Give your views on AHDB

bankrupt

Member
Location
EX17/20
bring back HGCA

Why not, indeed?

The fact is, simon w, various cynical farming forces long ago suspected the HGCA to be slightly in cahoots with the trade, and were only too pleased to have a fresh start with the AHDB.

As to how well or badly this has worked out in practice, I couldn't possibly comment.
 

Gong Farmer

Member
BASIS
Location
S E Glos
In a perfect world if the AHDB on the crops side was fit for purpose then surely TAG et al wouldn’t exist?!
We were here first. AHDB/HGCA replaced ADAS, though it's fair to day we developed as ADAS waned, if they had maintained their strengths there wouldn't have been the clamour for the likes of us.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
In a perfect world if the AHDB on the crops side was fit for purpose then surely TAG et al wouldn’t exist?!

As ever in life rather more complex is it not? My observation AHDB is a commissioning and knowledge transfer organisation, not a trials and research organisation, it is the organisations such as TAG/ADAS/Rothamsted/Scottish Agronomy et al that provide that part of the jigsaw / service and thus employ the staff and take the risk and all that entails. Given the adverse comments about staff numbers etc in this thread I doubt anyone wants AHDB to take on all that as well - unless you want to recreate an organisation resembling pre-privatisation ADAS.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
We were here first. AHDB/HGCA replaced ADAS, though it's fair to day we developed as ADAS waned, if they had maintained their strengths there wouldn't have been the clamour for the likes of us.

ARC was indeed. Am not sure I concur that AHDB replaced ADAS per se. Cannot quite remember now so someone will correct me but HGCA if I recall in the dim distant past was primarily a collector and disseminator of market information, including quite a bit in a statutory role. The resultant organisations which have developed into what we have today result from the restructuring of state provided advice from the reforming Thatcher government intent of reducing cost and withdrawing from 'near market'. In contrast to the situation in many similar countries to ourselves. Always interesting debate.
 

Sonoftheheir

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
West Suffolk
AHDB South East and West Regions Joint Arable Study Trip – Hungary
• Is Hungarian agriculture any better or worse than ours?
• Are we competitive?
• Are their systems more sustainable and fit for the future?
• Do they have any new research or technology that we can learn from?
A

Call me old fashioned, but what ever is the point of that. Waste of f’in time and money. IMO.
 

Gong Farmer

Member
BASIS
Location
S E Glos
ARC was indeed. Am not sure I concur that AHDB replaced ADAS per se.

Government withdrew a lot of funding from ADAS in making it an agency, then set up the R&D Levy to be administered by HGCA. The people put in charge of this were ADAS/ex-ADAS chaps who were determined to put the money straight back where it came from. Not so much the case now, but in the early days ADAS got most of the Levy funding.
 
Call me old fashioned, but what ever is the point of that. Waste of f’in time and money. IMO.


Okay I’ll call you old fashioned then.
Travel is a brilliant thing. Farm study tours are even better. Getting away, travelling with like minded people and seeing the way it’s done elsewhere with different challenges can only help you’re business at home. Also seeing looking at other sectors can be fascinating.
What is open to debate is whether AHDB is/isn’t or should/should not be cover all of the costs or what proportion.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Government withdrew a lot of funding from ADAS in making it an agency, then set up the R&D Levy to be administered by HGCA. The people put in charge of this were ADAS/ex-ADAS chaps who were determined to put the money straight back where it came from. Not so much the case now, but in the early days ADAS got most of the Levy funding.

Thank you for the history lesson. I hazard a guess there might also have been an off the record 'gentlemans' agreement with MAFF and ADAS that in the early post privatisation years the levy money would have been aimed primarily at ADAS to help smooth he transition to a privately owned post privatisation world for ADAS. Such is life.
 

simon w

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hayling Island
2 pages in and I still cannot see what they do for me for the money I pay?
I cannot see what benefit I get from the potato levy either, all the meetings are mile from here so I am unable to attend. I would suggest it is scrapped and replaced with a voluntary producer organisation. I am happy to pay for results as with the NFU and BFREPA who look after their members
 
Location
Devon
No hope in hell of the AHDB being scrapped.

You arable guys should take a look at the EID thread in Agricultural Matters ( particular the last few pages ) the AHDB have just been awarded a Government contract for livestock recording, basically they and the NFU have pushed for a new database where in time farmers will have to update all the information in real time for things like treatments/ feed etc etc and also farmers will have to post their costing's in it as well which the NFU want the buyers like supermarkets to have instant access to...............

And no im not making this up and something similar will happen for crops before long as well..
 
ARC was indeed. Am not sure I concur that AHDB replaced ADAS per se. Cannot quite remember now so someone will correct me but HGCA if I recall in the dim distant past was primarily a collector and disseminator of market information, including quite a bit in a statutory role. The resultant organisations which have developed into what we have today result from the restructuring of state provided advice from the reforming Thatcher government intent of reducing cost and withdrawing from 'near market'. In contrast to the situation in many similar countries to ourselves. Always interesting debate.
Indeed HGCA used to just do market data. The first ressearch report was on 'Gravity table separation in the production of milling and baking quality wheat from samples containing sprout-damaged grain' - don't all rush at once.

https://cereals.ahdb.org.uk/publica...-samples-containing-sprout-damaged-grain.aspx

The move into research was in response to declining government funding of near market research. All the research on the cereals and oilseeds side is done by the likes of NIAB, SRUC and ADAS etc.

Its great to hear everyones views, but can you make sure you also fill in the defra survey as this forum is not part of the review.
 

shakerator

Member
Location
LINCS
No hope in hell of the AHDB being scrapped.

You arable guys should take a look at the EID thread in Agricultural Matters ( particular the last few pages ) the AHDB have just been awarded a Government contract for livestock recording, basically they and the NFU have pushed for a new database where in time farmers will have to update all the information in real time for things like treatments/ feed etc etc and also farmers will have to post their costing's in it as well which the NFU want the buyers like supermarkets to have instant access to...............

And no im not making this up and something similar will happen for crops before long as well..

Any evidence to substantiate this GUTH?
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
Any evidence to substantiate this GUTH?
At a meeting I was at Adam Quinney declared that livestock farmers should have to complete CPD each year for administering injections to animals correctly. Even the Vet at the meeting disagreed with him!
The vet said he hadn’t received injection training since his first module a vet school which explained about sub cut and intra muscular but wasn’t practical. He said vets are obliged to ensure farmers know how to inject animals when they give them to them and that suffices.
 

An Gof

Member
Location
Cornwall
At a meeting I was at Adam Quinney declared that livestock farmers should have to complete CPD each year for administering injections to animals correctly. Even the Vet at the meeting disagreed with him!
The vet said he hadn’t received injection training since his first module a vet school which explained about sub cut and intra muscular but wasn’t practical. He said vets are obliged to ensure farmers know how to inject animals when they give them to them and that suffices.

But Adam is on the AHDB as a sector Chair. What did you expect?
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
Filled up the questionnaire.
Few pointers. You can only select one point per question. They don’t seem to understand that you can access grain futures information on line using both paid and free services.
There are plenty of questions about whether you agree with a statutory levy or not, but hardly a mention about whether they are spending money efficiently or not.
 

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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