Intensive Beef

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
You would think so but I have seen cattle jump walls that a showjumping horse could not master, also staff not shutting gates correctly. Cows licking ropes etc. One thing for sure with livestock, you get lots of surprises, some of the shapes they get themselves into you have to ask "how the fudge?"
Could be a new thread in Livestock or photos section entitled "How the fudge........." :ROFLMAO:
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Those 60 year old farmers are the biggest problem for professional fhinshers, they don't need to make a profit at the job as they have no intrest in improving their farm/ buildings/ machinery etc and also don't need to make a profit so they can live as they will be getting at least one pension to cover their living costs.
I'm not even 53 'til Saturday :rolleyes::ROFLMAO:
 
People who claim the SFP can also be go-getters! They're not all stick in the muds who plod on through life and make nothing, but live off the SFP.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Surely the best option for @Clive would be a spring calving suckler herd with all progeny finished early? He could keep the cows on home straw and some urea during the winter, grow maize silage, crimped barley and some beans for a finishing ration and have grass leys for grazing during the summer?

Seems to tick all the boxes!

I really cant see grazing working, no fences, lots of houses and main roads (A5 / A38 type roads) no water and almost definite TB problem
 

Douglasmn

Member
Haven't read the whole thread so sorry if people have already said what's in this post. For decent shed and top class handling system(if you're handling big numbers you need the best pens) I'd say about £100000 to do the job well. Could you start just doing a bed and breakfast service? Might make the transition a bit easier if you're not really in the loop for buying and selling from day one. All the benefits of the muck and steady income. Use big square bales, chopped into the baler, then bed with a bedding machine. Muck can then be spread straight from the shed saving the need to make middens in the fields. Couldn't you also put grass into the rotation and have them muck the fields for you that way direct? Cattle are very easy to fence in. Two electric wires with posts 10 metres apart is all you need. Do one block a year and it'd be fairly manageable. Great break crop with the grass. Some people who've maybe never worked with cattle and are only used to arable might consider them a bit of a pain and a nuisance...I think they're great though. 60 cattle grazing away in a field have way more character than a big ugly John Deere(other tractors are available...equally big and ugly) driving up and down and they're putting fertility directly back into the ground. Manage them properly and they're not a lot of work at all, certainly can fit in well with any arable enterprise.
 

Douglasmn

Member
What's so wrong with animals in a field. Grains worth F all, the soil structures gone and its saturated with weed killers from a losing fight with blackgrass. Why not grass a big swathe down, like I have this year and just run a few cattle on it extensively.

I find the cattle easier than the arable. Not much to do with them all summer, then a daily routine in winter. nothing arduous, quite relaxing. keep a few so you keep them friendly. There's no money in it of course, but never mind. We still get the BPS.

Better than pulling a sprayer out of sh*t hole in November, laden with a tank mix of five products costing x thousand pounds. Or having to rebuild your tractor engine after one days ploughing.
Couldn't agree more.
 

Sheep

Member
Location
Northern Ireland
It would be worth doing serious number crunching. IMO sheep are a no go without fences, you'd need a very good stockman otherwise, and you would need to pay him extremely well.
 

DRC

Member
It would be a nightmare having big groups of cattle I the area Clive is in without proper fencing. I can't image two rows of electric fencing keeping Limmys in for long, and add in dog walkers and busy roads.
You'd have to be mad, and I doubt any insurance company would want to insure the liability of that.
Clive is close to some very big towns and cities, and major road networks .
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
If by that you mean fatten 100 expensive store cattle over the summer then thank god for your sfp. Sooner that shite is scraped the sooner the go getters can roll on.
No I meant if the go getters as you put it stopped running round like headless chickens after everything and spending money like water then moaning that there is nart in the job slowed down a bit perhaps they would make some progress, nothing to do with sfp as that has nothing to do with the farming you do
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
What about an anaerobic digester?

where do I get the sh!t to put in it ? and growing crops for one is a VERY silly idea if we are talking about sustainable agriculture here !

biggest one in the UK is 9miles from me and spends more time broken than working it seems, we get a lot of the digestive from it already (which isn't very much given its downtime) its not great stuff for soil though IMO aerobic and contains alcohol's which are damaging to soil life, I forgive it that fact though on the basis that any OM is better than none and it free delivered and spread !
 

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

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  • 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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