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: 6622 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: 6622 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: 345 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: 1122 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