The coming famine

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Is the muck moist? If yes then make the midden. Digger will work well. I use the tractor and loader now but have used a bobcat, drive in 1 end and do a 180 degree turn and drop. Covering is good in a very wet situation.
it has been in a building, but I would plan to use next spring, and we get 64" of rain a year here, plan was just to clean sheds out to a field heap then spread in the spring, but cleaning sheds out and creating compost sounds the way to go, but I guess I will need to cover it. Can I use old silage sheet with car tyres? I think the old silage sheet has gone off to recycling!
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
it has been in a building, but I would plan to use next spring, and we get 64" of rain a year here, plan was just to clean sheds out to a field heap then spread in the spring, but cleaning sheds out and creating compost sounds the way to go, but I guess I will need to cover it. Can I use old silage sheet with car tyres? I think the old silage sheet has gone off to recycling!
Buy a new sheet
 

Fuzzy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
can someone tell me when i can spread muck? im in an nvz

Restrictions on spreading organic manures


You must not spread organic manures with a high readily available N content (where more than 30% of the total N content is readily available to the crop) in the following periods:



GrasslandTillage land
Sandy or shallow soils1 September to 31 December1 August to 31 December
All other soils15 October to 31 January1 October to 31 January
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
IMO, of which I am pretty convinced, without artificial fertiliser we will struggle to feed the world enough. With either prohibitively high fertiliser prices or restrictive amounts available, there is no way whatsoever we can produce enough for all to eat.

We sit here in the UK, thinking we are clever farmers, forgetting we are an absolutely minuscule drop in the ocean compared to North America, let alone the rest of the world. They all need fertiliser too!

Much as this all is going to keep the price of grain high, hopefully it will make the rest of the world (non farmers) realise just how important all farmers really are. Especially Governments, who know just how important keeping voters from being hungry really is!

Just maybe it will make them realise that they should value us higher rather than bringing in evermore restrictions, making life harder and harder for us to do what we do, to allow them to do what they do without having worry about how to provide their own food.

For too long they have hit us harder and harder while speaking when their bellies are full.
This in reality is exactly the cause of our present problems.
Just maybe the fertiliser situation will make them think. But it may take a year or two to happen.

For us, there may be a brighter future. But it will be because of the unavailability/high prices of fertilisers.
Maybe this is a situation where they should bring it on to learn their lesson!


……..Then there is the CO2/climate change situation……….
However, there are many other things we can do to ease that problem.
The one thing we absolutely cannot do if we want to feed the world is to restrict fertiliser usage by too much.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
the world is sleepwalking into a disaster, there is no good news anywhere. A global pandemic has basically screwed up the delivery system, the just in time, policy is well and truly fudged. And there is no way of knowing if/when another will hit. The news is taking summer holidays in the sun, as more important than how many people are dying in the '3rd world'. These countries are where new trade deals are being done, their trade with us, is food, cheap food.
The more the climate change zealots shout, the fossil fuel industry, holiday firms etc, the common theme, is intensive farming is the problem, more restrictions will be dumped on us. Great, carry on, all that will happen, is we will produce less, the less produced, will mean prices will rise. That will force people to spend more on food, which will mean less spent on taxable goods =less income for guv.
That reduction is about to happen, price of N alone will cause that, plus the relentless rise in imput costs, which will mean, more imports, from those countries on their knees, from covid, through the ports, that cant handle the volumes arriving, then of course, rising fuel prices, making transport more expensive etc.
But one big hurdle, isn't mentioned, the just in time, policy is finished, which will force all supply businesses to carry more stock, from ag suppliers, repair firms, service industries etc, who actually has the money to fund it ? No guv will let food supplies get to expensive, if they can avoid it, that means subsidies, on food, not on the environment, they can't do both, and they cant do without us.
All adding up to one massive great balls-up, on a global scale, without many/any solutions, and making world peace very very shaky.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
I eventually stopped buying FW because having read it, I found most of it depressed me and/or it made me feel inadequate.

I now find myself beyond even wanting to listen to Radio 4. Which sad old buggers over the age of 50 revert to when the music stations no longer sound appealing to wake up to. Or the evening television news.

Why is it that just about everything we hear on the news is all bad and mostly inaccurate?

Time and time again I’ve seen over exaggerated news cause massive price effects that turn out to be wrong and usually cost me money in lower than necessary crop sale prices and over inflated input costs.

I’m reasonably certain that better communication has probably prevented a lot of wars.
But have we gone too far now and is all this constant drip feeding of constant bad news going to cause a complete meltdown and backfire on us all?

What a crazy society we live in!
 

thorpe

Member
I eventually stopped buying FW because having read it, I found most of it depressed me and/or it made me feel inadequate.

I now find myself beyond even wanting to listen to Radio 4. Which sad old buggers over the age of 50 revert to when the music stations no longer sound appealing to wake up to. Or the evening television news.

Why is it that just about everything we hear on the news is all bad and mostly inaccurate?

Time and time again I’ve seen over exaggerated news cause massive price effects that turn out to be wrong and usually cost me money in lower than necessary crop sale prices and over inflated input costs.

I’m reasonably certain that better communication has probably prevented a lot of wars.
But have we gone too far now and is all this constant drip feeding of constant bad news going to cause a complete meltdown and backfire on us all?

What a crazy society we live in!
im 65 and glad i still luv my music thank goodness.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
I farm to feed my family and enhance my bank account.

Where does this strange moral imperative to "feed the world" come from?
organic can’t feed the world ,that is a fact, only a fool would think cutting output by 50% or more would still provide enough food to go around, and that’s before predicted population growth over the next few decades

Cropping can only go so far, organics are great in principal but will not feed the populations, Regen is not all or nothing it is a mix of what is needed to feed us.
There are just two forum members who thinks it's imperative that "we" need to feed the world.

I agree with you personally.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I farm to feed my family and enhance my bank account.

Where does this strange moral imperative to "feed the world" come from?
From Christianity.
We are supposed to use our talents for the good of others.
But I fully agree that when our willingness to serve is either ruthlessly exploited or pulled to pieces and criticised relentlessly then my attitude tends towards “stuff ‘em. I’ll look after myself.”
The thing is though, that’s what the fertiliser factory has done and look where it’s got us. Are we moving so far down the road of pure self interest that the system is falling apart.
A very good question.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I eventually stopped buying FW because having read it, I found most of it depressed me and/or it made me feel inadequate.

I now find myself beyond even wanting to listen to Radio 4. Which sad old buggers over the age of 50 revert to when the music stations no longer sound appealing to wake up to. Or the evening television news.

Why is it that just about everything we hear on the news is all bad and mostly inaccurate?

Time and time again I’ve seen over exaggerated news cause massive price effects that turn out to be wrong and usually cost me money in lower than necessary crop sale prices and over inflated input costs.

I’m reasonably certain that better communication has probably prevented a lot of wars.
But have we gone too far now and is all this constant drip feeding of constant bad news going to cause a complete meltdown and backfire on us all?

What a crazy society we live in!

Are you sure the News hasn’t always been like that and, as we enter our dotage, we get wise enough to see it more?

As an example, BSE was reported as going to kill us all in the 80’s. The News has always been about sensation to sell a story.
 

Restrictions on spreading organic manures


You must not spread organic manures with a high readily available N content (where more than 30% of the total N content is readily available to the crop) in the following periods:



GrasslandTillage land
Sandy or shallow soils1 September to 31 December1 August to 31 December
All other soils15 October to 31 January1 October to 31 January
So i cant spread till the end of jan, is there a rule on how long after spreading i have to plough it in?
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Are you sure the News hasn’t always been like that and, as we enter our dotage, we get wise enough to see it more?

As an example, BSE was reported as going to kill us all in the 80’s. The News has always been about sensation to sell a story.
wonder what happened to those idiots, that said tens of thousands would die from it, did they ever apologise, for wasting, probably billions of £'s ? More than likely, retired, on a fat civil service pension.
We live in a world dominated by short term sensational news, whether true, or not, nobody ever holds the people responsible, for the huge waste of money, their story causes. Weather forecasters, should be paid on accuracy, that might make them more accurate.
The newspapers, have a lot to answer for, over covid, they have created a sense, that it is under control, so booster jabs are no longer seen as 'important', but foreign holidays, are a human 'right'. But they no longer bother, with how it affects other countries, which has created a false image, when did they last mention the deaths, in India, they didn't suddenly stop. The 150K that have died in the UK, whilst very bad, is nothing compared to, what must be the millions that have died, elsewhere.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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

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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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