Fodder Beet Price.

[Skintagain]

?

Can’t graze for dogs.

 

[neilo]

Yes if it was going to cost me £75 a bale to make it. That’s what I call cutting of your nose to spite your face.

Well yes, but some do...

Given the drought we've had down here, there have been plenty of 2 bale/ac crops taken this year, with every scrap needed.

The dairy farmer that I sell my standing grass to reckons, in a normal year, that the quality is likely poor if there's more than 4 bales/ac (although he does pack a lot in a bale). I wouldn't necessarily disagree with him, but depends what your after feeding I suppose. For milking cows and sheep, I'd sooner spend a bit more to make lighter cuts.

I'd certainly draw the line at less than two bales though, but then I have the ability to graze instead.

 

[Phil P]

35t / ac ??? Lol!!!

We averaged £38t/ac with fodder beet last year but generally we say anything 30-35t isn’t too bad. I think our worst crop was 2019 when they just gave up and did around 25t/ac.

I’m hoping for 35t+ this year as well

 

[Devil's advocate]

We averaged £38t/ac with fodder beet last year but generally we say anything 30-35t isn’t too bad. I think our worst crop was 2019 when they just gave up and did around 25t/ac.

I’m hoping for 35t+ this year as well
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North West.

Where all the arable farmers can buy a range rover & a Fendt in a drought year.

 

[Devil's advocate]

How often can fodder beet be grown on the same field? Can it be grown immediately after hybrid forage rape?

No problem after the forage rape.

But beneifit from rotation.

Just the same as clean grazing for lambs.

 

[Phil P]

North West.

Where all the arable farmers can buy a range rover & a Fendt in a drought year.

Think your mistaking me for another farmer in the area .

 

[Devil's advocate]

Think your mistaking me for another farmer in the area .

Brassica, potato & carrot growers do well on the moss in a year like this one. Oh and effing fodder beet growers. Would love to compare Suffolk beet to Moss beet this year.

Bit cruel to them in very wet weather, I admit.

 

[Phil P]

Brassica, potato & carrot growers do well on the moss in a year like this one. Oh and effing fodder beet growers. Would love to compare Suffolk beet to Moss beet this year.

Bit cruel to them in very wet weather, I admit.

We can’t grow root crops in our bit of moss as we’d never be able to harvest them except for a very small area. It’s too wet even now to travel on it despite having drains at least every 5 yards!
Beet always do well on our black sand though as generally we get plenty of rain here to keep them going although, I was just starting to panic a little this year. We got some just in time to pull them back but it was close.

 

[Devil's advocate]

We can’t grow root crops in our bit of moss as we’d never be able to harvest them except for a very small area. It’s too wet even now to travel on it despite having drains at least every 5 yards!
Beet always do well on our black sand though as generally we get plenty of rain here to keep them going although, I was just starting to panic a little this year. We got some just in time to pull them back but it was close.

We love to buy moss grown carrots

 

[Derrick Hughes]

A local dairy farmer was telling me a friend of his had worked out what round bales had cost him this year. He does 4 cuts a year on some ground rented on as grass keep (seeds at £180/ac!), with the fourth cut giving him 1 round bale/ac. With the cost of fuel, etc, he had worked out that the fourth cut had cost him £75/bale.

Almost makes fodder beet look cheap.

You can't costs thing on a desater of a crop , but prices will rise due to cost increases and shortages , it used to be priced on the cost if barley , whatever that is , its not really a silage replacer is it

 

[davidroberts30]

35t / ac ??? Lol!!!

I did 35t/ac acre last year but I'll think myself lucky if I get 20t/a this year

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Why would you take a cut of 1 bale to the acre?

Don’t know, I think it’s fecking stupid and a bloody expensive way to buy green snot for the cows when you can buy barley straw @ £90/t and Mollasses just over £200/t. But there are Cheshire dairy farmers down here chasing about for that kind of crop yield. Thankfully some have more sense and are just grazing it either with the cows while it’s dry enough still or putting keep sheep on it.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

We love to buy moss grown carrots

I was having 20t every 10 days in the spring, fresh picked carrots straight off Barton Moss. Uncleaned just straight out of the field. You’d a job to tell they hadn’t been through a cleaner! Absolutely brilliant for feeding with until the grass started. Man I was buying them from wasn’t over happy, factory grade carrots at £30/t delivered just to clear the ground as he couldn’t get his buyer to take any!

 

[robbie]

Hmm!

Im not sure about that Robbie, 150ac to lift, let’s call it £15k a year.

What sort of harvester could you justify for that, an old Garford or something? Then you need 2 trailers to keep it moving.

FW contractors guide says £50/hr for a man and tractor, add 2 trailers on decent tyres - £20/hr. That’s £170/hr.

What will the harvester cost an hour, £30? And a lot of pissing about each year changing bearings, repairing webs in the mud etc!

Say it lifts 2ac an hour, which I’d think would be good going if you were honest about stoppages, your’re at £200/hr or, £100ac.

I know you’ll all jump in to say you can run an old tractor for buttons and Bob from the pub will drive a trailer for £8/hr and a 6 pack of beers, but let’s be realistic, decent tractors are expensive and so are staff if you can find them!

I'd say for 15 grand you could buy a very good 3 row tanker, the hard bit would be finding one but they are about.
One trailer will more or less keep me going with our 3 row aslong as it's not a long haul to the heap.

I appreciate there is costs, repairs, depreciation, hassle but in my situation me and dad are here,if we had contractors in we would still be here and just be watching them do it.
The tractors are bought and paid for and again just sit there, we have trailers sitting here on floations and my tractor will do a lot of lifting for 20 gallons of diesel.

Perhaps it's not any cheaper lifting our own but we don't have to physically write the cheque for 6 grand like we would if a contractor lifted them.

We've just bought another 3 row tanker to replace our old one. We paid £6000 for our old one and apart from bearings at the start of the season and a new back trace at £1000 2 years ago it's cost us very little. I don't think we would have spent more than £2500 on it since we've owned it and according to a dealer it's still worth £3500-£4000, so about £375 a year in repairs and depreciation on our average that leaves a lot for the tractor,driver,diesels and the tractor, trailer and driver before we get to the same figure for a contractor.

I guess there's no right answer and if our time was better ulitised elsewhere then a contractor would be the way forward but for us doing our own works.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I paid £4000 for a Tim 2 row , picked Swedes and Beet, just picked it as a needed to

 

[Skintagain]

I paid £4000 for a Tim 2 row , picked Swedes and Beet, just picked it as a needed to

The flexibility is with 4k alone. If it drys up a bit you can go and do a bit without making too much mess

 

[neilo]

My contractor had a 2 row Tim, which worked well enough, when it worked.

He reckoned it was costing him a couple of £k in parts every year in recent years, and any parts that couldn’t be sourced from a hydraulic factor now take several weeks from the manufacturer, which isn’t much use when you’re halfway through a lifting job.

Every year we lifted our little bit there would be at least two breakdowns, with the broken bit only accessible while getting covered in mud, or by hand balling a tankful of beet out.

 

[Daniel]

I'd say for 15 grand you could buy a very good 3 row tanker, the hard bit would be finding one but they are about.
One trailer will more or less keep me going with our 3 row aslong as it's not a long haul to the heap.

I appreciate there is costs, repairs, depreciation, hassle but in my situation me and dad are here,if we had contractors in we would still be here and just be watching them do it.
The tractors are bought and paid for and again just sit there, we have trailers sitting here on floations and my tractor will do a lot of lifting for 20 gallons of diesel.

Perhaps it's not any cheaper lifting our own but we don't have to physically write the cheque for 6 grand like we would if a contractor lifted them.

We've just bought another 3 row tanker to replace our old one. We paid £6000 for our old one and apart from bearings at the start of the season and a new back trace at £1000 2 years ago it's cost us very little. I don't think we would have spent more than £2500 on it since we've owned it and according to a dealer it's still worth £3500-£4000, so about £375 a year in repairs and depreciation on our average that leaves a lot for the tractor,driver,diesels and the tractor, trailer and driver before we get to the same figure for a contractor.

I guess there's no right answer and if our time was better ulitised elsewhere then a contractor would be the way forward but for us doing our own works.

Yes I do see that. The thing is, I rang the contractor on Monday and he’s here today lifting 20 acres with his ‘smaller’ Agrifac tricycle machine.

But I always enjoyed beet harvesting and do miss it a bit, if I wipe the wet days and the breakdowns from my mind! Wonder what they’d want for this?! https://www.agriaffaires.co.uk/used/beet-growing-equipment/42704236/thyregod-t7.html

 

[spin cycle]

My contractor had a 2 row Tim, which worked well enough, when it worked.

He reckoned it was costing him a couple of £k in parts every year in recent years, and any parts that couldn’t be sourced from a hydraulic factor now take several weeks from the manufacturer, which isn’t much use when you’re halfway through a lifting job.

Every year we lifted our little bit there would be at least two breakdowns, with the broken bit only accessible while getting covered in mud, or by hand balling a tankful of beet out.

sounds very 'un tim like' TBH.....must be a lemon or wore up

 

[neilo]

sounds very 'un tim like' TBH.....must be a lemon or wore up

It certainly has a bit of age, like most 2 row machines must surely have these days?