Resilience

[lazy farmer]

I could have A right moan on about how hard things are here currently but that won’t change anything and there are plenty of farmers of what ever guise having just or much worse time of it.
so my question is this. We are constantly told we need to build resilience into our businesses.to you what is meant by resilience and how do we afford it ?
Disillusioned of Somerset.

 

[livestock 1]

Does it mean reliance on agriculture?

 

[Beef farmer]

I could have A right moan on about how hard things are here currently but that won’t change anything and there are plenty of farmers of what ever guise having just or much worse time of it.
so my question is this. We are constantly told we need to build resilience into our businesses.to you what is meant by resilience and how do we afford it ?
Disillusioned of Somerset.

For us, it's 2k ton of grub sat waiting. Yes this spring has been sh!t, but we had plenty of grub looking at us.
Work on the theory, better to be looking at it than for it. Costly when it's not needed, but it's on the balance sheet.
Why are things so difficult in the Vale?

 

[Nathan818]

I could have A right moan on about how hard things are here currently but that won’t change anything and there are plenty of farmers of what ever guise having just or much worse time of it.
so my question is this. We are constantly told we need to build resilience into our businesses.to you what is meant by resilience and how do we afford it ?
Disillusioned of Somerset.

I can only speak from my experience but I think you can make your business more resilient by preparing for the worst, allowing some wiggle room and stocking up during the good times.
Depends on your own bottleneck but that might mean making an extra couple of bays of silage to have for a spring like this, investing in slurry storage, keeping a larger overdraft open etc. Some investments have to be viewed as insurance policies. If you don't need it one year, great, it's still there for the next.

 

[crashbox]

Match your farming system to suit your land.

Don't carry too much debt, people or stock.

 

[bigw]

Not much difference here as we expect it to be pish from october till may and sometimes longer than that. I feel for you guys who aren't used to but it will turn and it'll all be forgotten about.

 

[Will Blackburn]

Concrete tracks, Kerching.

 

[Cowwilf]

Mine would be to make more silage as it's useful in a prolonged dry or wet spell.

 

[Fedupfarmer]

I could have A right moan on about how hard things are here currently but that won’t change anything and there are plenty of farmers of what ever guise having just or much worse time of it.
so my question is this. We are constantly told we need to build resilience into our businesses.to you what is meant by resilience and how do we afford it ?
Disillusioned of Somerset.

Feel much the same tonight been a long hard week.

 

[jimmer]

For me building resilience is either making jobs/things easier or labour saving
We've just bought 20 new concrete water troughs this will ensure plenty of water and hopefully reduce tank issues/leaks etc
The new parlour means we are a more appealing option should we need to look for staff
I don't buy into the whole, mountain of surplus grub thing, I feel we are more resilient having cash to buy the food we need when we need it
Knowing and believing in your numbers is another thing that makes decision making easier

 

[vantage]

 

[teslacoils]

Resilience means structure your business to keep making food for next to no return.

 

[Blue.]

One of my farming heroes would always have a mountain of silage,it stood him in good stead and I’ve always done the same,I’ve never bought silage but I’ve sold lots.

I was talking to relation today and when I said I’ve 5 months silage in the clamp he said I needed more cows I’m daily watching trailer loads of silage pass my road end,I’m not selling any this year because once things level out we’re sure to have a very dry spell and it’ll be needed.

365 housed herds only really need a bit of decent weather to clamp silage,the rest of the year you get by,I’ve always said three weeks in summer spread out for 3 crops of grass suits me fine.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I could have A right moan on about how hard things are here currently but that won’t change anything and there are plenty of farmers of what ever guise having just or much worse time of it.
so my question is this. We are constantly told we need to build resilience into our businesses.to you what is meant by resilience and how do we afford it ?
Disillusioned of Somerset.

Will be a different answer for every operator and every farm, as every one has a different set of weaknesses.

I have never met a farmer with "production" as the weakest part of their business, which often lies in the areas of risk management or loss minimisation. I think that's probably why the general nonspecific advice is to "build in resilisence" as it doesn't pr*ck the ego so much

 

[Headless chicken]

Spare cash has got to be fairly high up on the list. Lots of things can be solved by having that liquidity to move quickly. It’s also exhausting trying to juggle bills or knowing you have a situation that could be solved with a small investment but are unable to do it.

 

[frederick]

Match your farming system to suit your land.

Don't carry too much debt, people or stock.

Not sure what the first statement means. I think it's more a case of the farming system needs to be matched to the weather you expect.

I think the weather we need to expect now is completely different to the weather we had to expect when I returned from NZ 26 years ago.

Which is why that model is more challenged nowadays.

I think resilience means being able to fully feed all the cattle properly any day of the year no matter what the weather. But this requires in the investment if infrastructure to house the cows of which the NZ model tries to avoid.

This capital investment is actually far more costly than simply having more silage than you need.

 

[frederick]

Thinking about it more above are the physical things for resilience.

But what do we also need to do to be mentally resilient.

It made no difference to my cows wether they were in and out they were just fed in a different place and they also realised how bad the weather was because they weren't grumpy when kept in.

However it's still been hard. All control of the wedge has been lost. Watched 3 litres fall off of milk when I decided it wasn't worth using maize to produce arla seasonal milk at 20ppl. Every morning or evening when I thought there was a chance of grazing I had to be around to make that in or out call.
Cows are currently going into 5000 covers and just not getting the milk.

However 25% of platform mown yesterday I hope we will be reset in about 10 days.

Many have had it far worse than me I know I've been lucky with what I can do but it still takes a mental strain.

And I think that mental resilience is harder to create than the physical.

 

[More to life]

A support network, people to talk to is very important.

 

[Cowwilf]

For me building resilience is either making jobs/things easier or labour saving
We've just bought 20 new concrete water troughs this will ensure plenty of water and hopefully reduce tank issues/leaks etc
The new parlour means we are a more appealing option should we need to look for staff
I don't buy into the whole, mountain of surplus grub thing, I feel we are more resilient having cash to buy the food we need when we need it
Knowing and believing in your numbers is another thing that makes decision making easier

How many days worth of feed do you aim to make? I've been buying since mid Feb and completely out of my own since mid March.

Went through my diary last night, we housed 14 days earlier than 5 year average and we're 40 days behind on days grazing this spring and 10 or so days behind been out at night so far. After a decent day yesterday it feels like January here today they've gone out this morning but will be back in at lunch time.

Running short of grub one year in five is OK but I need a bit of surplus some years to only run short once every five.

 

[Chimera]

3 weeks ago, I had myself in quite a state. No silage, no supply of good silage. Trying to on/off graze whilst wrecking each paddock in turn, cows very unhappy, milk dropping daily. This was whilst people where telling me how ofcourse I could graze them. It'll be better in a few days they all said.
Well I accepted where I was, and decided enough was enough and kept them in. Buying sheep silage, feeding loads of cake, and co-products. I know it has cost me. BUT, I didnt have to contend with the mess and worry and stress.
Next year there will be a spare 500tonnes.