SELLING houses may have been difficult this last six months, but I still wouldn’t have swapped places with a fertiliser salesman trying to justify what their industry charged farmers last autumn for a product that mysteriously seems to have lost half its value.

The chairman of our one remaining British fertiliser manufacturer, Grow How, has been making strong efforts in public to salvage a bit of credibility and, to be fair, most pundits think that the current pricing of nitrogen, especially, will not be improved upon for the foreseeable future. The market is now holding steady at around £175 per tonne for Blue Bag N and a lot of farmers will be tempted to buy in at this price, to get some cover for next season’s crops. While this will fix one of the major inputs, the movement of the grain market itself will dictate profitability.

Recently, there has been quite a bit of turbulence, especially, with the futures on wheat, where in the first week of June, prices for November climbed as high as £134.50 per tonne.

As at last Monday, November delivery was being quoted at a little over £120 per tonne.

Much of the drop is can be explained by the improvement in the value of the pound and also recent rains have lifted prospects for harvest. We have seen more spring barley planted this year than for a decade or more and it will be interesting to watch the market find a level in order to absorb the increased quantities placed upon it.

It could be one of those seasons where opportunity knocks not too frequently and has to be grasped.

Dairy farmers left carrying the can

THE collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain has been disastrous for its 1,800 producers and they have now been told they will definitely not be paid for their May deliveries nor for their shares in the company.

Most of the farmer members have found alternative contracts for their milk, but with a 1,000 litre minimum daily pickup, plus over subscription, quite a few were receiving backword at the end of last week.

For the 400 or so farmers that have still not found an alternative buyer, they are being offered a rolling four-week contract with a guaranteed base of 10p per litre.

When one takes costs at 20p per litre there is only one possible end result.

What to me is incomprehensible is that the dairies and the people they supply, like Cadburys, are desperate for milk. The remedy of charging a few pennies more for their product does not seem to be part of their business plan and, as a consequence, another raft of small to medium sized dairy farmers will be put out of business.

I read one statistic which said that the retail share of the margin on milk had increased from 6p per litre to 16.5p per litre over the past decade – no wonder Tesco announced record profits.

British dairy production has, under Labour, fallen to a 40-year low at a time when consumption is increasing year by year.

New SP opportunity

Farmers who used land in 2008 to grow permanent fruit and vegetables, nursery crops and vines are now eligible to apply for Single Payment Entitlements. In order to do this you need to be registered with the RPA and they will send you an application form.

Anybody who hasn’t received the form should contact the RPA Customer Service Centre.

This is a one-off opportunity, not to be missed, and if you need help, contact your professional advisor.

Market report

Forward 112 cattle including 20 bulls and 15 cows 807 sheep including 194 ewes light steers to 170p G D Warters Flixton ave 164.2p heavy steers to 170p D Leeson Kirby Wold ave 159.4p light heifers to 192p G I Marwood Harome ave 160.4p heavy heifers to 208p M T Bulmer ave 166.3p heavy bulls to 170p R H Mason Wold Newton ave 156.3p cows to 130p A N Burgess Muston ave 101.2p light lambs to 175p M Peacock Moor Monkton ave 170.2p standard lambs to 178p H W Timm Airmyn ave 167.1p medium lambs to 186p H W Timm Airmyn ave 159.5p overweight lambs to 170p R Green Pickering ave 158.9p standard hoggets to 128p W Storey & Son Hunmanby ave 123.9p medium hoggets to 113p D Snowden Helmsley ave 90p heavy hoggets to 127p J Emmerson Hunmanby ave 121p overweight hoggets to 121p W Chambers Marton ave 111.3p ewes to £95 I D Watson Farmers Fadmoor ave £63.