What does Red Tractor cost you in cash terms?

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
As per the title really. This started elsewhere, so @Chris F thought this was a thread in itself, so here we go.

Based on the statement from Jim Moseley in the NFU meeting on Red Tractor that the average fee per farm is £50, what are the direct costs to you as farmers?

RT levies
CMI/SAI etc fees
What do you pay AHDB in levies, since they help fund RT too.
Hours/year filling in the paperwork - please deduct what you would normally do for legislation requirements as some of the RT standards are just rubber stamping something you ought to be doing anyway e.g. noting where muck heaps are in fields, NVZ compliance, NSTS testing every few years.

This is NOT a ranting thread - there have been plenty enough of those 🙂 Try and stick to the real world costs please. Cheers.

Edited to correct my poor English spelling & grammar.
 
Last edited:

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
£252 CMi fee
Maybe £400 in levy.
£80 for sprayer mot.
Couple of hours doing the paperwork.

So roughly £4/ac. Although I expect to cut about £200 off that due to reduction in arable area / increase in grass and stewardship.

Is it onerous? No.

Would I jump ship to another provider who standards were analogous to those of imports? Absolutely. I find the lack of competition for these schemes annoying.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
£252 CMi fee
Maybe £400 in levy.
£80 for sprayer mot.
Couple of hours doing the paperwork.

So roughly £4/ac. Although I expect to cut about £200 off that due to reduction in arable area / increase in grass and stewardship.

Is it onerous? No.

Would I jump ship to another provider who standards were analogous to those of imports? Absolutely. I find the lack of competition for these schemes annoying.

£80 for sprayer, ours was 188 last year

Nroso is £30 x2 plus course annual course fees, so about £120 a year

So just the sprayer stuff is close to £2 an acre

I know its not the cereals scheme, but the ones that really get me are on the beef where i have to pay the vet to sign an empty form to say we haven't used any antibiotics which cost £100
 
Last edited:

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
£50? What planet is Mr Moseley on? £385 For ACCs and FABBLE here, excluding the additional costs of compliance and my time
Cost of not having our our small sprayer for those little jobs that don't justify calling in the contractor?


I put the AHDB levy on sheep at £100-150 and at 40p/tonne £150-250 on HGCA levies
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Difficult to say. I use a spray contractor to avoid a lot of sh!te, so how much cheaper could I do it myself ?
Fee £250
Trips to tip to dispose of chem drums ( to get the ticket ) ?
3-4 days paperwork ? How much do I value my time ?
Moisture meter check sachet £20

I'd guess £500 ish.
10 years @ £500 / per year = nice S/H hedgecutter.

It's the pettyness that gets me. I know I'll get disbanded this year cos I ain't disposed of chem containers. ( Tips closed, or have to book slots etc when not in lockdowns ). No leeway, no allowance for the pandemic, nothing.
 

Barleymow

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Ipswich
Difficult to say. I use a spray contractor to avoid a lot of sh!te, so how much cheaper could I do it myself ?
Fee £250
Trips to tip to dispose of chem drums ( to get the ticket ) ?
3-4 days paperwork ? How much do I value my time ?
Moisture meter check sachet £20

I'd guess £500 ish.
10 years @ £500 / per year = nice S/H hedgecutter.

It's the pettyness that gets me. I know I'll get disbanded this year cos I ain't disposed of chem containers. ( Tips closed, or have to book slots etc when not in lockdowns ). No leeway, no allowance for the pandemic, nothing.
I've not been to the tip pig red tractor audit was ok with that , cereals one is happy with bi annual visit
 

nelly55

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Fabbl for cattle,cereals and sugar beet,sprayer test,moisture meter test,hours on paper work.Nrso payment ,p,us whatever else I can’t remember.For what, do my cattle fetch more money that’s a big fat NO.The only benefit to me is I know my cattle go to a stun only slaughter house,because they insist on only farm assured cattle.Don’t get me going on labelling on meat.
 

Drillman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Sprayer test around £160

payment to be a member of RT, 300 acres beef and arable farm at what ever that cost is say £250

payment to vets for health plan £250

sundries £150

my time sorting paperwork and showing inspector round say 20hrs @ £25/hr (yeh I know Im cheap) £500

other stuff I’ve forgotten about £200

so all in around £1500 a year at a rough guess.

so Even if most of my figures are wrong the sprayer test alone costs over 3x what Mr Mosley suggests the overall cost will be so would appreciate it if he would pass on a break down of projected costs for analysis so I can see where I’m going wrong?
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
As per the title really. This started elsewhere @Chris F thought this was a thread in itself, so here it is.

Based on the statement from Jim Moseley in the NFU meeting on Red Tractor that the average fee per farm is £50.

What are the direct costs to you as farmers?

RT levies
CMI/SAI etc fees
What do you pay AHDB in levies, since they help fund RT too.
Hours/year filling in the paperwork - please deduct what you would normally do for legislation requirements as some of the RT standers are just rubber stamping something you ought to be doing anyway e.g. noting where muck heaps are in fields, NVZ compliance, NSTS testing every few years.

This is NOT a ranting thread - there have been plenty enough of those 🙂 Try and stick to the real world costs please. Cheers.
We have only 195 acres of mixed farming and we pay NSF £369 plus VAT. That’s before you start adding on the “above legal” tests and inspections and training requirements which I’d say quite easily brings us up to a total cost of about £1000 per annum or £5 per acre incurred by scheme membership requirements. It does depend on how you value your time as well but I’ve put in £8 an hour. If I’m sitting in NRoSO training I’m not jetting drains or refurbishing the combine and I can’t afford to delegate to a mechanic or contractor at £25 per hour, so it maybe doesn’t even get done.
Not sure how Mr Mosley arrives at £50. Seems very low. Maybe he only considers the royalty fee paid to RT not the compulsory inspection fees you have to pay to qualify for scheme membership, in which case I’d say he’s stretching it a bit.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
Sprayer test around £160

payment to be a member of RT, 300 acres beef and arable farm at what ever that cost is say £250

payment to vets for health plan £250

sundries £150

my time sorting paperwork and showing inspector round say 20hrs @ £25/hr (yeh I know Im cheap) £500

other stuff I’ve forgotten about £200

so all in around £1500 a year at a rough guess.

so Even if most of my figures are wrong the sprayer test alone costs over 3x what Mr Mosley suggests the overall cost will be so would appreciate it if he would pass on a break down of projected costs for analysis so I can see where I’m going wrong?
So about the £5/t for me that I might get knocked if I sell as unassured.
I'll carry on as I am.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Is NRoSO really all a RT cost? I’m sure someone will set me straight but this wasn’t originally an assurance cost but part of the Voluntary Initiative? RT police it.
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
RT fee for cattle and sheep. Fixed rate per whichever acreage band the holding comes into.

Other costs:

~ Most of the Vet health scheme would be subscribed to in any case, because it offers some good services and feedback. However, the whole fee needs to be included. because it's compulsory under RT.

~ Time to collate information for inspection. The farm's software makes that reasonably easy as everything is entered on completion, but it does need an extra check through and printing off. Any extra RT requirements that need drawing up on their templates obviously takes more time to set them up. Nothing extra was needed for the most recent Inspection. A percentage of fees for the software and for sundries needs to be included.

~ Time taken for the Inspection itself. A winter inspection is shorter in duration than a summer one, but that's still more than one unit of farm management charged with that workload over that amount of time.

~ The next Inspection is likely to be carried out remotely. Cost of data for the PAYG phone so that can happen won't be much, but every little adds up.

~ percentage of mandatory AHDB levy/animal that we find goes to RT. In effect the double charge. What's the formula to work that out, please?

Benefits: Debatable. There is no uplift in price/kg for being RT. We're PGI, which insisted on RT membership. That does show a benefit [edit: in terms of who will buy our lamb, but there is no premium/kg that comes from that, either], but we can show the necessary compliance for PGI without RT.
 
Last edited:

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
Farm EX yearly mem £365
RT Membership £375 inc royalty fee of £27.55
NRSO membership £20
Sprayer test £287
Spreader test £212
Pest control £970
NRSO course day £55
Moisture meter test £25
Plastic/spray can disposal £160

So £2469 excluding time spent filling forms, risk assessments etc etc etc What price you put on that I dont know.
Stress, how do you value that?
All for what????
The above were figures from last year for a 550ac all arable
 

Is the NEC a better venue for LAMMA?

  • Yes

  • No


Results are only viewable after voting.

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

  • 1,025
  • 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/
Top