All this grass....

[delilah]

......that ELMS farmers are going to be putting arable land into.
What is going to eat it all ?
Taxpayer subsidized lowland red meat production.
Flooding the market. Knackering the economy of the Less Favoured Areas, turning land to scrub. Can see the tourist industry welcoming that as a 'public good'.
Or an unreasonable fear ? What do folks think ?

 

[Bald Rick]

Doesn't sit well with CCC telling government that as a nation we should reduce red meat consumption by 25% or more by 2050 and similar for dairy.

Maybe vegans can eat the wholesome grass?

 

[Scholsey]

How about producing beef from grass instead of cereals? Must be a huge percentage of beef eaten in this country that was never seen a blade of grass let alone eaten one.

 

[Gerbert]

All subsidies screw up the market. Why would this be the straw that breaks the camels back?

 

[kill]

......that ELMS farmers are going to be putting arable land into.
What is going to eat it all ?
Taxpayer subsidized lowland red meat production.
Flooding the market. Knackering the economy of the Less Favoured Areas, turning land to scrub. Can see the tourist industry welcoming that as a 'public good'.
Or an unreasonable fear ? What do folks think ?

It’s ok as it will have to be made into hay for bedding to counteract the strong straw price and apparently arable farmers have been selling off all the nutrients off their land for years via their super high nutrient straw and that’s before the grain

 

[Classichay]

It’s just going to f*** up the hay job totally. Enough busy idiots doing it making for next to nothing, plenty in the southern counties using hay as a break crop in black grass or for seed, maybe not this year as grass was well behind but in a very good year will drive / t ( or bale ) prices down hard. I think the onus should be back towards energy ie elephant grass !!

 

[kiwi pom]

......that ELMS farmers are going to be putting arable land into.
What is going to eat it all ?
Taxpayer subsidized lowland red meat production.
Flooding the market. Knackering the economy of the Less Favoured Areas, turning land to scrub. Can see the tourist industry welcoming that as a 'public good'.
Or an unreasonable fear ? What do folks think ?

If they can produce Beef or Lamb from it cheaper than current producers, then that's what they'll do. Farmers are all in competition with one another after all.

 

[caveman]

......to go to biomass gas production plants?

 

[digger64]

......that ELMS farmers are going to be putting arable land into.
What isdon't ng to eat it all ?
Taxpayer subsidized lowland red meat production.
Flooding the market. Knackering the economy of the Less Favoured Areas, turning land to scrub. Can see the tourist industry welcoming that as a 'public good'.
Or an unreasonable fear ? What do folks think ?

Depends if it is actually grass or just weed covered setaside that fulfils the obligations , in the case of the later it dont produce much , and even sown ryegrasses on depleted farmed out crop land in dry areas without fert or lime etc it won't carry many heads either for several years

 

[yellowbelly]

_______________For Hire....Have Livestock, will travel_______________________

_____________________"You grow it, we'll mow it"___________________________

Charges: 50% of your ELMS cheque (or whatever we think we can get away with).

 

[Sid]

How about producing beef from grass instead of cereals? Must be a huge percentage of beef eaten in this country that was never seen a blade of grass let alone eaten one.

But didn't the NBA want a tax on slow maturing beef?

 

[DrWazzock]

Arable land will be going into useless scrub and thicket that the wildlife people want, not productive grass.
A grass ley mown three times for forage is no better environmentally for wildlife than any arable crop.

 

[DrWazzock]

I don’t see ELMS creating more lowland grassland for grazing or forage except maybe a bit of low input heathland lightly grazed by rare breeds which will produce very little of anything.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

I see it as a golden opportunity for the arable and livestock sectors to integrate. There's plenty of expertise in the hillier livestock areas and plenty of land in the east and south that's crying out for a bit of dung. If you moved the cattle to the straw instead of the other way round, every one's a winner.

If it's wanted by government and the industry it will happen.

 

[Exfarmer]

If they want to encourage wildlife, the best thing they could ever do would be the encouragement of far more grazing animals. This means grass and hopefully clover mixed. The increase in insects would be dramatic , which would bring in. Birds bats small mammals etc.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

If they want to encourage wildlife, the best thing they could ever do would be the encouragement of far more grazing animals. This means grass and hopefully clover mixed. The increase in insects would be dramatic , which would bring in. Birds bats small mammals etc.

Plus the added benefit to the landowner and the environment of carbon going back into the soil.

 

[DrWazzock]

Clover leys being mown for AD plants could result in a useful “organic” N fertiliser byproduct. The leys need to be mown at peak nesting time though , so are of limited wildlife value. The AD plant extracts the energy and returns the nutrients as digestate to complete the cycle. Uses a fair bit of diesel though.

 

[DrWazzock]

I see it as a golden opportunity for the arable and livestock sectors to integrate. There's plenty of expertise in the hillier livestock areas and plenty of land in the east and south that's crying out for a bit of dung. If you moved the cattle to the straw instead of the other way round, every one's a winner.

If it's wanted by government and the industry it will happen.

I think that’s how it worked years ago. Cattle bred in the hills came east to fattening yards using straw and arable forage crops as well as plenty of linseed cake (which added the protein/ nitrogen to the system.

 

[neilo]

I think that’s how it worked years ago. Cattle bred in the hills came east to fattening yards using straw and arable forage crops as well as plenty of linseed cake (which added the protein/ nitrogen to the system.

Cattle travelling to be finished in yards isn’t going to be grazing grass though, just eating silage/arable crops. Performance would be far better on maize in that case, so the grass leys would have to be very heavily subsidised in order to compete with that system.

Given the proposed animal transport restrictions, I guess the hills wouldn’t want to be too far from the arable farms either?

 

[Exfarmer]

Cattle travelling to be finished in yards isn’t going to be grazing grass though, just eating silage/arable crops. Performance would be far better on maize in that case, so the grass leys would have to be very heavily subsidised in order to compete with that system.

Given the proposed animal transport restrictions, I guess the hills wouldn’t want to be too far from the arable farms either?

This is the problem , when you try to recreate a golden age.
perhaps we could re introduce the driving cattle to markets. Transhumance is still practiced across Europe shutting roads to allow herds to pass through, perhaps we could copy this using the motorways on quiet days , planty of grazing on the banks, would save all that diesel cutting them