Anybody considering suspending production for a year?

Anybody considering suspending production for a year?

  • Yes

    Votes: 72 28.8%
  • No

    Votes: 178 71.2%

  • Total voters
    250

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Yeah it would take a bit of planning, maybe partner with a finisher within 10 miles and link holdings?

Or grow for the summer and send to an AFU?

The way tb is handled in the UK is a total bloody disgrace, but I wouldn't let it stop me farming cattle if I got the opportunity.

we had a government sponsored programme across the whole country about 40 years ago to eradicate tb & brucellosis, including the wild / feral cattle populations in our north. As a teenager at school I remember our cattle at home being tested. A few years later, catching wild bulls in the Gulf of Carpentaria, it was still about TB / Brucellosis eradication.
It was done because the cattle industry was recognised as being of vital importance to our terms of trade & international income. It was done to benefit the national economy, not just as a “hand out” to farmers.
If a country as vast, diverse & remote as ours can do it, why can’t the UK ? 🤷‍♂️
 
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idle git

Member
Mixed Farmer
we had a government sponsored programme across the whole country about 40 years ago to eradicate tb & brucellosis, including the wild / feral cattle populations in our north. It was done because the cattle industry was recognised as being of vital importance to our terms of trade & international income. It was done to benefit the national economy, not just as a “hand out” to farmers.
If a country as vast, diverse & remote as ours can do it, why can’t the UK ? 🤷‍♂️

We have bred a nation of idiots it seems, and they all have a voice nowadays 🙄
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
we had a government sponsored programme across the whole country about 40 years ago to eradicate tb & brucellosis, including the wild / feral cattle populations in our north. It was done because the cattle industry was recognised as being of vital importance to our terms of trade & international income. It was done to benefit the national economy, not just as a “hand out” to farmers.
If a country as vast, diverse & remote as ours can do it, why can’t the UK ? 🤷‍♂️
because, we are a country ruled/peopled by sentimental urban well fed and rich people, who can afford to think Badgers as "cute and cuddly" and never have to see the effects of their sentimental indulgencies.
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Meanwhile, the arable side looks pretty good. I’ve never seen prices for our commodities as high as these.
We can learn / relearn how to crop without expensive inputs. We have been constantly adapting our systems to other limitations & challenges, we can adapt to these current ones as well
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Beefsmith

Member
With input price inflation high, is anybody considering suspending production for a year?

Saw a near neighbour over the weekend. He and his son run 1000ac with a full time chap who’s retiring this summer. They’ve left 300ac of land due for spring crops and are having a year off after harvest 22. They don’t owe a penny on anything and have rental income so decided to opt out. They are thinking about entering stewardship but don’t trust Defra basically so are on the fence with it presently.
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
Saw a near neighbour over the weekend. He and his son run 1000ac with a full time chap who’s retiring this summer. They’ve left 300ac of land due for spring crops and are having a year off after harvest 22. They don’t owe a penny on anything and have rental income so decided to opt out. They are thinking about entering stewardship but don’t trust Defra basically so are on the fence with it presently.
Madness to leave it uncropped though. Golden opportunity to build some free fertility.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Madness to leave it uncropped though. Golden opportunity to build some free fertility.

How free is “free” though?

Everything has a cost.

It could be suggested they could rent the land out - £100/ac rent on 100ac = £10k for doing nothing.

BUT…..that doesn’t mean it’s all profit. If the tenant ploughed the topsoil down and the clay subsoil up, or grew wall to wall rape and caused a slug issue the following year…..they can soon lose that money again.

It’s easy to get suckered in by “free” if you don’t look at the other side of the coin….that’s how the govt think paying people “free” money for environmental schemes will work.
 
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How free is “free” though?

Everything has a cost.

It could be suggested they could rent the land out - £100/ac rent on 100ac = £100k for doing nothing.

BUT…..that doesn’t mean it’s all profit. If the tenant ploughed the topsoil down and the clay subsoil up, or grew wall to wall rape and caused a slug issue the following year…..they can soon lose that money again.

It’s easy to get suckered in by “free” if you don’t look at the other side of the coin….that’s how the govt think paying people “free” money for environmental schemes will work.
They can rent all of mine if they use your calculator 😂😂😂
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
How free is “free” though?

Everything has a cost.

It could be suggested they could rent the land out - £100/ac rent on 100ac = £10k for doing nothing.

BUT…..that doesn’t mean it’s all profit. If the tenant ploughed the topsoil down and the clay subsoil up, or grew wall to wall rape and caused a slug issue the following year…..they can soon lose that money again.

It’s easy to get suckered in by “free” if you don’t look at the other side of the coin….that’s how the govt think paying people “free” money for environmental schemes will work.
Carbon, nitrogen and water are freely available in the atmosphere. Admittedly, it doesn't always rain at the right time and you need to establish a crop to use these free sky products. They are wasted if you keep land bare.
 

ewald

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Mid-Lincs
Well, here, they are actual kg of nutrient per hectare

ie, if I was putting urea ( 46 % N ) on at 100 kg / ha, I could also say I was applying 46 units of N
When I used to do a lot of contracting applying anhydrous ammonia ( 82 % N ) gas, ALL our calculations & applications & metering equipment were in “units” - ie, how many kg of N / ha

1 “unit” of N equaled 1 kg N / ha, regardless if it was SOA ( 24% ), urea ( 46% ) or anhydrous ( 82% ). That seems very simple, easy to understand & makes sense to my antipodean brain

I struggle to understand the UK concept of “units” ?
The UK unit system dates from a time when most fertilisers arrived in 1 cwt bags - one bag of urea (cwt or 50kg) would give you 46 units of N. A bag of ammonium nitrate would give you 34 units. Multiply by 1.2 to get kg nutrient per ha.
In its day it seemed to be easy, now less so.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Carbon, nitrogen and water are freely available in the atmosphere. Admittedly, it doesn't always rain at the right time and you need to establish a crop to use these free sky products. They are wasted if you keep land bare.

I understand your point, but the diesel and machinery to establish that crop isn’t free. It’s a quantifiable cost for the theoretical return of a known and hopefully greater but unquantifiable benefit.

A decade or so back ELS was sold by so many land agents or agronomists on the idea that it’s your money so you might as well claim it back. Doing so wasn’t free though. The benefit was known but the costs unknown/unclear.
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
I understand your point, but the diesel and machinery to establish that crop isn’t free. It’s a quantifiable cost for the theoretical return of a known and hopefully greater but unquantifiable benefit.

A decade or so back ELS was sold by so many land agents or agronomists on the idea that it’s your money so you might as well claim it back. Doing so wasn’t free though. The benefit was known but the costs unknown/unclear.
Absolutely diesel isn't free, nor is machinery or labour. You have to consider the soil and carbon sequestration benefits in relation to those costs.

Compared to growing weeds or keeping bare soil, you are better off building up a bit of biomass.
 
Madness to leave it uncropped though. Golden opportunity to build some free fertility.

There is no way I could bear to leave land uncropped or bare today, the weed build up from groundsel, docks or whatever else would grow would have me spitting for years afterwards. I'd cover crop it all, possibly with red clover. Around here, leaving a field as bare dirt would come and bite you sooner or later from a soil structure point of view, too.
 

Landrover

Member
Seriously thinking of putting the whole lot into stewardship, got a full winter of fencing around some new woods to do, then our contracting work should keep us ticking over during the spring and summer, if not I have class 1 hgv, tho I haven't driven since I passed my test ! CPC expires in July which I'll have to sort out. The price of land at the moment makes selling up a very intriguing proposition tho ! 1500acres in Northumberland, sensible offers would be considered ! 😄
 

No wot

Member
Seriously thinking of putting the whole lot into stewardship, got a full winter of fencing around some new woods to do, then our contracting work should keep us ticking over during the spring and summer, if not I have class 1 hgv, tho I haven't driven since I passed my test ! CPC expires in July which I'll have to sort out. The price of land at the moment makes selling up a very intriguing proposition tho ! 1500acres in Northumberland, sensible offers would be considered ! 😄
Funny old world isn't it , nobody seems to think they ever have enough land to warrant the job , if you've got 400/ ac you want 700/ac , if you have 700/ac you want 1000/ac , if a 1000/ ac you want 1500/ac and so on , is anyone satisfied
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.2%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 6 3.3%

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

  • 1,287
  • 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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