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Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
i believe it would be far less of a issue for arable farms compared to the livestock industry.

I would rather have a far more sensible version of red tractor assurance than dairy/livestock produce buyers make us be part of something like RSPCA freedom foods where they threaten removal of contract for taking part the badger cull etc. That’s the alternative! Supermarkets are making game dealers only buy from assured shoots, there’s no way they would buy most of their meat/dairy from unassured farms!

How many of these horrendous animal welfare cases happen on farm assured farms? Very few I should imagine, the removal of farm assurance would allow far more serious cases of this which would damage the livestock industry even further!

View attachment 976207

If farm assurance for livestock farmers stops just one extra case like the one above then it’s doing it’s job, current RT is far from perfect i agree but I believe a alternative or no assurance could be a whole lot worse.
Research what proportion of NZ farms are assured, and it all comes over here under the NZ Lamb brand. UK,supermarkets buy it. Also check out the rules for the NZ assuramce scheme for lamb.

Next, take a look at Danish Crown. They're a UK supermarket approved supplier, supplying a huge proportion of our bacon.

You'll find the Danish Crown farmers only get audited every 36 months. That's clearly accepted by our supermarkets, so get on your email and ask RT why they gold plate their scheme to 12 monthly payment, adding extra cost to UK producers.

Edit. Many of the assurance schemes for oversees competitor suppliers are somewhat less burdensome than RT.
 
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digger64

Member
i believe it would be far less of a issue for arable farms compared to the livestock industry.

I would rather have a far more sensible version of red tractor assurance than dairy/livestock produce buyers make us be part of something like RSPCA freedom foods where they threaten removal of contract for taking part the badger cull etc. That’s the alternative! Supermarkets are making game dealers only buy from assured shoots, there’s no way they would buy most of their meat/dairy from unassured farms!

How many of these horrendous animal welfare cases happen on farm assured farms? Very few I should imagine, the removal of farm assurance would allow far more serious cases of this which would damage the livestock industry even further!

View attachment 976207

If farm assurance for livestock farmers stops just one extra case like the one above then it’s doing it’s job, current RT is far from perfect i agree but I believe a alternative or no assurance could be a whole lot worse.
sorry but I think you may have got it wrong sadly as it is- restricting market access, devalueing peoples work,pushing them into and putting more bureaucratic/economic pressure / stress/illness on farmers and pushing them into corners that never used to exist probably makes this type of situation more or as likely to occur , I dont agree with it, but one should look at the cause before judgeing the symptoms
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
Too many posts to look back on so sorry if my question has already been covered . In the event of an accident or incident where legal people or even court cases are involved do you have to be a member for the legal backup from the NFU which talking to members is very good - obviously staying insured with them ?
Just had a legal battle through my insurers .....non NFU . ... the barrister my insurers used were apparently the same ones that the NFU use ....so they tell me ( my disclaimer😊). . .....it rattled on for 2 yrs but we won ! ......no details I'm afraid ☹️
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
pictures like above are horrendous BUT break LAWS. - they do not in anyway justify a private company leaching on farmers on top of those laws

the law should simply be enforced, assurance not stopping these shocking cases
This is a case for the RSPCA & police, Red Tractor turning up one day a year would do nothing to prevent this sort of thing happening, stiff fines or a jail sentence would have more effect!
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
That picture, I would hope the authorities and agencies went to check the physical and mental welfare of the farmer first . No farmer would allow that without a reason behind it and no spod with a RT clipboard would resolve that
What's the full story there? Were they shot on welfare grounds as they don't look undernourished?
 

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I don't know, I saw the photo posted like the rest of us


I’m not saying every farm without farm assurance is like this but I think farm assurance is a safety net to reduce the chances of this happening and if the end of farm assurance increases the likelihood of this then it is wrong.
 
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texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
i really struggle with the NFU campaigning for equality to imports on welfare / production / environmental standards etc whilst simultaneously supporting a scheme that places uk producers at competitive disadvantage to imports

it’s the kind of hypocrisy / irony you could not make up and makes no sense whatsoever
How have we allowed this to happen ? Its madness,absolute madness.
 

Old apprentice

Member
Arable Farmer

I’m not saying every farm without farm assurance is like this but I think farm assurance is a safety net to reduce the chances of this happening and if ended of farm assurance increases the likelihood of this then it is wrong.

Please realise rt brings nothing to your idea of welfare, if you keep cattle and sheep it is entrained in good stockman to look after there livestock.
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor

I’m not saying every farm without farm assurance is like this but I think farm assurance is a safety net to reduce the chances of this happening and if the end of farm assurance increases the likelihood of this then it is wrong.
Somebody turning up with a clipboard one day a year will not make an ounce of difference to this type of neglect, do you not think everything looks hunky dandy on that one day! The RSPCA & police are the right people to deal with this type of thing.
 

bumkin

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
pembrokeshire
What is even more sad is that they won't worry !
the reason they don't worry is that the NFU man is there to sell insurance he doesn't give a toss about the union he is very often the secretary but this is an honorary role he doesn't get paid for I think the idea was the insurance paid his wages as secretary but most of them don't see it like that the other problem is the committee it is usually formed by a group of people that are very often related and it becomes like a private club with little or no fresh input, where I come from the NFU committee was like a bowls club most meetings were taken up by who scored what and where the next match was
 

tullah

Member
Location
Linconshire
Research what proportion of NZ farms are assured, and it all comes over here under the NZ Lamb brand. UK,supermarkets buy it. Also check out the rules for the NZ assuramce scheme for lamb.

Next, take a look at Danish Crown. They're a UK supermarket approved supplier, supplying a huge proportion of our bacon.

You'll find the Danish Crown farmers only get audited every 36 months. That's clearly accepted by our supermarkets, so get on your email and ask RT why they gold plate their scheme to 12 monthly payment, adding extra cost to UK producers.

Edit. Many of the assurance schemes for oversees competitor suppliers are somewhat less burdensome than RT.
Had no idea...the whole thing is getting more ridiculous every day.
Next week someone will unearth some more. Eventually we'll have not 95% farmer support but 99.9% for binning RT, just leaving Guy and Blenc trying to market their few lorry loads of wheat at a 10% discount because it won't blend with our equal to imports.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 6 3.2%

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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