Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
A bad time to be starting, youve done well to get established....on the other hand, maybe a good time if we could buy stock ewes for £2 and £8 !
In a daft kind of way it’s probably better than starting now? Now you need a lot of cash too get stock that’s worth farming. Plus if you could survive and grow then you were well placed too keep going as the job picked up?
 
In a daft kind of way it’s probably better than starting now? Now you need a lot of cash too get stock that’s worth farming. Plus if you could survive and grow then you were well placed too keep going as the job picked up?
Main difference between then and now is banks looked at collateral then but look at profit now
So now you have to make a profit pay tax and then pay the bank back if you are setting away there’s a bit at you
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
A bad time to be starting, youve done well to get established....on the other hand, maybe a good time if we could buy stock ewes for £2 and £8 !

At least a dead ‘un didn’t seem as painful then. Find a strong cast ewe dead now and you have to turn round to kick yourself up the arse for not selling it sooner.:(
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
I don’t think these hills and the people that farm here could produce all that number of sheep now

Is it the deterioration in the land or that the people that did the work have gone, or both?

I can remember (Just) when there were sheep on Romney Marsh and there were some enormous flocks of up to 5,000 ewes looked after by a team of shepherds who all had there 600 plus ewes and did all the work.
There were four two day sales in Ashford market in the Autumn with over 20 thousand sheep in the two days on each of them. Then there were all the local Fairs, every village would have one with up to 3 or 4 thousand sheep.
Thousands of 2 year old Romney x Southdowns were kept and shorn for the wool and killed in the following May/June.

The hauliers hardly ever slept in the pre tachograph days and there were great stories of the open topped 3 deckers that before air suspension looked terrible things to drive and to load!!

Ah yes the good old days!!
 

mghley

Member
Location
Derbyshire
Is it the deterioration in the land or that the people that did the work have gone, or both?

I can remember (Just) when there were sheep on Romney Marsh and there were some enormous flocks of up to 5,000 ewes looked after by a team of shepherds who all had there 600 plus ewes and did all the work.
There were four two day sales in Ashford market in the Autumn with over 20 thousand sheep in the two days on each of them. Then there were all the local Fairs, every village would have one with up to 3 or 4 thousand sheep.
Thousands of 2 year old Romney x Southdowns were kept and shorn for the wool and killed in the following May/June.

The hauliers hardly ever slept in the pre tachograph days and there were great stories of the open topped 3 deckers that before air suspension looked terrible things to drive and to load!!

Ah yes the good old days!!
I had the pleasure of working at some of those big sales in Ashford. I have fond memories of Les the senior auctioneer, very respected in his day. Also a droving couple Barbara and I think her husband was Steve, I was counting sheep onto a lorry, counting out loud in 1s, “You must be the new lad, you’ll soon learn to count with your mouth shut and count in 4s it a lot easier !”
 

NFI

Member
Livestock Farmer
Am I right in thinking that the national flock has halved over the last twenty years from 60m to 30m. Or is that pub talk?
 
Stratford.
 

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Henery

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South shropshire
A sheep scanner I know says most flocks are getting smaller some giving up , a few get way bigger, but overall ewe numbers are falling and quickly. A huge factor is lack of labour to manage sheep. Same story in Aus and NZ.
My travels through mid and west Wales by motorcycle suggest less and less around,,,, …maybe I should be watching the road rather than counting sheep 🥵🥵🥵🥵
 
I had the pleasure of working at some of those big sales in Ashford. I have fond memories of Les the senior auctioneer, very respected in his day. Also a droving couple Barbara and I think her husband was Steve, I was counting sheep onto a lorry, counting out loud in 1s, “You must be the new lad, you’ll soon learn to count with your mouth shut and count in 4s it a lot easier !”
Funny how you remember her name and not his😂😂😂😂
 

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
I had the pleasure of working at some of those big sales in Ashford. I have fond memories of Les the senior auctioneer, very respected in his day. Also a droving couple Barbara and I think her husband was Steve, I was counting sheep onto a lorry, counting out loud in 1s, “You must be the new lad, you’ll soon learn to count with your mouth shut and count in 4s it a lot easier !”

Good heavens that ages you to my era. Yes Les Wade was a great auctioneer and so was Doug Kitchin,
Babs and Steve were old school drovers and then of course there were the Goddens.
 

kfpben

Member
Location
Mid Hampshire
Is it the deterioration in the land or that the people that did the work have gone, or both?

I can remember (Just) when there were sheep on Romney Marsh and there were some enormous flocks of up to 5,000 ewes looked after by a team of shepherds who all had there 600 plus ewes and did all the work.
There were four two day sales in Ashford market in the Autumn with over 20 thousand sheep in the two days on each of them. Then there were all the local Fairs, every village would have one with up to 3 or 4 thousand sheep.
Thousands of 2 year old Romney x Southdowns were kept and shorn for the wool and killed in the following May/June.

The hauliers hardly ever slept in the pre tachograph days and there were great stories of the open topped 3 deckers that before air suspension looked terrible things to drive and to load!!

Ah yes the good old days!!
A sheep scanner I know says most flocks are getting smaller some giving up , a few get way bigger, but overall ewe numbers are falling and quickly. A huge factor is lack of labour to manage sheep. Same story in Aus and NZ.
My travels through mid and west Wales by motorcycle suggest less and less around,,,, …maybe I should be watching the road rather than counting sheep 🥵🥵🥵🥵
Come to Hampshire- more sheep than ever round here!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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

  • 1,286
  • 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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