The future of the tillage sector

All good points raised and I may agree and disagree with some.
It's an unfair advantage to me it's giving to competitors on the leasing market that was my point.

But there's one more thing I'll raise when it looks like there may be representatives of the tillage association reading here. Ye threatened to release nutrient pollution results from waste treatment plants that discharge to waterways, months back. There was an article on agriland. Every "environmentalist" had their backs up straight away. You were denounced by them as not helping the situation regarding nutrients in waterways. Every farmer in Ireland that read this must have been thinking "Fair play lads. Finally a bit of cohesion shown." Then ye went silent and there were no results published.

The request is if this wasn't all a bluff. Please publish the results.
 
mf4270 said:
All good points raised and I may agree and disagree with some.
It's an unfair advantage to me it's giving to competitors on the leasing market that was my point.

But there's one more thing I'll raise when it looks like there may be representatives of the tillage association reading here. Ye threatened to release nutrient pollution results from waste treatment plants that discharge to waterways, months back. There was an article on agriland. Every "environmentalist" had their backs up straight away. You were denounced by them as not helping the situation regarding nutrients in waterways. Every farmer in Ireland that read this must have been thinking "Fair play lads. Finally a bit of cohesion shown." Then ye went silent and there were no results published.

The request is if this wasn't all a bluff. Please publish the results.
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300 bales of straw is a lot, are your cow's straw bedded?
 
MasseyS said:
300 bales of straw is a lot, are your cow's straw bedded?
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Completely. Traditionally in the area the smaller operators still are. Had one such operator in the south of county who used to buy heifers from me. Sell up.. There's more going in the weekly sales. All this too and froing between big knobs at conferences. And it's the smaller guys on the ground are getting hammered. The costs are gone astronomical. The outsiders to the industry say that's life. But they actually lobby and get money for themselves.
McConalogue's , Hacketts, tenure has been the worst one for small dairy farmers in this country.
 
I had a conversation similar to the above here last week.
Bigger dairy farms and AD plants have skewed things massively up here.
Given the costs now, we were coming to the conclusion that factory farming was the current model.
For a multitude of reasons, personally that has no attraction to me, regardless of profit!
 
Ags11 said:
I had a conversation similar to the above here last week.
Bigger dairy farms and AD plants have skewed things massively up here.
Given the costs now, we were coming to the conclusion that factory farming was the current model.
For a multitude of reasons, personally that has no attraction to me, regardless of profit!
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Factory farming is what's coming down the line, it's what the government has geared it to be intentionally or not. If there are very profitable sectors in agri then thats what business people will invest in, you can't blame them, its the smart thing to do. It doesn't matter whether it's attractive to ordinary farmers we're old hat now, it only matters how much finance can be accessed by a large company to purchase land in order to swallow up the small old guys and push towards that 1000 acre goal initially but that's just business, lucrative factory farms will probably generate more income and pay more tax which is what the goverment really want. It's no different to the corner shop disappearing and Tesco taking over, nobody really misses the corner shop. Capitalism doesn't recognize sympathy or nostalgia
 
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Will_mck said:
Factory farming is what's coming down the line, it's what the government has geared it to be intentionally or not. If there are very profitable sectors in agri then thats what business people will invest in, you can't blame them, its the smart thing to do. It doesn't matter whether it's attractive to ordinary farmers we're old hat now, it only matters how much finance can be accessed by a large company to purchase land in order to swallow up the small old guys and push towards that 1000 acre goal initially but that's just business, lucrative factory farms will probably generate more income and pay more tax which is what the goverment really want. It's no different to the corner shop disappearing and Tesco taking over, nobody really misses the corner shop. Capitalism doesn't recognize sympathy or nostalgia
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They will also do more environmental damage!
 
Will_mck said:
Factory farming is what's coming down the line, it's what the government has geared it to be intentionally or not. If there are very profitable sectors in agri then thats what business people will invest in, you can't blame them, its the smart thing to do. It doesn't matter whether it's attractive to ordinary farmers we're old hat now, it only matters how much finance can be accessed by a large company to purchase land in order to swallow up the small old guys and push towards that 1000 acre goal initially but that's just business, lucrative factory farms will probably generate more income and pay more tax which is what the goverment really want. It's no different to the corner shop disappearing and Tesco taking over, nobody really misses the corner shop. Capitalism doesn't recognize sympathy or nostalgia
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Big is fine until d weather gets ya , I see 90 cow lads making a great living I dunno why you’d want more
 
Ozzy Scott said:
Environmental damage hasnt any correlation to farm size.
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I’d maybe disagree with that.
There’s a lot of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut going on around me.
Certainly not much care for the soil going on…
 
Magee said:
Great podcast đź‘Ť he should have a chat with grace o sullivan some day , he really knows his stuff , importing Ukrainian grain into Europe with no grain assurance makes a mockery of our rules
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He spoke at the Dairygold conference last year, touched on most of those points that day, very interesting to listen too and a lot of the rule makers could do with listening to the likes of him before setting an agenda
 
Crops said:
The latest Teagasc tillage podcast was worth a listen I thought.

Jim McCarthy is interviewed. He gives an interesting view on organic farming with figures to back it up.

podcasts.apple.com

The Tillage Edge: Jim McCarthy’s update from Romania on Apple Podcasts

Show The Tillage Edge, Ep Jim McCarthy’s update from Romania - 3 Apr 2024
podcasts.apple.com
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Its also on YouTube, a good listen.

Wouldn't agree with leaving 1% of farm for nature though given how much trees, streams etc most of us have.

Firm believer in lime.
 
Magee said:
Great podcast đź‘Ť he should have a chat with grace o sullivan some day , he really knows his stuff , importing Ukrainian grain into Europe with no grain assurance makes a mockery of our rules
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Well it will be interesting to see were all this ends up given the EU's plan to basically turn the clock back on the CAP in terms of standards and production subs etc. I guess some here will be pleased with a race to the bottom on such things but I wouldn't be counting on an ever expanding CAP budget to cushion industrial scale operators from inevitable price pressures, ever rising input costs etc. even if they stiff the small guy via gutting Pillar 2 funding which seems to be the strategy behind the Big Agri Business Lobbyists like Copa Cogeca.
 
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