Dairy Farming in the UK gradually being destroyed...

[Hillian1]

Indeed!

A quick google and most 1/2 pigs are around £130 to £150.

I think I may be in touch regarding this.

 

[Badger]

What really annoys me is that supermarket prices are not particularly low despite the economies of scale, especially for fresh food and fruit/veg in particular.

It's the fruit and veg in packets that annoys me. Yesterday I went into Sainsbury's and fancied buying myself some corn on the cob, all they had were packets with 2 large ones or 4 small ones, all I wanted was one and not have to pay for the needless packaging.

 

[CHAPPERS]

A quick google and most 1/2 pigs are around £130 to £150.

I think I may be in touch regarding this.

Indeed. I might be all over this.

 

[Kumquat]

Many of our dairy farmers have been driven out of business. The old adage " you never see a poor farmer" is simply not true. New regulations within dairy farming has rendered many dairy units useless and the farmer's unable to afford the upgrade. These regulations are plain stupid. There was one farmer near Sheffield Park that invested over 1million into a new parlour only for it not to be fit for the new regs come the time it was commissioned. Time spent with planning etc caused the delay. Result bankruptcy.

I farm sheep and pigs and believe me its hard to scrap a living. I attempt to sell directly to the public.

I guess all that farmers can do is target specific markets more aggressively i.e. the people who understand the quality and are happy to pay more. I don't know how you'd do that - via farmer's markets or online advertising, flyers in certain areas or something. But for milk alone that is difficult I guess.

The other thing I was thinking on the meat side which is highlighted by the question of whether it comes butchered or not, is that many people don't know how to use up a whole pig or half a pig i.e ge the most value out of it. I've always though that if you sold pigs butchered, you could provide some literature with tips to use on all the bits e.g use the bones and stuff for stock. I'm sure there are farmers that must do this and it would be interesting to know if it has worked in getting them business.

 

[The Large One]

They had a guy from Morrisons on BBC Breakfast this morning asking why the supermarkets don't take the hit when they reduce milk prices. He tried to worm his way out of answering but made himself sound like a complete tosser. I'd quite happily pay MORE for milk to be honest, if I knew my money was going to the farmers.

This. He was awful.

The problem for the farmers, I've been led to believe - indeed any suppliers to supermarkets - is that they can only supply them exclusively. If they sell one drop of their milk to anyone, even in their own farm shop, the supermarkets cancel their contracts.

One of the most appalling wastes of fresh food is down to the supermarkets. If potatoes or onions or apples or whatever don't conform to a certain size and weight, they reject them, and the farmers are not allowed to sell them on. The supermarkets claim that this is down to consumers' fussiness over shapes and sizes of produce. Personally, I think that's bollocks.

As long as a potato is fresh and shite-free, I don't care what shape it is. Esther Rantzen and her penis-shaped vegetable gags are a thing of the past.

 

[CheeseRolls]

Apologies for being difficult, but some of the richest laziest bastards on the planet are large scale UK farmers/landowners. Personally I don't mind paying slightly more for a quality product, but let's not bring back blanket subsidies for the wealthy. Further down the wealth list farming does have to change and farmers need to diversify so that they are not reliant on one product/one market, same as any other business really.

Also I have yet to see a single supermarket offering non-British milk on their shelves, so whilst many farmers may be struggling, we haven't reached a point where supply and demand are out of balance. When we do the first thing that will happen is that prices will rise.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

A quick google and most 1/2 pigs are around £130 to £150.

I think I may be in touch regarding this.

Please pm me, I have some already butchered frozen down as of last week. 5 pigs going in week next Monday (which means after butchering they will be ready that Thursday for delivery) and 4 going in two/three weeks later.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I guess all that farmers can do is target specific markets more aggressively i.e. the people who understand the quality and are happy to pay more. I don't know how you'd do that - via farmer's markets or online advertising, flyers in certain areas or something. But for milk alone that is difficult I guess.

The other thing I was thinking on the meat side which is highlighted by the question of whether it comes butchered or not, is that many people don't know how to use up a whole pig or half a pig i.e ge the most value out of it. I've always though that if you sold pigs butchered, you could provide some literature with tips to use on all the bits e.g use the bones and stuff for stock. I'm sure there are farmers that must do this and it would be interesting to know if it has worked in getting them business.

You are spot on. Once I'm fully operational on my small holding I will be producing around 200 pigs a year maybe more. I am developing a website and also with every sale expect to hand out a fact sheet covering the different cuts and ideas for recipes. Not sure it will increase sales but will give a better service, hopefully.

 

[Kumquat]

You are spot on. Once I'm fully operational on my small holding I will be producing around 200 pigs a year maybe more. I am developing a website and also with every sale expect to hand out a fact sheet covering the different cuts and ideas for recipes. Not sure it will increase sales but will give a better service, hopefully.

Nice one. I'm off to France soon, but will be back in time for the season start and will certainly be interested. I'll PM you then.

 

[sydney]

pigs mainly I attempt to sell quantity at a time ie 1/2 a pig for £ 100. My sheep are a new venture and I'm building up the flock so have no lambs for meat this year.

hey mate .......good for you , the likes of woolworths and asda are buying allour pubs and supermarkets over here and systematically pushing all the small independent purveyors out of the market .........i/we only use them for stuff like milk , bread, cheese, eggs...etc just try and get over the 25 dollar mark so we get the petrol voucher ........the "fresh" fruit and vegetables , cold cuts etc at supermarkets are f***ing gash, i bought two kilos of free range chicken portions from woolies at the weekend, used the petrol voucher at the garage over the road and binned the rest of the receipt,on getting home i opened the chicken to find it was off , despite being four days inside the use by date, i took it back but cos i didn't have the receipt.....no refund ,despite the fact the next nearest woolies is about 5 miles away .........f***ing cants.

 

[Hillian1]

Please pm me, I have some already butchered frozen down as of last week. 5 pigs going in week next Monday (which means after butchering they will be ready that Thursday for delivery) and 4 going in two/three weeks later.

Will do after I have spoken with "her that holds the purse strings" (and knows how much room there is in the freezer).

Could you let me know what cuts and how many you get please, I'm not comparing price on this, I would rather pay more for food that tastes good.

 

[BigGully]

You are spot on. Once I'm fully operational on my small holding I will be producing around 200 pigs a year maybe more. I am developing a website and also with every sale expect to hand out a fact sheet covering the different cuts and ideas for recipes. Not sure it will increase sales but will give a better service, hopefully.

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly do you end up with, with 1/2 a butchered pig ??

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

You are spot on. Once I'm fully operational on my small holding I will be producing around 200 pigs a year maybe more. I am developing a website and also with every sale expect to hand out a fact sheet covering the different cuts and ideas for recipes. Not sure it will increase sales but will give a better service, hopefully.

There was a piece in a paper last year about buying a pig from a farmer and paying a butcher to chop it all up into as many items as possible to extract maximum value. The overall cost was quite favourable I remember and you need not worry about buying any pig based products for some time. You need a big freezer though.

This sort of thing does appeal to me. I will be in touch after the summer.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Can you leave the eyes in ?

It's got to see me through the week.

 

[kingcole]

There is always someone moaning. Any of us who make and sell a product would like to get more money for it, but there are market forces at work.

It's all too easy for a poor looking farmer with his wellies, wife and kids to appear on breakfast news and say it just don't make any sense to be a dairy farmer any more.

Well, wake up and smell the bacon ladies and gentleman..... Unless said dairy farmer is a complete and utter tool, it does make financial sense, just not as much financial sense as he would prefer.....

I cannot believe there is an individual who will work and not make any money or make a loss. Those of us in business know there are better and worse times, and we continue though the bad times as we can see a way out. If there was not a way out, we would shut up shop.

So, I agree some dairy farmers probably can't make a living - no doubt as they didn't modernise or move with the times.

These dairy farmers will go to the wall which is the long run will mean less competition and those left can hike their prices.

If I was a dairy farmer, I would invest in the best machinery, sell all I could to the supermarkets, maybe at a loss, ensure all other dairy farmers went out of business and then charge the price I wanted to.

 

[sydney]

There is always someone moaning. Any of us who make and sell a product would like to get more money for it, but there are market forces at work.

It's all too easy for a poor looking farmer with his wellies, wife and kids to appear on breakfast news and say it just don't make any sense to be a dairy farmer any more.

Well, wake up and smell the bacon ladies and gentleman..... Unless said dairy farmer is a complete and utter tool, it does make financial sense, just not as much financial sense as he would prefer.....

I cannot believe there is an individual who will work and not make any money or make a loss. Those of us in business know there are better and worse times, and we continue though the bad times as we can see a way out. If there was not a way out, we would shut up shop.

So, I agree some dairy farmers probably can't make a living - no doubt as they didn't modernise or move with the times.

These dairy farmers will go to the wall which is the long run will mean less competition and those left can hike their prices.

If I was a dairy farmer, I would invest in the best machinery, sell all I could to the supermarkets, maybe at a loss, ensure all other dairy farmers went out of business and then charge the price I wanted to.

invest in the best equipment when the cost of milk is 30p a pint wholesale.......then try and pay your loan off when the price drops to 16p a pint.........clueless mate.

 

[BigGully]

There is always someone moaning. Any of us who make and sell a product would like to get more money for it, but there are market forces at work.

It's all too easy for a poor looking farmer with his wellies, wife and kids to appear on breakfast news and say it just don't make any sense to be a dairy farmer any more.

Well, wake up and smell the bacon ladies and gentleman..... Unless said dairy farmer is a complete and utter tool, it does make financial sense, just not as much financial sense as he would prefer.....

I cannot believe there is an individual who will work and not make any money or make a loss. Those of us in business know there are better and worse times, and we continue though the bad times as we can see a way out. If there was not a way out, we would shut up shop.

So, I agree some dairy farmers probably can't make a living - no doubt as they didn't modernise or move with the times.

These dairy farmers will go to the wall which is the long run will mean less competition and those left can hike their prices.

If I was a dairy farmer, I would invest in the best machinery, sell all I could to the supermarkets, maybe at a loss, ensure all other dairy farmers went out of business and then charge the price I wanted to.

Aaaaah very good, might just be a wee bit difficult to raise the £million needed to 'invest' in the aforementioned best machinery.

 

[kingcole]

Aaaaah very good, might just be a wee bit difficult to raise the £million needed to 'invest' in the aforementioned best machinery.

Agreed, but someone will and that person will win.

 

[sydney]

lets face it........we've basically rendered English culture defunct/surplus.......let's f*** the dairy farmers out of it as well as the fishermen and all the farmers in general.........cant beleive anyone would argue against this point to be honest...unless they are an obese, kfc snorting , urban dwelling , chavvy ,cant...

 

[The Large One]

There is always someone moaning. Any of us who make and sell a product would like to get more money for it, but there are market forces at work.

It's all too easy for a poor looking farmer with his wellies, wife and kids to appear on breakfast news and say it just don't make any sense to be a dairy farmer any more.

Well, wake up and smell the bacon ladies and gentleman..... Unless said dairy farmer is a complete and utter tool, it does make financial sense, just not as much financial sense as he would prefer.....

I cannot believe there is an individual who will work and not make any money or make a loss. Those of us in business know there are better and worse times, and we continue though the bad times as we can see a way out. If there was not a way out, we would shut up shop.

So, I agree some dairy farmers probably can't make a living - no doubt as they didn't modernise or move with the times.

These dairy farmers will go to the wall which is the long run will mean less competition and those left can hike their prices.

If I was a dairy farmer, I would invest in the best machinery, sell all I could to the supermarkets, maybe at a loss, ensure all other dairy farmers went out of business and then charge the price I wanted to.

I don't think you've been paying attention to what this story is about.