When wheat hit £180/ton my concentrat feed was costing £218/ton based on the argument that wheat price and cereal prices in general were the cause.  Wheat price now is reported at £80-90/ ton and yet concentrate is still at £200/ton?  Is there anyone else out there that feels like our industry is too quick to accept the prices being offered and charged by those arround us? What will it take for grainfarmers to stop selling to merchants and stock farmers to stop buying from them? Meanwhile we're told the oil price is moving back but don't expect your fertiliser bill to come down???!!!

concentrate price should be about £40 more than wheat.If you cant get your rep down to somewhere in that ball park,its time to make serious enquiries about home mixing.If you can feed meal it is very simple to get a mobile mill mixer to come and do some.If you have your own cereals on farm it will give you as good a feed as you can buy in from any feed merchant.

I agree with you but I don't seem to be alone in my quest for better value, concentrate will undoubtably drop back but will it drop as far as £125/ton? The latest story is that merchants bought forward and therefore their feed is still costing more, if thats the case did they not buy forward in 2007?  We do have our own cereals and we do home mix, but despite the obvious savings in haulage and handling i'm not convinced we are as efficient as a large feed mill in our purchasing and handling of raw materials, is the farmer (the customer) not entitled to make savings from their suppliers efficiencies afterall that is exactly what our customers (retailers and consumers) have been doing for the last 40 years?  We feed concentrate through the parlour and as yet we haven't found away to get around this. I have a surplus of cereals this year and can see these ending up with a merchant as too many farmers it seems would rather pay more to the middle man than the producer.  I spoke with farmers in europe who grew grain and sold it all to their compounders in exchange for a a better price for their compound the two prices were linked so low grain prices meant low feed prices and vice versa the merchant/millers margin would near enough remain the same as would the farmers.  This seemed like a win win situation for both enterprises.

m gott:

I agree with you but I don't seem to be alone in my quest for better value, concentrate will undoubtably drop back but will it drop as far as £125/ton? The latest story is that merchants bought forward and therefore their feed is still costing more, if thats the case did they not buy forward in 2007?  We do have our own cereals and we do home mix, but despite the obvious savings in haulage and handling i'm not convinced we are as efficient as a large feed mill in our purchasing and handling of raw materials, is the farmer (the customer) not entitled to make savings from their suppliers efficiencies afterall that is exactly what our customers (retailers and consumers) have been doing for the last 40 years?  We feed concentrate through the parlour and as yet we haven't found away to get around this. I have a surplus of cereals this year and can see these ending up with a merchant as too many farmers it seems would rather pay more to the middle man than the producer.  I spoke with farmers in europe who grew grain and sold it all to their compounders in exchange for a a better price for their compound the two prices were linked so low grain prices meant low feed prices and vice versa the merchant/millers margin would near enough remain the same as would the farmers.  This seemed like a win win situation for both enterprises.

You would think it a logical step to sell to your compounder,but they dont seem to want to reciprocate trade.Makes you wonder.Why cant you get the mobile mill mix in and make meal to feed in the parlour?Your cows will do so much better.If you have a TMR you can weigh and mix the ingredients yourself and then get the mill mix to mill and blow into your bin.Or you could buy a small tractor mounted hammer mill for a couple of thousand which will mill and blow into the bin.I dont know how much cake you use,but replacing it with homegrown cereals is probably the easiest way to reduce cost of production.Surely worth getting the millmix contractor to come and see your'set up and give you a quote.The quality of your home mix will make it worth more than most kinds of purchased cake.Try a batch and see.