If you are a beef / sheep / chicken farmer, are you noticing a fall in demand?

[anotherotherone]

I was just travelling back down to London by train and there seem to be a lot less sheep and cows in the fields than normal. Am I imagining things?

There are so many meat / dairy alternatives in the shops now. AIBU to think (well, hope) that as people are eating less meat these days and this trend looks set to continue,
are farmers reacting by reducing their stocks?

@crackofdoom agriculture is being used as the scapegoat so transport companies don't have to lose money, I know you guys think it's funny to be rude and take the piss by insinuating that us "country bumpkins" are stupid but we most definitely are not, your the blinkered ones being led by a company who's owner owns a vegan company so he most definitely is biased when it's lining his pockets. Of course they have supplementary feed if they are pregnant as it's needed, or if grass is low during the winter months, but seeing as animal feed (as I've said earlier) is human food that doesn't make the grade it's just a bi product really that actually makes your food and fuel bills slightly cheaper as your not paying for the waste to be disposed of in landfill.

So...this supplementary feed...does it come from somewhere local to you? Elsewhere in the country? Abroad??

And the only one I see slinging insults around here is you, monsteres 🙄

Well seeing as we can grow sugar cane which molasses come from in this country what do you think?

We can grow sugar cane in this country?? Blimey, I had no idea! Whereabouts do they grow that, then??

East Anglia and East Midlands

seeing as animal feed (as I've said earlier) is human food that doesn't make the grade it's just a bi product really that actually makes your food and fuel bills slightly cheaper as your not paying for the waste to be disposed of in landfill

As someone who has spent time working in the food and animal feed industry I can say with absolute certainty that animal feed going into the agricultural industry is not made from human food that "didn't make the grade".

Anyone with experience of farming/agriculture less than twenty years out of date should be aware of the impact that first Salmonella and then BSE had on the legislation governing the ingredients permitted to be included in animal feed.

A small percentage of the wheat and cereal content may be crops that didn't make the specifications of the flour millers, but the vast bulk is varieties of feed wheat grown specifically to go into the feedmills.

@Monsteres

Well seeing as we can grow sugar cane which molasses come from in this country what do you think?

We grow sugar beet in the UK.

Once again, you show your complete non-knowledge of agriculture.

Have you ever heard of the East Anglian sugar cane industry, DoginaTent? I wonder if they've got a flourishing sideline in rum? 🤔

Whoops, X- posted.

Wow monsteres, you really are showing all us ignorant townies up, aren't you? 😆

Ok sorry I put sugar BEET and it changed it to cane, still means molasses are made in this country no need to be patronising again

@crackofdoom

Have you ever heard of the East Anglian sugar cane industry, DoginaTent? I wonder if they've got a flourishing sideline in rum? 🤔

I can recommend a tour of the British Sugar factory at Wissington. It's fascinating. They manage to sell absolutely everything, even the soil/stones that come in on the beet, they're making biofuel now, and they even use the CO2 from the exhausts to grow tomatoes or pharmaceutical cannabis (not sure which they're growing this year, you can tell by the smell from miles away!).

Actually, I've got a friend in Cambridge, so if I ever go that way I'll be sure to check it out. Have an interest in both tomatoes and cannabis 😆

I have heard criticism of biofuels in that they're taking up too much arable land that could be used for food- or are they making it from the waste?

And CAN you make rum from sugar beet??

Snow forecast this weekend. Sheep are inside lambing.

Cows are in the shed as they have been all winter. Ground is still boggy. Only cattle out are the Highlands.

We had beans that went for cattle feed as they didn't make the grade to go into human consumption? And I said that the phone had changed beet to cane. Don't think bullying is necessary really?

Hi OP. We are beef farmers on a small scale (approx 100 cows). They are currently inside as the grass hasn't started growing yet and if we were to turn them out too soon it wouldn't get established to keep them fed for the summer and to make enough haylage to feed them during the winter months when they come back into the barns and yards.

If there was no demand for meat then the cows and sheep would not be seen in fields. No one would rear them just for the sake of it as it is time consuming and expensive. Bull calves (males) are kept for beef. They have a rubber band put on the testicles when they are a couple of days old which cuts off the circulation. They are then reared here for nearly 3 years before they are taken to market. We keep the girls and have many generations going back.

Farmers do get bad press but only a small minority warrant it.

In this area the cows are under cover for calving and the sheep have been moved closer to the farm so they can keep an eye on lambing. They'll all be back out in the fields soon.

We buy meat direct from a local farm who are extremely serious about welfare, of the animals and the land. It makes a huge difference to the meat and it's important for us to know they were well cared for in life.

@crackofdoom

Actually, I've got a friend in Cambridge, so if I ever go that way I'll be sure to check it out. Have an interest in both tomatoes and cannabis 😆

I have heard criticism of biofuels in that they're taking up too much arable land that could be used for food- or are they making it from the waste?

It's difficult to know when the product ends and the waste begins with sugar beet. They literally sell or find a use for everything.

Growing any commercial crop displaces something. With biofuels it's a complicated equation to decide whether producing it or not producing it is the greater environmental benefit.

The definition of rum requires it to be made from sugarcane molasses, so you could make a spirit but it wouldn't be rum. I know there's a book of homebrew recipes around the house somewhere, and I'm sure it's got a sugar beet wine recipe in it - not one we've ever tried.

There is a vodka made in Essex from UK sugar beet, Seax.

@DogInATent

I'm not sure the vegans of the home counties are quite ready for the return of wolves, bears, and other predators that the UK ecosystem is missing to enable wild areas for animals just 'to be'.

Anyone that's taken an early morning rural train journey will be well aware of the growing deer population. It's becoming quite a problem for rewilding.

I do like venison though.

@Monsteres

Well seeing as we can grow sugar cane which molasses come from in this country what do you think?

Thats hilarious

Hopefully intentional

The local farm where I get my meat keeps the male calves and when they are old enough they are slaughtered for veal. No crates involved before anyone kicks off. It's delicious.

Also I get raw milk there. But I'm over 40 so it's all good.

In my opinion, it's actually really hard to be a healthy veggie/ vegan. Was veggie for a while ( admittedly without using vitamin supplements), and ended up in hospital with pneumonia. Ate ( high welfare) meat for a while and felt great, but the ethical concerns again became too much of a thing for me to ignore, so tried ( very well researched, with appropriate supplementation) veganism. Now, after a few months, standing here with shingles. Co-incidence? Maybe, but I reluctantly think I will become very unwell without an eating meat.

Not sure where the 'an' came from, sorry.

I've been a vegetarian for 33 years and I'm pretty damn healthy.