PW MEMBERS, ARE OUR FARMERS GREEDY ?? farm income against long hours/

[Scully]

I don't know of any farms around here which operate as in the post by Redditch; not that I'm saying it doesn't occur, just that it doesn't around here, so I can't really comment on that aspect. There aren't the huge prairie type arable farms around here.

The farms on which we shoot (sheep, beef and dairy) grow around similar size acreage of crops year after year, of barley, maize, fodder beet and tritikale as feed for their beasts and are doing very well. One farmer in our shoot was just telling us yesterday that he has bought another farm on the West coast and another farmer who has gone into supplying hardwood logs as a sideline has just bought a small farm with good solid outbuildings and around a 100 acres for £1.2 million. He intends to rent it out, keep it working for about 10 years and then sell it at a profit.

Good post by Savhmr above, I thought.

[Vince Green]

Anyone who wants to be a farmer gets my respect. Apart from having my own private shoot I can see no real appeal.

 

The farms in France are kept afloat by subsidies and the fact that local people buy fresh local produce not stuff from the supermarket with more airmiles than enough.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Vince Green

[scotslad]

Scully i can assure u NO farm in the UK is having 3-4 harvests a year of arable crops. Yes the harvest will be staggered due to crop type and when planted but still only 1 harvest, even warmer coutries only really get 1 harvest (OZ, USA) in theory near the equator 2 should be possible but think so hot/dry lucky to get any

Even the way the acreage has decreased seems very strange as has been little change in SFP/CAP rules for last few years as all gearing up fo the new scheme coming into force this year.

 

A very good post by Savhmr above,

How does the CAP allow such small farms to be profitable? Is it not the same europe wide? And why does all this foriegn cheap milk (or meat) not sold to France? (think a lot of milk comes from poland)

In general british folk are rubbish at supporting british farmers or british business's in general, which is a shame

Even in canada where distances for milk transport are massive 30-40 cows herds are still profitable

 

Ur only 20-30 years ago in my area a 80 cow dairy herd would be the norm and 120 was a big herd and were still a few 30-40 cow herds around althou not many, last 40 cow herd probably gave up 5 years ago (but they have a lot of sheep) now herds are on a different scale one is about 1400 milking cows but a lot are 2,3,400 cows, and a lot of dairy cows are inside 365 now,just doesnae seem right.

But even the way dairy cows look now doesnae seem right, nice to see the odd dairy farm that still runs proper old friesian lines instead of the more common holstien's, horrible looking cow

 

When i was a boy there were 2 local dairies that would take a lot of local milk and sell it round the doors, in thoose days milk would be 2-3 days old before u drank it. 1 dairy farmer told me milk is now 2 or even 3 WEEKS old by time it gets to supermarket and said if farmers where to go on strike for the christmas market would have to start pouring around the 10th Dec.

[triumphant59]

four years ago one of my permissions had THREE barley/wheat harvests, and managed to plant a fourth. The year after they managed TWO harvests, and planted a third, the last two years they have managed ONEbharvest and planted another. But this year they still haven't managed to start on the single harvest, so it's doubtful at the rate things are going that they will manage to plant another before winter sets in (harvests on that permission look to be another 6-8 weeks away)

The reasons they aren't making money are many.

ONE, the price of milk

TWO, the price of BEEF

THREE, the rain (never bloody stops)

FOUR the lack of sun, no heat in the ground, the crops won't grow and the fields won't dry

FIVE the meddling EU.

They WERE planting 226 acres of wheat and barley five years ago

Four years ago the EU reduced that to 186 acres

The next year was reduced to 154 acres

The next year was reduced to 137 acres,

The next year was reduced 110 acres

This year has been reduced to 89 acres

Add that to the fact they now have to have at least 3 different crops PLUS silage, and it means they are having to buy in grain for feed, and straw for bedding from the continent :(

Basically the EU is all about forcing the UK into reliance on French and German farmers and the EU in general for foodstuffs.

Put the squeeze on the UK farmers, and make it so they can't produce, while increasing the quotas for French and German farmers.

Same happened with our fishing fleets.

We have 70% of the EU's fishing waters, yet are allowed on 14% of the quotas in them, the rest go to Spain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and France

I've read some rubbish on here but this tops the lot, what planet is this guy on!!!

[Diceman]

This short video is worth watching if you want to know the way to make money out of farming. Some robust language though.

[keg]

CAP. Invented by the French for the French. We are walking into a massive problem.

[Savhmr]

CAP. Invented by the French for the French. We are walking into a massive problem.

 

We were frogmarched into a massive problem as far back as when Heath was in power, and with the full complicity of our own government of the time. Subsequent UK governments, especially Bliars reign, have actively sought for a united states of Europe type integration despite the warnings of history. Wasn't it Churchill who said let us support a United States of Europe, to help curb any future world war, but let us also not be part of one. The UK was a sovereign nation(s) with a healthy export trade to Commonwealth countries and to the USA, a strong military force to be reckoned with (in the 1970's anyway) but the Trade Agreement we had, we had to surrender in order to gain EU membership and the rest is history. Loss of fishing fleets, loss of farming, loss of industry, loss of sovereignty, loss of power, loss of border controls, loss of armed forces, loss of a nation's pride. The positives have not out-weighed the negatives imho. I don't begrudge France, Italy, Spain and Germany, the principal agricultural and fisheries beneficiaries of the deals made, and really do wish them well and hope that they thrive in future. We want thriving neighbours in Europe, to do business with, to share common technical, innovative, and industrial grounds with, and hopefully to remain in a common market. It increasingly looks though that the corruption, power struggles, incompetence, waste, and control is spiralling out of any one nation's ability to put the wrong's right, so we must pull put of the political union that we are being forced into bit by bit otherwise, it will destroy our economy and our heritage or what's left of it. We do more expiort trade outside of Europe today than we actually do with it anyway. (Only 34% of UK exports are with Europe).

Edited August 27, 2015 by Savhmr

[keg]

Don't disagree with anything you have written.