Farm Assurance - again

[Bruce Almighty]

We are dairy farmers (as well as arable & sheep) & have a fair bit of diversification too

Our dairy inspection should've been last Friday but was obviously postponed.
A week ago our buyer cut the price by 2 ppl and deferred payment by 6 weeks
Thanks to the virus for both cases rules have gone out of the window for now.

One of our diversification businesses is a milk round.
In 2015 we took on an existing milk round with an existing supplier (12 miles away) - we had planned to bottle our own milk but realised before we started that it was more economical to continue with our existing supplier & run it separately from our farm business.
We live in an affluent area. Money is no object to many of our customers.

Since the virus, demand for milk & anything else we can supply has gone mad. (Eggs & cream but thinking of adding potatoes)
People now want local food delivered to their home, so they don't have to risk mixing with others at one of the 14 local supermarkets within a 7 mile radius of here
Our milk supplier is not Farm Assured as far as I'm aware. There is no mention of it on the bottle.

Not one customer has ever asked about Farm Assurance ( or why isn't the red tractor on the bottle ? )

Doesn't that just prove what a waste of time the whole thing is ?

 

[Farmer_Joe]

yes completely, people dont give a toss they just want local food, if they see you delivering it i think thats satisfys the fact its not 'factory farming'

good for you, try get spuds carrots veg and meat on yer deliveries if possible!

 

[Agrivator]

One benefit of supplying the public direct is that none of them seems to have any concept of farm assurance. It really is a protection racket.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

No one gives a single fudge about farm assurance or the red tractor
The whole thing is a complete con we’ve been conned into to create jobs for people who would normally be unemployment...thus lowering the national unemployment rate

 

[Hindsight]

We are dairy farmers (as well as arable & sheep) & have a fair bit of diversification too

Our dairy inspection should've been last Friday but was obviously postponed.
A week ago our buyer cut the price by 2 ppl and deferred payment by 6 weeks
Thanks to the virus for both cases rules have gone out of the window for now.

One of our diversification businesses is a milk round.
In 2015 we took on an existing milk round with an existing supplier (12 miles away) - we had planned to bottle our own milk but realised before we started that it was more economical to continue with our existing supplier & run it separately from our farm business.
We live in an affluent area. Money is no object to many of our customers.

Since the virus, demand for milk & anything else we can supply has gone mad. (Eggs & cream but thinking of adding potatoes)
People now want local food delivered to their home, so they don't have to risk mixing with others at one of the 14 local supermarkets within a 7 mile radius of here
Our milk supplier is not Farm Assured as far as I'm aware. There is no mention of it on the bottle.

Not one customer has ever asked about Farm Assurance ( or why isn't the red tractor on the bottle ? )

Doesn't that just prove what a waste of time the whole thing is ?

Do offer the potatoes - ask on here and am sure there are chip shop growers where our market disappeared last Monday night who will put you up paper sacks.

Do not have to be 25kg sacks. Can bag in smaller paper sacks - 12.5kg or less. Explain that stored in paper sacks and dark much better than washed in plastic bags from supermarket where will get bacterial soft rot disease.

Cheers.

 

[Loftyrules]

I would say that the average UK household does not know what Red Tractor means when selecting their food. They also do not know the difference between british lamb and NZ lamb, they don't know the difference between British bacon and Danish....they would not know that produces over here can't do certain things that producers in other countries can, what they do know is Danepak is usually £5 for 2 packs and British (best of etc) is usually £5 for 1 pack.
Maybe there are too many assurance schemes that consumers are now too confused. Maybe the industry needs to promote exactly what the Red Tractor brand stands for and why British produce is more expensive than Danish, NZ etc etc.
I know a lot of people who aren't involved in Ag so they haven't a clue what all these things mean, the majority want to buy quality food the others have to shop on price.

 

[Agrivator]

Many folk would regard New Zealand as British. And why not?

 

[Henarar]

Many folk would regard New Zealand as British. And why not?

didn't it get given away ?

 

[Bruce Almighty]

Oh the irony

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Our neighbour along our driveway is a milkman, he and his brother have rounds in the locality. He said in the two days after BoJos big announcement he received well over 100 calls from new potential customers. Now, rather than leaving at 2.30am and returning about 8.00am, I think they both have to come back and reload the van.

 

[Gedd]

Our neighbour along our driveway is a milkman, he and his brother have rounds in the locality. He said in the two days after BoJos big announcement he received well over 100 calls from new potential customers. Now, rather than leaving at 2.30am and returning about 8.00am, I think they both have to come back and reload the van.

Hope people keep using him after this is over and not return to supermarkets like our local butcher very busy now

 

[Wooly]

We live in an affluent area. Money is no object to many of our customers.


Our milk supplier is not Farm Assured as far as I'm aware. There is no mention of it on the bottle.

Not one customer has ever asked about Farm Assurance ( or why isn't the red tractor on the bottle ? )

Doesn't that just prove what a waste of time the whole thing is ?

Says it all.

You live in an affluent area and they don't care if the milk is FA or where it comes from.

Everyone else from poorer areas only buy on price.

Ditch the FA !!

 

[Against_the_grain]

Playing devil's advocate here but haven't the farm assurance schemes increased the quality of uk farms?
The end user doesnt give a toss and it makes us less competitive and therefore less profitable but the quality of uk farming is among the best in the world possibly because of farm assurance schemes.

Being forced to keep records of everything from waste transfer to rodent control is surely a good thing? How many would keep an accurate record of either if we weren't obliged to?

The key and this is where the assurance schemes have totally failed is getting end users to recognise this and pay a premium. The fact that the assurance schemes have failed does unfortunately mean they are a negative when they could of been a huge positive.

I should add that I was part of the leaf marque scheme with ADM osr a few years ago. That was quite a bit more intensive than farm assured but was worth £15(?)/t premium. In this circumstance there was definitely value added from being part of an assurance scheme.

 

[roscoe erf]

a bit of topic but we was discussing this subject of milk rounds with a milkman who said his business had gone mental these last few weeks cant take on any new customers cant supply those he has fast enough thought about expanding then realised as soon as this epidemic is over the barstewards would go back to the supermarkets and leave him whistling in the wind

 

[DaveGrohl]

Why is keeping a record of rodent control important? Controlling the rodents IS important. Having a piece of paper saying you've done it is utterly irrelevant. Some of us were keeping records to improve the quality and performance of what we were doing long before fekking FA came in and started its nonsense. Quality businesses do quality things without being forced to.

We all know of farms who manage to pass FA schemes with conditions that wouldn't pass the farming neighbour coming for a look around.

 

[DaveGrohl]

No one gives a single fudge about farm assurance or the red tractor
The whole thing is a complete con we’ve been conned into to create jobs for people who would normally be unemployment...thus lowering the national unemployment rate

We weren't really conned though were we? Who on here thought bringing red tractor in would actually be a good thing? Did we not all understand that NFU were foisting a straightjacket on us that would have absolutely no upside?

 

[roscoe erf]

We weren't really conned though were we? Who on here thought bringing red tractor in would actually be a good thing? Did we not all understand that NFU were foisting a straightjacket on us that would have absolutely no upside?

not coned greed you'll get 5 p extra for your cabbages than your non assured neighbour, but what happens when we are all members no frigging foresight some

 

[lim x]

Our local butchers is really busy too. Working on a Sunday now to keep up.
Before all this happened, he'd announced he was closing on the local fb page. A few commented and wished him well, most really didn't give a stuff and give it a few months he'll be in the same position again.
Just like the horsemeat fiasco with Tesco, it will soon be forgotten and they'll be flocking back to the restocked supermarket shelves, looking for the cheapest.

 

[DaveGrohl]

not coned greed you'll get 5 p extra for your cabbages than your non assured neighbour, but what happens when we are all members no frigging foresight some

Except it never was 5p extra though was it? It was actually 5p less if you weren't in the scheme.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

We weren't really conned though were we? Who on here thought bringing red tractor in would actually be a good thing? Did we not all understand that NFU were foisting a straightjacket on us that would have absolutely no upside?

You can’t sell anything deadweight unless you are fa so what can you do