Concerned about Red Tractor collapse.

[slackjawedyokel]

That's simply your inspector being an arse. They have a NOT APPLICABLE tick box for those type of circumstances.

That’s the trouble though isn’t it. I’m not alone in having a string of inspectors who were a bit of an arse. When I’m being inspected I can either say ‘oh how silly of me, I’d better put that right and fill in the compliance forms’ or I can stick to my guns - tell them they are plain wrong and tell them I will query their fitness to inspect with the assurance body. If I do that, I can be sure they will go through EVERYTHING with a fine tooth comb until they nitpick something legit, which could be more problematic for me to rectify.

In a way I have a little sympathy for inspectors marking me down for non-offences (like the inspector I mentioned further up the thread that decided right at the end of an inspection that they’d seen a cow with only one official tag). They have performance targets to meet on the percentage of farms getting non-compliances and the ones being arses are not hitting the target. They know that. I know that. And in this situation I make damn sure that they know that I know that they know that.

RT is a waste of my time and my money. Sooner it’s replaced by something fit for purpose the better.

 

[D14]

We’ve been organic for roughly the same amount of time we’ve been farm assured (back in the days of FABBL). For the first few years, the FA inspection was pretty straightforward (medicine cupboard, meds records, movement book etc) while the organic inspection was the one that caused sleepless nights.
Now the position is reversed. While the organic inspection is a little more complicated than 20 years ago, it’s the FA inspection that’s the real PITA with many hours having to be spent on utterly pointless paperwork. They even require me (for reasons unknown) to complete a HGCA wheat mycotoxin risk assessment for my cereals. I only grow barley and oats

I would make a formal complaint about that inspector and have him banned from your premises. The man is clearly an hitler idiot. Its also a story for the farming press so get in touch with the FW or start a thread on here specifically about it.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

I would make a formal complaint about that inspector and have him banned from your premises. The man is clearly an hitler idiot. Its also a story for the farming press so get in touch with the FW or start a thread on here specifically about it.

Aye well- she’s not doing much inspecting any more.

Now she’s training the inspectors

 

[PhilipB]

Inspector here now.

We've hit a new low (for us) with the chap who cleaned /dressed some grain not putting his PAwhatever number on the ticket.

 

[stroller]

Inspector here now.

We've hit a new low (for us) with the chap who cleaned /dressed some grain not putting his PAwhatever number on the ticket.

Should have said you just used it straight off the heap, the less they know the better.

 

[PhilipB]

Should have said you just used it straight off the heap, the less they know the better.

New inspector.

Old one would have just handed back the paper and gone with something else.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

Should have said you just used it straight off the heap, the less they know the better.

Should have said you mix it yourself in the drill with a stick

 

[MrNoo]

Inspector here now.

We've hit a new low (for us) with the chap who cleaned /dressed some grain not putting his PAwhatever number on the ticket.

Utterly pathetic isnt it. Makes my blood boil. The NFU's Devil child at work helping uk producers

 

[D14]

New inspector.

Old one would have just handed back the paper and gone with something else.

They've lost all the good people as they know its corrupt.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

According to a grain merchant I'm dealing with at the moment, the dead tractor are fighting for survival.

 

[D14]

According to a grain merchant I'm dealing with at the moment, the dead tractor are fighting for survival.

Yes I had the same last week or the week before. A multinational merchant as well.

 

[warksfarmer]

Fresh produce buyer friend who works for the countries biggest supermarket chain told me this morning Red Tractor is dead in the water as a stand-alone business model but he wonders now whether the None Farming Union will step in and continue the push from behind the scenes. Basically keep it subsidised. But the supermarkets don’t care about it.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

It was ok in the early years, when the cost of assurance was quite low and you could almost believe it when they said that you’d get a premium for your produce.
It feels like it became a protection racket, once they had a lot of farms on-board; tying the job up so the grain silos and the abattoirs required you to have it.
I’m not sure why they felt the need to continually make the rules more onerous- the hoops to be jumped through ever smaller and higher. Who was asking for that?? Not their members I’m sure!
It feels like we’ve come to a crunch point now. The reduction in farm subsidy is starting to be felt. Us farmers are looking afresh at our businesses, thinking about how we prune out any dead wood to make the business fit for the future. Our business is basically producing the same stuff of the same quality as it was 20 years ago, but looking at the amount of time spent jumping through (pointless) hoops for FA, and also the fact that it now costs a few times what it did, and I think it’s really not worth it.

Why did they have to guild the Lilly? Why not just have left the rules as they were 15 or 20 years ago?

 

[warksfarmer]

It was ok in the early years, when the cost of assurance was quite low and you could almost believe it when they said that you’d get a premium for your produce.
It feels like it became a protection racket, once they had a lot of farms on-board; tying the job up so the grain silos and the abattoirs required you to have it.
I’m not sure why they felt the need to continually make the rules more onerous- the hoops to be jumped through ever smaller and higher. Who was asking for that?? Not their members I’m sure!
It feels like we’ve come to a crunch point now. The reduction in farm subsidy is starting to be felt. Us farmers are looking afresh at our businesses, thinking about how we prune out any dead wood to make the business fit for the future. Our business is basically producing the same stuff of the same quality as it was 20 years ago, but looking at the amount of time spent jumping through (pointless) hoops for FA, and also the fact that it now costs a few times what it did, and I think it’s really not worth it.

Why did they have to guild the Lilly? Why not just have left the rules as they were 15 or 20 years ago?

I don’t recall any premiums being available due to a RT membership. It was just part of the con blurb from the NFU when they set this fraudulent scheme up.

 

[Fiveospades]

We had an assessment a few days ago and didn't 'pass' because we had a few pieces of paperwork missing that nobody ever reads or looks at except when they are shown to the assessor and are total fabrication anyway.
One of these was an integrated pest management plan (all21 pages of it). I wonder has anyone ever been asked by an end user of our crops if we have an IPM plan or a no smoking sign outside of our chemical store etc etc. I think not . Quality and price is what our end users are looking for not endless folders of meaningless irrelevant paperwork that is just paying lip service to the scheme and resembles little of what actually goes on the farm. Amazing that I cannot market my grain if I cannot show a record of when I cleaned my combine harvester or washed out a trailer yet if I put any old date down that comes to my head it is OK. Total farce.

 

[Beefsmith]

I was chatting to a local restaurant owner yesterday. It’s a fancy place and he’s buying quality produce and has the reputation to go with it. Anyway I mentioned Red Tractor to him and it means nothing to him or even features in anything to do with the restaurant. All his meat is sourced direct from local farms as is his seasonal veg and RT is never mentioned. It’s also not mentioned with produce that comes from wholesalers. This restaurant turns over £150k per week and if RT is of no relevance to a business feeding people then seriously what is the point?

 

[tullah]

We had an assessment a few days ago and didn't 'pass' because we had a few pieces of paperwork missing that nobody ever reads or looks at except when they are shown to the assessor and are total fabrication anyway.
One of these was an integrated pest management plan (all21 pages of it). I wonder has anyone ever been asked by an end user of our crops if we have an IPM plan or a no smoking sign outside of our chemical store etc etc. I think not . Quality and price is what our end users are looking for not endless folders of meaningless irrelevant paperwork that is just paying lip service to the scheme and resembles little of what actually goes on the farm. Amazing that I cannot market my grain if I cannot show a record of when I cleaned my combine harvester or washed out a trailer yet if I put any old date down that comes to my head it is OK. Total farce.

Because it's the easiest way for them to make money out of you.
It's about nothing else.

 

[neilo]

I don’t recall any premiums being available due to a RT membership. It was just part of the con blurb from the NFU when they set this fraudulent scheme up.

There was certainly a premium on assured lambs when it first came in. About a fiver a lamb for what really was a tick box exercise done by the markets themselves. Back in the 90’s it was very welcome.

Now there is no premium in the live market most of the time, but a requirement of sending direct to abattoirs and accessing any premium contracts.

Beef & Lamb schemes, although they have some nonsensical bits, have never got as daft as combinables though, and aren’t particularly strenuous if you already meet legal requirements. Nobody would miss it though.

I had a phone call from my FAWL assessor yesterday, wanting to arrange a visit. I will be going on with it, but if he does get ‘tricky’ he will be told to leave. From past experience, it would be very unlikely if he did though.

 

[slackjawedyokel]

There was certainly a premium on assured lambs when it first came in. About a fiver a lamb for what really was a tick box exercise done by the markets themselves. Back in the 90’s it was very welcome.

Now there is no premium in the live market most of the time, but a requirement of sending direct to abattoirs and accessing any premium contracts.

Beef & Lamb schemes, although they have some nonsensical bits, have never got as daft as combinables though, and aren’t particularly strenuous if you already meet legal requirements. Nobody would miss it though.

I had a phone call from my FAWL assessor yesterday, wanting to arrange a visit. I will be going on with it, but if he does get ‘tricky’ he will be told to leave. From past experience, it would be very unlikely if he did though.

You’ll still need your H&S paperwork handy though!

 

[neilo]

You’ll still need your H&S paperwork handy though!

Not as far as I'm aware for FAWL.