What do you do on your farm?

eagleye · Jan 12, 2019

this week been soil sampling, loading grain, delivering grain, spraying barley and osr, crop walking, packing haylage, fitting new starter motor on tractor.
Normally do hedgecutting, grain drying, spraying, cultivation, rolling, grain carting, VAT returns, invoicing, bank payments and lodgements, building repairs, plumbing, electric work (12v and 240v), fencing, machine repairs,
carpentry, welding, dog walking and lots of thinking about many useful and useless things

Kiwi Pete · Jan 12, 2019

Dead Rabbits said:
try and do as little as possible.

I'm quite successful at this.

I spend an average 50 minutes per day "farming" but as above the definition is a bit difficult, I probably spend an hour doing this:

..which wouldn't matter if I didn't do it at all.

It would matter if I didn't see something that then led me to spending money and having to do stuff, as most other farmers operate .

As per @Forage Trader's GREAT advice to "not make work" I spend a lot of time looking and recording and planning, but almost no time working at farming.

So basically I put up an electric fence and roll another one up, daily or twice daily.
Occasionally weigh some stock, or load/unload them from a truck.

And that's the plan, money drips out more easily if I stand back and let it be so.. and my hourly rate is as it should be.

Jackov Altraids · Jan 13, 2019

Many good points have made.
May I suggest it is not what you do that makes you a farmer, but how you think.
When leaning over a gate, people see a view. A farmer sees a myriad of things that have been done, need doing and can read the landscape and its contents like a living encyclopedia.

KennyO · Jan 13, 2019

Jackov Altraids said:
Many good points have made.
May I suggest it is not what you do that makes you a farmer, but how you think.
When leaning over a gate, people see a view. A farmer sees a myriad of things that have been done, need doing and can read the landscape and its contents like a living encyclopedia.

Is half an hour spent walking the dog just that or is it time spent checking crops, land or crops and planning work etc?

Farmer Roy · Jan 13, 2019

Nearly · Jan 13, 2019

unlacedgecko said:
If you’re farming earns you less than £10/hr why on earth are you doing it?

Because I want to.
It fills in the time between meals.

Steevo · Jan 13, 2019

eagleye said:
this week been soil sampling, loading grain, delivering grain, spraying barley and osr, crop walking, packing haylage, fitting new starter motor on tractor.
Normally do hedgecutting, grain drying, spraying, cultivation, rolling, grain carting, VAT returns, invoicing, bank payments and lodgements, building repairs, plumbing, electric work (12v and 240v), fencing, machine repairs,
carpentry, welding, dog walking and lots of thinking about many useful and useless things

Thank you. Good list!

pappuller · Jan 13, 2019

Bald Rick said:
Spend a lot of my time getting angry - very angry

We gathered

David. · Jan 13, 2019

Kiwi Pete said:
I'm quite successful at this.

I spend an average 50 minutes per day "farming" but as above the definition is a bit difficult, I probably spend an hour doing this: View attachment 756112 View attachment 756114 View attachment 756116
..which wouldn't matter if I didn't do it at all

It would matter if I didn't see something that then led me to spending money and having to do stuff, as most other farmers operate .
As per @Forage Trader's GREAT advice to "not make work" I spend a lot of time looking and recording and planning, but almost no time working at farming.

So basically I put up an electric fence and roll another one up, daily or twice daily.
Occasionally weigh some stock, or load/unload them from a truck.

And that's the plan, money drips out more easily if I stand back and let it be so.. and my hourly rate is as it should be.

I like the philosophy, this crazy work ethic with which we are all instilled dictates that if you are not doing something all the time, you are theiving oxygen.
The trouble is, doing costs a lot of money.

lazy farmer · Jan 13, 2019

Can I have a box for wandering about a lot?
(Sometimes I even take the dogs)

Kiwi Pete · Jan 13, 2019

David. said:
I like the philosophy, this crazy work ethic with which we are all instilled dictates that if you are not doing something all the time, you are theiving oxygen.
The trouble is, doing costs a lot of money.

It does, even starting a quad so you can see a lot less of a lot more area is quite a cost - especially if you go too fast to see what the land is telling you... but nearly everything I can possibly do erodes my margin at the end of the year.
Except for electric fencing, of course, and yapping... networking!!
All my land gets reseeded every year, I let the plants have their head.

Nothing needs drenched or yarded because they aren't grazing low or fast enough to pick them up, and I still have lambs early and late enough to avoid the glut and get top prices - I really don't see why the big rush to be "average" when you can beat that by staying in bed!

Jackov Altraids · Jan 13, 2019

KennyO said:
Is half an hour spent walking the dog just that or is it time spent checking crops, land or crops and planning work etc?

Either, neither or both!
I've worked on a farm all my life. I believe I became a farmer about 10 years ago.
It's a state of mind, an understanding of your surroundings and a sense of the past,now, future and forever.
I might stop farming tomorrow, but I'll probably always be a farmer.

yellow belly · Jan 13, 2019

a farmer friend of mine 30 years ago told me

a farmers can lamb a sheep calve a cow plough a field

when I gave up livestock he said I was a grower not a farmer

now I do not do any of the above as we are notill

imho a farmer can do all the jobs associated with running a farm whatever that may be cows sheep pigs poultry bees flowers grain produce potatoes ect
bigger farms contract out some or all of the jobs

agronomy accounts harvesting drilling ect

but if the cost of contracting out is more than the farmer earns in the time saved then do not contract out

Whitepeak · Jan 13, 2019

On our farm within the last 12mths I've done the following occupations:
Vet
Nutritionist
Agronomist
Machinery operator
Mechanic
Builder
Plumber
Electrician
Joiner
Accountant
Secretary
Drystone Waller
Fencer
Tree surgeon
Salesman
Marketing/promotion
Grounds keeper
Caretaker
Plus a few more probably that I can't remember.
Trouble is all these occupations all earn a lot more than farming

but I do love the variation in every day

ridger · Jan 13, 2019

Goweresque said:
I was only thinking the other day - what exactly IS farming? What jobs can you say constitute actual farming? I guess cultivating a field, or planting a crop or harvesting it, or tending cattle, or making fodder for cattle would all qualify, but what about all the myriad other jobs we all have to do? Is hedgecutting farming? Or fixing a shed roof? Or doing paperwork? Or fixing fences? Or servicing/mending machinery? Fixing a water trough? Repairing a track? Digging out ditches? There are lots of jobs that if you did nothing but them you wouldn't be a farmer, so how come doing them occasionally counts as farming?

I always define farming as a series of often seemingly unconnected (largely practical) problems that all have to be solved in order for food to be produced.

Someone who keeps land in a good condition isn't it?

Norfolk Olly · Jan 13, 2019

Hmmm, through the year
Ploughing
Subsoiling
Cultivating
Ridging
Pulling down beet land
Spraying
Drilling hls
Combining
Cereal drilling
Maintenance of all above kit
Holiday!!!

primmiemoo · Jan 13, 2019

Dog whisperer,
Sheep/cattle behaviouralista,
Archaeologist - those drains have got to be ancient!
Historian,
Vet,
Vet'rinary nurse,
Ecologist - those complex interstitial habitats don't label themselves, y'know,
Detective - it was the Charollais ram wot dunnit.
Poisoner*

*got a r.a.t. indoors

DRC · Jan 13, 2019

I started a thread on New Year’s Eve, in the picture section, titled a review of 2018, which showed what a varied amount of jobs we do here.

DrWazzock · Jan 13, 2019

This week I am continuing to make a new door for the cattle shed using scrap metal and salvaged timber. (DIY pottering).
Refitting the cylinder head onto the 4240 now that it has been reconditioned and replacing the steering ram seals.(DIY pottering)
Trying to keep the rooks off my recent drilling which is proving a bit vexing now that they seem to have got used to the scarecrow.(Farming?)
Attending a Quickbooks training session and setting it up or attempting to. (Bookkeeping)
Replying to accountants list of queries and meeting him to finalise the tax bill.(Admin/management)
Delivering some hay.(Haulage/transport)
Maybe clean a ditch out as one or two trees have fallen in.(estate maintenance)
Setting up race and crush for the imminent TB test.(farming)
Arranging and preparing sprayer for MOT.(fitting/maintenance/admin)
Hopefully attending noroso update to get my 10 points .(training )
As well as feeding, bedding and checking stock.(farming)
Measure /mark out big field to split it between Spring barley and sugar beet. (Surveying)
Maybe get the salt on the beet land and some MOP on though this usually triggers weeks of torrential rain so I might hold off.(farming)
Order Spring barley seed (purchasing).
Waste time rambling on TFF.

Most of the time I'm head cook and washer up as well as its a busy time of year for the Mrs.(domestic service).

That's this weeks list. I usually get half of it all done or all of it half done depending on interruptions and unforseen problems of which there are many.

On the back burner the beet harvester needs a fair amount of renovation as does the combine, and there is the Lambo tractor transmission noise which hasn't even been looked at yet, and a lot of fencing work to do. There are about half a dozen roof sheets need replacing as well.

DRC · Jan 13, 2019

I’ve been sorting a blocked drain today . Very satisfying eventually . Nice sunny day for January and dry underfoot. Didn’t have to do it today , but nothing else much to do and had a day off at lamma on Tuesday and went to football yesterday . Has today really been work or just me playing on my digger, which I find remarkably therapeutic . Mrs brought me ham sandwiches, tea and choccy biscuits !!

What do you do on your farm?

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0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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