Anybody considering suspending production for a year?

[DrWazzock]

Aldi and Lidl are the problem, they’ve driven all the value out of the market and then the other retailers try and match them.

An industry wide refusal to supply Aldi and Lidl for less than the cost of production would work wonder I think.

I agree, but why do people supply Aldi and Lidl for less than the cost of production? How can they sustain that financially? Do they subsidise it from profits on other contracts? Seems like madness to me, but I don't supply supermarkets.

 

[MrsHenWood]

Trinity are fully ISO accredited and customers are actively trading through NCM direct to market at top prices. I'm really happy to chat with anyone who wants to ask us about Sandy or NCM

 

[Farmer Roy]

To the original question


hell no

at the moment, I’m planting 160 ha of durum ( ok, this will probably be my smallest winter crop for quite a while ), 270 ha of cover crop ( in preparation for next years durum, growing my own N instead of buying it ), but I will be planting nearly 600 ha of dryland cotton ( the biggest area of cotton I’ve ever grown in my little farm ) in a few months, this spring

 

[farmerm]

To the original question


hell no

at the moment, I’m planting 160 ha of durum ( ok, this will probably be my smallest winter crop for quite a while ), 270 ha of cover crop ( in preparation for next years durum, growing my own N instead of buying it ), but I will be planting nearly 600 ha of dryland cotton ( the biggest area of cotton I’ve ever grown in my little farm ) in a few months, this spring

little

 

[Farmer Roy]

little

only a sideline here. I work full time for local Council & any of my neighbours could easily buy me out anytime if I wanted to sell

 

[farmerm]

only a sideline here. I work full time for local Council & any of my neighbours could easily buy me out anytime if I wanted to sell

its a different world when farming 2,500acres is called a sideline... though that is the direction we are going in the UK

 

[Farmer Roy]

its a different world when farming 2,500acres is called a sideline... though that is the direction we are going in the UK

i had 3 years of no income from the farm, not big enough to survive that without external income to live off . . .

 

[farmerm]

i had 3 years of no income from the farm, not big enough to survive that without external income to live off . . .

what you need is a reliable source of water.....

 

[Farmer Roy]

its a different world when farming 2,500acres is called a sideline... though that is the direction we are going in the UK

PS - half of that I own, the other half is a neighbours ( in his 60’s & fuched with Parkinson’s disease ) that I lease. Hope to buy it one day, but have had a few challenges the last few years so it might be just a dream . . .

 

[Ffermer Bach]

i had 3 years of no income from the farm, not big enough to survive that without external income to live off . . .

I worked in the Wheat Belt in WA 35 years ago, and I remember thinking WA wheat belt 10 acres was like 1 acre in the UK, so 2500 acres would be a 250 acre farm here. I remember asking the sheep scanner saying a farm like mine would need to be 300 acres to be a viable unit.

 

[DrWazzock]

Not sure what to make of it all really. All the expensively grown winter crops look like being disappointing this year due to dry conditions. Meanwhile the old Nickersons Westminster spring feed barley looks better than anything on very little expense. Direct drilled, continuous spring barley for .3 years now. A real “after tea” crop and going to be the best payer.

 

[DrWazzock]

Very tempted by my caretaker survival plan. Half the farm in spring barley, the other half in grass. Big spender winter drilled crops don’t pay here in dry times.
Winter wheat is dire here this year on sand. What’s the point.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Not sure what to make of it all really. All the expensively grown winter crops look like being disappointing this year due to dry conditions. Meanwhile the old Nickersons Westminster spring feed barley looks better than anything on very little expense. Direct drilled, continuous spring barley for .3 years now. A real “after tea” crop and going to be the best payer.

I wonder how much the dry spring is climate change and how much it is due to just the weather, we seem to have had a few years of it now.

 

[DrWazzock]

I wonder how much the dry spring is climate change and how much it is due to just the weather, we seem to have had a few years of it now.

Well that’s the million dollar question. To me it feels like a more permanent trend than a flash in the pan. These hot air systems seem to be reaching further north. I don’t think we are going to reverse that trend by anything we do in the short term but need to adapt our coping strategies. Wheats finished on light land here. We need to look at varieties that tolerate moisture stress. Some do well, others are extremely poor yet it’s not even a factor on the recommended lists.

 

[David.]

From what I'm seeing in Canada, I'd plant some.
How many hundreds of thousands of acres of backward, waterlogged, even unplanned crop would you like to see?
Family have been here 25yrs and it is the worst they have seen.
Was in the Man. Interlake region yesterday, and 25/30% of normal planted for area is what guys are saying.
I'd call Bullshite on plentiful wheat line being put forward at home.

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

Very tempted by my caretaker survival plan. Half the farm in spring barley, the other half in grass. Big spender winter drilled crops don’t pay here in dry times.
Winter wheat is dire here this year on sand. What’s the point.

Ummmm sugar beet and the cyclone?

 

[DrWazzock]

Ummmm sugar beet and the cyclone?

Sugar beet is standing the dry conditions well this year and the price is good for next year. If my old machine wasn’t 52 years old and it didn’t take all winter then it would still be a goer but it isn’t.

 

[Goweresque]

I wonder how much the dry spring is climate change and how much it is due to just the weather, we seem to have had a few years of it now.

Its nothing to do with 'climate change' its just the UK weather reverting to its long term averages:

As can be seen from the chart, we have had a rise in rain in the spring from about 1960 to about 1990, then a decline back to previous levels seen in the first half of the 20th century, and during the 19th. What we are seeing now is nothing new. Indeed I can remember getting some very dry springs in the 1990s, we were trying to grow spring linseed and getting it established was a nightmare.

 

[Vader]

Its nothing to do with 'climate change' its just the UK weather reverting to its long term averages:
View attachment 1047688
As can be seen from the chart, we have had a rise in rain in the spring from about 1960 to about 1990, then a decline back to previous levels seen in the first half of the 20th century, and during the 19th. What we are seeing now is nothing new. Indeed I can remember getting some very dry springs in the 1990s, we were trying to grow spring linseed and getting it established was a nightmare.

Shhhh the climate police will be knocking on your door..