Big Phil,John and Kevin ride out to save our sheep.

paddysdream

Anyone read the Journal article on the sheep industry this week?
Just after glancing through it and its hard to make out if its an Irish/IFA talking shop set up by the three above mentioned or an official body making recommedations to the EU.

Like the bit regarding flock numbers instead of individual numbers (assume for lambs only?) and their opposition to EID for factory lamb.
The bit regarding a new "environmental" payment sounds good but would that be like a lot of other ideas and sound better in describing than in actuality?

See MII the poor dears,are worried about imports.Would that just be imports from outside the EU or those from over the water and maybe even those from our fourth green field?
Would making all RDP measures available to all sheep farmers mean even those of us in the sunny SE be in line for ANC etc if we kept only sheep?
Thoughts please.Must have a better read through it over the weekend.

rangler1

paddysdream wrote: »

Anyone read the Journal article on the sheep industry this week?
Just after glancing through it and its hard to make out if its an Irish/IFA talking shop set up by the three above mentioned or an official body making recommedations to the EU.

Like the bit regarding flock numbers instead of individual numbers (assume for lambs only?) and their opposition to EID for factory lamb.
The bit regarding a new "environmental" payment sounds good but would that be like a lot of other ideas and sound better in describing than in actuality?

See MII the poor dears,are worried about imports.Would that just be imports from outside the EU or those from over the water and maybe even those from our fourth green field?
Would making all RDP measures available to all sheep farmers mean even those of us in the sunny SE be in line for ANC etc if we kept only sheep?
Thoughts please.Must have a better read through it over the weekend.

Big changes coming down the line for ANC, my ANC land that's capable of 4 ton/acre wheat is unlikely to be paid on after 2018

paddysdream

rangler1 wrote: »

Big changes coming down the line for ANC, my ANC land that's capable of 4 ton/acre wheat is unlikely to be paid on after 2018

No ANC land within 10 miles of me.
Think the money should be for those that genuinely are farming marginal land.The criteria was set in the mid to late 1980's from memory and things have changed a good bit since then.
Think it was brought in on a townland basis and tillage percentage plus farm size and fragmentation etc were among the criteria.

Siamsa Sessions

I read thru that article this morning. Some interesting points but overall it looks like pruning around the edges rather than addressing core issues like % return to the primary producer.

IFA seems to be moving further away from farmers too

rangler1

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I read thru that article this morning. Some interesting points but overall it looks like pruning around the edges rather than addressing core issues like % return to the primary producer.

IFA seems to be moving further away from farmers too

Any interference in price by the Government will meet the same death as the BEEF FORUM, harassing any lobby organisation about it is just wasting their time.
Market forces will determine the percentage or price paid to farmers, processors buy raw materials as cheap as they can, and there's nothing we can do there. This €10/ewe based on historical production is ideal in that,
1, it puts money directly into farmers pockets,
2,It won't encourage farmers to increse numbers'
and 3, the conditions are based on farmers doing what they should be doing already.
If they don't do like they did before and target the smaller producers, I will be looking forward to my €10/ewe, unfortunately my 150 ewe lambs won't be eligible

Farrell

rangler1 wrote: »

unfortunately my 150 ewe lambs won't be eligible

Has the criteria been drawn up yet?
Have a few culls about to which I was intended to let go later on & was keeping a nice batch of Ewe lambs as replacement.
No point cutting off your nose either

rangler1

Farrell wrote: »

Has the criteria been drawn up yet?
Have a few culls about to which I was intended to let go later on & was keeping a nice batch of Ewe lambs as replacement.
No point cutting off your nose either

It proposed to be based on 2014/2015 census, ewe lambs aren't included in the census whether you lamb them or not.
We'd lamb about 550 here but only about 400 are adult ewes.
It's unlikely to be based on this years census.....that'd be a sure way to create an oversupply.

From agriland
''The reference period for the maximum number of ewes eligible for payment will be based on the average of 2014 and 2015 ewes in the sheep census'

Farrell

rangler1 wrote: »

It proposed to be based on 2014/2015 census, ewe lambs aren't included in the census whether you lamb them or not.
We'd lamb about 550 here but only about 400 are adult ewes.
It's unlikely to be based on this years census.....that'd be a sure way to create an oversupply.

From agriland
''The reference period for the maximum number of ewes eligible for payment will be based on the average of 2014 and 2015 ewes in the sheep census'

Was thinking if I'd 80% ewes compared to my census then I'd only get 80% of my payment, but if I'd 120% ewes I'd only get 100%.

rangler1

Farrell wrote: »

Was thinking if I'd 80% ewes compared to my census then I'd only get 80% of my payment, but if I'd 120% ewes I'd only get 100%.

It's better that way, in practise it'll only be about €6/lamb based on average lamb crop, if the subsidy increased the supply it could reduce the lamb price by twice that much

paddysdream

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

I read thru that article this morning. Some interesting points but overall it looks like pruning around the edges rather than addressing core issues like % return to the primary producer.

IFA seems to be moving further away from farmers too

Not a lot the IFA can do regarding prices other than point out that they may not reflect the market at times.
All the IFA or other farm organisations can do is lobby the EU/Government/Dept. of Ag etc on farmers behalf.
Can't see how any farming union could influence price and /or market returns unless they decide to get into the processing industry themselves and lets be honest any involvement by farmers in beef/sheep processing was less than a resounding success in the past.
The reality is that "pruning around the edge's" is all that any farm organisation could hope to achieve and anyone promising anything more is being rather liberal with the facts.

paddysdream

Farrell wrote: »

Was thinking if I'd 80% ewes compared to my census then I'd only get 80% of my payment, but if I'd 120% ewes I'd only get 100%.

Think the maximum you get in"quota" is the average of the last 2 census but if you keep less than that for the coming year then its the lesser amount you are paid on.

FarmerDougal

What if you had only hoggets in 2016 or a new entrant in 2017??

paddysdream

Farrell wrote: »

Has the criteria been drawn up yet?
Have a few culls about to which I was intended to let go later on & was keeping a nice batch of Ewe lambs as replacement.
No point cutting off your nose either

The above is the reality of any headage based payment.People see the headline figure but forget to think about the actual return from it.
For example keeping 20 cull ewes that you intended to sell will give 200 euro extra ie the price of 2 lambs.Take the cost of keeping those for the winter plus maybe lose 1 or if they were intended for culling then perhaps they will either be unable to rear lambs or do a bad job on them.Cull ewes are culled for a reason and in my opinion an extra tenner would not be reason enough to keep them.
Anyone remember the ewe premium and the end of the retention period(March/April?) when all the hoggets kept for the sub arrived in the mart the following week plus the factories were overrun with cast ewes.Did wonders for the price!!!!!!

rangler1

FarmerDougal wrote: »

What if you had only hoggets in 2016 or a new entrant in 2017??

It's based on 2.5 million ewes dividing €25 million, the total money won't change so I'd be disapponted if they allow a free for all again, the last subsidy was supposed to be €10, think mine worked out at €3/ewe

FarmerDougal

rangler1 wrote: »

It's based on 2.5 million ewes dividing €25 million, the total money won't change so I'd be disapponted if they allow a free for all again, the last subsidy was supposed to be €10, think mine worked out at €3/ewe

Young farmer here getting into sheep..disappointed if this isn't available
Can see your point though..await further details

rangler1

FarmerDougal wrote: »

Young farmer here getting into sheep..disappointed if this isn't available
Can see your point though..await further details

He'll probably get it if he's a ''young trained farmer''. that's the buzz word now