Andrew Blenkiron

Would you like Andrew Blenkiron sacked from the board of Red Tractor for his insulting comments.

  • Yes

    Votes: 273 94.1%
  • No

    Votes: 17 5.9%

  • Total voters
    290

Bongodog

Member
He will of sold it to his boss that allowing him a 2nd job will promote the estate (yep well done Andrew on giving it bad publicity) and also connections to the people in power in U.K. agriculture.
Its par for the course these days, I resigned from an organisation that ended up with a board made up from employees of big business whilst continually saying they represented the whole sector. They kept pushing up the basic membership fee and reducing the sliding scale payments for bigger members. Most smaller business owners have too much on their plate to attend endless meetings.
Years ago the average farmer had many staff and if he took a few days to attend a NFU meeting the farm workforce only declined by 5 or 10%. These days if the average farmer took a day off for a meeting the workforce would reduce by anywhere from 25 to 100% Meanwhile on the Euston estate it probably runs no different or perhaps even better with the leader away.
 

snarling bee

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
AB appeared for a short while on the NFU RT meeting today.
I was disappointed that either he should not have been allowed on, but he is an NFU member so had every right, or he should have 'attended' for the whole event to hear what was said.
Perhaps he didn't want to hear it.
 

colhonk

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
I reconed that rt added ÂŁ6 plus an acre to my small time operation. NOW imagine if Mr Blenkiron had to justify that on the ? 6500 acres, = ÂŁ39,000 , maybe he would come down from his fairyland dream of rt.into our real world. (or would it be 11,000 ares at ÂŁ6,,ÂŁ66000 would maybe make him cough.)
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I reconed that rt added ÂŁ6 plus an acre to my small time operation. NOW imagine if Mr Blenkiron had to justify that on the ? 6500 acres, = ÂŁ39,000 , maybe he would come down from his fairyland dream of rt.into our real world. (or would it be 11,000 ares at ÂŁ6,,ÂŁ66000 would maybe make him cough.)

He's only a manager so it wouldn't come out of his pocket


No skin in the game ......... same gos for the panel on todays webinar, a velcourt manager and a farmer who works for McDonalds and sits on a RT board .......... taking the pee
 

andybk

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Mendips Somerset
Last edited:

farmerfred86

Member
BASIS
Location
Suffolk
AB appeared for a short while on the NFU RT meeting today.
I was disappointed that either he should not have been allowed on, but he is an NFU member so had every right, or he should have 'attended' for the whole event to hear what was said.
Perhaps he didn't want to hear it.
Yes not a good look - appeared briefly and then left.

2 things struck me from today:
Firstly I agree with the comments "If we don't get this consultation right members will leave the NFU"
Secondly I think they're missing the point a little... The NFU might not have a financial interest in RT and only 1 seat on the board but they are the only voice of farmers working together. As such they need to realise and use this. If members aren't happy they need to act. They have more power than they realise. As one member said "If the RT response is to accept the new proposals anyway, what then?"
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Its par for the course these days, I resigned from an organisation that ended up with a board made up from employees of big business whilst continually saying they represented the whole sector. They kept pushing up the basic membership fee and reducing the sliding scale payments for bigger members. Most smaller business owners have too much on their plate to attend endless meetings.
Years ago the average farmer had many staff and if he took a few days to attend a NFU meeting the farm workforce only declined by 5 or 10%. These days if the average farmer took a day off for a meeting the workforce would reduce by anywhere from 25 to 100% Meanwhile on the Euston estate it probably runs no different or perhaps even better with the leader away.
I used to sit on boards and attend stakeholder meetings, i reckoned a day away cost me about ÂŁ1000 in cockups and lost business
 

Bongodog

Member
I used to sit on boards and attend stakeholder meetings, i reckoned a day away cost me about ÂŁ1000 in cockups and lost business
I would tick like to this, but there's nothing to like about people representing their peers and ending up hideously out of pocket. When I was chairman of our parish council I would regularly get people asking me to attend daytime meetings, I was paying for part time staff to cover me whilst I worked for free.
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
He's only a manager so it wouldn't come out of his pocket


No skin in the game ......... same gos for the panel on todays webinar, a velcourt manager and a farmer who works for McDonalds and sits on a RT board .......... taking the pee
@Clive, I admire how TFF has shaken RT and NFU and hope that it’s a continuation of the mini revolution that’s happening, but I really take issue with the “no skin in the game” or “just a manager” comments regarding Farm Managers that crop up on here

Our “skin in the game” is our professional reputation, if we didn’t achieve results set by our employers targets we wouldn’t be able to continue in our positions, we couldn’t achieve our earning aspirations, or the bonus’s driven by the results we achieve

We run exactly the same businesses with the same skill sets as a “farmer” with the same pressures

I’ve known owner occupiers who employ advice of distributor agronomists, advisors and accountants and have less input on their own farms than I do as a Manager, is a managers opinion worth less than a “farmers??
Are people like Jake Freestone, David Millar, Craig Livingstone and our very own @Brisel opinions worth less because they don’t own or rent the land they farm ??
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,289
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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