how much are you REDUCING N rates????

Ormond

Member
A few years ago, black and white bull calves weren’t worth very much at all, hardly get a bid at the auction for them, people were just ended life with them. We decided to carry on and sell the stores as we had done. 18 months later , things had turned and we were getting decent prices for them. It may look like things don’t add up now with current prices.....things may look a very different picture in 12 months time
 

Top Tip.

Member
Location
highland
A few years ago, black and white bull calves weren’t worth very much at all, hardly get a bid at the auction for them, people were just ended life with them. We decided to carry on and sell the stores as we had done. 18 months later , things had turned and we were getting decent prices for them. It may look like things don’t add up now with current prices.....things may look a very different picture in 12 months time
Very true,I usually find that no two years work the same.
 

DRC

Member
Some very quick number crunching in my head tells me that if I use the same fertiliser next year as this year and I buy at current or higher prices, the money spent on fert could instead be used to rent grass keep which in the £150/200 acre ball park would enable me to somewhere near double my grassland acreage, I wonder which would grow the most grass.
Come and buy my lovely haylage and hay. It’ll be cheaper than buying fertiliser .👍
 

Ormond

Member
Very true,I usually find that no two years work the same.
Like the fat lamb trade, with brexit and all a couple of years back, looked like the year not to risk it. Turned out well. Yes margins will most likely be less this next year, nice feeling to have if you’ve something to sell when prices make a climb which I believe will happen in the livestock sector. We’ll crack on regardless, we’ve come through when milk was 16pence.....lost 6 weeks milk cheque when DFoB went under.....just think of the extra tax saving with this expensive fert!
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
But if grassland farmers use lower rates, then they may need to buy more grain to supplement = higher grain prices

theres a good point, is it cheaper to buy fert for grass or substitute with a bit of barley?
I personally think it's a better proposition to buy feed than fert, at least most of the collateral damage happens somewhere else

compaction is where many treadmills begin, it is one of those things

surely then the goal needs to be reduction of compaction as much as "dollars and cents" and therefore extra yield isn't always better; we run our business like a circuit car, not so much what can be bolted to it as what can be taken off and shelved

To keep that analogy going, heavy cars look for more power and light cars look for less weight, the light car can always brake later into corners though
 

Jonp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Gwent
I buy in my winter fodder from a grass farmer. He's got the kit and experience to produce good clean bales.Cost is much reduced by being his on call maintenance man. Means I can concentrate on growing grazing grass fertilised by dung on my small farm. Don't need to buy fertiliser.
 

alomy75

Member
Don`t know if you peoples realise,,,,,,,,,,, we have left the EU and their foreign measurements, Please speak in good old English Units per acre, Then I might understand your rates. :LOL:
What even is a unit? So you get a 600kg bag of fert, convert it into ‘units’ and then convert your Agronomist’s Rec sheet from Hectares into acres and then you’re away?! What’s the spraying equivalent? Gallons per furlong? 😉 that’s an interesting question…what is the Roman Catholic version of litres/hectare?? Surely it’s not gallons/acre? And all recs get converted? 😳
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
What even is a unit? So you get a 600kg bag of fert, convert it into ‘units’ and then convert your Agronomist’s Rec sheet from Hectares into acres and then you’re away?! What’s the spraying equivalent? Gallons per furlong? 😉 that’s an interesting question…what is the Roman Catholic version of litres/hectare?? Surely it’s not gallons/acre? And all recs get converted? 😳
Oh FFS, not this again..........
 
Are you malting or feed or bit of both? Think our contractor still has nightmares from 2 yrs ago when the crop received similar N to yours. Nitrogen level of 2, 2.85-3t/ac. You couldn’t have got it flatter with a heavy grass roller.
Ask me again in a few yrs but last yr 3.25t/ac at 100kg N, this yr approx 2.5t/ac, more N this yr just meant higher grain N for us in high stock grazing situation. Laureate can handle the higher N with us compared to sassy, will be all laureate next yr.
Were laureate been getting it away at low N, cut the rate back a bit if its after grass down to 90 units, we had some go flat in the past last couple years though its all had growth reg and done just under 3t/acre av
 
I buy in my winter fodder from a grass farmer. He's got the kit and experience to produce good clean bales.Cost is much reduced by being his on call maintenance man. Means I can concentrate on growing grazing grass fertilised by dung on my small farm. Don't need to buy fertiliser.
Do you spread the dung on your grassland? Wat time of year do you spread it? Does it put cattle off eating it?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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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