Interesting Irish suckler figures

[gone up the hill]

Oh yes, of course, shouldn't whinge really, BUT ten years ago we were told by so-called advisers that SFP would be gradually reduced and would be gone by 2014 and if we could manage without it we would be ahead of the game! It took several years for us to pluck up courage to buy some cattle. It's only now as our other income has dropped, and for our farming neighbours nothing has changed, that we have begun to feel a little peeved! It's hard not to notice the new buildings, fancy tractors etc!

Rule one : never listen to so called experts as they know didly squat!!! no one can say with any certainty either way if the farming system will have SFP or something similar in 10 years from now... personally I think it will because all government's need cheap food and only way to ensure that is to support the industry one way or another... ( and not forgetting that they are hung up on control and schemes like the SFP give them the rope to do that... but who knows......

Rule two : Regardless of things like SFP etc the enterprises you run need to show a net profit 4 out of 5 years without including ag support... ( first two/three years to get going then fair enough to use it but after that you shouldn't be... ) nothing wrong with using it for on farm investments ( like a building/ fencing etc ) but day to day cost's need to be covered by the animals themselves...

Rule three : In Scotland you get this calf scheme money which you need to realize that farmers in Britain do not and also your deadweight price up there is about 30ppk better than this side of the border so whilst you only get a smallish SFP you can gain in other ways that most of us cant!!! your not as bad off as you think... in fact suckler producers your side of the border are damn lucky and should count their chickens (so to speak )...

Imo you shouldn't be getting this calf money as it puts producers this side of the fence at a disadvantage...... but you do so fair play...

 

[Hilly]

Rule one : never listen to so called experts as they know didly squat!!! no one can say with any certainty either way if the farming system will have SFP or something similar in 10 years from now... personally I think it will because all government's need cheap food and only way to ensure that is to support the industry one way or another... ( and not forgetting that they are hung up on control and schemes like the SFP give them the rope to do that... but who knows......

Rule two : Regardless of things like SFP etc the enterprises you run need to show a net profit 4 out of 5 years without including ag support... ( first two/three years to get going then fair enough to use it but after that you shouldn't be... ) nothing wrong with using it for on farm investments ( like a building/ fencing etc ) but day to day cost's need to be covered by the animals themselves...

Rule three : In Scotland you get this calf scheme money which you need to realize that farmers in Britain do not and also your deadweight price up there is about 30ppk better than this side of the border so whilst you only get a smallish SFP you can gain in other ways that most of us cant!!! your not as bad off as you think... in fact suckler producers your side of the border are damn lucky and should count their chickens (so to speak )...

Imo you shouldn't be getting this calf money as it puts producers this side of the fence at a disadvantage...... but you do so fair play...

We are probably still on a level playing field if you count our bad weather and dark winters and short summers with over 200 day winters etc.

 

[gone up the hill]

We are probably still on a level playing field if you count our bad weather and dark winters and short summers with over 200 day winters etc.

We average 180 day winters down here at least.. bad weather doesn't make a lot of difference if cattle are housed.... far from a level playing field in the UK let alone the EU..

You can tell the beef job is good up your end of the country by the amount of artic loads of store cattle going north week in/out 12 months of the year... if the job didn't pay better up there they wouldn't be paying the top prices for store's down here and then covering the cost of hauling North....

 

[Hilly]

We average 180 day winters down here at least.. bad weather doesn't make a lot of difference if cattle are housed.... far from a level playing field in the UK let alone the EU..

You can tell the beef job is good up your end of the country by the amount of artic loads of store cattle going north week in/out 12 months of the year... if the job didn't pay better up there they wouldn't be paying the top prices for store's down here and then covering the cost of hauling North....

Bad weather in the winter no, but we get no grass here till mid may and not much beyond end of august, ive been to devon in feb and its better than up here in june !!

 

[Baling Hay]

Bad weather in the winter no, but we get no grass here till mid may and not much beyond end of august, ive been to devon in feb and its better than up here in june !!

People living in Devon do not realise what wind, wet and cold late springs are!

 

[gone up the hill]

Bad weather in the winter no, but we get no grass here till mid may and not much beyond end of august, ive been to devon in feb and its better than up here in june !!

May be plenty of grass her in Feb but unless your going to plough the field for spring crops then you have no hope in hell of grazing it with cattle in feb.... turnout out here is normally mid/end of April at least...

Grazing land here is 7+k/acre... what is it in Scotland???

Another thing... quite a few farmers around here have sold up and moved to Scotland to farm the last few year's.... none have moved from Scotland to Devon in that time..... which say's a lot......

 

[Hilly]

May be plenty of grass her in Feb but unless your going to plough the field for spring crops then you have no hope in hell of grazing it with cattle in feb.... turnout out here is normally mid/end of April at least...

Grazing land here is 7+k/acre... what is it in Scotland???

Another thing... quite a few farmers around here have sold up and moved to Scotland to farm the last few year's.... none have moved from Scotland to Devon in that time..... which say's a lot......

Seems like you need to move to Scotland then, the grass is green this side we fertilize it with bull sh!t to keep property values up

 

[gone up the hill]

People living in Devon do not realise what wind, wet and cold late springs are!

We know alright what late springs are don't you worry.... 2013 was a nightmare.... as for 63... we were snowed in from xmas until May.. ( not me personally as I wasn't born but family members.. )..

 

[gone up the hill]

Seems like you need to move to Scotland then, the grass is green this side we fertilize it with bull sh!t to keep property values up

What is your average grassland values there?????>

I wish land values here were a lot less but they are what they are...

 

[Chae1]

As someone said in another thread you ve to pee with the dick you ve been given.

 

[Hilly]

What is your average grassland values there?????>

I wish land values here were a lot less but they are what they are...

No idea to be honest don't follow it but forestry has pushed up hill land a lot.

 

[Baling Hay]

What is your average grassland values there?????>

I wish land values here were a lot less but they are what they are...

Depends where you go, you would struggle to get anything good less than 6k an acre. Go to N.Ireland, grassland there is over 20k an acre in places and weather just as sh!t as Scotland.

I can guarantee you GUTH that you would wonder why the hell you left Devon if you came up here! A guy from Wiltshire came to farm up here and couldn't believe the difference after the first year.

 

[gone up the hill]

I guess that the biggest problem you have is the short weather windows for things like silaging/ combining etc in place's like Scotland/ North Ireland and what this shows is that an EU Ag policy of one fits all payment system is total folly and unworkable on the ground in real terms...

 

[CharcoalWally]

We average 180 day winters down here at least.. bad weather doesn't make a lot of difference if cattle are housed.... far from a level playing field in the UK let alone the EU..

You can tell the beef job is good up your end of the country by the amount of artic loads of store cattle going north week in/out 12 months of the year... if the job didn't pay better up there they wouldn't be paying the top prices for store's down here and then covering the cost of hauling North....

In UA Stirling which is my market guth , the trade in the Autumn has been heavily driven by the Yorkshiremen for the last couple of years. That's where a lot of my cattle have ended up and they've been out-bidding the Scots from the North-East , which is where most of my cattle used to go.

A lot of it is probably weather driven. Weather being cyclic , some areas may occasionally post better harvests , more grain , more cash , more straw to sink back into cattle. We can't farm to our full potential without the weather.

Certainly up here in Scotland things improved radically last year for a good Summer after a number of terrible Summers.

 

[Hilly]

I guess that the biggest problem you have is the short weather windows for things like silaging/ combining etc in place's like Scotland/ North Ireland and what this shows is that an EU Ag policy of one fits all payment system is total folly and unworkable on the ground in real terms...

It isn't we get more than you, so we can pay a contractor to do our silage in summer, apparently its to be on a sunday this year !!

 

[gone up the hill]

In UA Stirling which is my market guth , the trade in the Autumn has been heavily driven by the Yorkshiremen for the last couple of years. That's where a lot of my cattle have ended up and they've been out-bidding the Scots from the North-East , which is where most of my cattle used to go.

A lot of it is probably weather driven. Weather being cyclic , some areas may occasionally post better harvests , more grain , more cash , more straw to sink back into cattle. We can't farm to our full potential without the weather.

Certainly up here in Scotland things improved radically last year for a good Summer after a number of terrible Summers.

Good to hear that you had a much better year in 2013 than the last few years

What you say is very intresting and relevant as much to you as down here tbh as a lot of the cattle in the south west end up in Yorkshire ( one buyer alone at sedge will quite often buy 100+ big steers to haul to Yorkshire week in/out ) so how come Yorkshire farmers can ( it seems ) pay more for cattle than the rest of the UK ???

 

[gone up the hill]

It isn't we get more than you, so we can pay a contractor to do our silage in summer, apparently its to be on a sunday this year !!

So silaging for 2014 is done for up there as you cant possible do it on a sabbath

 

[Hilly]

So silaging for 2014 is done for up there as you cant possible do it on a sabbath

Our na that far north

 

[Hilly]

Good to hear that you had a much better year in 2013 than the last few years

What you say is very intresting and relevant as much to you as down here tbh as a lot of the cattle in the south west end up in Yorkshire ( one buyer alone at sedge will quite often buy 100+ big steers to haul to Yorkshire week in/out ) so how come Yorkshire farmers can ( it seems ) pay more for cattle than the rest of the UK ???

Plenty straw waste products and big farms

 

[Cowcalf]

May be plenty of grass her in Feb but unless your going to plough the field for spring crops then you have no hope in hell of grazing it with cattle in feb.... turnout out here is normally mid/end of April at least...

Grazing land here is 7+k/acre... what is it in Scotland???

Another thing... quite a few farmers around here have sold up and moved to Scotland to farm the last few year's.... none have moved from Scotland to Devon in that time..... which say's a lot......

The reason they do not return south is they could not find the difference in cost to move south again.
Lets face it if sucklers were that profitable everyone would be doing it and that would really muck it up.
As for loads of stores moving north every week thats probably due to lack of cows in Scotland at present.