Apologies in advance for the rant.... but better out than in I suppose!
Just got off the sprayer having put the podstick on the OSR and never seen the farm look so bad. BG, wild oats, rye grass everywhere. I know I am not the only one but it makes me wonder what went wrong.....
Also got me thinking about how hard it is to enjoy arable farming at the moment. Had the annual end of year meeting with the accountant yesterday who said the business isn't doing too badly, but it is hard to be optimistic from one year to the next. The effects of a horrendously wet winter - losing wheat acreage to slugs and invasion of grass weeds, spraying off swathes of good looking wheat in the spring, residuals running out of steam - and lack of sunshine must surely be having an effect on quality. Patched up spring wheat full of BG, OSR a lottery now with flea beetle decimating acreages (last year lost 50%, spring rape never grew so was left fallow, this year that block is the only clean wheat - bring back fallow/setaside?!) Winter beans look good, and spring barley only really hanging on due to incessant April rain. The ever decreasing availability of PPP's - I read on here earlier that flufenacet might be out in 3 years?!
Bent a ram on the sprayer 2 days ago, replacement £1400 (thankfully easy enough to change myself) as not enough time to fix - dealer labour at £120+/hr, machinery prices extortionate - 10yr old 200hp tractor would probably be £75k to change for something a little younger - drills at £20k/metre, cultivators not too bad but every year we seem to need something we don't have, and parts getting more and more ridiculous. Would like to do some ad hoc ditching in the winter but a suitably aged and sized used 360 anywhere between 30 and 80k - simply not affordable, but a contractor nowadays charges enough to warrant investing in a machine..... the plough sat in the nettles (not used for 10 years as part of min till policy) won't do a good enough job this winter so that will need replacing to ensure sufficient seed burial - think of a number and it will probably be double.....
Added to that the total lack of control over grain prices, totally dominated by fund money. Is the world growing too much wheat? I can't find a graph of front month wheat prices that goes way back to the 70's or 80's but apart from the horrible years where it went as low as £70/80, and 2 years ago when it peaked at £375+, the 90th percentile range can't have gone above or below £250 or £120ish - in nearly 50 years? Coupled with the inability to guarantee yield or quality 6 months out from harvest, putting a budgetable value on it is nigh on impossible, even with the information at your fingertips through the futures market. Fertiliser - I was previously shot down for suggesting the N price was decided by people looking at wheat prices but a graph comparing the two would again be interesting to see....
Insurance up by 40%, electricity up by the same, diesel usage and wearing metal now has to be carefully considered, some nozzles at £7.50 each.... the list goes on....
And still the general public have very little appreciation for how cheap their food is. 3 generations ago farmers were respected members of a community providing the most valuable service - food production - now we are environment destroying, subsidy grabbing moaners (I get the irony here) who all drive around in £150k machines - the number of times I hear 'you never see a poor farmer' - it couldn't be further from the truth. Margins have been squeezed too much. Throw in the new carbon conversation (landlord is starting to apply pressure on this) another major distraction for us on top of SFI, CS etc, where all the incentive is not to produce food which is the sole reason for the existence of the industry, and a quite frankly embarrassing political system run by people who couldn't give a s**t about farms, farming, and the importance of rural communities.... As an island nation we surely must have a suitable level of self sufficiency. I am of the generation that appreciates the responsibility of looking after the environment (this wont turn into a climate change rant don't worry) and playing our part - but the major emission contributors don't exist in England's green and pleasant land, and if we have to start importing food on a major scalethe net result isn't hard to work out.
I am looking forward to a month/6 weeks on the combine, clearing the farm and filling the stores.... always represents a clean slate, but I fear the same cycle will be repeating itself and it is very hard to be optimistic. It is sad to admit that the 'best' thing to happen to my P&L sheets in the last 5 years was the Russia/Ukraine war.
But, I do enjoy walking the farm in the evening with the dogs, rogueing 50 blackgrass plants every time, have happy and healthy kids who aren't allowed to sit in front of a screen all day and enjoy it too, but I can't say I'd encourage them to take over one day.
Apologies again for the rant........ but it feels good to offload sometimes, and I reckon there are farmers out there who feel the same, and I know there are farmers with far bigger issues than my own. Maybe the wheat prices will soar past £300 again, the weather becomes a little more prdictable and it all becomes a little easier......
Just got off the sprayer having put the podstick on the OSR and never seen the farm look so bad. BG, wild oats, rye grass everywhere. I know I am not the only one but it makes me wonder what went wrong.....
Also got me thinking about how hard it is to enjoy arable farming at the moment. Had the annual end of year meeting with the accountant yesterday who said the business isn't doing too badly, but it is hard to be optimistic from one year to the next. The effects of a horrendously wet winter - losing wheat acreage to slugs and invasion of grass weeds, spraying off swathes of good looking wheat in the spring, residuals running out of steam - and lack of sunshine must surely be having an effect on quality. Patched up spring wheat full of BG, OSR a lottery now with flea beetle decimating acreages (last year lost 50%, spring rape never grew so was left fallow, this year that block is the only clean wheat - bring back fallow/setaside?!) Winter beans look good, and spring barley only really hanging on due to incessant April rain. The ever decreasing availability of PPP's - I read on here earlier that flufenacet might be out in 3 years?!
Bent a ram on the sprayer 2 days ago, replacement £1400 (thankfully easy enough to change myself) as not enough time to fix - dealer labour at £120+/hr, machinery prices extortionate - 10yr old 200hp tractor would probably be £75k to change for something a little younger - drills at £20k/metre, cultivators not too bad but every year we seem to need something we don't have, and parts getting more and more ridiculous. Would like to do some ad hoc ditching in the winter but a suitably aged and sized used 360 anywhere between 30 and 80k - simply not affordable, but a contractor nowadays charges enough to warrant investing in a machine..... the plough sat in the nettles (not used for 10 years as part of min till policy) won't do a good enough job this winter so that will need replacing to ensure sufficient seed burial - think of a number and it will probably be double.....
Added to that the total lack of control over grain prices, totally dominated by fund money. Is the world growing too much wheat? I can't find a graph of front month wheat prices that goes way back to the 70's or 80's but apart from the horrible years where it went as low as £70/80, and 2 years ago when it peaked at £375+, the 90th percentile range can't have gone above or below £250 or £120ish - in nearly 50 years? Coupled with the inability to guarantee yield or quality 6 months out from harvest, putting a budgetable value on it is nigh on impossible, even with the information at your fingertips through the futures market. Fertiliser - I was previously shot down for suggesting the N price was decided by people looking at wheat prices but a graph comparing the two would again be interesting to see....
Insurance up by 40%, electricity up by the same, diesel usage and wearing metal now has to be carefully considered, some nozzles at £7.50 each.... the list goes on....
And still the general public have very little appreciation for how cheap their food is. 3 generations ago farmers were respected members of a community providing the most valuable service - food production - now we are environment destroying, subsidy grabbing moaners (I get the irony here) who all drive around in £150k machines - the number of times I hear 'you never see a poor farmer' - it couldn't be further from the truth. Margins have been squeezed too much. Throw in the new carbon conversation (landlord is starting to apply pressure on this) another major distraction for us on top of SFI, CS etc, where all the incentive is not to produce food which is the sole reason for the existence of the industry, and a quite frankly embarrassing political system run by people who couldn't give a s**t about farms, farming, and the importance of rural communities.... As an island nation we surely must have a suitable level of self sufficiency. I am of the generation that appreciates the responsibility of looking after the environment (this wont turn into a climate change rant don't worry) and playing our part - but the major emission contributors don't exist in England's green and pleasant land, and if we have to start importing food on a major scalethe net result isn't hard to work out.
I am looking forward to a month/6 weeks on the combine, clearing the farm and filling the stores.... always represents a clean slate, but I fear the same cycle will be repeating itself and it is very hard to be optimistic. It is sad to admit that the 'best' thing to happen to my P&L sheets in the last 5 years was the Russia/Ukraine war.
But, I do enjoy walking the farm in the evening with the dogs, rogueing 50 blackgrass plants every time, have happy and healthy kids who aren't allowed to sit in front of a screen all day and enjoy it too, but I can't say I'd encourage them to take over one day.
Apologies again for the rant........ but it feels good to offload sometimes, and I reckon there are farmers out there who feel the same, and I know there are farmers with far bigger issues than my own. Maybe the wheat prices will soar past £300 again, the weather becomes a little more prdictable and it all becomes a little easier......
