New appointment to roll out whole-farm benchmarking across UK

[7610 super q]

We were involved in benchmarking for a few years, when supplying eggs to Waitrose. Figures had to be uploaded every week, so basically they could see how much we were making, and screw prices down accordingly....

Can't see the point trying to benchmark the average arable/ livestock farm.....too many variables as said earlier. Hell of a difference between someone like me who likes to farm on a shoestring....and folks who like up to date equipment.

A few more clipboard jobs created though....

 

[JP1]

I'm exasperated!

Here is an extract from the AHDB terms whose link was kindly supplied above…..

"AHDB may also use the farmer’s data collected for the Farmbench system for industry analysis. If this data is used, it will be anonymised and no direct or indirect identifier will be published."

You think they include that clause for fun?

Why do farmers ever bother going to AHDB talks or events? Why did anyone believe or allow "their" data to go in to Jon Nix's Pocketbook all that time ago at Wye College. Every student and his Grandfather would have used that aggregated data

 

[Cowabunga]

Why do farmers ever bother going to AHDB talks or events? Why did anyone believe or allow "their" data to go in to Jon Nix's Pocketbook all that time ago at Wye College. Every student and his Grandfather would have used that aggregated data

Farmers get useful information from them. The point being that so do others.
Why farmers are so cavalier with commercially sensitive information is a very good question and one that has puzzled me for decades. I think it stems from the push to produce that started during the Second World War and continued into the 1970's. Times have changed along with commercial balance of power and political imperatives since then. Farmer's mentality has not.

 

[snarling bee]

Apparently 60% of farmers think they are in the top 25%. I'm not one of them - I know I am not in the top 25%.

 

[Cowabunga]

Apparently 60% of farmers think they are in the top 25%. I'm not one of them - I know I am not in the top 25%.

Maybe so do our customers. "Continually pressing prices lower" Does that ring any bells?

 

[Bury the Trash]

who is Jon Nix

 

[JP1]

who is Jon Nix

Professor Jon Nix, London Wye College winner of many Ag Economics awards

 

[JP1]

Professor Jon Nix, London Wye College winner of many Ag Economics awards
View attachment 489280 View attachment 489282

He's as nice and authoritative as Sean Rickard is a turn coat

 

[Sandpit Farm]

There is a general lack of hunger to improve in our industry... particularly beef and sheep.

Any retailer with a calculator and knowledge of livestock could work out some rough costs of production. It doesn't matter if they know your ACTUAL costs of production or not..... if it is cheaper to buy it in from Poland or New Zealand - that's what they'll do.

Our product prices are driven by consumer demand (home and away) and supply (home and away) simple. With beef and sheep, we produce the meat and then try to sell it and take the price on the day. It is only the integrated supply chains (which are based on contracts) that could conceivably benefit from this information and I guess that relates to dairy, poultry and pigs. I am sure they will be doing their own analyses anyway. I would have thought that any benchmarking data would have far more use for the farmers than it would for their buyers as it is composite.

AHDB will not sell your data to anybody and I am staggered that people would believe that. Do you guys believe in the moon landing??

 

[Brisel]

I'm exasperated!

Here is an extract from the AHDB terms whose link was kindly supplied above…..

"AHDB may also use the farmer’s data collected for the Farmbench system for industry analysis. If this data is used, it will be anonymised and no direct or indirect identifier will be published."

You think they include that clause for fun?

I'm exasperated too - Why just close your doors to the medium of sharing your experiences with other farmers? Clive is spot on - this entire forum is just that FFS! You're like a Welshman who would rather see England's rubgy team lose than you would see Wales win.

Price is a function of supply and demand. If you don't like the price, stop producing at a price you don't like or can't make a profit at. Then you could spend your entire life trolling on the internet. I couldn't give a flying fudge who sees the aggregated data. - it's not mine, it is everyone's. Any plonker with a wallet can buy a copy of ABC, Nix or other management pocketbooks and see them same information. The banks like HSBC give them away for free!

Why do I participate? Because I want to improve my business by learning from others. Enjoy what is going well, explore why and work to improve the areas that aren't performing as well. I'm not interested in dick swinging with idiots - I can go to the pub and do that.

 

[Tarw Coch]

I'm exasperated too - Why just close your doors to the medium of sharing your experiences with other farmers? Clive is spot on - this entire forum is just that FFS! You're like a Welshman who would rather see England's rubgy team lose than you would see Wales win.

Price is a function of supply and demand. If you don't like the price, stop producing at a price you don't like or can't make a profit at. Then you could spend your entire life trolling on the internet. I couldn't give a flying fudge who sees the aggregated data. - it's not mine, it is everyone's. Any plonker with a wallet can buy a copy of ABC, Nix or other management pocketbooks and see them same information. The banks like HSBC give them away for free!

Why do I participate? Because I want to improve my business by learning from others. Enjoy what is going well, explore why and work to improve the areas that aren't performing as well. I'm not interested in dick swinging with idiots - I can go to the pub and do that.

But at least in the pub you know who the nobs are and can take anything they say with a pinch of salt!

 

[Brisel]

on the subject of rainfall how much does this affect profit on an arable farm other than drying costs? also what sort of effect does altitude generally have? im 400-500ft? these things need to go into the data for benchmarking surely?

Good question. I'm sure someone with the big spreadsheet would be able to see if ther is a correlation between the two.

 

[Cowabunga]

I'm exasperated too - Why just close your doors to the medium of sharing your experiences with other farmers? Clive is spot on - this entire forum is just that FFS! You're like a Welshman who would rather see England's rubgy team lose than you would see Wales win.

Absolute balderdash. Every last word.
By all means share info with farmers, even if they are actually your competitor in supplying a product and in order to enable it to be sold ever cheaper. But why allow that data to be passed on to any other related industry? No other industry lets their production costs be known to their customers or rivals or boast about how little they can sell their product for while still making a profit.

Price is a function of supply and demand. If you don't like the price, stop producing at a price you don't like or can't make a profit at. Then you could spend your entire life trolling on the internet. I couldn't give a flying fudge who sees the aggregated data. - it's not mine, it is everyone's. Any plonker with a wallet can buy a copy of ABC, Nix or other management pocketbooks and see them same information. The banks like HSBC give them away for free!

Why do I participate? Because I want to improve my business by learning from others. Enjoy what is going well, explore why and work to improve the areas that aren't performing as well. I'm not interested in dick swinging with idiots - I can go to the pub and do that.

Price is a function of supply and demand as long as the market works properly as you must believe it to. In real life it is open to all kinds of abuse and manipulation. Part of which is to encourage just enough surplus to keep you producing at the average marginal cost of production, no more.

 

[Henarar]

Do you guys believe in the moon landing??

No and its a good job they never went there or the cheese market would have been flooded

 

[Brisel]

No and its a good job they never went there or the cheese market would have been flooded

You mean this was a documentary not a cartoon?

 

[Henarar]

You mean this was a documentary not a cartoon?

yes but we are not suppose to know that

 

[Sandpit Farm]

I'm not interested in dick swinging with idiots - I can go to the pub and do that

Quote of the day!! hahaha

 

[Tim W]

Apparently 60% of farmers think they are in the top 25%. I'm not one of them - I know I am not in the top 25%.

You are not in the top 25% because I AM the top 25%

 

[beefandsleep]

Top 25% ? You need to aim a bit higher than that if you want to be as good a farmer as me.

 

[Clive]

Let's be clear

There is a VERY powerful law called the data protection act. We are well aware of it at TFF as obviously we hold a lot of email address on our database and don't ever want to fall foul of the law or in any way compromise our users privacy or security

No one can sell or share ANY data (not even your name !) without telling you they will and asking your permission

I've not had time to read the AHDB T&C's but unless they state otherwise they can not sell any data they hold on you

Interestingly however I believe the NFU do ? Maybe someone can clarify if that is correct or not ? - when I was a member I did ask but no one wanted to give me a straight answer !

Farmplan are selling data from gatekeeper as well unless you go to the effort of opting out, something I was told by a lawyer friend is not legal, I predict big trouble ahead on that one ! Group legal action anyone ? It's BIG business and I suspect the only reason RBI (farmers weekly) had any interest in buying a farm software company in the first place !

I'm a big fan of benchmarking however if it can be done in a meaningful way (that's hard !) and it is done to benefit our business and not just done to help those we supply drive down prices etc - we need to be VERY careful who we share commercially sensitive info with, in some cases it might be advantageous to but in others it could be VERY damaging