Lack of Money on Farms?

[bobajob]

Was at the local show on Saturday and the general talk was of the lack of money on (livestock) farms at the min. Last year will take a while to get over.

Heard from more than one source that some people have stopped paying bills and are unlikely to pay any until December.
Paying last years bills with the sfp is not a good position to be in but people have little option.

Heard from another rep who still had one farmer to pay £82k from last winters feeding bill!

How are other people getting on? Personally our borrowing is higher than I would like (mostly due to expansion) but should stay within our limits.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Bank balance currently £14k lower than usual at this time of year - high dairy costs - and little surplus wheat 2012 was left to sell (almost exactly 10% of 2011's in fact!) so we'll be about £25k worse off than last year but we'll manage. This is our expensive time of year - buying bulk straights for 12 months, next year's N delivered yesterday, grass seeds to buy, but all bills always up to date for us - but then we run old machinery and don't have a high standard of living. The milk cheque will be up a bit for us for the next few months. One of our 2 mortgages has just finished which will make life a bit easier. We'll have to have a clear out of cull cows this autumn too as no room once most of the heifers have calved.

 

[grumpy]

every farm should have an aunty Ella,

 

[MrNoo]

When I had my annual meeting with the bank, we wanted to decrease the OD limit to which she replied that out of all the farms she had been to, up to ours, we were 1 of 2 that wanted to decrease it, others wanted to stay the same but most wanted to increase their limits however I am not sure what that tells us, if anything?
On a personal note, we`ve invested some, paid some tax and paid a bit off. This year going into next, hope to spend the bare minimum bar putting a shed up.

 

[Yale]

We are reigning in spending on machinery this year as three big ticket (for us) items have been purchased the last couple of years.

Most of our tack is pretty reliable now so our emphasis may turn towards a shed or two and making livestock handling easier.

It all depends on lamb and beef prices.

 

[franklin]

Good year or bad, I never seem to have any money. Always spent on growing crops or more land or something else. Fallow has been expensive, but I am going into next year with a shed full of fert; plenty of landwork done; seed arranged; a far wodge of fungicide in stock so when you add that in not bad.

 

[Chae1]

Was at the local show on Saturday and the general talk was of the lack of money on (livestock) farms at the min. Last year will take a while to get over.

Heard from more than one source that some people have stopped paying bills and are unlikely to pay any until December.
Paying last years bills with the sfp is not a good position to be in but people have little option.

Heard from another rep who still had one farmer to pay £82k from last winters feeding bill!

How are other people getting on? Personally our borrowing is higher than I would like (mostly due to expansion) but should stay within our limits.

Did you look at the cars in car park or at local market!? Don't think many are short of money.

 

[Yale]

Did you look at the cars in car park or at local market!? Don't think many are short of money.

Ah,but how many are actually paid for?

 

[bobajob]

Good point Chae, some might have their priorities mixed up. Or like to put on a good show for the neighbours. I am only saying what other people are saying, and what is it like round the country.?

 

[neilo]

Ah,but how many are actually paid for?

Exactly. New and shiny doesn't impress me much. I learnt years ago that it normally goes hand in hand with finance agreements of one sort or another.

Personally, I'm about done spending, having set up the new place now. Just the 'normal' running costs of fert, seed, feed, repairs, insurance, etc to cover now. After the last 12 months, the bank balance is certainly a few £k below where any paper budgets forecast. But hey ho, next year will always be better....... perhaps.

 

[Chae1]

Ah,but how many are actually paid for?

Don t think many cars are actually paid for anymore, most would be on tick. I wouldn't buy a car unless I could pay for it straight. Only worth borrowing money for land or property in my opinion.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Dept collecters are certainly very busy this year

 

[DrDunc]

Livestock farmers struggling with cash flow?

No shyte Sherlock

And following one of the worst summers on record, huge additional feed, forage, and medicine bills, we have snow at lambing/calving time, then no fecking grass.

Oh, and thanks Mr Supermarket for living up to your promise to source locally

 

[spanners]

Farmers always happiest when nearly broke, they dont like having too much money. they cant handle it & it makes them stressy

 

[spanners]

Dept collecters are certainly very busy this year

yours?

 

[sherg]

Ah,but how many are actually paid for?

There's a lot of ducks about

 

[hindmaist]

In order to reduce peak borrowing,you need to make more than enough profit to cover drawings,tax,reinvestment AND buy inputs for the next crop of grain/lambs/calves.Which can be very tricky when input costs jump dramatically from one year to the next.Agri-inflation has been steep in recent years.

 

[Walterp]

Ah,but how many are actually paid for?

Most, I think - either they are second hand (plenty of 5 year old pickups for £7,000) or they are changed regularly so that the difference to change is modest.

Tractors, of course, are a different matter...

On the OP, plenty of dairy farmers are making serious money but - on the other hand - plenty are bouncing cheques for small amounts, which only really says that their banks are keeping 'em on a short leash. After all, there hasn't been a farming bankruptcy in this district for many years.

On that measure, things are pretty reasonable.

 

[JD-Kid]

intresting thing with tractors bright and shiney on the front dose not always make a better profit know years ago one contractor running the old white cases with new top of the line balers behind them

all in all the costs of extra feeds losses etc due to the weather will be haveing a big impact the down turn in prices is just the iceing on the crap cake the 2013-2014 season will be recalled for

 

[Cowabunga]

The recession and the weather has really really hit the rural economy this year. On my little farm alone it cost me around £20k up to April and due to reduced forage yields from the cold Spring and no forage reserve from last Winter, I can already see an increased cost this financial year of another £10k. And I have not counted any reduced milk yield last Summer, partly because I can't quantify that and partly because it was somewhat offset by a higher milk price as a result of reduced national supply and a weaker Pound.

Talking to other businessmen and bankers tells me that the whole rural economy is suffering as well as the retail sector in rural towns. More bad debts about in all sectors but specifically farming. Less spending by farmers on everything. Less spending by everyone on an average. Wages shrunk significantly over the last two years in real terms. It's tough out there!