Tim Gue

@TheFarmingForum You have to ask why? Defra under resourced as it is , why waste time on this?

Oh splendid ! Another rural masterstroke from people who think “the countryside” is a theme on a calendar. Labour, in its infinite wisdom, is cracking down on game shooting in places like North Yorkshire, blissfully ignoring the small detail that half the local economy pubs, hotels, keepers, beaters, the lot actually depends on it. Still, why let reality get in the way? Tighten the screw until it all collapses. Genius, really. @Nigel_Farage @TiceRichard @BASCcentra

Frustrating ignorance from @DefraGovUK in its land use strategy. Game shooting is not a primary land use like golf courses. Shooting happens on agricultural land, not instead farming. This sort of basic error does not inspire confidence gov.uk/government/pub…

We now have a target for steel production with tariffs on imports - action on ‘steel security’. Yet food production & food security remain off the table & in continuing decline. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

As players, we have all lost many games. It’s about how you bounce back. Hard conversations will have been had. Time to go out to fight hard, with & for each other. Total resilience. Huge congrats to Marcus Smith on his 50th Test Cap. Amazing for one so young & way more to come.

Welsh expert panel has produced a state of play report on how TB control is going. Of course such a panel will always use measured language, but even so it is extraordinarily critical of the Welsh Government. gov.wales/sites/default/…

Biochar is a solution looking for a problem.

20p a litre difference for diesel between garages in Berwick , one queuing one empty, well done Morrison’s

Farmer here. We don’t wear a mask around glyophosate. The EPA approved label for the product doesn’t specify a respirator. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) in most shampoos is four times as toxic as glyphosate according to the EPA. Please don’t hop on the glyphosate fear mongering bandwagon.

"Just grow crops on that land instead of raising cattle." Right. Yes. Absolutely. Have you been outside? Not outside in a city. Outside outside. Countryside outside. Have you looked at what 65% of Britain's agricultural land actually looks like? It looks like the side of a mountain in Snowdonia with soil the depth of a paperback novel and an annual rainfall that would make a rainforest feel overdressed. It looks like the Scottish Borders at 400 metres elevation, where the wind comes in horizontal for nine months of the year and the frost doesn't fully leave until June. It looks like the Devon coastline on 40-degree slopes where no tractor has ever successfully operated without becoming a story people tell in the village pub for generations. It looks like the Brecon Beacons, where the peat bog comes to meet the acidic grassland and the nearest thing to an arable field is someone's daydream. These are not fields that have been selfishly hoarded by farmers for cows while perfectly good crop-growing sits unused. These are fields where the cattle ARE the only possible food production. Where the grass grows because it evolved to grow there, and the cow eats it because it evolved to eat grass. Plant quinoa in mid-Wales and it will stand briefly in the wind, look confused, and die. Plant wheat on a Cumbrian fell and the sheep will watch it fail with the quiet satisfaction of animals that know how this works. The people saying "just grow crops instead" have confused a topographic map with a menu. The land does not offer what the spreadsheet requires. The cow is not blocking a better option. The cow IS the option. It is, in fact, the ONLY option. Go outside. Have a look. Bring a coat.

@rko2milk Can I ask this figure per cow in milk or per cow in herd?

Table I lists the six major dairy producing states in order of highest to lowest in “milk per Cow.”  Michigan exceeds all other states significantly and has maintained this position in the past.  Michigan is 5% higher than the next highest state.  Texas through Idaho are above the U.S. average.  California, the largest milk producing state is below the average. milkpay.com/resource/more-…

@agronomistag Animal manures on arable and livestock crops saves artificial ferts, increases soil organic matter, builds resilience into arable cropping systems. Grass in arable rotations also increases soil organic matter, and provides breaks in arable rotations, best of both worlds.

@TimGue1 Well, I'd like to agree with that, but livestock-only systems have an advantage for environmental outcomes. The downside is they only produce meat.

Important nuance on regenerative agriculture: livestock-only systems can meet far more regen‑ag goals than crop-producing operations. We should treat them as distinct when evaluating outcomes.

Lucky for you glyphosate isn't a poision.

@AnnaLongthorp @angelaeagle @EmmaforWycombe Average staff member much higher than £30,000, most have a free house.

1990 wheat was ~£110/tonne Ave tractor cost ~£30k Ave farm worker salary £8k +SUBSIDY TODAY wheat is £162/tonne Ave tractor cost ~ £125k Ave farm worker salary £30k NO SUBSIDY Doesn’t take a genius to work out farming, producing food is NON VIABLE @angelaeagle @EmmaforWycombe

@southbranchag @SamaHoole And if they did, who chooses which people starve?

@SamaHoole Say you get your wish and glyphosate is banned. A different chemical, likely more toxic or ecologically harmful will be used in its place. Paraquat, DiCamba, 2-4D, Atrazine the list goes on. Glyphosate doesn’t exist in a vacuum folks. And farmers can’t all go organic overnight

THE GLYPHOSATE TIMELINE 1964 - Compound synthesised as industrial pipe descaler 1974 - Patented as herbicide by Monsanto, sold as Roundup 1976 - EPA classifies it as relatively safe, based largely on Monsanto data 1987 - EPA quietly upgrades concern level, then downgrades it again 1994 - GMO glyphosate-resistant crops approved; usage explodes 15-fold 1996 - Celiac disease begins measurable upward trend in US population 2012 - Séralini publishes tumour study in rats; Monsanto coordinates global retraction campaign 2015 - WHO's IARC classifies glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" 2017 - California adds it to Prop 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer 2018 - Bayer acquires Monsanto for $63bn; immediately inherits 13,000 lawsuits 2019 - First major Roundup cancer verdict: $2.05 billion awarded 2020 - Glyphosate detected in US rainwater samples 2021 - Detected in 80% of urine samples in CDC study 2023 - Still sprayed on an estimated 298 million acres of US cropland annually And we're still "gathering evidence."

@leenybum 👏👏👏

Something that happened this week! sruc.ac.uk/all-news/royal…

Glyphosate dries the wheat plant faster in the field, substantially reducing crop losses due to wet or fungus conditions. It actually improves the quality of the food supply, rendering it safer. The levels of glyphosate in your food are nowhere near close enough to harm your microbiome, cause cancer, infertility, or any of the other negative effects you describe. Your comment about nerve agent is just fear mongering.

While I agree with many of your posts on livestock, you’re repeating wildly misleading claims about glyphosate. Let’s start with the boring stuff - keep reading for the more interesting facts👇🏽 1) Glyphosate was not patented as a descaling agent. If you have a look at the patent, you’ll see that it refers to phosphinic acids. Glyphosate isn’t a phosphinic acid. 2) Glyphosate is a weak chelator. Its chelating power is much weaker than the chelating properties of your own all-natural amino acids that chelate metals like iron in your very own body. 3) The benefit of being a mild chelator is that it binds to soil minerals, doesn’t run off & is quickly broken down by the soil microbiome. Which brings me to my next point. 4) The tiny trace of glyphosate that you may be exposed to in the diet, doesn’t stand a chance against the trillions of bacteria in your gut. 5) Out of all of those bacteria, some have the shikimate pathway, which is the enzyme that glyphosate binds to. Fortunately, your gut bacteria are floating in a sea of amino acids, that you have kindly provided through your beef-rich diet so they don’t need to use that pathway😅 6) Glyphosate is as critical to agriculture as antibiotics are to medicine. It isn’t a carcinogen. Your food isn’t poisoned. 7) 99.99% of the pesticides you eat are made by Mother Nature. Remember, plants can’t run away from you so they make their very own chemicals to protect themselves. Did you know that Mother Nature costs apple seeds with cyanogenic compounds? That’s right, when you eat an apple seed, you make a little bit of cyanide. But an apple a day keeps the doctor away, because the dose you make is so tiny that it won’t cause harm. What measures would you take to prevent parasites like screw worm & cattle fever tick? 8) The same people who have thrown the livestock industry under the bus are doing the same to commercial crops. We’re all in this together & want to provide the highest quality, safest & most affordable food supply in the world. 9) Happy to provide references & talk any time. naiaonline.org/articles/artic…

@ClaireCoutinho @AliDrummond4 You have forgotten the fertiliser carbon tax due from January 2027. Will put UK farmers at a disadvantage and also increase food prices. And won’t reduce the food carbon footprint at all.