With own land and contract farming Mark Means looks after about 1000 ha in East Anglia. His relationship with AF has boosted efficiency, saved significant amounts of money, helped smarter decision-making and, maybe, frees up some time for a better work-life balance.
“I feel like AF are part of my team and I know for some of the high-end, high cost decisions, someone's already thinking about that for me. There are jobs in my business I do that are worth £10 an hour. There's other jobs worth £100 an hour. But there's jobs that I should be doing a lot more of which are worth £1,000 an hour and AF is starting to do more and more of what saves me £1000 an hour.”
What do you procure through AF?
“There's trust and there's also great advice when there's an opportunity. They're all basis qualified - and I can then discuss whether to go for a generic or a full brand. You always have a sense of confidence that you're making the right decision.”
Fertiliser, Crop protection, Seed, Fuel, Electricity, Health insurance, Lubricants, Workshop tools and more...
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“Price makes a difference. But delayed payment terms helps cash flow.”
Easier administration
"Everyone on a mobile phone has been dragged into making decisions at an inopportune time. But with AF you got someone else at AF headquarters who's already got it sorted. You ring them and say look how I going to make decision today? No, they may tell me."
“You can transfer the AF invoice once a month electronically into an accounts package. It keeps everything going smoothly and simply and the simpler it is the easier it is."
Examples of savings made
"Specifically, two bits of advice were a huge benefit to our businesses that I look after. One was on the winter wheat fungicides for the ‘23 harvest. Discussing options with AF and actually buying stuff ahead in autumn ‘22 and spring ‘23 early on, we actually grabbed a huge amount, I think because we put orders together with a couple of other Members. Together we did a very good deal and that probably saved us something like £10 or £11 a hectare, just on those decisions on the wheat. When you're doing 600 hectares of wheat, that’s £6k saving in one.
That summer we had prices of fertilizer coming down and I was thinking when's this going to stop or go back up again? Discussing with AF they said just hold off a bit and that's probably saved us 20p a kilo that's £20/ ha there just on there and on 600ha you're talking £12,000.
It just means a bit of peace of mind, freeing up your own mind to be thinking about the decisions and the other important things that are happening on the farm. And also maybe time to actually spend a bit more time the things you enjoy doing outside of farming!”
