400 acres, 40 miles away.

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Farmers have farmed land over longer distances for centuries
Other farmers have aplord or decried them
If they are good at it they made a go at it
The big farming companies started this way and evolved

The biggest are over seas the kidman beef empire in the 19 century Australia Blackearth farming in Russia and many others
The uk has a few

The long term success of any is based on long term return on investment
And ability to survive the difficult periods be they weather or prices
Think blackearth went bust...!
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
I farm over a 17 mile distance having started with no land 30 years ago.Now at the age of 51 i don"t fully understand why,the vanity of all this wore off a long time ago,especially as there is only me and my wife,the children are all below the age of 8.I am in the process of condensing everything into a ring fence farm elsewhere .This will allow me to spend more time with my family,and create a different farming system hopefully with the integration of livestock into an arable rotation .I don"t need a 50 k tractor,new tyres ,bent wheel rims, off colour abuse from other road users,raining when i get there,bed off combine more times than i can count,yobs trying to fire crops whilst i"m on the combine,34 mile round trip dropping off seed and loader ,the list is endless.But the big question is why are you so desperate for more land to farm with what you already have it is pointless,if you are not satisfied with 2900 acres another 400 is not going to help you for long.You asked for comments i,hope this has not come over as being offensive to you as that is not my intention,however i wish you the best what ever you decide.
Well done thats quite an achivement. The scenarios you depict are wellknown to me, i grew up working scattered parcels of rented land across the three parishes constantly moving machines up to 20 miles usually at night to be in place for the next day . How many times you would finish cutting a field at seven o clock drop off the header and hit the road to arrive at the next field at ten , fill a trailer then back to the last field in the tractor to collect the van to go home. You worked hard but money was made, nowadays we still travel but most of the fields are owned and a lot closer to home. When labour became expensive and we scaled back after the sfp scheme allowed stacking of entitlements the workload became manageable. I often feel tempted to rent extra land far away but age and them pesky cows are getting in the way, but still the call of the road is strong.......
 

wurzell1976

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Somerset
Well done thats quite an achivement. The scenarios you depict are wellknown to me, i grew up working scattered parcels of rented land across the three parishes constantly moving machines up to 20 miles usually at night to be in place for the next day . How many times you would finish cutting a field at seven o clock drop off the header and hit the road to arrive at the next field at ten , fill a trailer then back to the last field in the tractor to collect the van to go home. You worked hard but money was made, nowadays we still travel but most of the fields are owned and a lot closer to home. When labour became expensive and we scaled back after the sfp scheme allowed stacking of entitlements the workload became manageable. I often feel tempted to rent extra land far away but age and them pesky cows are getting in the way, but still the call of the road is strong.......
I could write a book ,it has been a bumpy ride.I used to ride around looking for un farmed land next to industrial and residential areas then simply knocking on doors.I once travelled from s yorks to Scarbrough to work and drill 200 acres on contract with my MF 699 and stayed in a caravan,ploughed over 1000 acres of strong land near York ,running an under powered hire tractor(it fired and burnt out) on a 5 furrow plough 24 hrs (with help) when i was 21.The list goes on ,but now when i look back, what a life i"ve had to now.I am passionate about my farming ,and 30 years on ,about to make the biggest move of my life to a ring fence farm at the other end of the country ,(mortgage, but no f-ing rent or land lords).I just hope the Southerners will appreciate my sense of humour.
 

Cowcorn

Member
Mixed Farmer
I could write a book ,it has been a bumpy ride.I used to ride around looking for un farmed land next to industrial and residential areas then simply knocking on doors.I once travelled from s yorks to Scarbrough to work and drill 200 acres on contract with my MF 699 and stayed in a caravan,ploughed over 1000 acres of strong land near York ,running an under powered hire tractor(it fired and burnt out) on a 5 furrow plough 24 hrs (with help) when i was 21.The list goes on ,but now when i look back, what a life i"ve had to now.I am passionate about my farming ,and 30 years on ,about to make the biggest move of my life to a ring fence farm at the other end of the country ,(mortgage, but no f-ing rent or land lords).I just hope the Southerners will appreciate my sense of humour.
Once again welldone shows that a bit of stubborn dont take no for an answer attidude and hard work with all cash kit can still make a difference. Write that book i would love to read it . Best of luck in the new place. Go eiri an bothar leat
 

wurzell1976

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Somerset
Once again welldone shows that a bit of stubborn dont take no for an answer attidude and hard work with all cash kit can still make a difference. Write that book i would love to read it . Best of luck in the new place. Go eiri an bothar leat
Thankyou Cowcorn ,It has been down to at least 6 generations of destitute farmers before me, that have have passed on some sort of genetic disorder, that has kept me going .
 

digger64

Member
However your suggestion to have contractors do some of the jobs is absolutely pointless. The whole point of taking on more land is to spread costs. Doing it this way just adds cost.
Or you could consolidate use a contractor and get rid of alot of costs , surely if you have to take more land for your machines all you are doing is increasing risk
 

digger64

Member
I’m sure there is many contract farmers who could sell all their kit, give up all their contract farms and rent out their own land to another hero and make more money!
I didnt mean sell all the kit ,but you could streamline it and cooperate rather than bid against each other , surely
it would be better to run a machine at capacity then have someone come in to help you and you help them vice versa with a different operation bartering on account perhaps and having a informal square up at the end of the year or I suppose you could go 40 miles get a few punctures , some tyres and say how you have spread your costs geographically.
 

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
I could write a book ,it has been a bumpy ride.I used to ride around looking for un farmed land next to industrial and residential areas then simply knocking on doors.I once travelled from s yorks to Scarbrough to work and drill 200 acres on contract with my MF 699 and stayed in a caravan,ploughed over 1000 acres of strong land near York ,running an under powered hire tractor(it fired and burnt out) on a 5 furrow plough 24 hrs (with help) when i was 21.The list goes on ,but now when i look back, what a life i"ve had to now.I am passionate about my farming ,and 30 years on ,about to make the biggest move of my life to a ring fence farm at the other end of the country ,(mortgage, but no f-ing rent or land lords).I just hope the Southerners will appreciate my sense of humour.
I'm sure you'll be fine, a good friend of mine made the leap in the opposite direction and despite sounding a bit northern now it went well...

It would be good to follow a "big farm move thread" on here ??
 

wurzell1976

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Somerset
I'm sure you'll be fine, a good friend of mine made the leap in the opposite direction and despite sounding a bit northern now it went well...

It would be good to follow a "big farm move thread" on here ??
Talking to our children ,you would think it the easiest thing ever.I may post more as things develop , i"m not sure my mental health will still be intact by then.And i know for certain my bank balance will be in tatters.Most of my family and friends think i have lost all sense.
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
I didnt mean sell all the kit ,but you could streamline it and cooperate rather than bid against each other , surely
it would be better to run a machine at capacity then have someone come in to help you and you help them vice versa with a different operation bartering on account perhaps and having a informal square up at the end of the year or I suppose you could go 40 miles get a few punctures , some tyres and say how you have spread your costs geographically.
Totally agree on that
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
theres a lot of differing opinions on this thread but not many facts lets see a rough breakdown of expected contractor fee and profit percentage split on this 4t/acre wheat land, so we can work out the potential margin, @Lexion1000 @ajd132 @Clive are the experts in cfas so lets see some figures

I'm more than happy to share VC data etc but fixed /operation costs are commercially sensitive and I'm not about to start sharing them with customers and competition online !
 

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
theres a lot of differing opinions on this thread but not many facts lets see a rough breakdown of expected contractor fee and profit percentage split on this 4t/acre wheat land, so we can work out the potential margin, @Lexion1000 @ajd132 @Clive are the experts in cfas so lets see some figures
You can roughly work it out yourself with you’re own costs and to keep it simple do it as a 50:50 as lee suggested earlier. And don’t budget for 400 acres of 4t/acre wheat.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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