Small Mixed Farm Rationalisation

[DrWazzock]

The wheat and OSR are going.

The grass, beef, sheep, spring barley, oats, beet and turnips are staying.

Goodbye high input high risk agriculture. Goodbye feeding pigeons and slugs and flea beetles and growing blackgrass.

This way I can feed anything I grow to the stock and use up by products and I'm not cornered by the commodity markets.

And with withdrawal of met aldehyde slug pellets, and neonics for flea beetle control, and cheap septoria actives id be pretty stupid to carry on with OSR and wheat on grade 3 droughty land, wouldn't I?

 

[robs1]

The wheat and OSR are going.

The grass, beef, sheep, spring barley, oats, beet and turnips are staying.

Goodbye high input high risk agriculture. Goodbye feeding pigeons and slugs and flea beetles and growing blackgrass.

This way I can feed anything I grow to the stock and use up by products and I'm not cornered by the commodity markets.

And with withdrawal of met aldehyde slug pellets, and neonics for flea beetle control, and cheap septoria actives id be pretty stupid to carry on with OSR and wheat on grade 3 droughty land, wouldn't I?

Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing,

 

[Boydvalley]

Did pretty much the same 4 years ago. Not regretted it. Cereals just soaked up cash flow for a very poor return on our ground. Get to enjoy summer as well not harvesting.

 

[DrWazzock]

I just don't feel like laying out thousands and taking all the risk anymore.

Did OSR seed price fall when neonic dressing went? No.
Does any commodity price rise to compensate for poorer yields and higher risk due to withdrawal of pesticides? No.

So why the hell should I take up the slack?

 

[spin cycle]

HMMM....been trying similar ....whether i've been unlucky...drought last year?...or whether it won't work i don't know....i wouldn't ditch the wheat if you've still got to be FA

 

[willy]

HMMM....been trying similar ....whether i've been unlucky...drought last year?...or whether it won't work i don't know....i wouldn't ditch the wheat if you've still got to be FA

FA?

 

[spin cycle]

FA?

farm assurance

 

[DrWazzock]

HMMM....been trying similar ....whether i've been unlucky...drought last year?...or whether it won't work i don't know....i wouldn't ditch the wheat if you've still got to be FA

Wheat could remain opportunistic, but OSR is done for I reckon. The OSR and the wheat ear spray is the only reason I need a high clearance sprayer which is another reason for them to go.
OSR is clat from start to finish. The drill struggles get the rate right, the flea beetles/slugs/pigeons get it. It seems to need ever more fungicides. Then there is the sclerotinia/ seed weevil lottery, then it's usually a bugger to combine that's if a hailstorm hasn't already had it. Fed up of it.

 

[DrWazzock]

I've been pleasantly surprised how the yield of Spring barley has really improved over the past few years. Fairly low input, keeps the blackgrass down, not in the ground for long, nice straw.......let's try not to remember the 2017 combining nightmare.

 

[bobajob]

Not really looking to pick holes or an argument- suit yourself- but you said in another thread that the cattle caused you the biggest headache/ stress / worry but now you are keeping on with them.

 

[DrWazzock]

Not really looking to pick holes or an argument- suit yourself- but you said in another thread that the cattle caused you the biggest headache/ stress / worry but now you are keeping on with them.

They do cause some aggravation and I'm hoping recent problems have been a blip. Normally they don't give so much bother.

The problem with high input arable commodities is the massive outlay of cash and the risk of getting next to nothing back again. If we run out of moisture at the right time we can only watch the crops lose yield big time. The stock inputs can be buffered by maintaining a store of forage etc and crisis can be managed or avoided.

I'm not entirely sure what the right answer is, but playing to the farms strengths in terms of rainfall and soil type, might be easier than pretending we can grow 4 ton per acre of wheat consistently, which we actually consistently fail to do.

 

[Pan mixer]

To me it looks like a good idea to keep as many irons in the fire as you can cope with.

Yes OSR is pants, I grow temp grass, WW and Spring Barley, on a rotation the herbicide costs are much lower for example and the yields are higher due to rotation.

Cattle and sheep can be hassle to and the fat price for both is poor at present, and they die.......

 

[bobajob]

Ah that sounds logical what you are saying, like I say not knocking you. You have to farm to suit your land/ climate/ market etc.

 

[spin cycle]

.

The problem the massive outlay of cash and the risk of getting next to nothing back again. If we run out of moisture at the right time we can only watch the grass/forage crops lose yield big time. .

.

just got it tidy for you...i know what you mean though and good luck...i just look at wheat prices sometimes and think thats decent money

 

[DrWazzock]

Yes there is no one ideal solution.

I am just floating some possibilities and seeing what happens.

Cutting down the number of arable crops would cut down agronomy overhead, and the time wasted switching between crops on the sprayer, that kind of thing. It would ease storage and harvesting, part loads and all the difficulties of having small areas of a variety of combinables instead of just one decent area of Spring barley, needing one storage area etc.

I am also trying to simplify my life and free up time.

 

[DrWazzock]

just got it tidy for you...i know what you mean though and good luck...i just look at wheat prices sometimes and think thats decent money

I reckon wheat needs to be over £150 to be worthwhile. And at the moment it's not quite there yet and maybe never will be. Selling forward on this sort of land is risky to say the least.

We are very light grade 3 here with some exceptionally strong patches. Grass evens that out quite nicely. Roots do well on the sand. Barley doesn't seem as badly hit by drought as wheat.

We must each do what suits our farms but often we seem compelled to try things that are almost guaranteed to fail, because others on better land grow them successfully.

 

[Sharpy]

The wheat and OSR are going.

The grass, beef, sheep, spring barley, oats, beet and turnips are staying.

Goodbye high input high risk agriculture. Goodbye feeding pigeons and slugs and flea beetles and growing blackgrass.

This way I can feed anything I grow to the stock and use up by products and I'm not cornered by the commodity markets.

And with withdrawal of met aldehyde slug pellets, and neonics for flea beetle control, and cheap septoria actives id be pretty stupid to carry on with OSR and wheat on grade 3 droughty land, wouldn't I?

Sound like a plan. The stock will help with moisture retention, the stubbles could be used for overwintering with a sprinkle of grass seed?

 

[spin cycle]

I reckon wheat needs to be over £150 to be worthwhile. And at the moment it's not quite there yet and maybe never will be. Selling forward on this sort of land is risky to say the least.

We are very light grade 3 here with some exceptionally strong patches. Grass evens that out quite nicely. Roots do well on the sand. Barley doesn't seem as badly hit by drought as wheat.

We must each do what suits our farms but often we seem compelled to try things that are almost guaranteed to fail, because others on better land grow them successfully.

what do fat lambs have to be?

 

[steveR]

To me it looks like a good idea to keep as many irons in the fire as you can cope with.


Cattle and sheep can be hassle to and the fat price for both is poor at present, and they die.......

And in the case of the former, they can also get TB, or possibly more accurately, your farm can be shut down because of a Reactor... But, as the good Doctor points out, his 4 crop rotation has an inherent flexibility.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Put the whole lot down to grass and graze growing cattle.

Buy in weaned calves, sell the following spring as forward stores. Outwinter on roots/kale with silage bales. Get this sown by a contractor.

You'd need 1 light loaded tractor and a couple of quad bikes. And a lot of electric fencing and water pipe.