£91 to raise a fat lamb???

[M-J-G]

Draft Ewes bought in North Wales for £2-50 each and claimed £30 sub on 3 months latter, put them to a Suffolk Tup and kept the X breed lambs , they were wintered on roots, along with the £10 i got for the lambs I done ok until I deducted my wage of £100/hour

Why did you stop to be a hay dealer if it were that easy to farm 3000 ewes with one man?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Why did you stop to be a hay dealer if it were that easy to farm 3000 ewes with one man?

Where did I say it was easy, hay dealer was nothing to do with it that's a separate company to my farming apart from the haylage it supplies,
I was paying a man and I did not see enough profit in sheep to pay that man, I can grow cereals on the best ground and get good rents on the other, I am past doing livestock work myself

 

[DRC]

Earlier in the year, I put up a similar thread, where folk were saying that they were 'losing' £20 per lamb produced. . . . . .

There's going to be a few interesting years ahead that's for sure. Hopefully there will be a lot of people leaving the industry, and hopefully all of the land they utilise will come on the market (for sale and rent) and the rest of us who survived will be able to forge ahead. . . . . . it's not nice getting to where you want to be over the bodies of the fallen . . . . . .but that's life. Life aint fair and it never has been. . . . . .

I noticed someone earlier on saying that £100 an acre is 'fair' rent, and FT is always banging on about getting £1 per head per week for tack. . . . . . . its stuff like this thats driven the cost of production up for so many. A fool and their money are easily parted!

Coupled with the raping of farmers by the supermarkets and its a pretty grim picture!

However. . . . . it still doesn't cost me £91 to raise a lamb. . . . . or even £71. And i'm pretty good with my COP.

Not quite as simple as that though . Your hoping that land and rent will become cheaper so you can expand, but so will everyone else, thus everyone starts outbidding each other again.

 

[M-J-G]

Where did I say it was easy, hay dealer was nothing to do with it that's a separate company to my farming apart from the haylage it supplies,
I was paying a man and I did not see enough profit in sheep to pay that man, I can grow cereals on the best ground and get good rents on the other, I am past doing livestock work myself

Oh sorry, you just make everything sound so easy, but it's easier to understand now that you've explained that you weren't actually doing any of the sheep work, it was your employee.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I was looking after the 800 cattle, but I had a gut full when we gad 2000 scotch mules lambing indoors

 

[CopperBeech]

Not quite as simple as that though . Your hoping that land and rent will become cheaper so you can expand, but so will everyone else, thus everyone starts outbidding each other again.

I know mate, you're pretty much right, sad to say. Either that, or it will get sold and go out of production, either as 'horse paddocks' or 'wild flower meadows'. Round here, its a very fast decline into an ornamental countryside!

But hey. . . . . we can hope.

I do have a feeling however that in a couple of decades time, agriculture in many parts of the U.K will be a memory.

 

[DRC]

I know mate, you're pretty much right, sad to say. Either that, or it will get sold and go out of production, either as 'horse paddocks' or 'wild flower meadows'. Round here, its a very fast decline into an ornamental countryside!

But hey. . . . . we can hope.

I do have a feeling however that in a couple of decades time, agriculture in many parts of the U.K will be a memory.[/
Less land being farmed might help prices improve on what's left, although I doubt it, as supermarkets will just import the cheapest they can get.

 

[IH 684]

Good well made hay is never wasted! better luck with the weather? or maybe just technique

Fair comment, hay is taken from land which doesn't get sprayed or fertilized, patches of nettles and other plants which can be classed as weeds grow in certain areas this ends up as sheep feed and they do well on it, what I have noticed with cutting and grazing rubbish patches are becoming less and less with more clover taking over

 

[Gulli]

We had some words with a supermarket buyer back in the summer about rubbish lamb price and importing nz lamb, etc ,etc. And he said as we were forward looking young farmers we could have talks with them about a fixed price contract.......but in return they would want to see our COP in detail. Surely thats a slippery slope

Worked out ok for the milk boys, maybe best to get into it when the lamb price is flying so people ridicule you for a couple of years and then wish they were you when the market goes the other way

 

[KMA]

Can't be @rsed reading back through the thread, but has anyone put the cost of getting the ewes in lamb to their costings? Or is it all by immaculate conception

 

[Henarar]

Can't be @rsed reading back through the thread, but has anyone put the cost of getting the ewes in lamb to their costings? Or is it all by immaculate conception

it all depends on .......................................
perhaps I better not

 

[Hilly]

I read threads like this on here often, my mate is s bricklayer I have never discussed money with him before until yesterday he asked how was farming I was explaining it wasn't brilliant at the moment , couldn't believe it when he said what he was earning !! £260 a day for 9 till three !!! No paper work makes farming look utterly ridicules !

 

[danjen]

Worked out ok for the milk boys, maybe best to get into it when the lamb price is flying so people ridicule you for a couple of years and then wish they were you when the market goes the other way

Why would anyone want to tell their customers their true COP ?

 

[Hilly]

Why would anyone want to tell their customers their true COP ?

Because they are farmers and have no business acumen, thus get screwed over big time.

 

[Cowabunga]

I read threads like this on here often, my mate is s bricklayer I have never discussed money with him before until yesterday he asked how was farming I was explaining it wasn't brilliant at the moment , couldn't believe it when he said what he was earning !! £260 a day for 9 till three !!! No paper work makes farming look utterly ridicules !

That's the thing. There are people here that actually think they are doing well by cutting costs to the bone and not working for a loss, rather than making a good return on the capital they put in on top of a tidy rate for the actual work they put in.
People here that absolutely would not believe that GP's, who are bitching about their pay and terms, average well over 100,000 per year take home before tax.

Some farmers just have blinkers on and don't know how other people live outside their little bubble. Not only how people that are better off do but also how people on a wage manage. Which is partly why that many farmers/contractors seem to think they are doing their workers a favour by paying at or below the minimum wage. They might well live on that themselves.

 

[Henarar]

if the workers don't like it then they can go and lay brick or so it would seem

 

[danjen]

Worked out ok for the milk boys, maybe best to get into it when the lamb price is flying so people ridicule you for a couple of years and then wish they were you when the market goes the other way

How has it worked out ok for the milk boys?

 

[Penmoel]

Just looking on the Macro mail leaflet.

Whole British Lamb Pack
Minimum weight 13.5 km
£68.99
Have it prepared by your in store butcher.

compared to this , which is what you call good marketing...

http://www.donaldrussell.com/lamb-leg-easy-carve-bone-in-l617.html

What makes it even worse is how I know about it?

My mother bought a leg at £49

Sirloin steak at £52 a kilo

 

[Gulli]

How has it worked out ok for the milk boys?

COP contracts...

 

[Hilly]

if the workers don't like it then they can go and lay brick or so it would seem

More importantly so could the farmer ! It's a shame a lot don't.