Input cost falls dwarfed by drop in farm gate prices

摘要

Lower fertiliser, seed, feed and fuel costs contributed to a 1.77% fall in average farm input costs in the year to the end of August.Buying group Anglia Farmers' (AF) six-monthly Aglnflation Index tracks the cost of more than 130 farm inputs and has shown its first overall fall since 2008-9.However, while input costs fell overall, the reductions are dwarfed by the huge falls in most farmgate commodity prices through 2014. Feed wheat has lost almost 40% of its value since January, finished steers have lost 11% or about 44p/kg deadweight, milk prices have tumbled about 16% and average potato prices are about ￡20/t less than at the start of the year.