Combinables Price Tracker

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
We have had merchants tell us we can't sell Siskin as a hard group 4 since technically it's a group 2. I argued that it's still a hard wheat just slightly better quality but all I got was "but it's a group so you can't sell it as a group 4"!
Sell them mixed wheat to their specification? I do that. All my varieties go in one heap.
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
Speaking to merchants who have left trade thats what happens with malting barley anyway
Malting barley has a habit of being downgraded to feed on the weigh bridge, but still magically gets tipped in the malting intake.
i.e. It fails the quality test on intake, but is often"close enough to blend away" with some better loads to plump up the bulk ?
Somehow I doubt many are surprised by this...
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
We have had merchants tell us we can't sell Siskin as a hard group 4 since technically it's a group 2. I argued that it's still a hard wheat just slightly better quality but all I got was "but it's a group so you can't sell it as a group 4"!

Does that matter? What market is it going to? If it's a specific milling quality then faur enough - the miller might be looking for a lower protein grist for a specific flour and will blend away better grain with Gp 4. I always put on the passport what we've agreed, not what variety I choose to load from my silo of bended Gp 2s and hard Gp 4s as long as it meets the minimum spec.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Malting barley has a habit of being downgraded to feed on the weigh bridge, but still magically gets tipped in the malting intake.
i.e. It fails the quality test on intake, but is often"close enough to blend away" with some better loads to plump up the bulk ?
Somehow I doubt many are surprised by this...

And what do you do about it? Bend over and take their word for it? Send your retained samples off for independent testing or at the very least demand a retest, as per your rights in the contract? You'd be amazed at how many loads test better the second time!
 

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
And what do you do about it? Bend over and take their word for it? Send your retained samples off for independent testing or at the very least demand a retest, as per your rights in the contract? You'd be amazed at how many loads test better the second time!
There's nothing you can do if the sample isn't up to spec, and a lot of samples will naturally be borderline.
My dads family ran a grain trading business for around 116 years, and the accumulated wisdom passed down through the generations was "theres a lot of money made from blending barley" (always said with a wink), "supply to a specification, not above it".
Funnily enough, I had lunch in town yesterday in what was my great grandfathers granary. Teams of men used to shovel differing grades of barley through holes in each of the 5 floors to the bagging plant at the bottom. The modern equivalent will be loading barley from the 'better quality' malting bins while gently opening the slide from the 'better quality' feed bins.
But what would I know, I stopped growing barley in 2002. I always suspected the 'rejection' phone calls from the intake were a bit dodgy ?
 

California

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
South Lincs
Does that matter? What market is it going to? If it's a specific milling quality then faur enough - the miller might be looking for a lower protein grist for a specific flour and will blend away better grain with Gp 4. I always put on the passport what we've agreed, not what variety I choose to load from my silo of bended Gp 2s and hard Gp 4s as long as it meets the minimum spec.
We don't mention it now. We avoided the merchants who had a problem with it that year and just sold to others who weren't worried. Now we just decribe the wheat as "mixed hard gp4" (the other being genuine gp4 hard wheats such as Costello and Gleam) and don't mention the Siskin. Don't have any problems. Though sometimes the premium for it round here is hardly worth the hassle.
 

California

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
South Lincs
Sell them mixed wheat to their specification? I do that. All my varieties go in one heap.
We are the same. It was just that particular year there were 2 merchants (young reps, I wonder if they even knew exactly what the difference (or lack of) between gps2 and 4 was). Now we just don't mention it. Like you say as long as it has the right spec and a hard endosperm it shouldn't matter. Although there is still one merchant who likes us to write Costello (of which it is about 35%) on the passport!
 

Renaultman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
We are the same. It was just that particular year there were 2 merchants (young reps, I wonder if they even knew exactly what the difference (or lack of) between gps2 and 4 was). Now we just don't mention it. Like you say as long as it has the right spec and a hard endosperm it shouldn't matter. Although there is still one merchant who likes us to write Costello (of which it is about 35%) on the passport!
Back in the day, when I used to deliver biscuit wheat, it always became Consort or Claire when it got to the mills.:unsure:
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
Sold 6 loads feed wheat last Monday to 2 different buyers for £150/t Feb delivery, 3 have gone already! It would have been 4 if they had given me more notice on Friday but couldn’t load.
prices offered were £147.50 - £150
 
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Currently price in November just about pays to keep wheat till then so the normal long holders have no incentive to sell combined with a much lower planted area of wheat
the question is how much lower is the area planted compared to last year
the next question is how much of the wheat planted is going to yield more than 7 tonnes per ha
the 3rd question is what will be the quality of the uneven waterlogged wheat be

wheat stored last harvest at 12 % moisture will easy keep its quality

I have no wheat left and only 1|4 of last years wheat area in the ground which looks 2 tonne per ha less yield at best
and half the yield at worst
2020 harvest 8 to 10 million tonnes

Wednesday 2pm is the Ahdb planting survey results
any one surveyed
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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

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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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