JAN/FEB 2024
MEMBERS NEWSLETTER Director—Ashley Masters Welcome fellow members and stakeholders to CQLP’s first newsle er of 2024. As we embark on this new year, its with a mix of reflec on on the past and an cipa on for what lies ahead as Bri sh Agriculture faces familiar challenges. It is the fourth consecu ve year of reduc ons for BPS income. Payments for 2024 expected to be 50% or less compared with 2020 with delinked payments set to conclude by 2027. While spending an annual hour and a half in February for BPS applica ons proved financially rewarding come December, ques oned lingered about tax payers’ returns on investment. By moving the support to environmental and produc vity grants, I believe is more acceptable. This new funding is not going to be like for like but there will be gainers as well as losers and we will have to adapt to make sure we use this funding to sustain and drive our business forward. Most farming business are small to medium enterprises, and I believe we have much to gain in working together as we do in CQLP. Here on our farm, we buy most of our inputs from a farmer coopera ve where CQLP market our cull cows and clean beef and we supply a European dairy coopera ve with our milk. In fact, the dairy coopera ve model of working with 7000 plus members in 5 countries and producing branded products such as Lurpak, Cravendale, Castello and Anchor for local, European, and global markets is highly sa sfying. Time is moving on rapidly with fer liser now on farm, the spreader serviced and temperatures rising with spring on the way. We have set our budget for the next financial year with a reasonable degree of op mism as milk price is on the way up and beef prices where it needs to be. The dairy herd is autumn block calving, and this morning the vet on a rou ne visit confirmed that all our heifer calves this year will be born in the first 18 days of calving which is pleasing, and this will in turn to help us to maintain our age at first calving to 23 months of age. This will lead to us reducing our carbon footprint and further enhancing our milk price. My hope this year is that we have a more normal grazing season as last year we found it a struggle for produc on due to dry spells, wet spells, and everything in between so this year we are going to use satellite imagery to monitor our grass covers rather than a plate meter. We appreciate your collabora on within CQLP and wish each of you successful faming for 2024
BOARD OF DIRECTORS The Board of Directors at CQLP welcomes individuals interested in joining to get in touch. Please feel free to contact us if you wish to become a part of our board. Our AGM will be held in April—Date to be confirmed.