Low mood in agriculture

[spanners and hammers]

As I lay there looking up at the stars I immediately wondered where my fudgeing roof had gone

thought you was going to say better get the new floor on the new lorry

 

[digger64]

Imagine this is not that uncommon.been told by agronomist there are huge farms on stop because they cannot pay their spray bills.i know what ours are on our small farm and multiplying it several times makes for scary costs.
Nick...

really my accountant told me most arable farms in the east had a good year last year due to average yield ,good prices and much lowered costs due to the weather

 

[digger64]

You certainly are confused. Where have I said that they are a waste of time? It is 7610SuperQ that claims to be so hard done by despite all the subsidies that he doesn't seem to recognise as being subsidies, rather being in his eyes 'penalties'. Ones that, apart from quotas, he could have opted out of at the drop of a hat.

you need to get out more

 

[Cowabunga]

you need to get out more

I don't generally respond to the featherbrained who post zero content stuff and have no worthwhile debating skill, except in kind.

 

[glasshouse]

Imagine this is not that uncommon.been told by agronomist there are huge farms on stop because they cannot pay their spray bills.i know what ours are on our small farm and multiplying it several times makes for scary costs.
Nick...

If the agronomists didnt oversell and overcharge, their bills might get paid
Ditto shiny metal dealers

 

[Scribus]

A good harvest will lift spirits a bit.
but then the word on the street is all the big crops of grass this year means there is major disaster ahead, working on the premise that if it's made it'll all be needed.
What's going to happen is going to happen, wether you worry or not, so may as well not....easier said than done I know.


Anything big happens you will hear about it quick enough anyway.

Aye, mega amounts of grass out here as well, farmers are wondering where to put it all. But does this mean a major catastrophe ahead or is nature just making up for last year?

 

[Scribus]

No, they are all on lease hire hp
You never see a car with the bonnet up on a sunday outside a council house now
They are all under 6 yr old

You don't see many cars with the bonnets up at all nowadays, compared with the days of yore they have become super reliable. The manufacturers have painted themselves into a corner, making cars that go on for years, what they need is some method of encouraging cars to be scrapped at ten years, maybe fit them with a batt...... But no, best not go there.

 

[Scribus]

Worrying about how other people live their lives won’t change yours

Oh I think it can, taking an interest in a healthy, just and fair society can certainly lift one out of the me me me hole that so many are digging for themselves.

 

[Scribus]

and who pays the footballers ?

Mugs who buy the tickets, the merchandise and the products of the sponsors. It's not a game, it's a business.

 

[Canada Farmer]

You don't see many cars with the bonnets up at all nowadays, compared with the days of yore they have become super reliable. The manufacturers have painted themselves into a corner, making cars that go on for years, what they need is some method of encouraging cars to be scrapped at ten years, maybe fit them with a batt...... But no, best not go there.

Yes newer cars are more powerful and fuel efficient, reliable probably not , more so when you see them DNF, breakdown or need recalls.
Best way to get cars off the road after 10 years use... salt

 

[Scribus]

Imagine this is not that uncommon.been told by agronomist there are huge farms on stop because they cannot pay their spray bills.i know what ours are on our small farm and multiplying it several times makes for scary costs.
Nick...

It makes me wonder whether there is actually a skilled labour shortage or is that farms just can't afford to pay for the right staff and use the excuse that can't find anyone.

 

[Cowabunga]

If the agronomists didnt oversell and overcharge, their bills might get paid
Ditto shiny metal dealers

If you can't afford to pay or in this case it sounds as if you don't intend to, do not buy the product. To do so with either the knowledge that you can't or won't is, there's no two ways about it, fraud on the stealer's [your] part.

 

[ollie989898]

some people want to rule the world @ollie989898 just wants to watch it burn

I think the industry will be better off for it.

Half you lot are complaining anyway and as long as the system remains there will be little stimulus for change.

 

[Cowabunga]

It makes me wonder whether there is actually a skilled labour shortage or is that farms just can't afford to pay for the right staff and use the excuse that can't find anyone.

EDIT that bloody strikethrough text strikes again. I wish I knew how to reverse it or even which keystrokes causes it in the first place. It doesn't appear as I compose a message, but only when it is posted. Anyhow read the words of wisdom regardless, as it is not meant to have a line through the middle.

Many farms cannot actually afford the necessary quantity or quality of labour that they really do need to do the best quality job that they should do. Far too much corner-cutting, running around ragged and being overworked with no time away from the job or enough quality time with families. The job, certainly on livestock and mixed farms is far too intense with too little return. Anyone worth their salt is actually worth at least £25k a year these days and employing two to allow cover for days off and some holidays costs as much as the net profit on many such farms. So they only employ casual labour and contractors at peak times instead. Gates get tied up with string. Too many cows get lame. The paperwork isn't done. Budgeting isn't done. Debudding calves gets missed and so does routine worming and vaccinating and general maintenance. The family suffer. The farmer becomes insulated and knows nothing about the world situation more than the man on the moon. He becomes a complete bore. Only cow and calf, cow and calf, sheep and lamb occupy his every waking moment. Either until a family breakdown or a mental one.

The answer? More off-farm social interaction. Higher income level. Possibly a change of career with the liquidation of some capital assets to be traded for a better life. Something has to happen if the job cannot pay needed labour and provide a good living to the farmer. Something has to change.

Anyone who thinks things are going to change for the better by doing nothing, whatever happens politically, are in cloud-cuckoo land. The farmer is, or should be the master of his own destiny, not allowing the farm to be a masterful burden on him or his family. Therein lies the root of much of the resentment featured by a significant group of contributors to this forum who claim to have been so hard-done-by for the last 40 years, oblivious to the fact that other farmers around them have and continue to thrive.

 

[Cowabunga]

I think the industry will be better off for it.

Half you lot are complaining anyway and as long as the system remains there will be little stimulus for change.

You are what they call an 'anarchist'. Nothing good ever comes of anarchy. Only fools, dangerous fools, would ever advocate such a strategy.

 

[milkloss]

If you can't afford to pay or in this case it sounds as if you don't intend to, do not buy the product. To do so with either the knowledge that you can't or won't is, there's no two ways about it, fraud on the stealer's [your] part.

I don’t think he said he didn’t pay bills himself but you knew that didn’t you?

 

[Cowabunga]

If the agronomists didnt oversell and overcharge, their bills might get paid
Ditto shiny metal dealers

I don’t think he said he didn’t pay bills himself but you knew that didn’t you?

As you see, he doesn't make it plain at all. What is of no doubt is his view as to paying or not paying bills, whether someone else's or his own [I care not]. The sentiment is a disgrace. As much a disgrace as another's wish to see the industry crash and burn with all the misery and loss of life's work that would cause.

 

[Scribus]

You are what they call an 'anarchist'. Nothing good ever comes of anarchy. Only fools, dangerous fools, would ever advocate such a strategy.

....and the Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten seems to have done OK out of it.

 

[milkloss]

As you see, he doesn't make it plain at all. What is of no doubt is his view as to paying or not paying bills, whether someone else's or his own [I care not]. The sentiment is a disgrace. As much a disgrace as another's wish to see the industry crash and burn with all the misery and loss of life's work that would cause.

I could see it was obviously a rather flippant comment but I don’t suppose a pedant could see that.

 

[Kevtherev]

Someone starting to get personal on here.
Not needed I don’t think.