The Economics of No-till

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
It's all very well us zealots bigging up no-till for whatever reason, saving the planet, flood prevention, healthy soils, cost saving or what else floats your boat, but if we're losing money then we're not going to encourage many 'conventional' farmers to give it a go. So Groundswell have teamed up with Procam (through Richard Harding) and Churchgates Land Family Business (ie Gary Markham) to create a benchmarking template to compare what no-tillers are achieving financially against Churchgates' existing client base.

Gary will be launching the project at the Procam autumn CA conference next Thursday in Baldock. Initially we are looking to create a group of 12 farmers to furnish Gary with selected details from their accounts, which he will pool together to give an average to use for benchmarking. The plan is that the group will meet quarterly on a members farm and share ideas and information with each other, so we'll get something back for our input...

The preliminary results that Gary has come up are quite surprising. It's going to be an interesting Conference, book your tickets now!
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
I know its a totally different environment so not at all relevant, but a large part of the widespread adoption of zero till here is purely economic. I doubt if we could afford to farm "conventionally" anymore, especially with our unreliable climate & extremes of hot & dry
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
We have a relatively familiar climate, and the economics of no/bare-minimum tillage vs plough/full cultivation are staggering when you compare systems instead of listing costs on a spreadsheet.

Perhaps because:
My own upbringing was quite refreshingly different - Dad was utilising all this "new technology" in the 1960s. He made his drill and cracked on.
I've always been cynical of recreational cultivation as a direct result of what I've seen work, and the work that goes into achieving a lesser result.
 

SimonD

Member
Location
Dorset
You need to capture both tangible and intangible benefits to get a full overview of the system. The problem being that intangible benefits can be hard to put a cost against.
 

Deutzdx3

Member
One advantage of no till is the reduction in passes per field which equates to a huge saving in fuel. Reduction in tractor Hp but no significant impact so far on yield, that's my take on it, I was very sceptical when a friend went zerotill. Now I'm sold. On a business platform it's a no brainier. Less outlay for the same return. His reasons for going no till we're soil health and he runs his farm
As a business and if it doesn't make money it doesn't exist. The average yield is 10t hectare for wheat this year which is good. General machinery costs for maintenance is down as there are a lot less pieces of machinery to maintain. He has started mole ploughing to help with drainage which has helped in many fields that were falling below average. In general it a good system. Not perfect but turning over loads of soil and leaching the goodness out of it can't be great either. If you think about it from a business perspective it just makes good business sense.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
£45.60?!

Makes Cereals look cheap...! ;)

As an aside....Hutchinsons conference I learnt recently is a ticket price of £75.....but farmers get in free! How many are really sold at £75?!
 

willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Rutland
Not alll it's cracked up to be, @Farmer Roy, stability in output is as important to British giving an economic reliability where as no till can do the opposite. I still no Till but not religiously and will now do what is necesary.

So never burn bridges and never say never
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Not alll it's cracked up to be, @Farmer Roy, stability in output is as important to British giving an economic reliability where as no till can do the opposite. I still no Till but not religiously and will now do what is necesary.

So never burn bridges and never say never


ha, funny you should say that. I know its different country / climate / environment etc, but the VERY reason zero till is almost the default broadacre farming system here is because it gives us that stability & reliability of production, in what can be a very unreliable climate.
Far from being a zealot or fundamentalist, I firmly believe in doing what works, combined with a hippy leftist desire to do " the least amount of harm " that I can . . .
I don't really like being constrained to labels or pigeon holes, I like the idea of having a range of "tools" at our disposal, which we can use when needed or appropriate. Its just that our best tool at the moment is zero till. I see this as a "fluid" thing & that we may further improve & move on from this, but at the moment its the best option

as for never say never, I'm sure ive written similar elsewhere on this forum :)
 

martian

DD Moderator
BASE UK Member
Location
N Herts
Where's the best place to park as the Arts centre car park looks to have capacity for half a dozen cars only?
Tesco car park is your best bet as there's a 2 hour limit in most of town. It's very rare to get one over Tesco, let's make the most of it...
 

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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