One of the best posts on TFF ever

[Jackov Altraids]

"You can see why U.K. Ag is stuffed really. Farmers come on here grateful they can maybe, with a fair wind and lots of luck make £5 an acre after betting the farm on mega high input prices.
Like the NFU with RT it seems like some kind of badge of honour to many farmers to be able to close the tiny gap between supply industry greed and our customers determination to take as much of the cake as they possibly can.
Well I’ve more pride, more self worth than that. If margins are going to be wafer thin and the risk sky high then I’d rather mothball production and drive a bus for a year.
That’s how you negotiate. You don’t just buy at any price. We are not charities who have to produce food regardless."

This was posted by Dr Wazzock on the Fertiliser Price Tracker and I thought it should get as wide an audience as possible.

Please share your thoughts on this or any posts which you consider to be exceptional.

 

[ollie989898]

"You can see why U.K. Ag is stuffed really. Farmers come on here grateful they can maybe, with a fair wind and lots of luck make £5 an acre after betting the farm on mega high input prices.
Like the NFU with RT it seems like some kind of badge of honour to many farmers to be able to close the tiny gap between supply industry greed and our customers determination to take as much of the cake as they possibly can.
Well I’ve more pride, more self worth than that. If margins are going to be wafer thin and the risk sky high then I’d rather mothball production and drive a bus for a year.
That’s how you negotiate. You don’t just buy at any price. We are not charities who have to produce food regardless."

This was posted by Dr Wazzock on the Fertiliser Price Tracker and I thought it should get as wide an audience as possible.

Please share your thoughts on this or any posts which you consider to be exceptional.

The problem is that industry still contains a lot of people who do things because they have always done them. A portion of people are obliged to farm because of the antiquated tax system. Clarkson would be a prime example. I know he is only fudging about but he is there pumping out a product for absolutely no reason and the economic case for it is probably zero. Another portion of people are farming and absolutely sweating themselves into an early grave without having any real game plan or a grasp of real world costs.

You thus have an industry that seems to want to produce, produce, produce without any real regard for anything else but producing. No wonder retailers, processors and suppliers might approach the industry like an endless waterfall of cash.

 

[Henarar]

How about this one on the beef, lamb and pig price tracker ?
Will leave you to find out who wrote it.


Fertiliser, tractors and compound feed were all brought in to help economic farming practices
If those above are appearing prohibitive then either they are all too expensive or the end product is too cheap
If we move away from being able to use these products then we move away from the job being worth doing simple as that

 

[devonbeef]

Nothing adds up at all at the moment, we are approaching a watershed, what is going to happen I am not sure, I can not see any reason on livestock farms how most are going to survive more than 2/3 years at best unless the meat price rises a lot more than it is.All support going, fuel at mad price, feed , anything you buy, I know loads on verge of making decision to pack up.

 

[Jon 3085]

A lot of diversification has subsided food production,I think that is one of the problem's.

 

[Nearly]

A lot of diversification has subsided food production,I think that is one of the problem's.

It's now at the stage of the food production having a year or two off.

 

[7610 super q]

It's not so much the margin ATM, it's the risk associated to get that margin. Piddling about in Las Vegas looks a viable alternative.

 

[Gong Farmer]

An old friend, agronomist no longer with us but with decades of experience, once said that farming isn't like a factory, you can't turn off production.

Maybe that time is coming.

 

[chipchap]

Most sane business proprietors know the price of the produce before they start to produce it.

They don’t have the weather to contend with either.

 

[JP1]

Great post @DrWazzock

For livestock farmers it's harder to just shut down but the same decision making process should surely take place

Recall many telling me about farms that just couldn't get farmed in the 1920 ag depression - and why there's so many Scottish families farming (and farming well) in my area

Having seen at first hand the mental anguish and crippling pig economy especially for independent pig producers, I still maintain there's enduring mental stress on many that cannot be healthy

 

[daveydiesel1]

Nothing adds up at all at the moment, we are approaching a watershed, what is going to happen I am not sure, I can not see any reason on livestock farms how most are going to survive more than 2/3 years at best unless the meat price rises a lot more than it is.All support going, fuel at mad price, feed , anything you buy, I know loads on verge of making decision to pack up.

Heard of 2 fairly substantial herds where the bull has been removed from the milkers and there gonna calf the cows and do another lactation but as everythin drys off again its going to the meat plant

 

[colhonk]

I hope all of you who do take a year out remembers to cancel youre Nfu and rt subscriptions as well.

 

[No wot]

I wait with anticipation to see who's first to mothball their operations in my neck of the woods , probably easier to do if you are owner occupier though

 

[Cowabunga]

I will be forced out of milk production and farming within two years or so if not sooner. This by legislation that will prohibit the stocking rate that I have used to farm for over forty years and which will force massive investment in facilities which will have zero economic payback, only adding to my cost of production. It’s only a matter of timing now. Since the confirmation of a Wales-wide NVZ it is inevitable. I’m in the process of deciding on the most cost effective way of disposing of farming assets, which will mostly probably go to someone looking for a certain lifestyle rather than food production.

It makes no difference to me, other than to the value of assets, whether farming becomes more profitable or not, because there is nothing on earth that will persuade me to waste my money on investing in infrastructure while the law and red tractor cripples my ability to farm efficiently.

 

[teslacoils]

I wait with anticipation to see who's first to mothball their operations in my neck of the woods , probably easier to do if you are owner occupier though

You would think so, but I'll bet there are plenty of the "bought and paid for" brigade who's drawings after grandad, uncles, sisters etc have all had a divi, end up with more going out per acre than an fbt rent.

We will all be more profitable once a good number of leeches get burnt off, and govt finally releases a scheme that you donthave to shell out to get an agent to fill in every form.

 

[Henarar]

You would think so, but I'll bet there are plenty of the "bought and paid for" brigade who's drawings after grandad, uncles, sisters etc have all had a divi, end up with more going out per acre than an fbt rent.

We will all be more profitable once a good number of leeches get burnt off, and govt finally releases a scheme that you donthave to shell out to get an agent to fill in every form.

the leaches have whole teams to fill the forms in

 

[nonemouse]

the leaches have whole teams to fill the forms in

And friends advising defra on how to run things (eg NFU think it’s such a great idea to have dead tractor police urea fertiliser )

 

[goodevans]

It's not so much the margin ATM, it's the risk associated to get that margin. Piddling about in Las Vegas looks a viable alternative.

Thats exactly what I will be doing next year after qualifying to play in a $25000 tournament

 

[JP1]

 

[Cowabunga]

View attachment 1026545

1930’s all over again.