Do Scottish suckler farmers need support??? Here are the figures

Screenshot_20180117-144315.png
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Seriously though, those in the top third seem to pay bugger all for fodder and bedding, yet spend more on machinery.......:scratchhead:
 

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
Stop doing cows where you can't do them then. I don't have any cows as I don't have a farm that suits them very well. I could probably carry 4 or 5 I suppose but they would have to be out all year and raise calves on grass alone. As soon as you have to start taking feed to an animal and their shite away, your margin is going down the drain unless you have massive scale. Most of those costs on that list are to do with housing. I don't think the public should be expected to support businesses which are nonviable in the first place.
 

Werzle

Member
Location
Midlands
Why should any farm be financially helped to produce a product that doesnt suit it, it just distorts the market. Surely every farmer should be playing to there farms strengths and financial situation ,otherwise they are just swimming against the tide and setting themselves up for a fall if payments stop.
 

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
The figures prove that a third can turn a profit without using the subsidy and a third can't make a profit even with the subsidy. :scratchhead::scratchhead::scratchhead:
Aye there's a third that's turning a profit without subsidy....

..... but it's a bloody small profit!

Doesn't leave enough to live on, never mind re-invest in another slatted shed (which presumably why the straw costs are so preposterously low).





It's simple arithmetic: beef price needs to skyrocket, or even the top third won't be calving cows without a subsidy.

So will it be bye bye Scottish beef?
 

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
Fixed costs are where savings can be made, anyone who doesn’t employ anyone, doesn’t use contractors, can grow their own straw, owns most of their land, can manage with older kit, no borrowings and does their own books would make a tidy profit (y) even without subs.
 

Treg

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cornwall
Fixed costs are where savings can be made, anyone who doesn’t employ anyone, doesn’t use contractors, can grow their own straw, owns most of their land, can manage with older kit, no borrowings and does their own books would make a tidy profit (y) even without subs.
And yet the top third spent more on machinery & contractors?
 
If you are in an enviro scheme and take what you can get from the grass you produce, and make the system as simple as possible by using your topper tractor to feed, etc, then you can produce cheap stores, this will probably be the future a la New Zealand approach rather than getting the last penny from heavy investments in buildings, labour and machines.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
As you can see the average lowland suckler farmer in Scotland made £8/cow net profit in 2016 years before were a loss, the top third producers managed £81/cow net profit BUT this includes £65/cow in subsidies, these are the QMS figures so not figures ive made up, is it realistic to expect producers to continue without support??
how do you propose that the support is paid ?
perhaps if the suckler cow is looked on as good for the environment there could be a suckler environmental scheme whereby you get paid so much per cow a bit like some environmental schemes paid you for each tree you had you could have one that is paid per cow, now if it was deemed an environmental benefit for that cow to have a calf [say on the premise that it saved so much beef being imported then there could be a payment for each calf sold for beef,
yes what do you think (y)
genius or what :Dwhere do I sign up :)
oh hang on this all looks a bit familiar :unsure: haven't I seen something like this before :scratchhead:
oh well no matter bloody good idea don't you think ???????????? yea (y)
 

Kildare

Member
Location
Kildare, Ireland
a lot seem to become farmers as an excuse to buy shiny new toys
A story told by my uncle years ago.When organising insurance for the farm he was asked was a Renault 4 van for business or pleasure. He replied he wouldn't be driving a R4 for pleasure.
Same with agriculture tractors.
Re the figures I note nobody has said they are off the wall. I would agree they look realistic.
A recent programme on TV here said the average beef farmer had 16 k subsidy and had a net farm income of 13k
 

Happy

Member
Location
Scotland
Fixed costs are where savings can be made, anyone who doesn’t employ anyone, doesn’t use contractors, can grow their own straw, owns most of their land, can manage with older kit, no borrowings and does their own books would make a tidy profit (y) even without subs.

You would think so but these figures show the opposite.
Best performing have lowest variable costs but also highest fixed costs with worst performing lowest fixed costs.

Not sure what proportion of suckler herds in Scotland will be non LFA these days. Vast Majority will be on LFA farms where bought in feed/bedding costs will be even higher.

I'd hazard a fair guess at what QMS themselves recommend as the solution.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 67 35.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,294
  • 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/
Top