Who's joining me?

[steveR]

Haven't used any rat bait for years.
Owls and kestrels living next to the yard make it unsafe to do so.
Cat in yard, no vermin seen.

Same here.

 

[DrWazzock]

Haven't used any rat bait for years.
Owls and kestrels living next to the yard make it unsafe to do so.
Cat in yard, no vermin seen.

I am hoping to do without any bait from here on now that we are using central storage for grain. I don't like using bait, but it was almost impossible to keep the old stone buildings vermin free without it. The cat does a good job if he isn't overwhelmed and we have owls as well, so I don't like using bait.
I am also doing without any slug pellets or slug pelleter now we have gone back to ploughing for autumn drilling, and direct drilling/min till is done in the spring only.

 

[davidroberts30]

Thought that correct response to rat bait question and carcase disposal, was trapping and leave for the foxes?

Spot on with your summing up of RT and also a lot of similiar nonsense... It all needs a Full time Manager on board.

no ,they die underground

 

[farmerm]

At Ludlow they shout out if a pen is non-FA so weve gone to BC and Shrewsbury instead

So Ludlow, they shout out the non-FA pens, at Shrewsbury they shout out the FA pens and at another Shropshire market they shout nothing at all....

 

[steveR]

So Ludlow, they shout out the non-FA pens, at Shrewsbury they shout out the FA pens and at another Shropshire market they shout nothing at all....

TBH, I cannot recall my ever stopping to see fat lambs sold at Shrewsbury. Herself will go back and see "Her" lambs, or ewes and lambs be sold though...

 

[Pan mixer]

They don’t need to with arable. There’s already a £5/t penalty for non-FA cereals into the trade, if you can find a home.
On my little tonnage it’s cheaper to take that hit than endure the extra costs of being a member, but if I was to increase cereal output it would make financial sense to do it, but I’d still be grumbling of course.

When I buy non FA through a dealer there is only a pound a tonne discount.

 

[DrWazzock]

The other problem with RT is it digs absolutely everything up annually that at one time we might have had a chat with a government inspector once in every 20 years if ever. There was always a certain amount of pragmatism used even by government inspectors and none of them ever stopped us selling anything over matters that weren't connected with food safety. Now its a complete revisit and review of absolutely everything from health and safety to integrated pest management annually all at one sitting. It takes me two weeks now to prepare for it properly, not helped by the overlap and muddle in the RT manual. Annual review of a lot of this is complete overkill for a small business. I can see fertiliser records and spray records being important, along with grain store monitoring but the rest is just a bit of a farce really.
There really needs to be some kind of recognition that smaller businesses just don't have the resources or systems in place to cope with the administrative and management burden of all the extras that have been added. TBH, I am having just a cursory look at the IPM, soil management plan etc and ticking boxes and signing it off. Its not a process that needs paper. Its something I do everyday in my work on the farm. Why can't this be understood? I can see where its all come from though : the corporate world where everybody below management level is treated like they are a moron and need to be told how to wipe their own arse and fill a record in to make it appear like they have done it properly, (even if they haven't).
It occurs to me that certain things could be pruned right back for the sole traders or businesses with 5 or less self employed workers namely:

Health and Safety risk assessment could be very minimal, mainly telling visitors to report to the house before entering the yard, drivers stay in cabs unless otherwise arranged etc. But no we have start with the same process as somebody running a 1000 employee mega business.

Emergency Plan could be scrapped. We all know how to dial 999 and no point in putting the docs number on it as you will never get through. Also ask yourself if you will be busy rooting around for the emergency plan if your fertiliser store is ablaze. Get the hell out and dial 999. Common sense. If Mrs Smith finds me unconscious under a power line is she going to know where my emergency is and start reading it to work out what to do? Not a chance. Waste of time. dial 999.

IPM could be scrapped as its something we do in consultation with our agronomists on a weekly basis.

Soil management plan could be scrapped as we are doing it all the time and wouldn't have lasted this long without being careful.

Anway rant over as I plough on through it. Its bigger than ever this year. Most things seem to have multiplied from 1 to 4 pages.

 

[DrWazzock]

Trip into town next to buy some no smoking signs to tell myself not to smoke in the spray store. I don't even smoke anyway. What a waste of time and resources. More plastic, more carbon. I could cut waste if they let me.

 

[steveR]

The other problem with RT is it digs absolutely everything up annually that at one time we might have had a chat with a government inspector once in every 20 years if ever.....

...Anway rant over as I plough on through it. Its bigger than ever this year. Most things seem to have multiplied from 1 to 4 pages.

Possibly the appropriate response to this is the old phrase of, "Physician, heal thyself"...

Take your RT paperwork out into the field, and lay it in the bottom of a plough furrow.... and then bury it!

 

[sheep breeder]

Were testing here for BVD on the calves at birth with a tissue tag and results back with in 48 hours of posting by text, have being testing the 6/7 years for all herds and compulsory. When started first a lot suckler herds had Pi and couldn’t believe they had a problem. A lot of the time unseen in fertility.

 

[steveR]

Possibly the appropriate response to this is the old phrase of, "Physician, heal thyself"...

Take your RT paperwork out into the field, and lay it in the bottom of a plough furrow.... and then bury it!

Sometimes, the DD route, will Just Not Work!

 

[M-J-G]

I’m not with you? Is it some sort of religion to be in this scheme?

I nearly left last year over the health plan, I thought this year, I’ll get the 28 days to get the health plan signed, I’ve got the vet coming next week so was trying to get it done at the same time, but the rules have changed and I can see them changing again next year.

I just thought it coincidental that you start a thread as you failed your inspection, and not the week before.
Cancellation beforehand would have saved you and the inspector the bother of it all.

I don't know if its a religious thing, I'm not a member of RT or any religious group.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I just thought it coincidental that you start a thread as you failed your inspection, and not the week before.
Cancellation beforehand would have saved you and the inspector the bother of it all.

I don't know if its a religious thing, I'm not a member of RT or any religious group.

eh?i see it as it was 'the straw that broke the op's back' and the inspector got his usual fee that they get per inspection the more inspections the better for their earning power.

 

[S J H]

eh?i see it as it was 'the straw that broke the op's back' and the inspector got his usual fee that they get per inspection the more inspections the better for their earning power.

Yes, as you say it was just another thing to comply with after being stretched last time.

As I’ve said before I was due the inspection, they booked it weeks ago, but membership expires 3/22, but as I’ve failed it will expire in 28 days.

 

[S J H]

I just thought it coincidental that you start a thread as you failed your inspection, and not the week before.
Cancellation beforehand would have saved you and the inspector the bother of it all.

I don't know if its a religious thing, I'm not a member of RT or any religious group.

Well I wouldn’t have known that i was going to fail it on so many points a week before the inspection. I can’t really work out what you’re getting at.

 

[M-J-G]

eh?i see it as it was 'the straw that broke the op's back' and the inspector got his usual fee that they get per inspection the more inspections the better for their earning power.

I was meaning more the "who's joining me" part and making a fuss publically.

And I'm not defending RT, like I say I'm not a member, I just wonder if everything was rosey with the inspection if the OP would have quit the scheme and publicly asked other to join him.

 

[M-J-G]

Well I wouldn’t have known that i was going to fail it on so many points a week before the inspection. I can’t really work out what you’re getting at.

So it's failing that you have a problem with and not the principal?
Why should people join you just because you failed?

 

[S J H]

So it's failing that you have a problem with and not the principal?
Why should people join you just because you failed?

I don’t know if I’m being retarded, but I haven’t got a clue what your on about.

I failed because the standards have again changed and IMO they have no relevance to what the consumer wants.

 

[xmilkr]

IBR in cattle is currently a much bigger problem than BVD in cattle going on the last few weeks!

No point testing for BVD, by the time you test the PI will be long dead, better off just to vaccinate for it and be covered.

IBR maybe is the bigger problem at the moment but BVD can be wiped out in the uk within a couple of years, PI. s do not die early, like the one that ran 3 miles to break into my BVD free ped. dairyherd, unvaccinated, resulting in a loss of over 400 cattle, besides the loss of cattle a loss over £1m fighting the case, to keep my land i had to sell family home and farmstead to builders, my view of people who refuse to rid themselves of BVD is stop being an ass----le your putting your neighbours cattle at risk!!

 

[Happy]

IBR maybe is the bigger problem at the moment but BVD can be wiped out in the uk within a couple of years, PI. s do not die early, like the one that ran 3 miles to break into my BVD free ped. dairyherd, unvaccinated, resulting in a loss of over 400 cattle, besides the loss of cattle a loss over £1m fighting the case, to keep my land i had to sell family home and farmstead to builders, my view of people who refuse to rid themselves of BVD is stop being an ass----le your putting your neighbours cattle at risk!!

It could.
Happened to look at current PI locations in Scotland a few days ago.
There is currently only 5 farm holding numbers in just 3 parishes with PI’s on them for the whole country.

A lot easier to be rid of than johnes. Got our 16th annual test next week and despite being a closed herd culling everything and their offspring that’s ever tested positive currently only at R2 level having previously had spells of being R1