Climate change anyone?

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Stubby said:

Some times they deliberately plant a crop ( stubble turnip for instance ) and graze it off with sheep before replanting a spring crop .

Yes, but thats not what Eggs is referring to is it? 

 

He's relating a story of a Farmer who planted a cash crop with the intention of selling to a Sugar Company and when the Sugar Company refuses to buy the crop he has no option but to plow the Crop back in and take a loss. 

[Deafhead]

19 hours ago, openspaceman said:

Not necessarily if they are a part of a large farming business, they will have a bigger proportion of subsidies, their accountants will make sure of that but as with any investment in capital equipment the rate of return on investment will favour a big capital spend that eliminates a unit of labour.

 

We saw this in my industry when harvesters came in, two men working long shifts displaced about 20 men doing motor manual harvesting with tractors and trailers. That they messed up the soil structure and the matrix of trees in thinnings was one of the unforeseen outcomes, life adapts to change but it gets harder as you get older. Being a grumpy old man I don't see the advantage of much of it.

Could this be to do with transport costs and population density? My father was born in Aberdeen but AFAIK he never went back to scotland after childhood till I threw him off big ben.

I remember old Robertson nearly in tears as his dairy herd went at Loampits, remember the palaver dragging his mobile milking parlour around the countryside.

[ESS]

Both beet and milk are produced on quota . Its not a question of the beet factory refusing to take the whole crop, however they are under no obligation to take any produce above the contracted tonnage from a farmer. Excess sugar beet ends up as fodder beet .

The same applies to milk, excess milk is usually fed to young stock. Milk from cows that have been given antibiotics etc has to be witheld, as does milk from newly calven cows , so at certain times of the year its quite possible that milk has to go to waste. but in both cases the costings would be based on the level of quota rather than the level produced.

[Stubby]

3 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Yes, but thats not what Eggs is referring to is it? 

 

 

No . Sorry . Hush my mouth .

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Deafhead said:

I remember old Robertson nearly in tears as his dairy herd went at Loampits, remember the palaver dragging his mobile milking parlour around the countryside.

That was milking on a shoestring, the farm was hanging on by the skin of his teeth by the time he sold up. Poor old gent but he was cantankerous.

[openspaceman]

22 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

if the Product the Dairies are selling is at a point below the breakeven, or even at the breakeven cost then profit has to come from another source surely?

In the context of what's been said about sugar beet and milk down the drain  this happens some years, and you cannot switch off milk from a high yielding cow, Same with throwing over quota fish overboard. Similarly you cannot expect a farmer to stop producing beet. This is why I said farming is volatile which is why support is used. Also think how taxation has an effect on a person who's income varies greatly from year to year. A sole trader is only allowed a limited amount of leeway  by the taxman if they have a bumper year but if they have a year when profit dips below the tax threshold?

 

Yes I am sure a lot of farms depend on subsidy.

[trigger_andy]

Just now, openspaceman said:

In the context of what's been said about sugar beet and milk down the drain  this happens some years, and you cannot switch off milk from a high yielding cow, Same with throwing over quota fish overboard. Similarly you cannot expect a farmer to stop producing beet. This is why I said farming is volatile which is why support is used. Also think how taxation has an effect on a person who's income varies greatly from year to year. A sole trader is only allowed a limited amount of leeway  by the taxman if they have a bumper year but if they have a year when profit dips below the tax threshold?

 

Yes I am sure a lot of farms depend on subsidy.

I understand what you're saying. But if milk is consistently sold at cost or just below cost without pouring any away on a good day then the profit has to come from somewhere else surely? 

[openspaceman]

10 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

I understand what you're saying. But if milk is consistently sold at cost or just below cost without pouring any away on a good day then the profit has to come from somewhere else surely? 

Yes the bloke either gets income from outside or goes bankrupt I suppose. Many big farms will dip into loss some years and make it up other years, their accountants will be able to carry money over without the taxman getting to it to tide them over, a small farmer won't be able to so could end up in supertax one year and none the other.

 

We can see even with subsidy it's not sustainable hence less dairy farming and imported milk.

[openspaceman]

What I should say is a lot of the problem stems from when the milk marketing board was  removed, farmer's set up a co-operative called milkmarque to combat the power of the supermarkets but it was ruled a cartel by either the EU or our own monopolies' rules, and that was a dreadful shame in my eyes.

[Haironyourchest]

Don't worry fellers, the Great Reset is going to finally sort out all these problems. No more meat, no more overproduction, and no more waste. And no more fish, by the sound of it. Just heard the EU has cut 2021 quotas to 25% of 2020 quotas die to overfishing. Don't know if the UK will follow suit but would expect...