Farmerdunk
Member
- Location
- Hertfordshire
Can ask tomorrow at the Duxford 3D Conference.
I was there today, I probably saw you but didn’t recognise you!
Quite interesting I thought.
Lemon cheesecake was nice
Can ask tomorrow at the Duxford 3D Conference.
Yes was a good couple of hours and had a good chat with my agronomist and a few other chaps. Thought all the talks were informative and I left thinking about a number of different things (after a quick stroll round the hanger). Liked how upbeat they were about the future and any upcoming Brexit issues!I was there today, I probably saw you but didn’t recognise you!
Quite interesting I thought.
Lemon cheesecake was nice
Oh Lordy, Barts and rotten Appel then! What car do you drive
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I'm just saying that we have a choice in who we deal with, that's all.
The point of a board is to make decisions for the membership. You can't put the sensitive information Needed to make a decision like this out to groups of hundreds of farmers and expect it to stay confidential.Seems the membership didn’t in this case! The letter states the board made the decision based on a pre determined criteria. The decision has been made for them!
The reason Openfield don't take their profits off to a foreign shareholder is because they haven't made profits lately. As others say - check Companies House records. Not trading with Frontier is a daft idea, it's like saying that you won't buy from Amazon.Just wait till we have block-chain data to deal with as well. Farming will move forward or go bust, time for self-serving thinking to change. Brexit will increase the rate of change. Darwin's rules will apply. Just saying.
A fair point, but unfortunately the majority of farmers are so independent of each other that you never seem able to get to a consensus with grain marketing. I thought the original Centaur Grain were strong, but the model appeared to break down on the merged business. From the outside, it seems buying groups are more successful?You could say the same for many of the grain merchants this past year, However Openfield were created by farmers for farmers, so if more people supported Openfield then you may see consistency of a profit/better return. We are always hearing how we should support British agriculture, but I find it ironic that there seems to be little support for a company that supports British agriculture owned by British farmers.
Frontier can’t really alter the base.
True, but each merchant has specific contracts with specific end users which can add a nice tweak of 50p to £2 for particular specs of hards/soft/LGM etc etc, especially once you add in various geographical influences.
You could say the same for many of the grain merchants this past year, However Openfield were created by farmers for farmers, so if more people supported Openfield then you may see consistency of a profit/better return. We are always hearing how we should support British agriculture, but I find it ironic that there seems to be little support for a company that supports British agriculture owned by British farmers.
True, but each merchant has specific contracts with specific end users which can add a nice tweak of 50p to £2 for particular specs of hards/soft/LGM etc etc, especially once you add in various geographical influences.
You could say the same for many of the grain merchants this past year, However Openfield were created by farmers for farmers, so if more people supported Openfield then you may see consistency of a profit/better return. We are always hearing how we should support British agriculture, but I find it ironic that there seems to be little support for a company that supports British agriculture owned by British farmers.
I don't buy into this "big bad multinational" argument. Frontier are investing more in British Agriculture than any other merchant in the industry today, surely that is good for us all, regardless of the businesses parentage?!
As for Frontier controlling the market due to scale... again I don't buy into this. Does anyone actually know their market share of UK Grain, I would be surprised if it is over 30% and probably less???
I still see the grain market as very competitive with plenty of options. As farmers if we don't like a certain merchant, we simply do not deal with them, with plenty of other options. I do however think that understanding businesses balance sheet is becoming more important when deciding who to market grain with and who to avoid even though they offer an extra 50p per tonne.
Undoubtedly there are both good and bad small and large grain businesses in the UK, and good and bad farmer owned businesses. Being farmer owned alone however does not make a business good... lets just look at some of the farmer owned co-op that have gone pop costing farmers considerable money (only recently Angus Cereals) and don't even get me started on some of the pool results of the farmer owned businesses.....
I’d love to support OpenField, however their balance sheet frightens me to trade with them. There are also some massive salaries form what I gather and too much overpaid middle management.
A fair point, but unfortunately the majority of farmers are so independent of each other that you never seem able to get to a consensus with grain marketing. I thought the original Centaur Grain were strong, but the model appeared to break down on the merged business. From the outside, it seems buying groups are more successful?
I think any grain business is about the relationship forged between buyer and seller, an old fashioned thing about trust, mutual respect, and good communication.
Simples!
I don't buy into this "big bad multinational" argument. Frontier are investing more in British Agriculture than any other merchant in the industry today, surely that is good for us all, regardless of the businesses parentage?!
As for Frontier controlling the market due to scale... again I don't buy into this. Does anyone actually know their market share of UK Grain, I would be surprised if it is over 30% and probably less???
I still see the grain market as very competitive with plenty of options. As farmers if we don't like a certain merchant, we simply do not deal with them, with plenty of other options. I do however think that understanding businesses balance sheet is becoming more important when deciding who to market grain with and who to avoid even though they offer an extra 50p per tonne.
Undoubtedly there are both good and bad small and large grain businesses in the UK, and good and bad farmer owned businesses. Being farmer owned alone however does not make a business good... lets just look at some of the farmer owned co-op that have gone pop costing farmers considerable money (only recently Angus Cereals) and don't even get me started on some of the pool results of the farmer owned businesses.....