Looking forward to our first cut silage this week, I looked to see what the price of red diesel was 12 months ago – 66.85ppl.
It has since risen to potentially £1.18 ppl (indicative), although I won’t know the price for certain until it’s delivered.
We do all our own cutting, raking, chopping, trailers and buck-rake so we will quickly go through a standard 3,000 litre load which will now cost an extra £1,560 alongside spring tilling which soaks up the fuel as well.
“It’s fair to say that we are being pinched at both ends at the moment.”
NFU Dairy Board Chair Ian Harvey
Impact on farm is huge
Fertiliser is no different. We bought our first application last year and had a top in February. This will all be gone by the time the second cut comes round which will mean less grass if we go with slurry alone. The alternative is bearing the 50% hike in price.
All this comes at a time when our milk price will dip because of seasonality and of course the ravages of the drops in milk price seen since November last year. There certainly won’t be enough coming in to cover what’s going out in April.
Looking ahead
It’s too early to look at the long-term impacts, but the impact on farm right now as a result of what is happening in the Middle East is huge.
It’s fair to say that we are being pinched at both ends at the moment; cull cow and calf values are the only outlook that looks promising, but those numbers are finite.
