UNITED KINGDOM- FARM CHAT.
THE last 18 months have been chaotic in the agricultural commodity markets, with wheat going through the £200/tonne barrier and store cattle prices doubling; and fertiliser has not escaped the yo-yo syndrome.
In the autumn, nitrogen was trading at £320 to £330 per tonne, with phosphate and potash at £550 to £600.
Faced with a serious collapse in the corn trade after the last harvest, many arable farmers took the minimalistic approach to fertiliser for their autumn sowings and very little was brought forward.
With the stand-off, merchants were left with expensive stocks and after months of inactivity the bubble to some extent has burst.
Now, 34.5 per cent nitrogen can be bought at £260-£265 per tonne, with some further discount for imported products.
Potash has come down to £530 to £540/tonne from a high of £570; and phosphate has almost collapsed from last autumn’s peak of £630 down to around today’s market price of £400 per tonne.
The effect is to make a 20:10:10 compound fertiliser worth in the region of £320 and 25:5:5 blend to be around £290.
Angus Langworthy, of Thompson Fertilisers, says that a lot of crops have been put under considerable stress through the bad wet winter and are desperate for a tonic.
His advice is to to buy your fertiliser as you need it now and don’t hold off any longer expecting the market to soften further, which it may.
At the end of the day £5 to £6 per acre spent on fertiliser now will be paid for by an extra 1 cut in yield at harvest.
Another reason for placing your orders is that transport is not as plentiful as it used to be and there could quickly be a backlog waiting for delivery.
Derwent dredgers
Most farmland in Ryedale is dependant to a larger or lesser extent upon the River Derwent taking its surface water and we have watched with despair its deterioration as the primary drainage channel for the area. To many, the neglect of the rivers including the Derwent has been a major contributory factor in the frequency of floods that we now have to suffer both in town and country.
Last week I had two contrasting experiences which I will relate to you.
On the one hand I received from Natural England and the Environment Agency notification that their consultation on restoring the River Derwent was coming to an end and would I like the draft papers?
I have written off for them but part of the initial bundle contained a leaflet explaining the thrust of their thinking which is entirely focused on a restoration of the Derwent for the benefit of its wildlife and fauna The only passing reference to the primary function of the river as a drainage channel was to condemn "historical over deepening" and certainly no mention of the need to drain farmland.
In stark contrast, I was with Ken Liversedge from Willberfoss whose land abuts the Derwent and in fact I sold him the land some 40 years ago.
At that time he measured the depth of the river at the bridge and it was 18ft-20ft deep.
Last summer a similar measurement was taken by a man who jumped into the water and it’s depth had dropped to 12ft. In the intervening period the Derwent has accumulated 6-8ft of silt which formerly carried water. Ken went on to tell me that in those days four local men were employed as dredgers and their stretch of water ran from Stamford Bridge up to Malton. They worked full-time on keeping the channel clear and if anyone rang over the weekend reporting a fallen tree that was their first job on Monday morning.
No country person would want to turn their backs on the wildlife and fauna but we do seem to have got our priorities out of balance.
Perhaps we should have a few more practical river men like the old dredgers and a few less consultants and men in white vans.
Bits and pieces
I have one silly tale for you this week concerning a husband who was woken in the early hours by a knock on the door. He went downstairs in not too good humour and opened the door to find a man a little merry after a night out.
"Please can you give me a push said the man", to which the husband replied rather shortly that it was one o’clock in the morning, he was in his pyjamas and advised the man to seek a taxi; and with that he returned to bed.
His wife had also woken and on finding out the problem she chastised her husband saying that they had been in a similar position one evening and their request for help had saved them.
With that the husband was again dispatched downstairs having dressed.
He opened the door and shouted into the blackness "Are you there?" ; and out of the shadows in the garden came the slurred reply: "Oh yes, I am still on the swing!"
Market report
Forward 97 cattle including 19 bulls and 24 OTMs and cows 2392 sheep including 13 lambs and 375 ewes.
Light steers to 144p C V Goodwill Middleton medium steers to 155p D Boyes Ellerburn ave 151.7p heavy steers to 175p Morley Bros Fylingdales ave 168.9p light heifers to 178p C R Quarton Hovingham ave 170.2p heavy heifers to 205p J & R Waind Brawby ave 165.2p light bulls to 165p Marwood Bros North Grimston heifer bulls to 169p T D Nichols Stape ave 147.2p cows to 120p J Lund and Son Kirkby Misperton ave 101.3p medium lambs to 202p Burtree Farms Thirsk 193.5p heavy lambs to 185p Burtree Farms Thirsk light hoggs to 157p P Robson Lockton ave 147.2p standard hoggets to 176p J R Mennell & Son West Heslerton ave 152.2p medium hoggets to 193p I & S Clough Stape ave 162.8p heavy hoggets to 177p R Aconley Cropton ave 156.3p overweight hoggets to 161p R Aconley Cropton ave 141.2p Ewes to £97 M T Bulmer Salton ave £59.20
