Dairying & Red Tractor

[Tarw Coch]

the many times I’ve graced the local kebab Shop with my presence, asking if the meat was red tractor approved has never crossed my mind. Likewise somewhere like dominos

Judging by the average customer in the kebab shop on a Saturday night in more normal times I suspect RT is about the last thing they’d ever think of.


Can’t see anyone asking if the elephants leg is RT assured

 

[rusty]

I would encourage you all to fill in the RT dairy consultation here

What Matters To You And Your Business - Red Tractor - Citizen Space

Find and participate in consultations run by Red Tractor

redtractor.citizenspace.com

It's a long winded form to fill in for the dairy consultation but as many of us as possible need to fill it in to try and stop them coming up with more and more hoops for us to jump through.

 

[ollie989898]

I don't see why any of you who are Arla Garden, Tesco or Waitrose/Sainsburys need RT. It's a waste of your time. Petition the dairies to get rid of it.

If trading standards or dairy hygiene turn up and see you are Arla they should ask to look at your livestock movements book and then say thanks very much and good bye.

 

[O'Reilly]

Grazing cows must have shade.
For all 500? At once? How many can comply with that in every field?
Manure spreading equipment must be checked every year to ensure accurate distribution.
How do you get an fym spreader to be accurate?
Checking staff accommodation, so there's a trip into town for some people, these visits are going to take forever.

 

[bigw]

It needs people to respond to consultation. All the NFU's are going to be pushing back pretty hard on the consultation not rolling over like most seem to think.

 

[dairyrow]

It needs people to respond to consultation. All the NFU's are going to be pushing back pretty hard on the consultation not rolling over like most seem to think.

Are you sure our local secretary said he'd get back to me. Then has completely ignored me about it ever since. I don't see media high priestess Abi Reader not saying a dicky bird on it at all from the dairy point of view.

 

[bigw]

Are you sure our local secretary said he'd get back to me. Then has completely ignored me about it ever since. I don't see media high priestess Abi Reader not saying a dicky bird on it at all from the dairy point of view.

NFUs are putting in a pretty strong response to the consultation. If people feel strongly about it then put a response in as the more they receive the better chance there will be of RT dropping some of them.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Done. I can REALLY see Prince Pooper sitting down to give an annual performance review to his staff (me) and filling in the ethical trading questionnaire. They have no idea what it is like for a small business where there are just 2 of us to keep all this crap written up which all takes time away from the far more important things we should be doing outside. Even the consultation took bloody hours but it we don't respond then they think we approve. They should have released it in smaller chunks over a longer time period.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Who actually issues a licence for you to produce milk? Not RT

but the trouble is if you don't comply with RT you can lose your milk contract which for many of us would put us out of business.

 

[Sid]

but the trouble is if you don't comply with RT you can lose your milk contract which for many of us would put us out of business.

I asked one of the NFU dairy team how much is farm milk is non RT, 5 %.

Many don't use RT on their products but when selling on spot market it needs to be RT.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

I did the survey, thanks for the link @rusty
Having received the mail about it from RT, it went into spam / junk (oh the irony !) so I couldn't access it until now

I am sick of the increase of stupid useless paper work every year, farms should be judged on the condition of the animals, milk hygiene results etc not ticking boxes
RT does nothing to help a farmer's mental health, they are little more than bullies.

Ironically I know 2 local RT inspectors who keep sheep and neither of them are RT

I'm sure the only reason our milk buyer requires RT is so that they can sell any excess milk on the spot market.
They didn't worry too much last spring about the morals of assurance etc when they slashed our milk price.

Our family also runs a milk round with pasteurised bottled milk bought from a farm 12 miles away.
It's not RT & nobody has ever asked about it being RT, people just want local

 

[Bald Rick]

TBF to NFU Cymru, they have responded to the consultation quite robustly.

 

[Princess Pooper]

How have other people tackled the farm map for the virtual audit? Have a plan of the buildings only with the rat bait points, so that is Ok just a sheet of A4, but our map with fields, acreages etc is far too large a scale to load up through the portal and be able to see, and some of your farms would be massively bigger? How have you shown them a 1000 acre farm map?

 

[kiwi pom]

The poll is fairly conclusive at 80 "Yes", 3 "No"

When I asked my buyer why we had to be in RT, I was told that it was because their buyers demanded it.
Really?

I think I will re-ask the question

I know the answer will be same .... so I am going to look at all Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Dominoes boxes for that little red logo.

Do we think it will be there?

Their buyers will almost certainly require it or something similar. Its not about putting RT on the box for the customer (I don't know people think it is) its the retailer being able to show those that audit them, that they are trying to source from a responsible supplier.
Fonterra for example have different requirements from different buyers, some are ridiculously strict and audit them regularly, Some of the requirements just involve the processing side but some have to be passed on to the farmer to comply with.
My wife works in the potato industry, here McDonalds require a mix of Global G.A.P, NZ G.A.P and a few extra bits thrown in, from their processor, so if you grow spuds for that processor you have to jump through those hoops.
It doesn't mention any of that on a carton of Mac Fries though.

 

[Tonka]

How have other people tackled the farm map for the virtual audit? Have a plan of the buildings only with the rat bait points, so that is Ok just a sheet of A4, but our map with fields, acreages etc is far too large a scale to load up through the portal and be able to see, and some of your farms would be massively bigger? How have you shown them a 1000 acre farm map?

Several jpg/pics of the full scale map; won't matter if there is some overlap.

 

[rusty]

How have other people tackled the farm map for the virtual audit? Have a plan of the buildings only with the rat bait points, so that is Ok just a sheet of A4, but our map with fields, acreages etc is far too large a scale to load up through the portal and be able to see, and some of your farms would be massively bigger? How have you shown them a 1000 acre farm map?

For the rat baiting plan I did a screen shot from Google maps of the farm yard then printed it off and marked the bait points on it. I have a map on the office wall of the grazing platform and just took a photo of it and uploaded I think.

 

[Fedupfarmer]

Our vermin controller told me last year they can only bait were rat activity is found,due to the accidental poisoning of other species,so rendering a map worthless. RT should know this.

 

[Princess Pooper]

How're vermin controller told me last year they can only bait were rat activity is found,due to the accidental poisoning of other species,so rendering a map worthless. RT should know this.

Yes but we don't leave bait boxes or bait out all the time, there are a few 'hotspots' eg next the grain bins at harvest time when there might be some spilt grain, or next to the straw stacks or the silage bales, the back of the calf shed once we start bedding. These 'favourite' places are numbered up on the map and we just record 'checked point 6, signs of rat activity', then record baiting and inspecting and replenishing until the activity stops, then bait and bait box are removed.

 

[Fergieman]

Yes but we don't leave bait boxes or bait out all the time, there are a few 'hotspots' eg next the grain bins at harvest time when there might be some spilt grain, or next to the straw stacks or the silage bales, the back of the calf shed once we start bedding. These 'favourite' places are numbered up on the map and we just record 'checked point 6, signs of rat activity', then record baiting and inspecting and replenishing until the activity stops, then bait and bait box are removed.

yes and you fill all that in the night before your inspection.

 

[O'Reilly]

Our vermin control plan says 'cats'. Just waiting for some twit to want a plan for where the cats are hunting.