www.grendonhousefarm.co.uk

Industrial Unit now available

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:32:06 +0000

Please see the newly added Industrial Unit page for current availability and what we can offer for short and long term industrial storage solutions.

The escalating cost of producing crops

Thu, 29 May 2008 09:52:55 +0100

Many people think that arable farmers are doing extremely well at the moment due to various media coverage making bold statements about the prices of our crops. I have read many things such as the price of beer has shot up because the price of barley has. The same for chips because potatoes have shot up in price. What the media fails to tell you though is that the farmers are not in control of the market prices. We are 'price takers' not 'price makers'.

Times are really tough at the moment and going to get worse. At this moment in time the price of a tonne of feed wheat is £130. Its costing us about £120/tonne to produce it leaving a very small profit margin of only 0.07%. You need to grow a lot of tonnes to make it worthwhile but in this countries climate we are restricted to producing about 3t/acre as an average, so £30/acre profit is not very exciting.

Fertiliser, chemical and fuel prices have escalated so much that many farmers are thinking about producing other crops and moving away from wheat, barley and oilseed rape. If this happens then less will be produced and the prices will rise further meaning things like bread, biscuits, beer and oils will cost far more money than they do today.

We believe the goverment needs to step in and take control otherwise things could get far worse. They will probably say that they could import anything that is in short supply which is correct. But what happens when the countries it comes from puts their prices up and we are no longer producing it in this country? I for one think our government is so short sighted they have not even thought of this scenario which will happen if something is not done.

The UK needs to be as self sufficient as possible in all things but especially food - without it we are in a mess.

Lee Sutton

The wettest harvest on record!

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:17:03 +0100

Its officially the wettest harvest we have had here at Grendon since the family first moved here some 60 years ago. The amount of rain we have now recorded since May is closing in on 20 inches - its never ending and the ground is sodden wet.

We have completed the Oil Seed Rape harvest while lots of other farmers cannot even get into their fields. This is testiment to two main things:

1. Our adopted crop establishment approach last year of Direct Drilling has kept the ground firm because we have not moved all the soil. We only cultivated where the seed was planted. Some people argue that this reduces yield butthis is un true. Our OSR has yielded in the region of 1.5t/acre which is normal - its not brilliant but its the same as what you get if all the ground was cultivated. Our farming partners T W Bailye have recorded record OSR yields though under a DD system. So far crop weighed in over a weigh bridge is yielding in the region of 2t/acre which for OSR is very good.

2. The second reason is our combine harvester is fitted with tracks rather than wheels, which means the weight of the machine is spread over a bigger area which reduces the possibility of sinking. Our chaser bin is also fitted with large flotation tyres which is allowing it to float over the ground as well.

The combination of Direct Drilling and a Tracked combine harvester looks like we may just get through is extremely wet harvest without to much hassle.

Grendon House Farm Updates Website

Wed, 09 May 2007 14:19:38 +0100

As business increases Grendon House Farm has found the need to update its website. Grendon House Farm will now be focusing on farming, the environment and carbon neutral housing so if you need information on these items please contact us.