RED TRACTOR FARM ASSURANCE IS IT WORTH IT?

[@farmer6861]

We had a fish farm near us who is RSPCA farm assured which supply high-end shops and who got infiltrated by an Animal Rights Campaign Group who covertly filmed alleged cruelty to the stock that was truly shocking, including throwing live fish and kicking them on the ground. Harry’s Farm had strong views on the apparent shortcomings of the Red Tractor Scheme. Ultimately it’s the consumer who loses out every time.

[@FarmTheoryNI]

Well said! Loving farmers using social media to make a real difference!

[@davidparr2650]

It's true you do something once voluntary the you have to do it. Love the cow at the gate at 2:45 in the video looks like shes got steps painted on her.

[@matthewmackrill3026]

Well said on the red tractor stuff Richard, this needs to be addressed. Don’t get me started on vet costs for farm visits!

[@superdave3842]

Vets are necessary, red tractor a complete waist of money

[@alid8646]

they are making in mandatory now if your not red tractor assured to have a vet around yearly if you sell meat to slaughter. Another money making scheme.

[@ianhaggart1438]

The red tractor was an excellent idea to start with but.... I think if the just put country of origin in big bold letters on the products and keep some of the red tractor quality levels inspections it would be a lot cheaper to run... no point just creating more hoops to jump through just so it creates more jobs on the office tick box side for the Red Tractor... Think I'll do my best to buy British but some butchers are having a real struggle to compete with the supermarkets etc. When I need to shop for the edible stuff😮😊 I'll stop at a CoOp first even struggle to find a proper Royal mail post office sometimes😞. RICHARD you sir are doing a sterling job of promoting British farming along with alot of others on KZbin etc.. and I'm bloody glad.... wish I was in our farm full time but I feel it would be 60% computer time nowadays finding all that hoops to pay for and jump through yourself... Let's keep it local folks as much as reasonably practicable.. stay safe 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@byronlovesey1290]

Lidle and aldi were we shop have a lot of British products with the red tractor badge which we make a point of buying , great vid as use-well .

[@padraiggeaney3167]

Im not a british farmer richard i am an irish farmer i am very annoyed for all farmers who have to put up with this higher and higher cost for some guy in a office with not a pair of wellies to his name telling us you gotta do this now and you gotta do that enough is enough it makes my blood boil great video richard

[@andymercer8092]

Well said about Red Tractor. It certainly needs some work to fix the system

[@farmer6861]

The great British consumer will always buy Danish bacon and New Zealand lamb and tell you they only buy British - it’s a bit like those folk who pack their Lidl groceries into Waitrose bags for life!

[@DanielPurvis-q7m]

Hi Richard, we rear bucket calf’s and sell them on when they are about 18 months old so we didn’t sign up for red tractor because of pretty much the reasons you spoke about as in to many things to comply with and no financial gain to our business.we did consider joining but after looking into and speaking to our auctioneer he said it’s really not worth the effort so that sort of made up our mind. Like you I think it’s basically a good idea but just to many hoops to jump through.

[@nancysmith-baker1813]

Thankyou Farmer Richard for explaining and talking about this . I am a consumer and learned alot from you and other farmers . I am not a uk citizen i am usa .but what you say is correct . When i had a pet I used country veterinarian. They where less expensive . Not any more and theres a huge shortage in the states . Also theres a suicide rate .I dont know why . Everything has so changed . Hard to keep up . I dont have a pet tooo expensive . Cannt imagine a cow . Thankyou .

[@Andy-From-England]

Well done Richard 😊

[@autisticpainter4079]

Myself amd my wife will only buy food items that have the red tractor on, because we know that we're helping British and Irish farm by doing so. If we continue to buy stuff that has come overseas sadly we'll start seeing farms close down and only the big large scale farms around. We all need to do our bit to make sure small family run farms are still around in years to come.

[@TheCornishpoacher]

Well said Richard, I think an overlooked part of the green initiative is that is was giving away green data or environmental outcomes. Farmers have the land to do these environmental benefits but suddenly large business with lorry, electricity bills get to take the benefits. All while GIVEN FOR FREE by the NFU who sit on the board

[@kerrycooper-dean4243]

Red Tractor... We have similar here in Australia. A lot of paperwork and cost for stuff we do anyway! We want to provide the best quality milk and meat, so we naturally do all those things required. We want our equipment to work when we need it, we maintain it. We don’t need to be told. Leave us to farm.

[@paddy294]

Cracking video as always

[@KiwiJim13]

👀🙄🐾👍The little calf has grown into the world nicely she's a survivor As for the farm assurance it's off as something that's some what useful the morphs into a job creation scheme for the fetless

[@DavidJohnson-rj8zu]

This partly reminds me of the common market when farmers had fill in so many forms for the Common Market/EEC/EU thus becoming more like a Clerk than a farmer at the time I knew a farmer in Lincolnshire who had to get together with three other farmers to pay two people to fill in forms for all four farms as they didn't have the time to waste on form filling.

[@simonscott4887]

Well said Richard all farmers need to stick together on this red tractor is run by people who just don't have any idea about food production or what we have to do to produce food to put on their table 7 days a week 365 days a year so they can dream up ever more rules and regulations that we have to abide by while the supermarkets import crap from all around the world with no regulations.

[@damien3278]

Here in Ireland Richard we have board bia, you would be pulled on a cob web in the milking parlour, needless to say the spider is not a fan of it, if we're not quality assured with board bia our milk will not be collected, its another way of piling more paper work on to farmers to create well paid jobs for others, do we need more paper work, no we don't, do we need a better and more stable price for our product, yes we do.

[@kieranosullivan02]

yes. Also a calving gate is necessary on the farm even if you NEVER use it 🙄

[@spiercephotography]

Thank you for the information on the Red Tractor thing! I'm not sure we even have something like that here in the US. Hope there's a way way to get them to ease up a little on the new stuff- the people in the offices definitely have no idea what they're doing and tend to go off of "feeling" like they're doing something more than practicality. Ah, politics. Hopefully the push back will also really make a difference and make them realize what's going on. Even wonder if there's a way to invite some of the policy makesr to a farm, not necessarily you or someone you know, but for them or a representative to fully understand what they're doing? Really interested to see the Tesco video and what you find

[@nicholaspower4621]

I agree the red tractor campaign is very good. Over here in Ireland we have An Bord Bia Quality Assurance. They inspect your farm to ensure you adhere to a very high standard, If you do your beef in our case will get a bonus. I lost points last year as I had not pressure washed the slatted unit!!! It MUST be spotless!! Again this is a rule introduced by a person in an office! They have no idea of the cost of the pressure washer and the time this takes to do. AND all the cattle will do inside a minute of going back onto the slats is sh1te all over it again! I have let it known this is stupid!!

[@jamesbrown7794]

Your 100% right on what your saying please tell everyone what farmers got to put up with keep up the good work

[@markwright3161]

You need to store the milk within a certain temperature range in order for them to accept it. To do so you need to ensure you have the refrigerator unit and back up so it doesn't fall outside of that and then get rejected. As a result, it's within the farmer's interest to keep those units in operating order, just like it's in the interest of someone who drives to work to service their car as you mentioned. Their employer doesn't pay them for that time they weren't there if their car breaks down from a lack of servicing, same for the milk if the units break down and it goes out of the acceptable range. I assume the system monitoring the temperature can record how long it was out of that range for, or at least record if it went out and so they can easily reject any milk that was being stored there at that time, so there's no reason for them to know how frequently the refrigeration units are serviced.

[@RealMaGicXz]

i completely agree with you i work for a branch of mole valley and ive spoken to farmers who said about this and i just think as if the government hasnt screwed farmers enough already

[@peterobey491]

Agree with that you said about Red Tractor. Well done for getting the Land Rover sorted. It might be easier just to get some new seat cushions than messing about with seat covers.

[@jamescarmody1710]

The wheetabix over hear in Ireland have the red tractor on the box we all support each other

[@johnarnell4241]

Harry's Farm was scathing about it for cereal farmers, load more paperwork and non british cereal can be mixed with his.

[@mott2945]

What a brilliant channel and host I’ve really enjoyed listening to you Richard and watching your great content so thanks mate I’ve also subscribed ❤

[@thefunkyfarmer]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@lizmarriott3855]

Richard, as a customer, I’m pleased to have the assurance of the Red Tractor, however, I couldn’t agree with you more about how many restrictions and costs etc are being pushed onto our great British farmers. In other industries, there are unions to help fight issues for their members - what about farming? I’ve only heard of the NFU, so what are they doing to help? Or any other body that may be on the side of the farmers? Forgive me if I’m appearing naive.

[@stevepalmer8285]

Hi Richard..good old farm catch up.i. expect the cows will be in soon like you said.i appreciate your content.

[@ronaldlucas5360]

Nice video and keeping you cattle out. Silage will hopefully keep your production up.

[@michaelstaunton1632]

Best of luck with everything on the farm there now 👍👍👍

[@lynneshaw9209]

WELL SAID RICHARD IT'S ABOUT TIME SOME ONE STICK UP FOR THE RED TRACTOR ❤

[@brondahawkins4526]

Strange how this doesn't apply to overseas suppliers of foodstuffs including Wheat, Barley etc. Its bureaucracy gone crazy and jobs for the boys !

[@benneave-ck1ti]

Thought we left the EU because you didn’t want ‘bureaucracy’ ?

[@midgebentley5303]

Hi Richard I heard a few months ago they had brought food from Poland and repackaged the food into the Red Tractor bags so it should be scrapped for something different to suit Farmers. The NFU has got involved in the fight to help Farmers from Bonnie Scotland

[@Anderzander]

Have you seen that Red Tractor is owned by the NFU ?

[@richardedwards2269]

Farm assured .... Absolute bollocks... Should never have been allowed to get off the ground... Absolute waste of time and money... Another stick to beat us with

[@FarmersSss]

Red tractor is just a dictatorship now with no value or to British farming. I think people look for the British flag logo on food rather than red tractor. Farmers should get a premium for producing red tractor assured lamb beef and milk to offset the costs associated with having to comply with the rules, but unfortunately that will never happen.

[@ianduncan7189]

hi Richard...great job with the wee calf...out of small acorns....great oaks are born......i am sure she will be a future star of your channel...she seems to have a bit of personality....now the touchy subject....farm assurance..... as a small scale beef farmer...i came out of farm assurance for a number of reasons....there is still a market place for young stores in my area.....north east scotland...that are not farm assured.....so why pay the additional costs of farm assurance if people will still buy your young cattle....and there doesn't really seem to be much difference in price....cow numbers are dropping....hence if you want youngsters....nobody cares if they are not farm assured.... what is the difference in taste of farm assured sirloin....and non assured sirloin?.....none! bear in mind a lot of cattle from scotland go "down south"....to England...hence the additional burden of farm assurance (QMS in scotland) is frequently not recovered in the sale price....the so called "Scotch Premium" has long since disappeared..... QMS stands for Quality Meat Scotland....but as we all know....no farm assurance scheme...gives a hoot ( can't use the word i really want here!!!!!)....about beef eating quality... a point here about "REGULATORS".......any regulatory body....(i.e government, NGO, farm assurance scheme...etc)...only ever INCREASES the number of regulations that you have to adhere to.....when did you ever hear of a regulator (farm assurance)....decreasing or removing any task or requirement that you have to comply with?.....answer....never / none! the regulatory burdens of farm asusurance....as with other legislation will only ever...INCREASE....because that is what regulators do....when does a regulatory body ever say...i can't think of any more to add...as another hoop for the farmer / business to do....so our committee or parliament can have the rest of the year off....don't be daft....they want to interfere in everything!!!!!...its all about "control"! "Farm Assurance".....the initial concept was very good....a scheme to confirm that "basic" standards of husbandry and animal welfare were being applied.....and the product was being produced to basic industry standards....either beef, lamb, milk....but now unfortunatley...it has grown arms, legs and tentacles.....and totally lost sight of its initial concept..... this was really to be expected...as a regulatory body.... (all be it voluntary...or is it?......if your customer demands it).... in summary "farm assurance"....has got completely out of control.... i would be interested to hear others comments on this....do the public really care?.....probably not.

[@DavidJohnson-rj8zu]

That little Calf reminds me of my dad who used to call kittens that was born on the farm prematurely and never grew to the proper size "Dolly Cats" even though Grandma use to hand feed them using a finger off a good pair of kid gloves which was small enough to suckle by the kitten.

[@lesrose800]

Magical , name for the calf, 😊

[@rogerbond7811]

Heard the same from Ollie Blogs Harrison on grain he produces. Sound like someone full of book learning spends all their time dreaming up.some thing new for next year as you say these things are voluntary but become the minimum standard. Pleased about the calf perhaps it was born at the right time for it, nature does some wonderful things we don't understand.

[@BrunyeeSalers]

Most farmers, 95% adhere to all the standards all the time. To many rules set by non farming people that benefit no one - farmers have to pick up all the costs. There is no difference of price on finish beef/lambs for non Red Tractor Standards….. where is the value to farmers. There is not enough margin in the job to cover the costs. I already pay a lot to AHDB on all my finished livestock……. It’s about time the NFU became value to farmers

[@peterobey491]

He went to Tesco's to look for a Red Tractor, and was never seen again 😮................ Craic On 👍 or did he ?

[@thefunkyfarmer]

im still here🤣 watch tomorrow's video....

[@garyz2043]

The cows will know when they come in,more about their food as well. They Know well enough.: }

[@charlesyeo8252]

I am due a inspection in two weeks when the inspector sent his confirmation of the date he sent 38 documents with it for me to fill in.

[@fordman6042]

I think Red Tractor just dream up more hoops for us to jump through.

[@02playman]

The majority of British housewives will buy on price, not quality. The size of the Red Tractor logo on the majority of goods is so insignificant that it’s not worth having and, the biggest joke is that foreign goods can be imported and repacked in this country and qualify as British. It’s the British label that the housewife will know, not the red tractor. There’s a large bacon packing factory near us where they import all their pork from Denmark, inject it with water to supposedly improve the quality and then sell to the major supermarkets. No declaration as to percentage of water but it’s all sold by weight. What a joke. If a pub landlord did that, they’d be prosecuted. I wonder if the French farmers would put up with it?

[@charlesyeo8252]

I keep bees and produce honey at the last Bee Farmers Meeting I went too we had a talk on honey contamination, I was thinking pesticides but no the trading standards had tested honey on super market shelves and found every single honey had been bulked out on some form of glucose syrup. I presume super markets profits are more important then British farmers.

[@wordsandpicturesandsounds]

Farmers must be the most regulated people on Earth!! Needs to change, it's not fair or right!

[@gommechops]

The Red tractor thing should apply to all, including imports, or none. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for being out competed by outside manufacturers who almost certainly end up benefitting those desk jockeys (almost certainly eventually linked to Net Zero related 'initiatives' at some point down the line too) and organisations in some convoluted system of funding or grants or rewards.

[@tommurphy3544]

Why no diet feeder to increase milk production

[@swblandyman]

Richard, what engine do you have in the Landrover? I have just taken a good exhaust off mine as I have change the engine.

[@miless2111sutube]

I thought the point of the red tractor was to show consumers which products come from 1) UK farms and 2) well run UK farms with the highest standards of animal care. I am shocked that rubbish like "have you serviced your chiller this year" is part of that; if the farmer hasn't serviced the chiller and it breaks down they will not be able to sell the milk in the bulk tank so it is a bit of a self governing system which doesn't need a check mark on a form. Here's hoping that the tractor mark gets back to the basics of "are you a well run farm that does the best for the animals and environment as possible".

[@sweed58]

We have QMS here in scotland,I think it is people in offices justifying their jobs by dreaming up more new daft things to check every year,at the mart store cattle make the same price QMS or not

[@dwamc]

Let's call her Bodica. 😊

[@stuartdelamare4072]

I’d call that premature calf mini milk 😆👍🇬🇬

[@stu.smith79]

Great video mate this whole British logo / standard thing is a bit of a joke .as you say it implements rules and regulations in one hand but allows leeway’s on other things. another you tube channel i watch is a guy who does food reviews.some of his reviews cover this …produced in the uk using ingredients from around the globe.. so because its made in the uk it’s allowed to have this red tractor simple on and must have used at least one or two items in its ingredients from the uk 🇬🇧 … its all about make the rich richer and keeping the chains around the working person’s feet all the time. i wonder if the farmers went on strike like the NHS haw quickly things will change.. sorry rant over …. Crack on!!!

[@buff2497]

The other day at my second job I asked a group does anyone just buy red tractor products or just look for value for money. Majority of the group said it came down to cost.😢

[@royjacques5650]

Them vets costs is crazy ,it's sounds like going to the dentist here in Copenhagen my wife has had a quote for for four crowns and they want to charge her 3500.00 pounds in English money these people are just ripping us off, good luck with tesco looking forward to the video, roy copenhagen.

[@stuffthings3728]

Your right Richard. The red tractor is a good thing. But I don't understand the likes of the refrigerator units. Your a very well experienced dairy farmer. Im pretty sure you have the gumption to know if you have if you have faulty tools ffs. All i want to know is. Is the farmer experienced Are the cattle well cared for and in good health Is the milk collected and stored properly Does the farm have good SOPs. I don't want you spending money on stuff that is only done so you can have a peace of paper work. The dogs on the street know that uk/Ireland have the best standards of farming in the world.

[@russellpetrie119]

maybe this red tractor thing needs to be discussed with other farmer and see if there having the same issues start a pertition against it

[@sggibson62]

I always read the labels and don’t buy any meat or poultry produced outside the uk , nobody produces food to our standards .

[@martinoneill1644]

Farming regulations are gone to hell.

[@henryhatton1441]

Can I ask, is there a standard for killing the animals? Do you use stub guns or how do you kill them? Would appreciate the answer thanks a lot for your time and effort feeding people

[@richardstratton5253]

Red Tractor is not fit for purporse any more

[@Anderzander]

I’ve just had a look at the milk in my fridge - British Semi Skimmed … no sign of a Red Tractor …

[@tom4412]

Sorry love that was meant for the babies bottle xx

[@ianatkinson9227]

Just done a herd health plan for beef £350 me and wife had to do a course to inject animals £35 each £320 for the assurance so that is £740 plus a day lost in work doing all this 🤔🥵

[@stephenkelly2067]

Red tractor has become rediculous

[@eddyverbraeken2019]

it's just about how can i get the farmer to pay more and make less profit

[@robertmason3591]

One of the reasons farmer voted for brexit so there would be less red tape how wrong we are

[@russellpetrie119]

is that calf a limousine cross? name her survivor

[@trevorsidley7697]

Red Tractor - Over priced and abused Farmers Weekly March 2023 Aldi Polish Mushrooms had Red Tractor branding. Couldn't make it up.

[@s1mon1983]

"it should be up to you when you service your car"...... ...... "My car's at the garage as it's lost all its power due to a lack of maintenance on my part" 😂

[@thefunkyfarmer]

fair point🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@howarddustan]

😁😁😆😅🤣😂🙂

[@philc2457]

Yeah but your milks got the funk in it.. 👀

[@aala7337]

The hoops and added paper work is ridiculous! You certainly don’t get more for your crops etc!

[@irvenrathburn9421]

Hi Richard, the Government is always looking for a way to make money off the farmer.

[@Dore60]

👍

[@Kahuczech]

I dont think that many consumers understand the significance of the Red Tractor labelling ... Richard, I bet you, that if you stood outside the entrance to your local Tesco with a food item bearing the Red Tractor symbol, and asked customers what it represented, very few would know, and if thats the case why bother with it, the problem here is that you have to remember what a symbol stands for, where as, if you created a standard for agricultural best practice, and labelled products that adhered to that standard something like ... British Quality and Welfare Standards Assured Produce, you have one simple strapline, that dosent need any interpretation, and could create greater public awareness, Forget about symbols just spell it out in simple terms on the packaging, I know that some are going to say ... That's not very sexy ...

[@thefunkyfarmer]

i think you are 100% right there

[@greggroome2791]

🇮🇪🇮🇪👍👍🙏🙏

[@ebxo269]

DAISY.

[@christopherhinton6456]

they dont want farming in this country.

[@wyndhamhewlett8223]

Correct!!! World economic forum is now running us!!!

[@elwynphillips3327]

Listening to other farmers NO it’s not,they in force impossible unworkable rules,spend to much time doing paper work,which ties you up for hrs.For me I say get rid.

[@johnpick6829]

They won't be Richard trust me

[@andrewjardine3820]

The nome house wife DuPont no wot it meens I have asked Thay dint no wot it ment

[@piggyinthemiddle]

Thay dint no? Blody nomes...

[@superdave3842]

.?

[@dangermann7460]

Red tractor is a waste of time