Reduction in arable acreages

[livestock 1]

shows how fecked farming is

As a hill farmer farming at the lowest of 1000 ft up to well over 2000ft who has always wanted and longed for a ‘proper’ farm I can never understand arable farmers complaining so much

 

[Boysground]

What % was set aside when it was a thing ?

Think peaked at 15%. It’s so long ago now I can’t quite remember

Bg

 

[DrWazzock]

Farming is a machine with many cogs, all equally as important as each other. Take one out and the machine stops working.

I don’t know. Maybe they just put another cog in. With traditional break crops (OSR/beans) knackered, then some of these enviro mixes become the new breakcrops. I’ll still be “farming”. I’ll be growing birdseed but short circuiting the garden centre and growing pollen and nectar for the bees including domestic bee keepers. “It’s production Jim, but not as we know it.”

 

[tinsheet]

As a hill farmer farming at the lowest of 1000 ft up to well over 2000ft who has always wanted and longed for a ‘proper’ farm I can never understand arable farmers complaining so much

Boys Ground well call it!

 

[livestock 1]

Boys Ground well call it!

Little boys ground

 

[Will 1594]

As a hill farmer there’s no way of recouping any quantity of the bps money unless we stop production
Bearing in mind we’ve previously been offered production efficiency grants this is crazy

been saying this since fmd they want you off the hills plant most of it to tick the green box , gets rid of the farting cows . pay you just enough to run a few sheep to keep it tidy for the tourists james herriot style , . the better lowland will be farmed more intensively

 

[livestock 1]

Now they have by far the majority of the payments directed towards them and they still moan

 

[Vader]

I said right at the start that sfi been designed to wreck livestock farming.
Simplest way to lower uk emissions on paper is get rid of livestock. That's why they won't use gwp* as it removes livestock as a problem.

 

[livestock 1]

I said right at the start that sfi been designed to wreck livestock farming.
Simplest way to lower uk emissions on paper is get rid of livestock. That's why they won't use gwp* as it removes livestock as a problem.

That’s what it’s designed to do. The payments to actually farm in the hills are an absolute joke

 

[livestock 1]

They obviously don’t want that

 

[robs1]

What will the small hill producer with say 300 ewes and 60 suckler cows do when straw is in very short supply?

I suspect that with rotational SFI options the wheat area won't drop much as a good first wheat is still going to be the best paying crop, it's the break crops that will be reduced in area, why grow rape to lose it to beetle or pigeons or beans letting in weeds late in the season when you can grow a legume sfi and good entry into wheat

 

[robs1]

As a hill farmer farming at the lowest of 1000 ft up to well over 2000ft who has always wanted and longed for a ‘proper’ farm I can never understand arable farmers complaining so much

You could always sell up and buy/rent an arable farm .

 

[Jo28]

I suspect that with rotational SFI options the wheat area won't drop much as a good first wheat is still going to be the best paying crop, it's the break crops that will be reduced in area, why grow rape to lose it to beetle or pigeons or beans letting in weeds late in the season when you can grow a legume sfi and good entry into wheat

This is bang on, we've decided to drop all break crops except vining peas for now and when the 2024 sfi offer comes in all break crop ground will be enhanced overwintered stubble and concentrate solely on winter wheat and rotate each year. This year we will have approximatly 60% fallow anyway due to the weather/prices.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Most are selling some land and going to work for someone else

Who is buying the land.

Locally its farmers & it ain't cheap.

 

[redsloe]

as most options are considerably more £ per ha than the old bps the budget will soon get used leading to capping or modulation i suspect .....mind you the other issue is money is being siphoned from hill/grass areas to lowland arable areas which seems grossly unfair.......gonna be a 'train crash' next year possibly

At present 70% of my sfi is on grassland. Similar to the grass/arable ratio on farm actually!

Im not on the moors though.

 

[Farma Parma]

What % was set aside when it was a thing ?

am sure it was a two diff levels 10 & 15% rings a bell.
Dad never liked it i know that. But cant mind what we actually got paid for doing it now, it was just a req to collect the IACS payment
Atleast now there paying us something

 

[Farma Parma]

early 1990s
18 % first year

hammered the machinery and imput industries

machinery need on an arable far meant 18 percent less wear but 18% of work was done before harvest son36 % less between harvest and start of drilling no one needed to buy kit for a couple of years
we added 30% extra area in the year before first year hired a tractor for 4 weeks second year 2 week after that did not need the extra tractor
by year 4 changed a tractor
no need for any extra kit till set aside was planted with energy crop in year 5

by the 2000s 50% set aside was allowed in wet years 2001

Didnt Oliver Walston rally Tanks over his or something

 

[kfpben]

I said right at the start that sfi been designed to wreck livestock farming.
Simplest way to lower uk emissions on paper is get rid of livestock. That's why they won't use gwp* as it removes livestock as a problem.

It’s really not - at least in the lowlands
SAM3 herbal ley is £382/ha. Cutting and grazing compatible.
They will pay you to fence it if needed.

The explosion in overwintered arable cover crops in this area over the last couple of years has been marked. We have found it is possible to finish lambs off them. Ewes love them. They are grazed off and worked down before a spring crop goes in.
Prices are strong- the only thing stopping a massive increase in livestock numbers in this country is the willingness or otherwise of arable farmers to keep stock.

The good news for hill farmers is that if the lamb price stays good I can see an increased demand for well bred breeding stock and store lambs from the uplands.

 

[Clive]

Just a thought
Straw shortages for the livestock industry
Less cereals for feed
Less acreages for the spraying contractors
Less agronomy and chemicals
Les’s fertiliser sales
And so on
Hearing big acreages of SFI

uk ag industry is on the brink of massive change now i think - it’s going to happen fast and in many cases painful or even terminal

 

[Northern territory]

It’s really not - at least in the lowlands
SAM3 herbal ley is £382/ha. Cutting and grazing compatible.
They will pay you to fence it if needed.

The explosion in overwintered arable cover crops in this area over the last couple of years has been marked. We have found it is possible to finish lambs off them. Ewes love them. They are grazed off and worked down before a spring crop goes in.
Prices are strong- the only thing stopping a massive increase in livestock numbers in this country is the willingness or otherwise of arable farmers to keep stock.

The good news for hill farmers is that if the lamb price stays good I can see an increased demand for well bred breeding stock and store lambs from the uplands.

@Frank-the-Wool has a different view on winter keep in his area