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Paul Williamson from Deloitte »There is a saying in the farming community that one of the reasons to buy land is that they don't make it any more! To that extent the same is true - perhaps even more so for oil. I am usually a down to earth man who is inclined to ignore conspiracy theories but six months ago the trade was quoting such silly forward prices for diesel that some farming co-operatives refused to buy....but those prices for August may now be in line with where they're now heading.
Interestingly many land prices are rising along with soft commodity values but alarmingly input costs, based on oil based ingredients, are matching the same pace leading to profit margins being nipped.
So back to oil prices, are we seeing a change of behaviours forever? or is it as short lived as our collective memories?
In my formative years - during the late 1970's and early 1980's I was very impressed with Dallas the TV drama about feuding families working in and around the oil industry....somehow a family feuding in and around the renewables sector fails to be as gritty or believable!
I have today disconnected my automatic signalling device on my oil tank because from now on my farm is self-sufficient in heat using wood that has been grown on site - indeed we are also supplying surplus willow to a power station in Teeside that needs to fulfil its requirements for low carbon neutral fuel.
I started heating my farm, cottages and business park with wood some 8 years ago and planted willow and poplar to add to the other productive woodlands on the farm....the truth is that having set up Toasty Heating Ltd some three years ago we have suffered a tough few years waiting for the market and the politics arriving in a place where logic had to deliver it to .....eventually.
In a few months time I will share with you some guerilla marketing in the Yellow Pages and I'm sorry to say it is the oil companies in my sights.....in rural areas and urban wood is about to be good enough to burn...it's almost guilt free heat
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