'Cutting the cloth'

Location
West Wales
I did notice that a high proportion were single parents, we have had 50 years of policies that encourage single parents, and this is the result. Also a lot of the energy costs have increased by green subsidies, again this is the result.
The major issue with single parents or divorced parents is that two houses are required both big enough to accommodate the whole family but only for half the time. There
I am not saying that there isn't real poverty in this country but in my area there isn't , no shortage of jobs and opportunities for people, round here the only reason for people not to have a job is that they don't want to work, it's getting worse in this area now as the more urban parts of the county are dumping there problem tenants in the country towns which is causing problems in the local schools now with uncontrollable kids and uninterested parents

normally I’d agree with you but childcare costs are honestly prohibitive in many cases especially if you have more than one in. Luckily middle is going to school in April otherwise ours would be costing us £87 a day for the two of them
 

Ted M

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Shropshire
I don't know where our local/country yfc got they're
t-shirts from for AGMs and county shows but I still have several from the late nineties early noughties which I wear for work and still in relatively good nick.
I also have a pair of RM Williams boots still going strong that I bought in Sydney 21 years ago.
Anything I've bought recently from the likes of next etc doesn't seem to last 5 minutes and that's just for social occasions which are fewer and further between these days.
 
Business wise, cutting costs too far actually increases per unit cost. Our cereals are breaks for the roots, key is keeping problematic weeds down. Don't use manufactured P on cereals, apply to maps and off take. Use cover crops to cycle nutrients and improve soils and hopefully reduce problems in roots. Home saved seed when possible. Keep simple machinery longer. Grow crops that need less N (rye and s. Barley) introducing sheep to graze covers to provide a small amount of income and defray CC costs. Employ better labour and reduce need for less efficient part timers.
Personally not a lot, don't really go out much, don't have sky etc etc etc. Working from home has trimmed wife's travel costs, there's not a lot to trim.
In both cases you still have to think of the long term, could stop P and K but that has long term impacts, same with personal stuff, if you stop investing and replacing stuff it just costs more later.
 

YELROM

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
I don`t have the latest Iphone, I buy refurbished for half the price
Run a sim only contract for £6 a month
Have no landline, don`t need one £6 a month sim covers all I need
I would bet the majority of people who claim to be on the breadline wear Nike trainers not because they might last longer
What sim only contract are you on for £6/mth
 

Dman2

Member
Location
Durham, UK
I’m going to go thru things over the coming months and see where I can cut dead wood out.

red tractor needs to go for a start if possible because all it is is a drain on my finances.
Red tractor going here after this harvest
Doing deals to supply farm to farm for cereals
And no point being farm assured for beef when we sell everything @ 14 month old through store ring
 

Drillman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Red tractor going here after this harvest
Doing deals to supply farm to farm for cereals
And no point being farm assured for beef when we sell everything @ 14 month old through store ring
I’m probably due a gestapo visit fairly soon. any hassle on the beef side and that’s getting binned, cereals I’m stuck with until an alternative is sorted out.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Red tractor going here after this harvest
Doing deals to supply farm to farm for cereals
And no point being farm assured for beef when we sell everything @ 14 month old through store ring

Red tractor for beef going here, i have only really done it as it wasn't too bad when doing the crops which i have to have as no storage and someone different looking over stuff i never thought was a bad thing. However now i need the vet to certify i wiped my arse properly this morning its gone as I have a guy who buys mine straight off farm as stores anyway.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
More of the same here really.
On the sheep, trimming inputs wherever possible while at the same time increasing output where possible, mostly by better utilising forage. I would suggest that most pastoral farms have plenty of room to make improvements in pasture management.

On the arable enterprise, if the output prices don’t continue to cover rising input costs, then more will be grassed down and sheep numbers increased.

The standard of grassland management on most UK livestock farms is horrendous. I recently had someone tell me winter grass grows better with sheep spread out grazing every field.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Plusnet
Unlimited calls and 2gb data
think it`s that price because we have more than one product off them ( wife has same sim deal)

I’m on the same. £6 is for 4Gb of data (or 6Gb if you have Plusnet broadband as well), all on the EE network.👍
I’ll be moving another two SIMs over from Virgin as soon as I get round to it.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Less inputs = less outputs, let the market do the rest.......

Not necessarily. A lot of inputs have been convincingly sold as essential by the supply industry, which just speeds the hamster wheel sometimes.

I’m all for investing in inputs, as long as they give a positive return. Too many times they lead to a treadmill requiring those inputs to stand still though, with nobody gaining but the suppliers.

I include mart auctioneers in that ‘supply industry’ bracket, who heavily promote on top prices (which earn them most commission), with zero regard for the margin over COP, that being the only thing that keeps farmers in business.
 
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Dman2

Member
Location
Durham, UK
I’m on the same. £6 is for 4Gb of data (or 6Gb if you have Plusnet broadband as well), all on the EE network.👍
I’ll be moving another two SIMs over from Virgin as soon as I get round to it.
I dropped the broadband and went 4g with EE
£27 per month unlimited, we are in sight of the mast
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 43.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 4 2.2%

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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