Who's joining me?

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
If there’s an issue with the whole scheme, speak to somebody above the inspector who literally was just doing their job. To be fair it sounds to me the ones with a massive problem with it are just the ones that are non compliant.
I haven’t had a non-compliance for many years but still think that with every year that passes, the more ridiculous the dairy red tractor rules become. They add ever more stuff to it that really is none of their business annually. It’s really getting too much, along with all the other regulations, that for a small business, which all but the very biggest farm estates are, it is just way over the top and I’ll be very happy indeed to say goodbye to it all very soon and pack the job in. This will be forced on me anyway by slurry storage and maximum application rules. Good on them to give me a deadline for chucking the job in, which is 2024 at the latest for slurry regulations which I have zero intention of investing hundred’s of thousands of Pounds to comply or to find a home for 1000 tons of slurry off my farm on someone else’s.

Let them eat cake, or tree bark, and drink pop as far as I’m concerned. They have drawn a line that I’m not even going to attempt to comply.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Neither have we ,but we passed this summer with no problem. It's always been acceptable to have disinfectant on farm for when/if it's needed. Haven't had an auditor here yet who hasn't got a bucket and a brush in the car and disinfects wellys and waterproof trousers before starting the audit
I have never had an inspector wash their boots by default, even had the inspector of the inspector with them.
 
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Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Neither have we ,but we passed this summer with no problem. It's always been acceptable to have disinfectant on farm for when/if it's needed. Haven't had an auditor here yet who hasn't got a bucket and a brush in the car and disinfects wellys and waterproof trousers before starting the audit
We have never been asked for a boot dip, we have disifectant on the farm in a couple of spot but no one has ever mentioned that and we might have the odd minor none conformance.
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
I have never had an inspector wash their boots, even had the inspector of the inspector with them.

Would you not ask them to anyway? Assuming you’re a livestock farm and they’re going into the sheds, it’s surely in your interests to maintain decent hygiene around the place when you don’t know where any farm visitor has been last.


well they jolly well should do ,thats a non conformance of best practice on their part im afraid.
and yours, if you don’t ask.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
Would you not ask them to anyway? Assuming you’re a livestock farm and they’re going into the sheds, it’s surely in your interests to maintain decent hygiene around the place when you don’t know where any farm visitor has been last.



and yours, if you don’t ask.
We normally do but none have done it by default, just edited to clarify.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
The thing is most of the inspectors have always been fine with us and I like to have everything laid out for them. Its just really does these last raft of beef changes make financial sense or benefit for what we do and I am not sure they do. Dad has already said to drop them, I am reluctant but if we cannot get the vet to sign all the new paperwork before they ring for the inspection I might just say take us off.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
🤦‍♂️

Lucky then as most farmers see the vet for a test at least 12months
Quite a few every 60 days🤦‍♂️
Not saying its not but that the thing across the UK we all have different cost bases, land, situations etc to deal as an example we have had NVZ for 20yrs.

My point is that for a small producer these extra bits all eat into the margin of what we sell and where so its now a serious question of do we do it or not, not because we cannot but does it make sense.
 

Mark C

Member
Location
Bedfordshire
We had our RT Beef and Crops inspection at the beginning of the month to the new standards. To be fair the chap doing it was pretty fair and by all accounts just as disillusioned with the new hoop jumping as the rest of us. The outside visit took less than 45 mins but the paperwork took another 3 1/2 hours!! 500 tick boxes to do both Beef and Lamb!! We had a couple of non conformances, the new heard health plan is crazy, thankfully we have a very switched on vet practice to assist. He told us some crazy stuffl like RT refusing to take the years worth of monthly health plans from a large beef unit becuause it wasn't a single annual document!
Annoyingly all the standard stuff they need to see once isn't transferred from the old system to the new.
I would love to give them 2 fingers but with crops and finished beef cattle sold DW our hands are tied.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
We had our RT Beef and Crops inspection at the beginning of the month to the new standards. To be fair the chap doing it was pretty fair and by all accounts just as disillusioned with the new hoop jumping as the rest of us. The outside visit took less than 45 mins but the paperwork took another 3 1/2 hours!! 500 tick boxes to do both Beef and Lamb!! We had a couple of non conformances, the new heard health plan is crazy, thankfully we have a very switched on vet practice to assist. He told us some crazy stuffl like RT refusing to take the years worth of monthly health plans from a large beef unit becuause it wasn't a single annual document!
Annoyingly all the standard stuff they need to see once isn't transferred from the old system to the new.
I would love to give them 2 fingers but with crops and finished beef cattle sold DW our hands are tied.
The stuff they ask for every year does my head in like PA1,2 and 4 etc, its like they never expire so stop asking for them. Slug pelleters is every 6 years, if we had it done last year its good this year, Nroso is 3 yrs so as long as you have paid stop asking.

The vet we use is the only large animal one at this practice and we have to call a secondary practice for TB testing and if he is away so I am not sure how many of these crazy health plan templates he will have seen.
 

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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