Countryfile tonight

[matthew]

Being local to Melton, it was quite amusing when one of the major supermarkets (can't remember which) said it would not stock 'vegan pork pies' (WTF) in the town store 'due to local sensitivity'. Quite right too!

The pudgey faced chap who was interviewed about the pie festival in the church is the Chair of the MM Pork Pie Association and he's a bloody veggie!

Sacrilege.
The only porky-pies I’ll ever buy are Dickinson & Morris.

 

[7610 super q]

So far.........ploughing bad.......chem use bad.........fert use bad.......planting trees bad.....
Never mind, can't wait for my £20 ha carbon credit to arrive....

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Very good this evening. Inspirational even.
I'm fed up of being trapped into my system of farming (working in someone else's rotation, spending a vast amount of money on purchased grain, selling into a commodity market, currently at a loss) although on the upside, what I produce is free range. I just need to make a pile to be able to afford to go and do something more "regenerative".

 

[betweenthelines]

The farmer mob grazing Herefords was featured on Quest TV's "Born Mucky" He wasn't impressive on that.

He's improved his PR now, but I'd love to know if he could make a living just selling his produce on the open market-not everyone can rely on adding value by making pies for premium customers.

Similarly, Henson's neighbour was very cagey about what the public would have to pay for food so he could make a profit.

I'm sure every farmer in the Country would love to go down the "regen agric" route, but I'm equally sure the public can't/won't pay the prices that would need.

 

[betweenthelines]

And of course the "Irony of the Week" award goes to the weatherman pointing out how pollution from ships is showing up in the clouds during a programme about how farming is screwing up the environment.

 

[Werzle]

Alot of "ideal world" farming tonight that most of us would probably like to do but half the world would starve if we did. Love the idea of herbage grass leys and healthy soil and just cannot get my head around the fact that big companies can carry on polluting as long as they buy some land and plant trees, its no better than a bribe, plain and simple.

 

[Steevo]

Alot of "ideal world" farming tonight that most of us would probably like to do but half the world would starve if we did. Love the idea of herbage grass leys and healthy soil and just cannot get my head around the fact that big companies can carry on polluting as long as they buy some land and plant trees, its no better than a bribe, plain and simple.

Rainbows and unicorns.

One rule for one, one for another.

Perception is reality.

 

[Raider112]

Alot of "ideal world" farming tonight that most of us would probably like to do but half the world would starve if we did. Love the idea of herbage grass leys and healthy soil and just cannot get my head around the fact that big companies can carry on polluting as long as they buy some land and plant trees, its no better than a bribe, plain and simple.

What was the CF opinion on polluters buying up land to plant trees? Enthusiastic or realistic?

 

[Suffolk Serf]

What was the CF opinion on polluters buying up land to plant trees? Enthusiastic or realistic?

Balanced. Had a lad who wanted to farm but that was becoming increasingly unrealistic as the tree brigade snapped up land and a city type smoothie who was from the company buying land and planting trees. So probably if anything skewed towards farming. (IMHO)

 

[Werzle]

What was the CF opinion on polluters buying up land to plant trees? Enthusiastic or realistic?

Yeah it seemed to point towards do you want food or trees, an expert seemed think farmers selling carbon credits was a bit premature as it takes years to see if carbon is actually being stored in soil etc. Swarmy chap buying up land for big firms said he was mostly buying land from old people retiring and wouldnt touch productive arable land or fertile ex dairy farms , bloody nonsense . Those firms should be cutting carbon pollution not off setting it so they can buy a free pass to carry on. The trouble is the government are never going to hit the carbon neutral target without letting fudgers like these pull the wool over our eyes, its all a con.

 

[upnortheast]

Those firms should be cutting carbon pollution not off setting it so they can buy a free pass to carry on. The trouble is the government are never going to hit the carbon neutral target without letting fudgers like these pull the wool over our eyes, its all a con.

Exactly.
Are they going to pause their activities for at least 20 years until the trees are big enough to have an effect ...... Thought not. ...

 

[No wot]

Go regenerative , put quater or third of your ground into grass and as if by magic your livestock suddenly become the saviour of the planet , I don't think last nights CF stuck its boot once into meat production which was refreshing, , ps does the farmer farming with next to no Inputs , farm on his own account or is he a successful businessman showing the rest of us how it should be done , (a usual CF trick)

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Go regenerative , put quater or third of your ground into grass and as if by magic your livestock suddenly become the saviour of the planet , I don't think last nights CF stuck its boot once into meat production which was refreshing, , ps does the farmer farming with next to no Inputs , farm on his own account or is he a successful businessman showing the rest of us how it should be done , (a usual CF trick)

The farmer was for many years farm manager on a very well known organic farm, having reluctantly converted it for the very well known owner.
I believe that the farm that he is on now is a joint venture with the owners.

 

[Martin Holden]

Alot of "ideal world" farming tonight that most of us would probably like to do but half the world would starve if we did. Love the idea of herbage grass leys and healthy soil and just cannot get my head around the fact that big companies can carry on polluting as long as they buy some land and plant trees, its no better than a bribe, plain and simple.

Agreed. Carbon offsets are a fiddle the airlines need to "clean up, not plant trees. regenerative farming looks a bit like mixed farming from yesteryear and perhaps it is, but unless an alternative source for nitrogen can be found, what choice do arable farmers have? £1000/tonne isn't viable, unless off farm crop prices escalate hugely

 

[Werzle]

Agreed. Carbon offsets are a fiddle the airlines need to "clean up, not plant trees. regenerative farming looks a bit like mixed farming from yesteryear and perhaps it is, but unless an alternative source for nitrogen can be found, what choice do arable farmers have? £1000/tonne isn't viable, unless off farm crop prices escalate hugely

I think there is awful lot we can all do tbh, although perhaps one farm cannot farm on its own like yesteryear 3-4 farmers getting together and letting land to eachother on rotation for arable and stock would do wonders. Loads of livestock/dairy farms with oceans of manure they cannot cope with that arable men turn there noses up at in favour of the usually easy option of bagged fert. The arable men doing the least complaining about the massive rises in input prices are the ones who put a great value in fym and have started already to grow break crops for sheep etc. We all know of large poor yielding arable farms that have been robbed of nutrients for years which will not grow sfa with a drop in fert application

 

[Princess Pooper]

Major flaw with the regenerative bit was surely David Wilson's farming was organic - this was mentioned at the time and it was pointed out you don't need to be organic to be regenerative, so some of the following statements like the 200t fert v none was a bit irrelevant really, as the latter was in an organic system.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

.

Yeah it seemed to point towards do you want food or trees, an expert seemed think farmers selling carbon credits was a bit premature as it takes years to see if carbon is actually being stored in soil etc. Swarmy chap buying up land for big firms said he was mostly buying land from old people retiring and wouldnt touch productive arable land or fertile ex dairy farms , bloody nonsense . Those firms should be cutting carbon pollution not off setting it so they can buy a free pass to carry on. The trouble is the government are never going to hit the carbon neutral target without letting fudgers like these pull the wool over our eyes, its all a con.

I read recently that there is more carbon in the soil than what's in the atmosphere and all the plants in the world.

 

[beardface]

.

I read recently that there is more carbon in the soil than what's in the atmosphere and all the plants in the world.

There's also more life in a cup full of soil than an acre of rainforest

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

There's also more life in a cup full of soil than an acre of rainforest

Sounds a bit contradictory ; unless you mean rainforest with no soil???

 

[Martin Holden]

I think there is awful lot we can all do tbh, although perhaps one farm cannot farm on its own like yesteryear 3-4 farmers getting together and letting land to eachother on rotation for arable and stock would do wonders. Loads of livestock/dairy farms with oceans of manure they cannot cope with that arable men turn there noses up at in favour of the usually easy option of bagged fert. The arable men doing the least complaining about the massive rises in input prices are the ones who put a great value in fym and have started already to grow break crops for sheep etc. We all know of large poor yielding arable farms that have been robbed of nutrients for years which will not grow sfa with a drop in fert application

You raise a good point in farmers “co operating” to make this work. It needs a change of thinking for people (and I am not singling out farmers in this as all of us are built not to share that well whatever walk of life) and then it could work. Clearly in the intense arable areas livestock and their by products are not so local. This maybe a barrier to many. How ever it seems clear chucking on lots of artificial isn’t the way forward but farming has to feed the world, not Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons etc etc! Agriculture is precious and it’s a our time the populous understood this. There is nothing as dangerous as a “hungry man”