Sugar Beet 2020

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
I can remember when it was £30 something pound a ton and we grew 900 tons back in the 1980’s. Serious money on a 200 acre farm back then.
We gross about £10 k now on a 500 tonne quota. About £2.5 k profit for 6 months faffing about. Nuff said.
In your circumstances I’d want to be growing over 1000t quota and paying someone to lift them, you might have a different view then
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
In your circumstances I’d want to be growing over 1000t quota and paying someone to lift them, you might have a different view then
Part of the reason for stopping is that our 50 year machinery which is written down to nothing has come to the end of its life and the end of my ability to withstand driving it. As said above, contract lifting would wipe out the profit we make. It would pay everybody involved but ourselves to grow beet if we subcontracted the operations.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The beet price needs to be nearer £30 per ton than £20 per ton to make it worthwhile. But while people are happy to keep growing it for marginal if any return then that sorry situation will continue indefinitely. Maybe that’s how some like to run their businesses and what the NFU think is good enough but I have more pride in myself to be honest.
 

Flat 10

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Fen Edge
growing beet is charity work really.....i converted a small barn for holidays that backed onto the yard we stored beet on......grosses the same as 750t beet.......wife manages another let that can be equivalent of 60-70t beet per week......farmings been left behind chasing pennies
Yes farming all round has been left behind not just sugar beet....
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
if i grew them again....which is zero....but....i'd fold sheep over them as a topper then lift with an elderly 2/3 row tanker
First loss is best loss don’t they say? We have finished hoggets on beet tops but it’s plenty of work and can get very messy indeed in a wet year. Belly clipping them all etc. Only finish on tops left once harvested. Danger of oxalic acid poisoning if they graze growing tops in situ before harvest.
 

two-cylinder

Member
Location
Cambridge
Pay £100/ac rent and bit less than £100/ac harvesting and more than happy up until neonic ban....
Think I have some pride in myself, even if @two-cylinder and @DrWazzock think I’m certifiable

Steady on!
I think we were all reasonably happy until the neonic ban, steadily increasing yield was making up for the static price.
But now the goalposts have moved - yield is falling and there is a high likelihood of growers making a loss on beet this year.
 
Looks like my french friend was correct, they push to ban it for everyone then lift it for themselves, makes me chuckle


That's still not definitely confirmed yet. However the Czech Republic granted a derogation on Friday for the 2021 season.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

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

  • 1,286
  • 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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