AHDB seeks farmer views on data sharing code of practice

[ollie989898]

The one thing that really fudges me off about these kinds of organisations is their apparent belief that they know how to spend farmers money better than the farmers themselves do. I am still at a loss to understand why agriculture, of all the industries that comprise our economy, is so afflicted by statutory bodies that exist 'for it's own good'. If you tried to levy builders or supermarkets, they would tell you ,rightly, to fcek off. But not farming, governments for some perverse reason, believe an industry that employs a fraction of the population and a modest segment of gross domestic product, warrants special attention. The training wheels are coming off, time to bring the industry into the real world and ditch all the burdensome carp: it isn't necessary, the industry can and does forge its own path.

 

[DrWazzock]

The basic concept of benchmarking is flawed IMO.

Consider fattening cattle. Benchmarking doesn't work very well. We all have different sized businesses with different feeding equipment, access to different feedstocks, different business models regarding staffing, different attitudes to risk and borrowing, different geographic location which entails different breeds and different TB status, different transport costs etc. How any kind of meaningful conclusion can be drawn as to where your own business fits in some kind of national performance league table and what to do about it is completely beyond me, if this is what benchmarking is?

Likewise, I can't really see the benefit of creating yet another huge database to store stuff like medicines used on each animal. No customer has ever asked to see my spray or medicine records in 30 years of farming, though they have been checked at farm level by quality assurance inspectors which surely is sufficient.

But no doubt we will have to bear the cost in time and systems needed to furnish this data for precious little benefit to ourselves just as today I have had to sign up and fork out for "making tax digital", yet another scheme that costs me time and money for absolutely no benefit whatsoever.

It really is getting tiresome accepting cost after cost for no real benefit.

It's an IT consultants dream though.

To be honest I have more basic problems to manage like rooks on my wheat. I looked on the Teasagc website and there it tells me that scarecrows wearing high vis jackets are more effective, and so they prove to be. That's the sort of basic info I need at times. Don't go overcomplicating it.

 

[ollie989898]

Benchmarking is wholly unnecessary; any good rural accountant will already be doing this for you, in financial terms, which is all that matters anyway. If a farmer really needs to seek specialist advice and have the physical performance of their unit benchmarked, they can join a discussion club or get a specialist agricultural consultant company to do it for a fee. These options are not mandatory; they are entirely optional and their use is at the discretion of the farmer.

 

[spin cycle]

done the survey....now julian stop peddling this crap and get on doing something useful

 

[whiterabbit]

What part of we don't want knowledge exchange does the ahdb not understand

 

[colhonk]

All of it.

 

[whiterabbit]

Like I said on is nfu fit for pupose you wouldn't get BMW calling Mercedes to tell them they have just discovered how to get another 10miles to the gallon out of their cars so if I can another 5 tons to the acre of white cabbage by doing something different am I hell as like going to let the ahdb share my secret,strangely last Friday I received a email from them comedians at the ahdb asking if I wanted to become a monitor farm, about the same time has hell freezes over

 

[whiterabbit]

We need has many farmers and growers to sign our petition has we can with a bit of help we hope to hit 150 by the end of the year need about another 36 and hopefully get on track to get rid of these parasites

 

[yellowbelly]

@JulianGairdner, it's now just over a month since you 'shared a few thoughts' with us. We've shared a few with you. I just wondered if you'd care to comment on any points that have been raised?


Go on, don't be shy - after all, it's us that are paying your wages - it's the least you can do.

 

[whiterabbit]

Maybe if we have any legal people on tff they might be able to shed some light on whether it is totally above board to put last years four million pounds left over levy money into their already bursting at the seams pension pot

 

[whiterabbit]

From today it is illegal to try and sell something to anybody who doesn't want it,well I can think of one organisation that is definitely out of order

 

[whiterabbit]

Dear Julian gairdner maybe you can share some of your data like what do 515 people do when they turn up for work each morning,what cars do they drive that brings up a bill to levy payers of 750,000 pounds, and why do you think you have the right and expertise to tell growers how to produce a crop when you are not even a grower and why are we forced to buy something we have not ordered or want

 

[Bestriding Spraak]

Organisations such as the AHDB , supported by Levies , haven't got a clue how commercial horticultural businesses operate and don't seem to realize the risks we all take and the sums of investments are made . They have no stress and while the Levy remains statutory they will not change how they operate, they are way too comfortable and don't seem to care or understand what it's like to continually have your margin eroded while product returns are not keeping up with inflation. Yet still they demand our money even have 4 million left over from year before !
I shudder to think how much money they wasted every year in their existence!

I agree a Voluntary Levy would help focus on worthwhile projects, Payment on Results.

 

[whiterabbit]

Pleased to see you are of the same opinion bestriding spraak,hope you have signed the petition but like rats clinging to a raft they will not let go without a fight

 

[whiterabbit]

Maybe if some members have a few spare minutes go on to YouTube and see ahdb staff having a right good time with levy payers cash ,Jane king welcomes 95 new staff in one year and is pleased 380 staff has attended this years self congratulated knee' s up ,presumably everybody is encouraged to eat and drink has much has they want after all the levy payers are picking up the tab,just one word of warning they won't be the only ones needing a sick bucket when you looked at the video

 

[easyram1]

Interesting thread that I have only just found. Whilst at the NSA Sheep South event earlier this year there was an informal meeting between attendees and a senior Defra official. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain feedback about the Governments new proposed animal movement databases. The general gist of the conversation was that Defra had embarked on a new all embracing system that would put all species movements into a single Database and would involve the replacement of both BCMS and ARAMS and other species specific systems.
The Defra guy was emphasising the importance to our future post Brexit international trade of real time traceability and was also highlighting the potential value to farmers of data being collected from various sources including movements,health, genetics,performance and then amalgamated for the greater good of all livestock farmers.After acknowledging the failures of many of the existing Defra IT systems He then specifically wanted to know who farmers thought should supervise and control access to this amalgamated data.He suggested that Defra or The Government would not be suitable holders of the data and one of the questions he asked was whether AHDB would be a suitable body for this role.. The reason for their name being suggested was that the Defra guy reckoned that be being farmer funded and having data expertise AHDB would be more acceptable to farmers than any other public or private body. Everyone in attendance - say 30 sheep farmers and a couple of Auctioneers- fully agreed.
I have come across and been closely involved with Rezare at various times over the last decade. They are a top Agricultural IT company based in Hamilton in NZ but operating globally. They provide the software and IT structure for SIL ( The NZ version of Signet). They also provide Software for ABRI ( The Australian based Beef recording system used by most UK Beef breeds for their Performance Recording ). They also developed Farmax the grass monitoring and management software that has been trialled over here by Dairy Beef and Sheep farmers. The one thing for sure is that Rezare are 100% pro Agriculture and great champions of the benefits that can be brought to our industry by innovation and technology.
I would suggest that in years to come our livestock industry faced by increasing international competition as well as climate change and many other challenges will only survive and thrive if we embrace new technologies and change. Reading so many of the threads on this livestock forum that may well be a forlorn hope

 

[Goweresque]

The Defra guy was emphasising the importance to our future post Brexit international trade of real time traceability

So everyone can trace each and every animal down to what field its in, right up to the point it enters the abattoir, at which point the meat processing trade mixes up all the carcasses so no one has a clue which one is which?

 

[Tarw Coch]

Interesting thread that I have only just found. Whilst at the NSA Sheep South event earlier this year there was an informal meeting between attendees and a senior Defra official. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain feedback about the Governments new proposed animal movement databases. The general gist of the conversation was that Defra had embarked on a new all embracing system that would put all species movements into a single Database and would involve the replacement of both BCMS and ARAMS and other species specific systems.
The Defra guy was emphasising the importance to our future post Brexit international trade of real time traceability and was also highlighting the potential value to farmers of data being collected from various sources including movements,health, genetics,performance and then amalgamated for the greater good of all livestock farmers.After acknowledging the failures of many of the existing Defra IT systems He then specifically wanted to know who farmers thought should supervise and control access to this amalgamated data.He suggested that Defra or The Government would not be suitable holders of the data and one of the questions he asked was whether AHDB would be a suitable body for this role.. The reason for their name being suggested was that the Defra guy reckoned that be being farmer funded and having data expertise AHDB would be more acceptable to farmers than any other public or private body. Everyone in attendance - say 30 sheep farmers and a couple of Auctioneers- fully agreed.
I have come across and been closely involved with Rezare at various times over the last decade. They are a top Agricultural IT company based in Hamilton in NZ but operating globally. They provide the software and IT structure for SIL ( The NZ version of Signet). They also provide Software for ABRI ( The Australian based Beef recording system used by most UK Beef breeds for their Performance Recording ). They also developed Farmax the grass monitoring and management software that has been trialled over here by Dairy Beef and Sheep farmers. The one thing for sure is that Rezare are 100% pro Agriculture and great champions of the benefits that can be brought to our industry by innovation and technology.
I would suggest that in years to come our livestock industry faced by increasing international competition as well as climate change and many other challenges will only survive and thrive if we embrace new technologies and change. Reading so many of the threads on this livestock forum that may well be a forlorn hope

So as I understand it from what you’ve written, most of this data recording is allready available to those who want to use it and furthermore you feel it will give competitive advantage to those who embrace it.
Reason enough I would say to leave it voluntary, those who embrace it will thrive whilst those who don’t will wither away to be replaced by those who adopt the new ways, I see no point in imposing this on those who don’t want it.

 

[yellowbelly]

I would suggest that in years to come our livestock industry faced by increasing international competition as well as climate change and many other challenges will only survive and thrive if we embrace new technologies and change. Reading so many of the threads on this livestock forum that may well be a forlorn hope

I think most on here have no problem sharing information within the industry, amongst our peers. It's the divulging of this information to companies at the end of the food chain (ie supermarkets and big slaughterhouses) that I see as a problem - they are all too keen to drive our prices down without giving them more information on cost of production etc.
As far as trusting the AHDB with our information goes - well they already suck massive amounts of money from producers and hardly cover themselves in glory by the way they spend it, so IMHO, I'd rather they had nothing to do with it.

 

[whiterabbit]

According to a over heard conversation at the party I mention above peter Kendall said to one of the new staff(there was 95 to chose from) the trouble with farmers is no matter what you do they always whinge and moan maybe he didn't realise he might be dealing with farmers when he joined the ahdb