is ?
don't get the two confused

 

[Henarar]

This whole thread I've been summoning up the courage to admit - I bought store lambs for $41.03 last year

I can never remember, how much is that in real money ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

What's a grease nipple?

It's one of those little teat shaped things that still have paint on 'well looked after and maintained' used machinery.
I just use a big scythe for everything around here, grease is for wimps.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I can never remember, how much is that in real money ?

I think it works out to £91.50

 

[Henarar]

It's one of those little teat shaped things that still have paint on 'well looked after and maintained' used machinery.
I just use a big scythe for everything around here, grease is for wimps.

you don't grease your scythe when you put it away

 

[Walterp]

So really the supermarkets are correct when they work out a farmers cost of production for goods they buy off them. You will make a living at their prices so long as you own the land.

Fascinating observation.

This dynamic explains the mechanism by which UK food output would decline under free trade - tenants gradually go bust or retire, and mortgagors sell up, and the 'slack' production they represent is not taken up in the ordinary way (because borrowing or renting is no longer viable); output ends up being concentrated on farms that have been paid for in better times.

It's the policy equivalent to 'living on depreciation' - sooner or later, those farmers themselves have to sell or retire and, if conditions don't alter, the down-spiral of reducing output continues.

It explains Arthur Street's conclusion that, if the UK had not abandoned free trade in 1933, home agriculture would in due course have collapsed completely.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

you don't grease your scythe when you put it away

No, I just put it under the bed when I hop in at night.
Keeps the Brethren away when they see me hacking the clover down around the yard, they turn, and don't dare look back

 

[Henarar]

No, I just put it under the bed when I hop in at night.
Keeps the Brethren away when they see me hacking the clover down around the yard, they turn, and don't dare look back

actually you are meant to oil a scythe, a rub over with an oily rag will do, works on other things too,
see you stick with me and you will learn something every day
most of it complete and utter rubbish

 

[Kiwi Pete]

actually you are meant to oil a scythe, a rub over with an oily rag will do, works on other things too,
see you stick with me and you will learn something every day
most of it complete and utter rubbish

Does sweat count as oil?
I do work things pretty hard.

I have noticed the handle on my grubber has a wee split in the handle though
So I'll have to save up and get a wee tin of linseed oil.

To be fair though, without being museum material and going wildly OT
There is actually, then, financial gain to be had simply stuffing around on foot with the grubber or the slasher.
You see all
You hear all
And you have time to think on the way home again.
It's quite a productive hour spent.

If I was my neighbour it would take 3 trips on a bike to not do half as much.

He has weeds, and lambs through the fence he doesn't even know about.
Wonder what a lamb is worth to him?

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Am no sheep farmer but neighbour here assures me its £59 as a minimum to raise a fat lamb cutting no corners & doing job properly
good job he starts lambing early as the first 2months he sells them there normally way above that price.
Ramadam or whatever its called it a good time to sell lambs he often says.
Tenanted Mixed Farm costings here. not luxury owed farm outright or anything

Everybody's cop will be different,depending on circumstances and systems. Early lambing generally creates higher costs, and therefore fewer people do it, so there's less lambs and price is higher. It's all supply and demand.

 

[Grassman]

Fascinating observation.

This dynamic explains the mechanism by which UK food output would decline under free trade - tenants gradually go bust or retire, and mortgagors sell up, and the 'slack' production they represent is not taken up in the ordinary way (because borrowing or renting is no longer viable); output ends up being concentrated on farms that have been paid for in better times.

It's the policy equivalent to 'living on depreciation' - sooner or later, those farmers themselves have to sell or retire and, if conditions don't alter, the down-spiral of reducing output continues.

It explains Arthur Street's conclusion that, if the UK had not abandoned free trade in 1933, home agriculture would in due course have collapsed completely.

Seems we are in a downward spiral where farmers can only survive without debt or rent which by anyone's calculations can't carry on for long!

 

[michael N123]

Theres plenty of store lambs been getting sold for £15-50 at kirby

 

[digger64]

Fascinating observation.

This dynamic explains the mechanism by which UK food output would decline under free trade - tenants gradually go bust or retire, and mortgagors sell up, and the 'slack' production they represent is not taken up in the ordinary way (because borrowing or renting is no longer viable); output ends up being concentrated on farms that have been paid for in better times.

It's the policy equivalent to 'living on depreciation' - sooner or later, those farmers themselves have to sell or retire and, if conditions don't alter, the down-spiral of reducing output continues.

It explains Arthur Street's conclusion that, if the UK had not abandoned free trade in 1933, home agriculture would in due course have collapsed completely.

But the larger owner occupiers tend to have fixed costs / overheads that would exceed most rents ,obviously they could change this , but would they choose to ?

 

[Walterp]

Seems we are in a downward spiral where farmers can only survive without debt or rent which by anyone's calculations can't carry on for long!

It's hard to say - it took a generation for the repeal of the Corn Laws to lead to the Long Depression.

Intervening events get in the way - the Gold Rush, the Crimea, the US Civil War, so there's lots of things that can cloud the link between cause and effect for many years.

And it can apply in reverse: the invention of the binder/reaper, the expansion of the American West, and cheap rail and sea links, all kicked in together so that free trade in agricultural produce suddenly punched UK farming in the guts, after a Golden Age.

Even the weather turned against English farmers, with a succession of poor Summers.

If anyone would like a potted history of this interesting period in UK farming I can pen one.