Farm Assured cereals, do they make more money?

[Rob Thompson]

Hello
I'm currently doing an assignment evaluating whether or not becoming farm assured would be practical, Just curious if anyone knows if assured cereals make more money per Ton than non assured?
Heard from some people that theres a £5-10 'bonus' for assured cereals. Can anyone confirm or give a better insight?
Cheers in advance
Rob

 

[rob1]

No bonus but it might be hard to find a marlet for non assured unless its straight to another farmer or a magic store or mill that can turn non assured into assured grain by running it up their elevators

 

[7610 super q]

No bonus. But without assurance you are left wide open for a shafting by those trying to take advantage, and acquire grain on the cheap.

 

[Jetemp]

Nope no price difference, the merchants will tell you they can't sell it. However it's funny that I/we have been involved in moving 50000 tones of unasured eastern black wheat into a home that will only accept assured british wheat!
James

 

[milkloss]

No extra value or bonus for assured. Non assured crops are DEvalued to the merchants advantage.

 

[Rob Thompson]

So all would be listed as the same price, while some will try pay you less? Currently all spring barley goes for stock feed regardless of quality (which normally reaches brewing standards) How much more per ton would you expect over feed?

 

[Warp Land Farmer]

No extra value or bonus for assured. Non assured crops are DEvalued to the merchants advantage.

This is about the best way I have heard this described, spot on from my small experiences.

 

[Spud]

So all would be listed as the same price, while some will try pay you less? Currently all spring barley goes for stock feed regardless of quality (which normally reaches brewing standards) How much more per ton would you expect over feed?

I have some spring malting barley sold for £25/t over feed barley, my call when it goes, 1.7%N iirc
Assurance is a bit of a racket, keeps a few clipboard holders in a job. It'd have a bit more credibility if some notice was taken of what happens on the ground. A clean farm can get a black mark (even if no livestock) for not having say bucket cleaning records, but a dirty farm can get by with a mucky bucket, as long as theres a record somewhere to say its had a bath sometime. Many time we have delivered non assured grain to the same mills as assured grain.
I have no objection to such a scheme, but it needs the bs removing, and the same standards and tracability applied to imports too, otherwise we have to endure the costs and jump through the hoops of assurance, only for it to be devalued in a mill/on a boat when mixed with non assured stuff. Hardly a level playing field.

 

[Condi]

Milling or premium homes will only take assured grain. Fewer and fewer non assured feed homes so prices usually 5 quid lower. The only major UK buyer is roquette, non assured can go on some boats to some destinations. Basically non assured is a pain in the arse.

 

[Rob Thompson]

It seems to be a common trend that most farmers think assurance is a load of rubbish Are there any actual benefits to FA? The only one I've got is a greater number of markets but that's hard to quantify as there seems no actual tangible benefit to it haha. All I can work on is that you might sell your crop easier, but without any figures I'm not going to get anywhere

 

[Rob Thompson]

Milling or premium homes will only take assured grain. Fewer and fewer non assured feed homes so prices usually 5 quid lower. The only major UK buyer is roquette, non assured can go on some boats to some destinations. Basically non assured is a pain in the arse.

Ah Haa, so if I had two lorry loads of wheat, one FA and one not I could expect to see the non FA make about £5/t less?

 

[Condi]

Ah Haa, so if I had to lorry loads of wheat, one FA and one not I could expect to see the non FA make about £5/t less?

Basically, yes.

 

[Still Farming]

All depends if they want it.
Dockages and all stoppages they can if they argue or give you good contract .
When desperate their'll take everything and with all the starving people in the world - do they worry about a sticker ?

 

[Wooly]

Ah Haa, so if I had two lorry loads of wheat, one FA and one not I could expect to see the non FA make about £5/t less?

Only less value for the farmer. The magic lorry will make the wheat FA before it's tipped in the same pile at the mill !!

 

[Spud]

Only less value for the farmer. The magic lorry will make the wheat FA before it's tipped in the same pile at the mill !!

It tends to be certain stores, rather than lorries, that have the magic touch....

 

[SF1]

It tends to be certain stores, rather than lorries, that have the magic touch....

No magic touch needed just a sticker

 

[An Gof]

Ah Haa, so if I had two lorry loads of wheat, one FA and one not I could expect to see the non FA make about £5/t less?

Which part of Red Tractor do you work for?

 

[Cordiale]

From memory the movers and shakers as I call them at the fore front of the arable industry, decided that everything needed to be traceable, hence the introduction of Farm Assurance. I believe they thought that they would be paid a premium for said assurance but what happened was the trade decided to discount non assured.
As for the traceability argument, grain etc has always been traceable, if not how would merchants know who to pay?

 

[Rob Thompson]

Thank you everyone for the help. Another question for you all now, what is the fee for crop assurance? I've been told it's £200 per year, I there an official place to find this information or would I have to contact a Inspection body?

Also, can anybody tell me what the application pack contains, none of the companies I contacted ever replied to me

 

[Wooly]

Thank you everyone for the help. Another question for you all now, what is the fee for crop assurance? I've been told it's £200 per year, I there an official place to find this information or would I have to contact a Inspection body?