how has your budget been affected last couple of years? take our example osr down 75% wheat down 75% ok we have more barley to sell but of a lower value compared to wheat. cattle have returned very well but that wont happen again due to replacment cost. investing in aprojected budget could of got us in alot of trouble, or am i wrong?
how has your budget been affected last couple of years ?
- Thread starter thorpe
- Start date
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Calm before the storm.
No cashflow problem at the moment due to sale of sheep flock and not spending much on autumn drilled crops because we didn't drill many. Income next year will be much reduced for same reasons then the cash will start drying up. We will of course plant up with spring crops but they aren't really the meat in the pie, more like caretaker options or loss makers like spring beans. The loss of OSR from the rotation has really messed things up as has the last two wet winters. The recent high wheat price made up a bit for rubbish yields. The spring barley yielded well and the price hasn't been disastrous. The lambs and ewes sold well, as did the fodder and bedding they would have used.
Drive a bus and buy a small house?
No cashflow problem at the moment due to sale of sheep flock and not spending much on autumn drilled crops because we didn't drill many. Income next year will be much reduced for same reasons then the cash will start drying up. We will of course plant up with spring crops but they aren't really the meat in the pie, more like caretaker options or loss makers like spring beans. The loss of OSR from the rotation has really messed things up as has the last two wet winters. The recent high wheat price made up a bit for rubbish yields. The spring barley yielded well and the price hasn't been disastrous. The lambs and ewes sold well, as did the fodder and bedding they would have used.
Drive a bus and buy a small house?
selling the sheep was that like selling the famly silver? is that lost income in the future if they were part of the system?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
They had got old and the grass needed refreshing/ we were sick and tired of them. We might replace them/ over my dead body in a year/ decade or two.
Lean and mean for a bit. Brother working off farm for a bit and myself also once I’ve got it streamlined.
- Location
- South Molton
Tb has made a big hole in my budgets.
GeorgeK
Member
- Location
- Leicestershire
No problems*
*Assuming all my old equipment lasts forever, I never need a new grain store, a wage rise or any field drains replaced
*Assuming all my old equipment lasts forever, I never need a new grain store, a wage rise or any field drains replaced
- Location
- Near Beeston Castle
Covid has thrown my budget out of the window.
My customers are farm shops, pubs, restaurants, coffee shops. In lockdown 1 the farm shops took up the slack but current lockdown hasn't been the same. Time of year I guess along with people being much more familiar with mask wearing in supermarkets etc.
Sales have pretty much stopped altogether. Fingers crossed for a boom when the pubs etc open up again. Weather like last spring would be a pretty amazing bonus.
My customers are farm shops, pubs, restaurants, coffee shops. In lockdown 1 the farm shops took up the slack but current lockdown hasn't been the same. Time of year I guess along with people being much more familiar with mask wearing in supermarkets etc.
Sales have pretty much stopped altogether. Fingers crossed for a boom when the pubs etc open up again. Weather like last spring would be a pretty amazing bonus.
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Better prices for sheep and beef have helped us along.
Need to hunker down for a bit as have bought some land so no toys for a while.
Need to hunker down for a bit as have bought some land so no toys for a while.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
It’s the next five years that will have more of an impact with ramping down of BPS. We found that the sheep and arable here gave broadly similar returns per acre although they were complementary but the sheep used up a lot more time and energy. The loss of BPS means the loss of half our profit here. We accept that and are changing accordingly. All arable until the next generation decide what they want to do. The shift to all arable hasn’t gone well with big machinery breakdowns just before drilling this autumn and extra work taking up fences and ploughing out leys, compounded by it getting very wet. This will be a bumpy transition year for us but next year we will be ready for the new streamlined arable system full steam ahead. Looking forward to it. My brother working off farm is like a different man compared to when he ran the sheep. He did them well but it took it out of him when every penny counted on a small farm.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
We are actually happier than we’ve been for a long time now we have a clear simple plan rather than what felt like an all consuming overwhelming muddle that was treading water.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Fair play to you (both). There’s no point struggling on doing something you don’t want to do. I’m tempted to go the other way, offloading the arable and all the costs that go with it...
DeeGee
Member
- Location
- North East Wales
Would spring barley crops not reduce the costs quite a bit, as well as freeing up winter stubbles for catch crops etc?
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Winter Barley is only grown here to let me in with stubble turnips and it's never a particularly profitable crop on a small scale. Fodder crops are followed by Spring Barley already, which is usually OK, but late harvested here, and followed by marginal winter barley again.
Growing other cereals would entail investment in more storage, which I am certainly not prepared to do on a fixed term FBT and a new landlord's agent that holds a very short term view. We may see out our 20 years, but open to better opportunities now and his attitude means that investment in anything that can't move has now stopped (and on other FBT farms on this estate too).
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Cashflow has been all over the shop. Carried over a lot of 2019 harvest. Smallest actual harvest from my 400ac of c450t last year. But tiny costs. It's all been very up in the air, and difficult to budget or forecast.
Mixedupfarmer
Member
- Location
- Norfolk
Many of us on FBTs feel similar
I think the biggest affect to budgets for combineables farms in the east is the breakdown of the continuous wheat, wheat rape type rotations. Many still seem to be fully geared up for massive amounts of wheat but are growing loads of spring barley and oats instead. Same overheads lower output (but sustainable) rotations.
DeeGee
Member
- Location
- North East Wales
Must be a very frustrating situation to say the least. Not being able to plan reasonably far ahead in the medium term makes what is already a difficult job even more exasperating. Sounds like others have the same problems too?
The squeeze on cashflow will be autumn/winter 2021 for many IMO. Heavy land arable didn't get drilled up in autumn 2019 so lower yields in 2020 that won't translate into sales though grain price rises will partially offset this. Less BPS income next December for the bigger outfits too.
Good profits from 19 harvest Followed by shite harvest 20 and big tax bills could be a danger for some