getting out of sheep

copse

Member
Mixed Farmer
Is it just me or are others noticing that alot of people are packing up with sheep this year? 6 Flocks going this time within 5 miles of me ranging from 100 -300 ewes and others cutting back on numbers.
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
The road I'm on, in my wee part of the valley, 1 farm has sold all his sheep last month... but the 2 largest flocks (I'm one of them) are both upping numbers and will have replaced the dispersed flock already :rolleyes:

Most round here are staying about the same I think.
 

texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
I would say,with the prices breeding stock have been making,that sheep numbers could be increasing slightly,reversing recent trends.Difficult to say where the lamb price will be during the next couple of years.
 
The problem looking ahead with sheep at the moment is home (uk) consumption is extremely poor and falling year in year out ,so we rely massively on export which unfortunately is 90% to europe which we are exiting from.
We need to pray for a deal of some sort to export tariff free to europe after brexit or the sheep industry is gonna face a very difficult time indeed
So I guess if some people can do something else with there land other than sheep now's the time to do it
I know of 5 500 plus flocks with all the ewes going
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
The problem looking ahead with sheep at the moment is home (uk) consumption is extremely poor and falling year in year out ,so we rely massively on export which unfortunately is 90% to europe which we are exiting from.
We need to pray for a deal of some sort to export tariff free to europe after brexit or the sheep industry is gonna face a very difficult time indeed
So I guess if some people can do something else with there land other than sheep now's the time to do it
I know of 5 500 plus flocks with all the ewes going

what's replacing them though?:scratchhead:
 
Location
Devon
A lot of farm sales around here currently,all family farms, many more all together than for several years, all a mix of beef and sheep or sheep only farms.

Shocking just how many farm sales around here there is currently, ( would average one every2/3 days easily )

Quite a few people selling their lambing flocks also as they don't want the work lambing/ no sons/ daughters working at home etc, and instead are moving to either buying store lambs or couples and then culling the ewe once the lambs are gone fat.

Profit wise sheep across the year not much difference between cattle and sheep, cattle are going to take a hammering this year with increased feed and more than likely slightly higher straw prices.

Reality is that its fast becoming a numbers game with high stock numbers and low labour units to be able to make a living wage and re-invest in the business.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 1
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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