Rent on grass land

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
interesting views
we have taken on 56 acres, very close to home, £100 acre, no sfp, long term, good pp, fenced and watered. No restrictions on fert, other than price, and we can, and have overseeded with clover, grass.
We were lucky, the owner decided he wanted us, and we know at least 1 who offered £200, and told us we couldn't afford it, and he had it ! But there was no advert, and a lot chased after it.
The other side, we bought a bunch of cows, last year, up near oxford, his hfrs were on ground costing £10 ac, and some grazed by his milkers, and maize ground £30, we would be extremely lucky to find maize ground under £200, around us.
Going forward, there are so many unknowns, price of fert, being a big one, it is a global priced product, it is easy to see less will be used, the unknown being, how much less product worldwide, and the effect on our product price. The only reason l can see, for the high prices we are currently getting, is they must be short, throw in transport cost ......
So rent, is it cheaper for some to rent more land, than buy fert, are high product prices, going to drive expansion, but location, is probably the biggest driver. The truth is, we as farmers, are entering a very different age, climate change, technology, brexit, fuel, and fert price, on one side, and the very real prospect of much improved product price, driven by a global reduction in food production. Who knows, £600+ ton fert, might be reasonable, if product price matches. As always, one has to crunch numbers, to come to a price, that suits yourself, this time, there are some very big potential differences, to normal.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
The other side, we bought a bunch of cows, last year, up near oxford, his hfrs were on ground costing £10 ac, and some grazed by his milkers, and maize ground £30, we would be extremely lucky to find maize ground under £200, around us.
There's not the demand for the PP pasture around oxford, I run a fair bit of ground that as long as I top and weedwipe it then I don't pay anything, but I'm surprised maize ground could be go for anything near £30.
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
I can’t help but feel it’s a bit odd your not allowed fert? Is the landlord claiming some sort of subsidy off it already? And actually you’d be doing him a favour?
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
I think that the answer to that is that at 6 bales to the acre you aren't murdering it, some of my fertilised fields did 25 last season
do you work out the cost -per bale- of the grass?
Fert/seed (inc downtime while seeding)
Do you have to give livestock any mineral supplements?

In the above instance, the grass was costing me about a fiver a bale (in rent).
It kept sucklers very well indeed, and youngstock that had about a kg of hardfeed with it.

The mowing ground at home receives 100/kg per acre compound, occasional lime, and fym/bark compost.
It hasn't been tilled/seeded since WW2
Does 8-9 bales to the acre - off a single cut stood up in mid May.
The granules go on a few weeks before the ground is laid up, so I'd have to apportion a fair chunk of the fert ££ to the sheep, and subsequent use.

However I cut the maths, it strikes me that the extra couple of bales barely covers the fert cost though.
At £600/tonne, I rather suspect next spring we'll be a bit more circumspect with it.

Fodder merchant put fair hay in my yard this year ay £90/tonne.....why bother turning the sheep out here?
The unknown is how much his supplier will need for next year.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
do you work out the cost -per bale- of the grass?
Fert/seed (inc downtime while seeding)
Do you have to give livestock any mineral supplements?

In the above instance, the grass was costing me about a fiver a bale (in rent).
It kept sucklers very well indeed, and youngstock that had about a kg of hardfeed with it.

The mowing ground at home receives 100/kg per acre compound, occasional lime, and fym/bark compost.
It hasn't been tilled/seeded since WW2
Does 8-9 bales to the acre - off a single cut stood up in mid May.
The granules go on a few weeks before the ground is laid up, so I'd have to apportion a fair chunk of the fert ££ to the sheep, and subsequent use.

However I cut the maths, it strikes me that the extra couple of bales barely covers the fert cost though.
At £600/tonne, I rather suspect next spring we'll be a bit more circumspect with it.

Fodder merchant put fair hay in my yard this year ay £90/tonne.....why bother turning the sheep out here?
The unknown is how much his supplier will need for next year.
one would think your musings, are replicated by hundreds of thousands, world wide, that's quite a thought, on its own.

My ready reckoner was £100/ac is 1 ton hay/ac, with fert, we had 7 t/ac pit silage, and 3 ton hay, so in theory, with very limited land available to rent, cheap.

Another point to consider, is we only think we know, what will happen with less fert, we assume production will fall, short term it will, rotation, legumes etc, could/might mean that drop, longer term, is not so bad.

Perhaps the final point, is, quite simply is do we want to produce more ? Beginning to think that global demand, is matching supply, prices will rise. Individually, each single farm, would benefit by higher prices, by upping production, as a whole, it could be the worst thing to do, classic example, was milk quota leasing, that took £millions out of dairy farming.

As always, nothing in farming is easy, or straight forward, or even 'future' safe guarded, but one thing, has never changed, the rest of the world cannot survive, without us, and we all know, if something is short, the price goes up. Then, farmers built in, inborn gene, kicks in, and production increases, price shoots down, perhaps that is what we should focus on.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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