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

[Kiwi Pete]

then put the bag over her head .............moo will sound like a lamb.......

If you make them float with the head way up in the air you could fair tip the tucker into them then.
I have a squeaky bullock, he sounds like he's being told off by my wife

 

[Henarar]

Piggy Muldoon

wasn't he a two Ronnies character ?

 

[Bossfarmer]

err, genuine question

if, as you fear, you will be FLOODED by Irish beef, where does all that EXCESS Irish beef currently go ?

The UK and European countries remained the main market for Irish beef, accounting for 97% of exports last year.

Ireland, in total, exported 526m t of beef in 2016, worth €2.2bn.

Britain accounted for half of this market, taking in over 234,000t worth over €1bn, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

A further 31,000t went to Northern Ireland, worth €110m.

Other countries in the EU that were significant importers of Irish beef last year include France and Italy, who took €208m and €161m, respectively.

Ireland exported 23,000t of beef to Germany, which was a doubling in volume since 2012.

International markets for Irish beef last year include Hong Kong, which imported 16,000t, worth almost €43m, and the United Arab Emirates which took 62t, worth €800,000

 

[Henarar]

I have a squeaky bullock,

I read that wrong to start with

 

[Henarar]

The UK and European countries remained the main market for Irish beef, accounting for 97% of exports last year.

Ireland, in total, exported 526m t of beef in 2016, worth €2.2bn.

Britain accounted for half of this market, taking in over 234,000t worth over €1bn, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

A further 31,000t went to Northern Ireland, worth €110m.

Other countries in the EU that were significant importers of Irish beef last year include France and Italy, who took €208m and €161m, respectively.

Ireland exported 23,000t of beef to Germany, which was a doubling in volume since 2012.

International markets for Irish beef last year include Hong Kong, which imported 16,000t, worth almost €43m, and the United Arab Emirates which took 62t, worth €800,000

how much did we send over there ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

wasn't he a two Ronnies character ?

Pretty much.
A bit like a beltex that had shed.

Bloody good character really, that was back in the days when politicians had real personality and leadership - farmers here have really never forgiven the Labour party for winning that election but much like anything else, any business - that decision in the time of a global financial crisis had to be made.
As it turned out for us it was like being the only boat in the race getting any wind... it sort of still is, it forced dramatic changes to how we did things.

A couple of high dairy payout years not long ago showed just how silly farmers can get with grass and money at the same time: bloody in-shed feeding took the grain price to over double in about 3 years!
And then crunch!!!
Surprised you didn't hear the bang from Somerset, tbh
Then "oh but we put in this feeding system and bought all these extra cows" - so did they sell the cows?
Nooo.. .!
Let's put on 300kg of N and buy PKE complete with dead rats and orangutan pizzles and lumps of steel in it - did you know that mixer wagons here have magnets to help collect all the bits of metal in PKE?
Poor bloody cows, all they want is grass and respect

Sorry, rant over

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I read that wrong to start with

I have.

He sounds like that 11 year old boy who's voice just broke.

My rubbish are well though

 

[hillman]

the fact is irish beef IS competing with scottish its our main competition and you DO have support as do we at the moment, take ours away and we will be unable to compete

But the question I thought was why can't you make a living at the moment, not 18 mths or 5 yrs down the road cause of Brexit and subs gone ?

 

[Henarar]

PKE ?

 

[Bossfarmer]

But the question I thought was why can't you make a living at the moment, not 18 mths or 5 yrs down the road cause of Brexit and subs gone ?

we can make a living from sucklers at the moment JUST

 

[Henarar]

how much beef does the UK send to Ireland @Bossfarmer
you seem to be able to find things out try that one

 

[Kiwi Pete]

PKE ?

Palm kernel expeller.
Basically the dross or the husks from the palm oil process - in layman's terms what happens when folk get a bit greedy.
Poor old orangutans lose their home to palm plantations and then the byproduct is shipped here to be fed to cows as feed.
It is rubbish, leaving the ethics of feeding this substandard sh!t to cattle - it is about 50% digestible and takes about 30 hours to be digested to that point. High in copper though.
Basically about as fit to feed to cattle as woodchips and urea....

Not a fan of it
... but not my tea-party ...

 

[Henarar]

Palm kernel expeller.
Basically the dross or the husks from the palm oil process - in layman's terms what happens when folk get a bit greedy.
Poor old orangutans lose their home to palm plantations and then the byproduct is shipped here to be fed to cows as feed.
It is rubbish, leaving the ethics of feeding this substandard sh!t to cattle - it is about 50% digestible and takes about 30 hours to be digested to that point. High in copper though.
Basically about as fit to feed to cattle as woodchips and urea....

Not a fan of it
... but not my tea-party ...

goodness
whatever happened to good old grass, with some weeds I mean herbage

 

[ollie989898]

PKE is a by product of palm oil production. It has to go somewhere.

 

[M-J-G]

Martin has mentioned our climate down here on more than one occasion but we have had times like he described and times in the summer when two inches of grass would go best part of a foot up a cows leg

but then

all together now, the other mans grass is always greener the sun.................

Turns out it's not things may be worse at your end than I thought.
Featuring in your post prompted me to have a look to see how bad the weather is down in your immediate area, as I expected your sunshine hours are a lot more, frost is quite a bit less, your temperatures are quite a bit higher, particularly winter temperatures.

I was however, amazed to see that the weather statistics aren't really much different for rainfall between you and I, just over 3 inches of a difference, I though by the horrific stories of how wet it was, it would be more like 3ft of difference, but not so, according to our closest weather stations.

Given your longer growing season and more active plant activity due to warmer temperatures, your grass should be using more water, thus keeping the land drier than in a less growthy climate, which would suggest it's maybe more your soil type or soil structure that's letting your farming situation down than climate.

 

[Henarar]

Well yeah

 

[turbo]

The UK and European countries remained the main market for Irish beef, accounting for 97% of exports last year.

Ireland, in total, exported 526m t of beef in 2016, worth €2.2bn.

Britain accounted for half of this market, taking in over 234,000t worth over €1bn, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

A further 31,000t went to Northern Ireland, worth €110m.

Other countries in the EU that were significant importers of Irish beef last year include France and Italy, who took €208m and €161m, respectively.

Ireland exported 23,000t of beef to Germany, which was a doubling in volume since 2012.

International markets for Irish beef last year include Hong Kong, which imported 16,000t, worth almost €43m, and the United Arab Emirates which took 62t, worth €800,000

Are they going to forget about all the other markets that they have opened up to flood us with their beef?

 

[Henarar]

Turns out it's not things may be worse at your end than I thought.
Featuring in your post prompted me to have a look to see how bad the weather is down in your immediate area, as I expected your sunshine hours are a lot more, frost is quite a bit less, your temperatures are quite a bit higher, particularly winter temperatures.

I was however, amazed to see that the weather statistics aren't really much different for rainfall between you and I, just over 3 inches of a difference, I though by the horrific stories of how wet it was, it would be more like 3ft of difference, but not so, according to our closest weather stations.

Given your longer growing season and more active plant activity due to warmer temperatures, your grass should be using more water, thus keeping the land drier than in a less growthy climate, which would suggest it's maybe more your soil type or soil structure that's letting your farming situation down than climate.

have you seen how dry it is over with @Kiwi Pete I even had to make up a new song

 

[Henarar]

It has to go somewhere.

that's what they said about chicken sh!t and gowned up sheep

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Turns out it's not things may be worse at your end than I thought.
Featuring in your post prompted me to have a look to see how bad the weather is down in your immediate area, as I expected your sunshine hours are a lot more, frost is quite a bit less, your temperatures are quite a bit higher, particularly winter temperatures.

I was however, amazed to see that the weather statistics aren't really much different for rainfall between you and I, just over 3 inches of a difference, I though by the horrific stories of how wet it was, it would be more like 3ft of difference, but not so, according to our closest weather stations.

Given your longer growing season and more active plant activity due to warmer temperatures, your grass should be using more water, thus keeping the land drier than in a less growthy climate, which would suggest it's maybe more your soil type or soil structure that's letting your farming situation down than climate.

It's not all about rainfall though is it? Topography and soil type make a huge difference. Parts of Exmoor get half as much rain again as us, but can outwinter or travel with a tractor most of the time due to soil type and topography.
I'm presuming @Henarar is somerset levels roughly - it's not just their own rainfall they have to worry about, but that off the hills that comes their way.