Ideal time for all farmers with any common sense to tell farm assurance schemes to go to hell.

[fairydarmer]

May be slightly off topic/subject.. but,
What’s the future for British Food? Will people buy more local/farm food? Will people not have a choice? Will imported food be the same price as British food due to increased transport costs etc.

Should our own produce be marketed more? I don’t think consumers actually look for RT assured. They would prefer to buy from a farm that sells ‘grass-fed’ beef, with no RT label on it.
Will the farmer to end consumer relationship flourish?

 

[PSQ]

Other than 'farm to farm' there is no non-assured market up here. Even the last merchant to take 'non-assured' persuaded all of his clients to join SQC (Scottish RT) before he went bankrupt...

The only option to change things like 'Mass Balance' and other ridiculous elements of RT / SQC etc is from within. The big question is who do we apply the pressure to, and how much?
Otherwise the obstreperous Wayne Kerrs they employ to come up with stupid ideas will just keep doing what they're paid to do.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Red tractor for cereals is a complete load of rubbish but it really isn’t stress enducing.

It will be to a one man band who doesn't need any extra (unproductive ) work load, of which there are many .

 

[Bury the Trash]

The whole point of any scheme should be it should segment the market ie product A is worth more than Product B be

It has achieved that objective but in a negative way, the actual affect it has is reducing the unassured product commercial worth not increasing the worth of the assured product. There is no premium just a reduction.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

It will only happen when the NFU own up to the mistake they made & instruct farmers to leave, we all know farmers interests are very low down the NFU’s concerns!

It's a money earner for the NFU, which is why they support it.

This has nothing to do with them or the nearly dead tractor. It's the buyers who say they need assurance while buying in any old sh!t from abroad. It's take it or leave it time.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Further more They (RT) aren't bothered about that because they are earning money/have made a secure controlled cartel type business out of the whole scheme idea.

They han'vt increased the product price to the seller because that's much harder to do far easier for them to do (and no skin off their nose or anything off their business profit margin ) whats in my previous post .

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

So did Acorn Arable sell it on as assured? Is that what happened?

All grain is assured when it gets to the merchant, especially if it comes off a boat.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

I'm wondering if we can publish some sort of representation to all the mills and buyers etc by collecting verified digital signatures from farmers so that the buyers can feed back to the AIC that farmers object strongly to the stranglehold RT is placing on the market? Any ideas on doing this? - Not a petition as such but a collective representation of how we cannot countenance double standards.

At the end of the day the decisions on RT are made by a select few who shuffle from committee room to committee room at no cost to them. They won't move until budged

It will collapse eventually but we need to keep removing bits away, and it will be no thanks to that farm union when it does.

I stress, it's not the NFU or dead tractor that's the problem here, it's the trade insisting that they need it when they don't. (Because it's free.)

 

[ajd132]

rubbish. We don’t all have central storage. You have surpassed yourself this morning.

I’ve got 3000t of on farm storage currently. Its not onerous, it is a complete waste of time though. Its only a case of filling the book in and making sure its up to date and having stuff organised. There is far more stressful things on a farm to worry about that a red tractor audit. All the templates freely available online.
I am NOT agreeing with red tractor, its a complete and utter joke, I just geneuinely dont think it is particularly stressful on a COMBINABLE crop farm.

 

[BrianV]

I stress, it's not the NFU or dead tractor that's the problem here, it's the trade insisting that they need it when they don't. (Because it's free.)

But if Red tractor stopped this farce the buyers would still buy, they just mark up prices with anything with a red tractor printed on it.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

But if Red tractor stopped this farce the buyers would still buy, they just mark up prices with anything with a red tractor printed on it.

Completely agree, but the only way to stop the dead tractor is to starve it of funds.

Credit where credit is due, the ahdb saw the light and stopped funding them.

Every farmer who stops the standing order will hurt them badly. There's no time like the present.

They only exist because we pay them.

 

[FarmyStu]

I just don't know why after all these years the same inaccurate posts keep coming up over and over again. For the last time........

(1) It is not voluntary.
(2) There is no premium.

@MrNoo said this "Not that simple is it. I left last season, my grains were worth £15-20/t less". How did he leave if it's not voluntary? Why does he get less if there is no premium?

 

[DrWazzock]

@MrNoo said this "Not that simple is it. I left last season, my grains were worth £15-20/t less". How did he leave if it's not voluntary? Why does he get less if there is no premium?

Imagine if you got smacked in the face by the guard if you travelled second class rail and had your wallet robbed. That's like non RT.
Imagine if you don't get smacked in the face and you get to keep your wallet if you travel first class. That's RT.

You pay a premium to travel First Class so you don't get forked over.
You can "volunteer" to travel second class if you want a good kicking.

That's how RT works.
It's doesn't deliver a premium, it just stops you getting forked over for no good reason at all.
Paying RT stops them doing something very nasty to you if you pay the protection money. It doesn't mean something better or good will happen to you.
It's just like the way the Mafia works.
The Mafia don't help unload the delivery van and fill your shop for you if you pay them. They just don't burn it down. That's what we get from RT.

 

[MrNoo]

@MrNoo said this "Not that simple is it. I left last season, my grains were worth £15-20/t less". How did he leave if it's not voluntary? Why does he get less if there is no premium?

No, we have been through this a thousand times before and you simply cannot say world price minus £20 is the premium.
The £20 the trade take off the world price is not premium.
You say it’s voluntary but reality is it’s not is it, I am down maybe £10k in crop sales so am forced to join it like everyone else. Because NFU, RT and AIC have colluded against farmers under the guise of “assurance”
It is a con, always has been and always will be.
Your comments defending RT are non stop, added to the fact you don’t actually grow crops or even have to be assured.
So please wind your neck about RT, you sound like an NFU bod on Twitter

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Imagine if you got smacked in the face by the guard if you travelled second class rail and had your wallet robbed. That's like non RT.
Imagine if you don't get smacked in the face and you get to keep your wallet if you travel first class. That's RT.

You pay a premium to travel First Class so you don't get forked over.
You can "volunteer" to travel second class if you want a good kicking.

That's how RT works.
It's doesn't deliver a premium, it just stops you getting forked over for no good reason at all.
Paying RT stops them doing something very nasty to you if you pay the protection money. It doesn't mean something better or good will happen to you.
It's just like the way the Mafia works.
The Mafia don't help unload the delivery van and fill your shop for you if you pay them. They just don't burn it down. That's what we get from RT.

Very well put.

 

[FarmyStu]

Imagine if you got smacked in the face by the guard if you travelled second class rail and had your wallet robbed. That's like non RT.
Imagine if you don't get smacked in the face and you get to keep your wallet if you travel first class. That's RT.

You pay a premium to travel First Class so you don't get forked over.
You can "volunteer" to travel second class if you want a good kicking.

That's how RT works.
It's doesn't deliver a premium, it just stops you getting forked over for no good reason at all.
Paying RT stops them doing something very nasty to you if you pay the protection money. It doesn't mean something better or good will happen to you.
It's just like the way the Mafia works.
The Mafia don't help unload the delivery van and fill your shop for you if you pay them. They just don't burn it down. That's what we get from RT.

You can go 1st class if you choose. It will cost you more but it will be a much nicer journey.
You can choose to go 2nd class. You'll still get there but it won't be as nice as 1st class. It will cost less though. Your choice.

If you stop paying an assurance group, you just stop being accredited. They don't do anything "nasty" to you at all. Your customers however may pay you less. That's their choice as it is yours to be accredited or not.

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

You can go 1st class if you choose. It will cost you more but it will be a much nicer journey.
You can choose to go 2nd class. You'll still get there but it won't be as nice as 1st class. It will cost less though. Your choice.

If you stop paying an assurance group, you just stop being accredited. They don't do anything "nasty" to you at all. Your customers however may pay you less. That's their choice as it is yours to be accredited or not.

pee off Farmy stu, you may have an opinion but it's flawed, there is no logic in the defence of this protection racket

 

[MrNoo]

You can go 1st class if you choose. It will cost you more but it will be a much nicer journey.
You can choose to go 2nd class. You'll still get there but it won't be as nice as 1st class. It will cost less though. Your choice.

If you stop paying an assurance group, you just stop being accredited. They don't do anything "nasty" to you at all. Your customers however may pay you less. That's their choice as it is yours to be accredited or not.

You fail to grasp that the stuff that arrives on a boat from abroad is First Class and paid as such yet has non of the rubbish we have to contend with. Magic.
You are like a stuck record RT
Are you Christine Taycon undercover? Guy Smith?

 

[Flat 10]

I’ve got 3000t of on farm storage currently. Its not onerous, it is a complete waste of time though. Its only a case of filling the book in and making sure its up to date and having stuff organised. There is far more stressful things on a farm to worry about that a red tractor audit. All the templates freely available online.
I am NOT agreeing with red tractor, its a complete and utter joke, I just geneuinely dont think it is particularly stressful on a COMBINABLE crop farm.

100% disagree. As a one man band it's easily the most stressful day of the year, especially with dated on farm stores. You may not find it stressful but a very many of us do so please don't speak for us.

 

[FarmyStu]

You fail to grasp that the stuff that arrives on a boat from abroad is First Class and paid as such yet has non of the rubbish we have to contend with. Magic.
You are like a stuck record RT
Are you Christine Taycon undercover? Guy Smith?

I just have a different opinion than you and the majority who post on this site. I'm not pro RT (In fact I think they're poor at what they do) but do think assurance has its place. I've been reading on here for years how assurance needs to be scrapped and you all need to be left alone. I've always said that will never happen short of WW3 (so may be closer than I thought!!). I still think I'm right about that. So complaining on here may help let off steam, but so far, despite numerous "we're getting somewhere"posts, nothing has altered. Accusing me of being like a stuck record may be accurate. But reading through the thousands of posts on this subject, I'd suggest I'm not the only one!!