Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I can't see too many big arable farmers who
grow OSR wanting to plant hundreds of acres of turnips.
Between increasing flea beetle numbers and club root you
dont need Deborah Meadan to say 'I'm out'.

There are other wintering options available. Those profiteering seeds salesmen have been busy pushing fancy (aka overpriced) ‘cover crop mixes’ that don’t include brassicas.

A big arable farmer near here has recently taken on a sheep flock again, whilst having OSR in his rotation, and has been happily sowing Rye & vetch mixes at £50+/ac seed cost for winter keep.
 

Top Tip.

Member
Location
highland
But you can't kill hill lambs till they are ready. A lot of good hill lambings in this area this year, don't know about rest of country. Also all these hill farms going to trees, could be a lot of surplus hill bred ewe lambs too.
A lot of bad lambings further up country ,spoke to one shepherd on Loch Tayside with a lot of ewes who said it would be their worst in living memory. The May lambing flocks were hit hardest.
 

lloyd

Member
Location
Herefordshire
There are other wintering options available. Those profiteering seeds salesmen have been busy pushing fancy (aka overpriced) ‘cover crop mixes’ that don’t include brassicas.

A big arable farmer near here has recently taken on a sheep flock again, whilst having OSR in his rotation, and has been happily sowing Rye & vetch mixes at £50+/ac seed cost for winter keep.
Stocking rates wont be the same though but yes there are
other options other than turnips.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
There’s been a hell of a lot of new folks buying sheep of any sort I noticed it start in February they are still at it now
Makes me wonder why they didn’t buy some when they were cheap for all them years before??

I’m sure you’ve been around long enough to see that happening before, every time sheep profitability increases a bit. It’s usually followed by the job being overdone, and the same people being first to jump back out, losing a fortune in the process.

Given global demand currently, I doubt we’ll see a big collapse in prices any time soon, so they may hang around longer than in previous cycles.
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Speaking to one of the Stirling auctioneers today,he reckoned folk have been selling stores much quicker this year and that they had about a fortnights sales with numbers and then they would dry up.

Same in this area, auctioneers have seen store numbers down 20% and will have very few to sell in October.
It is thought there may be more left on farms as people have plenty of grass and are hoping that values continue to increase so have retained a few more, mostly ewe lambs. These may get killed later on if the price is high enough.
 

sherg

Member
Location
shropshire
I don't think I made any wild predictions last year to get wrong. I remember posting that things could have gone t*ts up spectacularly IF we had a no-deal Brexit, which we avoided, thankfully. We certainly wouldn't have seen this April's prices with exports constrained, it sure as hell wasn't domestic trade driving it.

The contract finishing I was referring to is the retailers buying the store lambs themselves, then sending them to finishing farms for wintering. Much like B&B pigs, the finishers are paid so much/hd/week, with no risk of capital laid out. I don't know the rates offered, but I do know they are offering bonuses if you can hold them for later in the Spring. They don't intend being caught short again, and won't be in the market for volume come March/April/May.
I saw a farm in mid-Wales a few nights ago, who had loads of Waitrose store lambs on temporarily, before being shipped to cover crops in East Anglia for wintering. Whether they are normally lamb finishers over there, or the arable guys that are finding cover crops all the rage again?

Personally, I'm carrying on as normal. Everything finished before Christmas will be sold, all the smallies are on tight feed already, to hold cheaply until April. I'm willing to bet plenty will be keeping store lambs that don't normally though, expecting to see a repeat of last year. Do you ever see 2 'bonanza' years on the trot?
Those lambs going to Norfolk aren't a new thing though if I'm thinking about the same man, does the lorry say 'searching for sheep' on the back ??
They used to buy biggish lambs out of the stores and have some out of the fat
 
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Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
Bit spread out so easy to bump into
I seem to spend a bit of time doing that too
Wonder if we did something wrong in a previous life ?
I really like working with sheep. But I bloody hate doing store lambs feet in the winter. Blue hands that I can never get the smell of rotten feet and hopper shite out of off. 🤢. Might be my last winter (been saying that for 8 years!)
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 81 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 68 35.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 7 3.6%

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

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  • 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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