agronomy

[Brisel]

I think you need to compare like with like. FMP are about price. Groups offer more support with fees & levies. Serviced is a lot of backup ad field walking, for a greater price.

Which group @T Hectares ? Orion, Crop Advisors, Agritek?

 

[T Hectares]

Crop Advisors...

What I was getting at re Fmp was that the groups strong because it's well supported by its members, and gives benefits beyond purchasing, if all its members started buying inputs elsewhere for a very small discount it just weakens the group imo.

 

[Feldspar]

Sound like a broken record on this, but I think there is so much scope for farmers to save money on inputs by doing their own agronomy or having a good independent. I have a really good independent person that I ring up a lot and and often send pictures of things via Whatsapp. We probably only meet him in person about three times a year. Mostly I use his advice over the phone and NIAB TAG. I think without NIAB membership I couldn't do what I do. I find it invaluable. Getting involved with the agronomy I find is really rewarding.

I was talking to a farmer the other day. He has a manager, book-keeper, agronomist and financial consultant. I do slightly wonder what that actually leaves for him to do.

 

[T Hectares]

I was talking to a farmer the other day. He has a manager, book-keeper, agronomist and financial consultant. I do slightly wonder what that actually leaves for him to do.

Easy, he's busy keeping an eye on said people ***cliche alert *** while driving about in a Range Rover...

 

[Feldspar]

Easy, he's busy keeping an eye on said people ***cliche alert *** while driving about in a Range Rover...

Complaining about how little money there is in farming.

 

[T Hectares]

Complaining about how little money there is in farming.

And how much red tape there is ( for his staff to deal with)

 

[Feldspar]

And how much red tape there is ( for his staff to deal with)

And when he gets caught up in it it's so difficult to untangle because it's the same colour as his trousers.

 

[Boysground]

Sound like a broken record on this, but I think there is so much scope for farmers to save money on inputs by doing their own agronomy or having a good independent. I have a really good independent person that I ring up a lot and and often send pictures of things via Whatsapp. We probably only meet him in person about three times a year. Mostly I use his advice over the phone and NIAB TAG. I think without NIAB membership I couldn't do what I do. I find it invaluable. Getting involved with the agronomy I find is really rewarding.

I was talking to a farmer the other day. He has a manager, book-keeper, agronomist and financial consultant. I do slightly wonder what that actually leaves for him to do.

Whatapp is great. My agronomist uses it quite a lot. All the customers get alerts and often photos of what he wants us to look for. He also has a separate maize group on it as not all his customers grow maize.

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[Two Tone]

Agronomy and which ag-chems we use are the major cost and yield influencer of all arable crop production.

IMO, it simply isn't right to have an agronomist who your rarely see and just sends you emails of what he/she wants you to spray. He/she needs to regularly speak to you and you both need to have an understanding of exactly what you are trying to jointly achieve.

This is so important, that it matters not if they are independent or work for a distributor. You can still save money both ways by buying through a buying group.

Better still if you can do all the spraying yourself. You will then see all the problems and the benefits that your agronomist is trying to achieve for you.

You need to be able to bounce ideas off each other and he/she should really appreciate that you are very interested in the whole subject of agronomy.

Ideally, you need a relationship where you are both comfortable to go to trials and demonstrations together and discuss their relevance to your own situation back home (or not!).

 

[ajd132]

Sound like a broken record on this, but I think there is so much scope for farmers to save money on inputs by doing their own agronomy or having a good independent. I have a really good independent person that I ring up a lot and and often send pictures of things via Whatsapp. We probably only meet him in person about three times a year. Mostly I use his advice over the phone and NIAB TAG. I think without NIAB membership I couldn't do what I do. I find it invaluable. Getting involved with the agronomy I find is really rewarding.

I was talking to a farmer the other day. He has a manager, book-keeper, agronomist and financial consultant. I do slightly wonder what that actually leaves for him to do.

Moaning that they can't make any money I bet!

 

[Brisel]

Sound like a broken record on this, but I think there is so much scope for farmers to save money on inputs by doing their own agronomy or having a good independent. I have a really good independent person that I ring up a lot and and often send pictures of things via Whatsapp. We probably only meet him in person about three times a year. Mostly I use his advice over the phone and NIAB TAG. I think without NIAB membership I couldn't do what I do. I find it invaluable. Getting involved with the agronomy I find is really rewarding.

I was talking to a farmer the other day. He has a manager, book-keeper, agronomist and financial consultant. I do slightly wonder what that actually leaves for him to do.

It all depends on where your specialities lie & the time available. I'm BASIS registered and still have an agronomist because I don't have the time to walk fields properly in peak growing season. I can bounce ideas off him too & his knowledge of local crop issues is priceless. I do my own recs & fertiliser though. A buying group sorts the chemicals & I check to see if generics/parallels are approved for the crops and growth stages when I get the order confirmations back. Many farmers just don't have the time to keep up with label changes, trials results etc so are happy to sub that job out to an agronomist. Personally, I'd rather keep a close eye on hundreds of thousands of £ that we spend on crop inputs to make sure everything is right and justified.

 

[cornishking]

You need a BASIS qualified person to provide a recommendation to satisfy red tractor and cross compliance I believe

This might be a good time to mention that TFF is currently involved with a new start up “virtual agronomy” service that will use tech to bridge the gap between field and advice, leveraging a team of specialists whilst providing a much lower cost route to independant agronomy for us farmers but still with options to have a agronomist on farm via a combination of physical and “virtual” visits and team colabaration

If all goes to plan it will launch this autumn

Hi Clive, any updates on "virtual Agronomy" please?

 

[curlietailz]

I use a good Independant Agronomist ... pay a £/ha fee
He buys all the chemicals and fert “en bloc” for all his acres and tends to use lower cost individual ingredient/spray rather than the new fancy expensive spray ..... and I believe we get much better service and cost savings over a big company serviced agronomist

Ps. I’m interested in the Virtual Agronomy too as it’s always wise to understand what’s being recommended and why.

 

[ollie989898]

hi thanks for the reply's
we get 1 visit every 14 days at the moment. we have a new agronomist that has just taken over and I am not overlay impressed.
he told us to put a growth reg on the spring barley that is only at 2 -3 leaf stage and that it needed slug pellets as they were hammering it ( slugs don't pull the entire plant out and leave it on the surface) also a growth reg on the wheat that isn't knee high ( we use all the straw so need as much as we can get )

Growth reg will not shorten crops as much as you think, certainly not if you are using them early.

 

[shakerator]

Sound like a broken record on this, but I think there is so much scope for farmers to save money on inputs by doing their own agronomy or having a good independent. I have a really good independent person that I ring up a lot and and often send pictures of things via Whatsapp. We probably only meet him in person about three times a year. Mostly I use his advice over the phone and NIAB TAG. I think without NIAB membership I couldn't do what I do. I find it invaluable. Getting involved with the agronomy I find is really rewarding.

I was talking to a farmer the other day. He has a manager, book-keeper, agronomist and financial consultant. I do slightly wonder what that actually leaves for him to do.

I think age, confidence and responsibility are 3 drivers here.

Soon there won’t be agronomy as we know it anyway ...

 

[Brisel]

Don't forget time and interest. Many would rather outsource what is quite a specialist subject.

 

[Feldspar]

I think there is a big difference between those farmers who seek quality external advice from a consultant but remain intimately involved in the decision-making process, and those who effectively cede their decision-making power and thereby, IMO, abrogate their responsibility for an absolutely integral part of what I understanding farming to be. The latter are often those who get ripped off by their suppliers and don't realise that it's happening. I have seen enough of this first-hand to be pretty cross about it. Both the farmer and the supplier deserve criticism in these instances (all IMO of course).