SHOULD FARMERS, GROWERS HAVE TO RETAIL THEIR PRODUCE?

bluebell

Member
i can see the point of selling direct, opening a farm shop if that could be an only option of keeping a bussness going, but i think where he lost the plot is hes looking at farming from a different direction ? theres a lot less worry ,work, call it what you will , to make money from letting buildings to small bussnesses like what i and almost all the farms round me do then messing about trying to make some extra money from selling some foodie type product, but then we are so lucky to do that ? like clarkson and dyson and other celebrity farmers who use the owning of land as a tax break , not their sole source of income, if farming the land you own or rent is your sole income the story then is totally different?
 
i can see the point of selling direct, opening a farm shop if that could be an only option of keeping a bussness going, but i think where he lost the plot is hes looking at farming from a different direction ? theres a lot less worry ,work, call it what you will , to make money from letting buildings to small bussnesses like what i and almost all the farms round me do then messing about trying to make some extra money from selling some foodie type product, but then we are so lucky to do that ? like clarkson and dyson and other celebrity farmers who use the owning of land as a tax break , not their sole source of income, if farming the land you own or rent is your sole income the story then is totally different?
you mean he wants us to start looking at farming as a business, to actually make decent money out of what we grow... the man must be mental!
 

bluebell

Member
but car production is turned off or up due to sales, does anyone remember way back the stories on TV of massive stocks of new cars being stored on airfields? Getting older and rusty with no buyers, now its all about just in time? farming has so many things you cant plan for, number one the weather, the weather for our country and the weather in other major food, cereal producing countries that will effect the yield and thus the price? Oil can wait in the ground, till the price picks up but crops have to be harvested and animals have to be sold , like the market for christmas trees, say the most popular by far is the 6ft tree, so you plant a few thousand trees with the expectation that say in 5years time you will get if grown to good standard all the trimming and spraying is done up to harvest, £12 a tree wholesale but when you actually get to the time of harvest the price available is only £5 ? and if you dont harvest these trees next year the size will be 8ft the risks of it all, a bit of a ramble nice to have a risk when your young because if it does go wrong well its a good learning curve and you can recover ?
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
If I wanted to be a retailer I would buy the product from the supplier who offered the best value.... that would not be me... there will always be producers who can produce the same commodity products as I do at a lower cost.
 

Bongodog

Member
If everyone jumps on the direct selling bandwagon, due to location it can only work by use of couriers/parcel companies or taking on retail premises, there's just not enough sellers where the people are. Then you soon see the costs roll up. The supermarkets much as we criticise have generally got transport costs well under control, full artics carrying 28 tonnes, home delivery vans covering relatively short runs etc. Just think of the cost of sending 28 tonnes of produce in 10kg parcels to 2800 customers.
 
Genuine question, Do you market these? or do you have your regular customers?
I did 10 beasts in 5 batches, first two I messaged a heap of folks and offered them a chance to get some, most said ok.
Big problem to get people to take mince to start with, then it was the first to sell out £9.90 per kilo.
Roasts were tough to shift.
Fillet £40
Sirloin and ribeye were £30
Rump £20.
Would stop and speak to people walking through the farm (did this anyway) they would comment on the animals and I would say you can try them if you want.
Stopped and chatted to a guy washing his Landy one afternoon, spoke to him about it for a bit and then said “you like beef”
“Aye”
Took him to the back of the welding landy and showed him what I had in the cool box balancing on an oxy bottle, he took £30 quids worth of stuff and went to get cash, came back out and said “I’ve only got 2 twenties, have you got change?” I lied and said “no, but I can give you a pack of mince and a pack of sausages!”
Deal done.

he was ex head of CID in Glasgow...

I quit doing it when the local slaughterhouse (75 miles away) closed, went to the one up north 80 odd miles away but they were more expensive plus they charged delivery (though much preferred going there anyway) then the local processing plant 40 miles away went under (or quit) wanted to carry on and set up a butchery place on the farm, but with a father who wants to shoot strangers as they enter the yard and not willing to move away I quit completely. I would rather give up than to sell at the market:wtf:
Now I’m working on the remotest farm in Iceland where the guy built himself a hotel and restaurant so he could carry on farming. All his meat goes through tourists.
 
OK. Does James do the marketing, or does he have a team working on it ?
He probably started himself if his vacuum was his first invention and he had no money, but I bet he doesn’t go to curries or wherever they sell appliances and drop them off without knowing he’s making money on them, and for sure he will have the final say on the marketing when they come to him with their sales stuff.
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
He probably started himself if his vacuum was his first invention and he had no money, but I bet he doesn’t go to curries or wherever they sell appliances and drop them off without knowing he’s making money on them, and for sure he will have the final say on the marketing when they come to him with their sales stuff.

I was listening to the fashion designer Paul Smith (74) on the tranny the other day when tedding silage and then later a woman rang in to say she was in a store with her daughter and Sir Paul came up to them and helped them select some items. I bet they spent considerably more than they intended :pompous:
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 1
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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