White Cross Harvesting Syndicate
A partnership of three farmers which undertakes sugar beet harvesting and haulage on behalf of 23 farms.
The syndicate has been operating since 1981 and arose out of the need to deal with the increasing demanding autumn workload caused by a diverse cropping regime including other root crops. The syndicate now lifts over 2,000 acres of sugar beet and hauls approximately 100,000 tonnes of beet to the factory, operating within a 35 mile radius of the main farms. In addition, the group provides the haulage for a second six row harvester operating on a large local estate. The group has just bought their seventh sugar beet harvester together.
The partners, linked together by family ties, jointly buy and run a six-row harvester, a cleaner loader and a loading shovel. The capital and running costs of the machinery are split on the basis of the acreage that each partner brings to the syndicate.
As the partner's contracted acreage changes each year, the acreage has to be 're-verified' annually to ensure that the costs are fairly and transparently allocated back to the partner business for accounting purposes.
All partners contribute haulage contracting to the syndicate, but this is handled separately on the basis of tonnes of beet hauled. The group is very flexible in how they carry out contracts for others, some use just the harvesting work, just the loading and haulage services whilst others use the complete service.
All of this flexibility takes quite a bit of management and administration, but the depth of experience of the group manager and back-up office administration team, means that everybody is allocated the costs they are due and credited for the work that they carry out on behalf of the group. Jim Papworth, the group manager, is paid for his time and expenses at an agreed acreage charge.
He takes on the full responsibility of planning and coordinating the lifting campaign. He always starts with a 'wish list' of lifting requirements and tries to meet everyone's needs and demands. However, as the season unravels there is always the need to make adjustments. With such a large group of farmers, there is always an option available to keep the harvesting team working at or near to full capacity. The three main partners also work together to successfully improve yields, sharing an agronomist also helps with this process.
All the partners believe that working together has helped each one develop their business, reduce costs and give them a chance to concentrate on the areas of farming that are most important to them.
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