Farming chiefs left ‘flabbergasted’ by Eustice comments

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
2000 pigs stuck on the farm next door. Surely this good food going to waste should be a priority to get sorted.
Told me his friend was about to have the plug pulled by the bank as feed costs hit £40k month, while pigs wait to get slaughtered. Thousands of weaners being given away free to anyone daft enough to take them.
These high grain prices could finish pigs and poultry
Eustace talks of increased prices but if you are a beef fattener buying in grain or ration you are going to find it really hard to make it pay going forward with arable prices rising so fast!
 

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
2000 pigs stuck on the farm next door. Surely this good food going to waste should be a priority to get sorted.
Told me his friend was about to have the plug pulled by the bank as feed costs hit £40k month, while pigs wait to get slaughtered. Thousands of weaners being given away free to anyone daft enough to take them.
These high grain prices could finish pigs and poultry
Scandalous , how will we cope with no wheat let alone expensive wheat ,
 

DRC

Member
Eustace talks of increased prices but if you are a beef fattener buying in grain or ration you are going to find it really hard to make it pay going forward with arable prices rising so fast!
Could end up with a lot of farmers having a year off. My tack sheep men fatten a lot of cattle, but say they won’t be buying stores this autumn with barley at the price it is . Then there’s arable farmers who must be seriously thinking of not drilling at these fertiliser prices
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
2000 pigs stuck on the farm next door. Surely this good food going to waste should be a priority to get sorted.
Told me his friend was about to have the plug pulled by the bank as feed costs hit £40k month, while pigs wait to get slaughtered. Thousands of weaners being given away free to anyone daft enough to take them.
These high grain prices could finish pigs and poultry

Scary times.

I'm glad I'm not a big scale (or even any scale) pig or poultry producer. It's tough when they are so specialist and don't have any other diversified enterprises/mixed farming.

Could make life interesting for KFC with no chicken and expensive potatoes!
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
Could end up with a lot of farmers having a year off. My tack sheep men fatten a lot of cattle, but say they won’t be buying stores this autumn with barley at the price it is . Then there’s arable farmers who must be seriously thinking of not drilling at these fertiliser prices
Even dairy farmers will notice a big difference with ration costs.
 

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
Could end up with a lot of farmers having a year off. My tack sheep men fatten a lot of cattle, but say they won’t be buying stores this autumn with barley at the price it is . Then there’s arable farmers who must be seriously thinking of not drilling at these fertiliser prices
Almost a certainty , with fert prices as they are we're gambling , we'll always take a chance but this is a whole different ball game
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Almost a certainty , with fert prices as they are we're gambling , we'll always take a chance but this is a whole different ball game
Just buying a couple of tonnes of 25.5.5 to grow some early grass for the ewes and lambs, that's it. Might even have been easier/cheaper to buy cake?? Too much land in Bumblebird, but at least the seed was bought at last Autumn prices, hopefully, it'll last 2 years... :)
 

texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
Didn't Useless also say that there was enough organic manure, to replace the bag fertilizer? I very much doubt it.
He certainly did,an incredible un-informed comment.How much cow muck would be needed to replace 160 units/acre of Nitrogen on wheat ?
I,naively, thought he would be great as a Defra minister coming from a farming/countryside background.How wrong I was !!! It's pretty obvious,by his comments,that he is absolutely clueless when it comes to farming. Some of his comments are,quite frankly, embarrassing.
 
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Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Sorry to repeat myself, but calling him useless seriously underestimates how bad he is.

It is for the 'secretary' of any department to be fully briefed, acquainted and understand all the issues affecting his portfolio which includes having overall responsibility for Defra.

Any one of us average farmers can clearly see that while there might be some underlying statistic on which he makes these foolish statements, they make no sense in practice.
The way he is briefing the government and public with this false information is actually rather dangerous.

He is laughable.
It is not funny.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Sorry to repeat myself, but calling him useless seriously underestimates how bad he is.

It is for the 'secretary' of any department to be fully briefed, acquainted and understand all the issues affecting his portfolio which includes having overall responsibility for Defra.

Any one of us average farmers can clearly see that while there might be some underlying statistic on which he makes these foolish statements, they make no sense in practice.
The way he is briefing the government and public with this false information is actually rather dangerous.

He is laughable.
It is not funny.

We never seen to get a decent politician who understands our industry.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
Sorry to repeat myself, but calling him useless seriously underestimates how bad he is.

It is for the 'secretary' of any department to be fully briefed, acquainted and understand all the issues affecting his portfolio which includes having overall responsibility for Defra.

Any one of us average farmers can clearly see that while there might be some underlying statistic on which he makes these foolish statements, they make no sense in practice.
The way he is briefing the government and public with this false information is actually rather dangerous.

He is laughable.
It is not funny.

I hope there are some advisors within DEFRA who just have their heads in their hands at the moment ( as we have). These statements show a total, complete and utter lack of understanding of the industry which they are attempting to 'regulate'.
It's not funny, it is pathetic that such people are allowed to appear in front of the national press so badly briefed on the basics of the realities of their department.

Yes Minister was a documentary ahead of its time.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The stakes are very high now. Could be left with a serious cash flow problem if grain prices fall or there is a drought. Selling forward could actually worsen that situation. And would a bank lend into that scenario? Unlikely. Interest rates rising as well. Perfect storm or maybe golden opportunity. Grass will be coming back here after a short break. Too many eggs in the arable basket. Spread the risk. Just got to persuade the shepherd!
I can just remember when inflation was 22% and I got 13% on my National Savings account. You could live on £10k invested and didn’t need to spend your student grant. Those were the days.
Then it turned into a big spenders paradise and savers were hung out to dry.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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

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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/
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