Beef / Lamb & Pig Price Tracker

[Henarar]

1912 it rained all Summer. Wheat sheaves got washed away.

1914-18 prices were strong due to the War.

1920s prices collapsed. Breeding livestock just 25% of what they were worth. Many farmers went bankrupt.

End of the 1930s gradual improvement,due to run up to the second World War.

Rained all summer 2012 as well.
Hope the 2020's don't live up to form

 

[Devil's advocate]

What was it like pre war?
I don’t mean the gulf war either I mean the First World War

We had to re drill the turnips 3 times because of flea beetle.

You young uns would not be able to lift 16 stone sacks & I wonder why we did.

Sheep were really difficult without antibiotics or wormers, we used to fold the suffolk crosses with woodern hurdles.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

1912 it rained all Summer. Wheat sheaves got washed away.

1914-18 prices were strong due to the War.

1920s prices collapsed. Breeding livestock just 25% of what they were worth. Many farmers went bankrupt.

End of the 1930s gradual improvement,due to run up to the second World War.

I don’t realise you were that old

 

[Northeastfarmer]

You young uns would not be able to lift 16 stone sacks

I would if you were paying enough

 

[DB67]

Never sold a sheep for £200 ever and today wasn’t the day. 57kg mule hogg £199. On a cheerier note, a pen of (lucky) 13 blackie ewes at £129. Ones that didn’t do their job this lambing time.

 

[bendigeidfran]

Opposite here at Cirencester, poorest trade iv seen for a long time, no bidding from the buyers. I had £130 for very big string Suffolk crosses and £115 very fit big for mules, would have been £20 more 6 weeks ago. Grazing ewes where in the £80’s.

Took some small Lleyn ewes to Newcastle Emlyn today, made £144
About 60kg, £127 for a badgerface x Lleyn and £38 for a screw which i should have gone in the autumn but was embarassed to take her.

 

[Alias]

We had to re drill the turnips 3 times because of flea beetle.

You young uns would not be able to lift 16 stone sacks & I wonder why we did.

Sheep were really difficult without antibiotics or wormers, we used to fold the suffolk crosses with woodern hurdles.

Grandad said that when he left school, just before the first war, he worked on a farm where he had to carry 20 stone sacks. They couldn’t lift one, but could carry it from a cart to a platform. He wouldn’t have been so old, perhaps 15 or 16.

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Would you say margins are a lot better on your store lambs or is a lot of the gain being eaten up ?

Margins are better than last year, no doubt about that. But we’ve paid for all the winter keep and still used just over double the amount of finisher nuts to normal. The hoggs just ticked along on keep with it being that wet. They kept alive but wouldn’t flesh like they should. 3 weeks of hopper made the difference but it’s all extra expense.

 

[jendan]

We had to re drill the turnips 3 times because of flea beetle.

You young uns would not be able to lift 16 stone sacks & I wonder why we did.

Sheep were really difficult without antibiotics or wormers, we used to fold the suffolk crosses with woodern hurdles.

I think you have pinched that from John Cherringtons book, where he wrote about the older farm worker and the young apprentice who forgot to take the turnip seed to the field.

"we will drill anyway. First time never grows"

 

[Devil's advocate]

Grandad said that when he left school, just before the first war, he worked on a farm where he had to carry 20 stone sacks. They couldn’t lift one, but could carry it from a cart to a platform. He wouldn’t have been so old, perhaps 15 or 16.

Grandad left school in 1916 & was 12, mostly looking after the animals & grooming horses, polishing the draught horse tack.

In the late 1920's newly married & just took on the tenancy of a 65 acre farm but very short of money. A new road was been built & they wanted Men with a heavy horse & a ton cart to move material around. Grandad went with his horse he was full time but he was working with the unemployed on a gov work programme one week in three. Grandad said the men were in tears they had no gloves & had blistered hands, poor boots with foot issues & begging to work for just enougth to feed their famlies

 

[jendan]

Grandad said that when he left school, just before the first war, he worked on a farm where he had to carry 20 stone sacks. They couldn’t lift one, but could carry it from a cart to a platform. He wouldn’t have been so old, perhaps 15 or 16.

I can just remember some of our dairy cake coming in 140 lbs hessian sacks. They were bad enough for a 15 year old.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I think you have pinched that from John Cherringtons book, where he wrote about the older farm worker and the young apprentice who forgot to take the turnip seed to the field.

"we will drill anyway. First time never grows"

No I remember Grandad on his 50 th Wedding aniversery telling me stories about the past, 1979 I think.

We used to get fertiliser with aldrin in at the time, super swede stopped wireworm & most soil pests.

 

[Hilly]

I can just remember some of our dairy cake coming in 140 lbs hessian sacks. They were bad enough for a 15 year old.

I remeber 20ton sugar beet pulp in little bags …… was thin as a lat then

 

[Devil's advocate]

I remeber 20ton sugar beet pulp in little bags …… was thin as a lat then

Our Saturday lad in the 70's, got his HGV & went to work for local feedmill. He took 10 ton of beet pulp to a farm & they had him carry it up a ladder in 50 kg bags & put it on top of a half stack of hay.

 

[Alias]

I can just remember some of our dairy cake coming in 140 lbs hessian sacks. They were bad enough for a 15 year old.

Our dairy ration had allsorts in that you don't see now, things like locust beans which you could chew on, nice and sweet

 

[livestock 1]

I think you have pinched that from John Cherringtons book, where he wrote about the older farm worker and the young apprentice who forgot to take the turnip seed to the field.

"we will drill anyway. First time never grows"

I can remember Rowan Cherrington that’s going back some time now. It’s good you mention these names otherwise I would just forget. He used to deal in a big number of mule gimmer lambs not the biggest but a lot of them.
I remember him being asked to do a video promoting the mule breed saying how well they do for him, of course he did it with pleasure. On the video he referred to these sheep as being ‘little rabbits’ and I remember being at a nemsa meeting in the late 80’s early 90’s where some of the more prominent members watched this video in disgust that their sheep were described as such. We all watched the video then a big discussion broke out as to wether it was to be used or not. Not being the type of fella who liked being told what to do the video was used and the idea of a retake was scrapped. Some left the pub that night happy and some were chuntering

 

[livestock 1]

Father always ordered 2 artic loads of sugar beet nuts in November ready for the winter. It came in 50 kilo paper bags not stacked on pallets just on the wagon floor. When they changed to plastic he wasn’t happy because he couldn’t balance 2 on his shoulder easily and if he just carried one it was another trip back to the Landrover. Both loads carried off the back of the wagon into the shed

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Our dairy ration had allsorts in that you don't see now, things like locust beans which you could chew on, nice and sweet

I can just about remember Grandad mixing our own ration. Basis for everything was soaked beet pulp and he added all sorts of stuff from bags or the bulk bin accordingly. Feed shed always smelled great! At one point we had 20ltr buckets of some sort of fruit syrup for mixing in. Can remember dipping into that for a sugar hit

 

[livestock 1]

I can just about remember Grandad mixing our own ration. Basis for everything was soaked beet pulp and he added all sorts of stuff from bags or the bulk bin accordingly. Feed shed always smelled great! At one point we had 20ltr buckets of some sort of fruit syrup for mixing in. Can remember dipping into that for a sugar hit

I remember using fish meal I put it on top of the silage the cows had a shine on their skins likely off the oil in it

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Father always ordered 2 artic loads of sugar beet nuts in November ready for the winter. It came in 50 kilo paper bags not stacked on pallets just on the wagon floor. When they changed to plastic he wasn’t happy because he couldn’t balance 2 on his shoulder easily and if he just carried one it was another trip back to the Landrover. Both loads carried off the back of the wagon into the shed

We always had 20t as soon as the new season crop started. Then another 20t January ish. In those big paper sacks and always shreds. Grandad fed all those old broker hill ewes right through from tupping to lambing on nothing else. Finishing hoggs just got beet pulp, drop the paper sacks in the hay racks and cut a few holes in the sack. I can remember it being £60/t when I were a little nipper. And it had way more feed value to it then.