Allied Mills screwing farmers over with dodgy claims?

[Feldspar]

This video appeared on Twitter today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1311646740769107969

.

If this account is accurate, this is so damaging to the trust that farmers place in the end user to act as an honest judge of the delivered produce. The problem is that they are not an impartial judge insofar as they stand to lose or benefit depending on their assessment of the sample.

The results of the mycotoxin test are outstanding, but that's really not the point. The point is they said the load had been rejected for ergot when they now accept there wasn't any ergot in it. Unless there is some credible refutation of this claim forthcoming, a reasonable conclusion is one of dishonesty. I will wait until for the fullness of time to reveal all the relevant facts, but this deeply troubles me.

 

[Chae1]

@DrWazzock had a load rejected for same reason?

 

[deleted user 837354]

Is this not the same guy who has a history of making controversial posts on twitter?

He mentions mills fudging hauliers about when their bins are full. I will probably never understand how or why hauliers would continue to do bulk grain or farm work knowing how many delays and pishing around there is involved with trying to tip at mills. I really don't. If it was me, I would spend 100K and build a tall shed big enough to tip bays of commodities in and have a wheel loader on site to shuttle it back and forth if needed. Never run out of grain etc again and be stuck waiting for a load to arrive, better buffer for weekends or road traffic issues, make it childsplay.

 

[ajd132]

Is this not the same guy who has a history of making controversial posts on twitter?

He mentions mills fudging hauliers about when their bins are full. I will probably never understand how or why hauliers would continue to do bulk grain or farm work knowing how many delays and pishing around there is involved with trying to tip at mills. I really don't. If it was me, I would spend 100K and build a tall shed big enough to tip bays of commodities in and have a wheel loader on site to shuttle it back and forth if needed. Never run out of grain etc again and be stuck waiting for a load to arrive, better buffer for weekends or road traffic issues, make it childsplay.

He has made some wrong presumptions and claims in the past but I think he is spot on with this one

 

[Steevo]

@Phil P

 

[deleted user 837354]

He has made some wrong presumptions and claims in the past but I think he is spot on with this one

I have never had much involvement in milling wheat but understood the feed world well enough. All I can say is best people vote with their feet and deal with people that value them as suppliers/customers. Life is too short.

 

[Feldspar]

Is this not the same guy who has a history of making controversial posts on twitter?

He mentions mills fudging hauliers about when their bins are full. I will probably never understand how or why hauliers would continue to do bulk grain or farm work knowing how many delays and pishing around there is involved with trying to tip at mills. I really don't. If it was me, I would spend 100K and build a tall shed big enough to tip bays of commodities in and have a wheel loader on site to shuttle it back and forth if needed. Never run out of grain etc again and be stuck waiting for a load to arrive, better buffer for weekends or road traffic issues, make it childsplay.

As I said, I'll wait for the all the facts to emerge and then draw my own conclusions (NB the question mark in the thread title). I'm not placing much weight on the various embellishments, but the basic claim is that a load was rejected for ergot which then turned out not to have any ergot in without explanation as to why this was a genuine mistake. If this account is correct, then it's a problem. In any event, it does highlight a weakness in the system. We rely on a partial judge to assess the quality of our grain. We have independent assessors for all sorts of things (food standards, car safety etc.). The suspicion here is that allowing end users to mark their own homework is only in place because farmers are a divided bunch with poor collective bargaining power.

 

[Bongodog]

Is this not the same guy who has a history of making controversial posts on twitter?

He mentions mills fudging hauliers about when their bins are full. I will probably never understand how or why hauliers would continue to do bulk grain or farm work knowing how many delays and pishing around there is involved with trying to tip at mills. I really don't. If it was me, I would spend 100K and build a tall shed big enough to tip bays of commodities in and have a wheel loader on site to shuttle it back and forth if needed. Never run out of grain etc again and be stuck waiting for a load to arrive, better buffer for weekends or road traffic issues, make it childsplay.

If hauliers avoided places that give them extreme aggravation they would have few places to go to. They like going to independently owned small businesses who invariably unload/load them in a few minutes generally stopping the job they are presently on to accept delivery and even help with the unload. It only takes a few minutes conversation to hear the crap they get at the big places. 4 hour waits, made to sit in a waiting room whilst they have a comfortable cab round the corner, even queuing for half a day then being told when they reach the front "too late come back tomorrow"
If you watch any of the Greg Wallace In the factory food programmes you will see a huge factory having artic loads of grain etc delivered via the rear chute. These are production lines costing a fortune but they don't give a **** about spending a few £ on a pit system
As to general haulage all the distribution warehouses insist on the driver meeting a booking in time. Arrive late and be turned away, arrive on time and wait 3 hours to tip.

 

[DrWazzock]

@DrWazzock had a load rejected for same reason?

Mine was rejected for pink grains, but happily subsequent loads were accepted after I had done some basic cleaning and blending which did not eliminate the pink grains but improved the sample slightly as far as I could see.
I think if your load arrives close to 5pm it stands a fair chance of rejection at some mills, particularly on a Friday!

 

[deleted user 837354]

If hauliers avoided places that give them extreme aggravation they would have few places to go to. They like going to independently owned small businesses who invariably unload/load them in a few minutes generally stopping the job they are presently on to accept delivery and even help with the unload. It only takes a few minutes conversation to hear the crap they get at the big places. 4 hour waits, made to sit in a waiting room whilst they have a comfortable cab round the corner, even queuing for half a day then being told when they reach the front "too late come back tomorrow"
If you watch any of the Greg Wallace In the factory food programmes you will see a huge factory having artic loads of grain etc delivered via the rear chute. These are production lines costing a fortune but they don't give a **** about spending a few £ on a pit system

I used to deal with a few hauliers who were absolutely ace and any cock-ups were invariably because of me. Wait times to collect at the docks I understand could be an issue in the past due to the sheer volume of wagons waiting to be loaded but they generally had a lot of blokes on shovels to get it done so it wasn't crazy long to wait.

Tipping everything through a hatch in the back into a hole in the ground at a mill however, in my view, was fudging mental. I believe there was a post on here some time ago about how certain places even stopped drivers from climbing into their wagons and sweeping the remains of their loads out. Utterly crazy. I couldn't bear to see dozens of trucks and guys sat waiting around or a mill stood idle waiting for a load of a particular commodity to arrive.

 

[An Gof]

Is this not the same guy who has a history of making controversial posts on twitter?

He mentions mills fudging hauliers about when their bins are full. I will probably never understand how or why hauliers would continue to do bulk grain or farm work knowing how many delays and pishing around there is involved with trying to tip at mills. I really don't. If it was me, I would spend 100K and build a tall shed big enough to tip bays of commodities in and have a wheel loader on site to shuttle it back and forth if needed. Never run out of grain etc again and be stuck waiting for a load to arrive, better buffer for weekends or road traffic issues, make it childsplay.

I know this chap very well. He caught out another end user last season. He may not be conventional but he is one of the few who tells it as it is. We need more like him. He's a member on this forum.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I know this chap very well. He caught out another end user last season. He may not be conventional but he is one of the few who tells it as it is. We need more like him. He's a member on this forum.

I am not tying to refute what he has said in any way; I merely asked about it because I seem to remember his name before and a discussion about something he had written on twitter, though I could not remember why.

That hauliers get messed about something terrible wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

 

[Cowabunga]

This kind of this has always gone on. Most commodities are prone to it, but usually when there is a contract and there is surplus production. I first learnt of it back in the 70's where canning potatoes, cabbages and sprouts were concerned. The canners would reject arctic loads of potatoes due to 'cracking' when there was no discernible cracked tatties to be seen in the load. Nothing the farmers could do about it. It was a well known dodgy practice even back in those days.

Thank goodness every load of milk is sampled and independently tested between four and six times a month. Every tanker load is tested before unloading and if there is an issue, all samples off that tanker are tested to find the culprit. The only issue is usually the standard of sampling and that varies with the driver's training and demeanour occasionally .

 

[yellowbelly]

Reminds me of a friend who told me about three lorry loads he loaded late one afternoon.

First thing the next morning he got a call from the merchant telling him the first two loads were OK but there was a claim for moisture on the third one.

"Can't be he replied" ..... "Oh, yes." said the merchant ........ "Oh, no," he said, "The third trailer is still in our yard. It has a puncture and the tyre firm couldn't get last night, the driver is coming back for it when they've mended it."

 

[deleted user 837354]

Reminds me of a friend who told me about three lorry loads he loaded late one afternoon.

First thing the next morning he got a call from the merchant telling him the first two loads were OK but there was a claim for moisture on the third one.

"Can't be he replied" ..... "Oh, yes." said the merchant ........ "Oh, no," he said, "The third trailer is still in our yard. It has a puncture and the tyre firm couldn't get last night, the driver is coming back for it when they've mended it."

Heard many similar stories.

 

[An Gof]

The iniquity is that it all depends on the merchants sample, test and word. Yet the retained on farm sample to meet RT requirements is utterly worthless.

 

[teslacoils]

The iniquity is that it all depends on the merchants sample, test and word. Yet the retained on farm sample to meet RT requirements is utterly worthless.

The issue I consider most relevant is that my contract is with the merchant, who readily accepts the word of their customer who is a third party, yet impacts my contract. This third party is merrily supplied details of the source of grain on the passport, and so long as the claim is less than the haul home it seems to be tipped no questions asked.

 

[Hindsight]

The issue I consider most relevant is that my contract is with the merchant, who readily accepts the word of their customer who is a third party, yet impacts my contract. This third party is merrily supplied details of the source of grain on the passport, and so long as the claim is less than the haul home it seems to be tipped no questions asked.

And all the sampling of the bulk in store counts for nothing and is totally irrelevant. The exam is 'on the day'. All the course work is ignored.

 

[nick...]

Not suprised by any of these stories.had a friend had a claim through ergot in feed wheat this harvest and no evidence was supplied.if you sell low and price goes up there are often claims but never when it’s the other way round.
nick...

 

[Barleymow]

Uncle has a phone call once rejecting a load of wheat , just as the same lorry rolled up for a second load