Should George Eustice be removed as Secretary of State?

[Widgetone]

Move him on to the House of Lords, works for some.

Lord Useless has a nice ring to it..

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

The poll tells me that Eustace must have cast a vote

No, it was me.

I know we've got problems but I don't think they are caused by him.

The only problem we have is the unfair practices used by everyone who buys from and sells to farmers. A long list of governments have allowed this to become normal practice, not this one.

And I also think that subsidies and the cap have discouraged farmers from developing their businesses and lulled us all into selling stuff too cheap. We should get our respectable living from the market place and not social security.

 

[Two Tone]

Useless is a huge disappointment.

His father, a farmer called Paul Eustice, wrote an interesting book called To Hell with the Bank in 1995, which proved an importance test case against Barclays.
Unfortunately, his son hasn’t inherited the same wisdom.

When a Minister thinks that quoting that crop price increases have already mitigated the drop in support is at all relevant, you realise just how thick the guy is. The two are complete unrelated and do not take into account the incredible inflation in costs that farmers are suffering.

Nor does it take into account that most will have already sold their produce earlier, just to appease their Bank managers and therefore missed out on his so-called crop price increases.

The guy must think we are complete idiots! Especially with what his own family experienced.


I was rather impressed by Tim Farron and Daniel Zeichner at a recent PAC re ELMs. Particularly regarding the BPS reductions hitting Tenant farmers and the fact that ELMs is split into three separate parts of LR, LNR and SFI. How ridiculous when Gove’s originally concept was to simplify it all.
However, also at the meeting was Tory, Victoria Prentice who was about as arrogant as anybody I have ever come across. Both she and Eustace should go immediately!


With what is going on in the world and how our Government seems to be the only one that wants to persist in taking food growing land out of production, I’m seriously wondering how on earth it thinks it will do well in the Election of 2024. By which time everybody will be seriously effected by hyper fuel and food inflation. I’m wondering if either of the other parties would persist with ELMs?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

When will farmers realise that adequate supplies mean low prices?

Remember what happened to pump prices when someone invented a fuel shortage in the autumn?

 

[nick...]

Think friend has a spare donkey going if needed

You’re far more polite than I’d have been
nick...

 

[nelly55]

Yes but who to replace him that’s the question,please not ross mogg mogg or whatever the stuck up twxx is called.We all make fun but really it’s not the agricultural and livestock industry is in a mess and the idiots need to put their brains in gear .Where are all the rural MPs ,still waiting for my letter to be answered so clearly rural mp couldn’t give a monkeys uncle.

 

[celtis man]

I know his cousin, he is not impressed with George either but I guess he is being told what to say

 

[Two Tone]

When will farmers realise that adequate supplies mean low prices?

Remember what happened to pump prices when someone invented a fuel shortage in the autumn?

They have. The problem is where to pitch ourselves on the balancing act of it all, when we don’t know the long term effect of it all price-wise.
It’s the Government that is hiding its head in the sand. They forget that unhappy voters will want them out.
Food security is something they have forgotten about. And its not just the rest of the population it will effect, but us too.

That alleged fuel shortage was invented to use up the decaying Petrol that wasn’t used by motorists during the Coronavirus Lockdown. What better way than to get it all used than to create a panic? Proven by the very fact that as soon as the Army (which it was predicted needed 4 times the amount that were actually deployed by it) assisted in distribution, the news of any shortage disappeared within 2 days!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

So what do you think the government should be doing but isn't? @Two Tone

 

[Two Tone]

So what do you think the government should be doing but isn't? @Two Tone

Fecked if I know, but anything different to what they are doing now!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Fecked if I know, but anything different to what they are doing now!

What you say about not knowing where prices will be in say, 12 month's time, is the same for any business. There's two options I can think of: buy and sell forward or cut costs.

If n fert is really going to be £1000 a tonne, which seems to be around £600 a hectare rough estimate, who can afford that? So you either use less, or take the view that wheat will have to go up and go for it.

Thousands of people take out mortgages knowing there's a possibility that house prices may fall or the job might go. It's the real world.

Farmers have been feather bedded with the cap. Time to move on. Changing the DEFRA minister or even the government won't change anything.

We all vote Tory, whinge and own a lot of expensive land. If food does eventually go short, we might get some respect but expect the corporate food system to blame us, even though they will have caused it.

 

[Two Tone]

What you say about not knowing where prices will be in say, 12 month's time, is the same for any business. There's two options I can think of: buy and sell forward or cut costs.

If n fert is really going to be £1000 a tonne, which seems to be around £600 a hectare rough estimate, who can afford that? So you either use less, or take the view that wheat will have to go up and go for it.

Thousands of people take out mortgages knowing there's a possibility that house prices may fall or the job might go. It's the real world.

Farmers have been feather bedded with the cap. Time to move on. Changing the DEFRA minister or even the government won't change anything.

We all vote Tory, whinge and own a lot of expensive land. If food does eventually go short, we might get some respect but expect the corporate food system to blame us, even though they will have caused it.

Yes, it is a dilemma. There are other businesses in the same boat, but not all.
Buying and selling forward is a tool. But when you are playing with somebody else’s money as a Manager, that is a risk many are not happy to make or take on unadvisedly.
The trouble with farming is that we plant a crop, not absolutely knowing what it will yield or the price it will sell for. As regards 2023, what it will cost to grow in fertiliser or even if we can get it.
No wonder many Accountants regard farming and those that do it as lemmings.

IMHO, we should deal with as many known knowns as we can rather than unknowns and farm accordingly.
As things look at the moment, fertiliser usage will have to drop then. Yields will go down accordingly.
The worry is that just about every other Government is encouraging their farmers to plant more and some will just blindly do so, without thinking it all through.
Maybe they are lemmings?

I’ll be off doing some ‘recreational’ fertiliser spreading shortly to take my mind off it all. Even though that fertiliser cost almost twice as much as I ever bought it for before, at todays forecast crop sale prices it will pay me to put just about as much on as I normally do, rather than think about saving some of it for next year at 2.5 times what I paid for it this year.
I’ll try not to worry about that just yet as we just do not know the answers that far ahead.


………That Tory voting thingy we all do is becoming rather questionable.
Never before have I seen such a bunch of stupid turds in all my life!
Polished, don’t even enter into it!

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

Agree. For the risk and investment we commit to, the returns are a joke. No wonder we moan.

I might discuss the politicians another time!

Edit, but some people vote for who they vote for regardless. Dianne Abbott got 72% of the turnout at the lat election.

 

[Two Tone]

Agree. For the risk and investment we commit to, the returns are a joke. No wonder we moan.

I might discuss IT WITH the politicians another time!

I’ll lend you a gun, as long as you shoot them and not yourself!
With traditional lead shot too, in case you are about as good a shot as I am. At least you could poison them with it!

 

[Grass And Grain]

I'd vote yes, but then I can't think of anyone better to replace him with

Surely there can't be anybody worse?

 

[Bramble]

Surely there can't be anybody worse?

Boris??

 

[Grass And Grain]

Boris??

Oh jeez, there was someone less capable

Doesn't matter about pigs being killed on farm because they were going to be killed anyway

 

[Steevo]

Boris??

Or the current Prime Minister!

 

[Henarar]

So what do you think the government should be doing but isn't? @Two Tone

simplifying things not making them more complicated

 

[Henarar]

Or the current Prime Minister!

now you are getting to the dregs