C'est la vie. Money talks. The Aviaries was a lot more than 350ac years ago. There used to be about 7 dairy farms touching its boundary twenty years ago. Now there is two I thinkOne of the farming topics around here, is about roll-over money, and what we would do with it, 2 local farmers, have taken the cash, and relocated, certainly 1 to a much larger, and better farm, and without the debt ! I expect it will be a question all local farmers may have to answer, in the near future.
Whether it's right or not, doesn't matter, but 5 long standing local farming families, no longer farm locally, which is a pity, but life.
The question hasn't arisen here, yet, and perhaps it wont, but we have farmed here for 100 yrs, and we have a nice farm, which would take some replacing, plus tradition as well. But money talks, and you would be looking at a very large sum, and things may look very different when faced with it.
Koos is 68, so he is on the downward slope, age wise, and he will have amassed a huge estate, it's what happens when he departs, that is the question. Employment wise, it has brought a fortune into the area, with 7/800 working on the place, there will come a time, when a lot of those builders, will no longer be needed.
No one knows his long term plans for the farms he has bought, only guesses, but l doubt if any will be available to rent, so the longer term benefits will not have quite so better effects.