The Poultry Keeper

Dopey · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject: Are you a farmer?

Can i ask the question, how the heck do you guys make any money at all, when supermarkets are selling chickens for £5 for 2 and leg of lamb for £5 and growing strawberry's etc, and the supermarkets selling them for next to nothing?- seriously i want to know how you survive, you must be doing other things surly? if there selling lamb and chicken that cheap, how much are they buying it from you guys? i have heard you are selling chickens to them for 80p each?

debcat · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:23 am Post subject:

to answer your question it's impossible Twisted Evil

last year (august) live lambs were selling for around £12 each up here Evil or Very Mad

and they where the good ones
by the time you have fed them and drenched them you are on a major financial loss
I only have a few sheep and refuse to sell them for that,
I sold a few to family and friends and then bought a new freezer for the rest
we have eaten lamb all winter and still have some left, if the prices aren't any better this year I will do the same again.
I've already got 2 lambs booked from friends and they haven't been born yet Rolling Eyes

james419 · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:43 am Post subject:

Last year I paid 80 euros £61.50 approx for a butchered lamb 6 months old - from a neighbour did have to help - He sold 10 other for 95 euros on the hoof £73.00 at Easter he told me young lambs were making 120-150 euros £92 - £115 live - yet New Zealand lamb was on offer at £3.46/kg in the freezer and the french were still paying top euro for the fresh. Different attitudes to food - about time shoppers woke up or there will be no uk farmers and they will have to rely on the import of food.

Here they are proud of French produce -

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6740 Location: isle of lewis

we don't i'm out of sheep this year so are most other people i knew ,subsises are the main way a lot of people keep going ,they 2012 they are going
the moors are empting of sheep now Crying or Very sad

,i've now changed my hours to full time oh looks after the livestock
deb can i book 2 off the freezer for you
welfare just starts to drop really ,the 2 for 1 offer is covered by the farmer under contract so it's not the supermarket that takes the hit for that

debcat · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:14 am Post subject:

Dopey · Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 3:02 pm Post subject:

I did an advert last year (you might remember it?) Sainsburys with Jamie Oliver and the product was strawberries, the farmer had a new contract with them, he built a new road on the farm (for the artic to get to the warehouse) a big concrete yard for them to turn and reverse, brand new warehouse and equipment and all that goes with it, he had some caravans, that the pickers slept in (mainly poles and ceecks etc) just at a guess he must have spent close to 1m on it all, and I was thinking wait till you get a 2 for the price of 1, that’s the shame off it, you have to pay as a farmer for any discounts that the supermarket think up, its not costing them an extra penny, the brunt of the cost is down to the farmer, obviously its not fair, and the reason they get away with it is the farmer is committed, he with the advice ( and the terms understanding if he doesn’t make the change) he wont get this so called lucrative contract, so when he gets it, what options does he have? none at all!! He’s committed himself, to selling 1 product to 1 company so there god, he cant sell to anyone else even if he wanted to because of the contract, the crux of it is, you have put yourself in a very awkward place, your now mortgaged up to the hilt, and you risk losing everything you ever worked for, and then your profits are halved with the 2 for 1, that’s the way I see it anyway, so your right, if you think lamb is too low don’t sell it,

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6740 Location: isle of lewis

super markets are now also buying farms up as well ,they can pay thousands over the odds if they have to, which will mean that they have the total manoply on food ,
i always hear about farmers driving 4 by 4
well number one they need them ,we had 2 weeks with out a car ,my mother pionted out really we shouldn't need one ,ever try getting a bale of hay 2 bags of sheep crunch and a bag of coal on the bus Wink

bus drivers tend to object Wink

this is the situation with the crofters though don't know about other areas ,although i've heard jimmy from jimmys farm is shooting half of his pigs as he cannot afford to raise them ,again not sure if it's true Wink

but some good news the price of wheat seems to be dropping a bit now

JustChickens · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 604 Location: Sussex

The farm i work on ahd to find new ways to make money. They were origonally just a sheep, selling meat straight to super markets etc. Now they have set up a farm shop and all meat is sold either through the shop or to local resteraunts/pubs. They have also set up a small vineyard as another way to get a bit more money.

bronskibeat · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 1390 Location: Clawddnewydd

Yeah, the bit about 4x4's REALLY gets me annoyed. I think all us farmers and those who really need one should be exempt from the hike in road tax for 4x4's. If you live on a registered farm/smallholding then they are essential. Makes me soooooo angry at the attitude of some people (Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 for one Twisted Evil

)

Sorry, rant over Embarassed

crazywelshchuck · Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 69

Hi totally agree the 4x4 issue really buggs me as we live on a registered samll holding 800ft up just on the snowdonia mountain range they do not grit up here in winter and the weather can get pretty nasty so a 4x4 is needed to get anywhere, we purchase our first 4x4 as my baby daughter was born in sept and was not a well baby so my thought where if we cannot get out of the farm then an ambulance cannot get to us so at least with a 4x4 you have a fighting chance. How dare the government make us pay ridiculous road taxes when our uses are genuine.
Sorry folks end of my rant

bronskibeat · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 1390 Location: Clawddnewydd

we can probably see each other on a good clear day Wink

I'm at 900 feet but fortunately, they do grit here Very Happy

Even so, I still feel much safer in the landy than in a car when the roads are bad.

crazywelshchuck · Joined: 24 May 2008 Posts: 69

HI

I am sending you smoke signals can you see them ????
Were just outside Caernarfon where are you??
I love my landie too!!
You are so lucky that they grit by you, we don't know why we pay council tax either as no gritting and in bad weather we don't even get our bins emptied crazy eh!!
I supposed thats the problem living next to god!! so high up!!! Very Happy

bronskibeat · Joined: 09 Sep 2007 Posts: 1390 Location: Clawddnewydd

Your side of Ruthin Very Happy

You're really lucky to have both the Menai and Snowdon views, thought I had good views being high up the Clwyd valley!! Mr. Green

very envious Laughing

sasha.p · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 451 Location: gwent

I also agree with th 4x4 issue too i am a full time mum dh works full time but i have 2 kids 3 large dogs and have to regullary use the 4x4 for carrying feeds bedding etc it is an essential unlike most people who drive them just for posing i think our is the only one locally that is actually used for going off road and is usually caked in mud Laughing

its not fair we should be hit by the tax its bad enough trying to get by as it is i would never be able to manage in a car it just would not be possible i think anyone with a cph number should be entitled to some sort of discount unlike my neighbour who drives a top of the range range rover just for posing in who wouldnt even park on a curb let alone use it for going off road

manic nonie · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject:

You Know Your A Farmer When....
Getting up at 7am is a lie-in

You've run over your own cat in a tractor

When someone says they live on an estate you think of fields and woods rather than a barratts development

You tut at people in tesco buying danish bacon and french bread

You don't sit down to a single hot meal in august

You fall asleep with-in 3 minutes of sitting down in front of the t.v

Your sun tan ends just above the elbow in the summer

You've had a live lamb in your aga

You get more letters from DEFRA than you do from friends and family

You only take the kids to the seaside when it rains

You can't drive along a road anywhere in britain without studying everyone else's crop's and livestock

There is small heaps of grain outside the back door of the house every summer

Drilling does not mean putting holes through interior walls

Dress sense means cutting down on nitrogen applications

Your 4x4 acctually goes off road

You get frustrated by people calling straw "hay"

Your ideal holiday is to visit other peoples farms

Your hands look like they are made with the same material as your boots

Your bag on your hoover is full of grain from july to september

The faint (but agreeable) smell of disel never leaves you

You most valued possession is your pen knife

A lamb follows the children into the kitchen and no one thinks its unusal

You confidently walk arround the supermarket in wellies

Your lawn include hundreds of cattle hoof prints

You open a bale and discover an old mobile phone (or wallet)

Your alarm clock is set to farming today, even though you hate it now

You've got the RPA's number on speed dail in your phone

When you listen to radio 4's the archers and think how hoppy all the characters are

A good holiday is a week in the west coast in november

Track and field has nothing to do with athletics

You drive your new telehandler repeatedly past your neighbour's yard until someone appears

You feel naked without baler twine in your pocket

Being a farmer

you know your a farmer when.................... (also)

Your front carpet is muddier than your drive.

you have animals living in buildings more expensive than your house.

You can remeber fertiliser rate seeding rate herbicide rate and yields on a farm you leased 10 years ago but cannot recall your wifes birthday.

You need a *licence* before leaving the house.

Your dog rides in your truck more than your wife.

You fibbed to a mechanic about how often you greased a piece of machinery.

Your whole family falls instantly silent when the weather comes on the news.

You cant help picking up stones and throwing them to the edge of the field.

If you see a bit of string in a feild you pick it up and put it in your pocket.

You put a jacket on over your overalls to look smart.

You take an instant dislike to anyone wearing a suit walking into your farmyard.

You use baler twine as a dog lead.

You talk to every cow you see even if its not your own.

Your daughters dont bring new boyfreinds home for fear of dad asking them if they can drive a tractor.

You have a friendly rivalry with the farmer next door.

The thing is that farming is a way of life formost, and a passion, otherwise you'd never even think about it. Rolling Eyes