Career options for the ageing shepherd

Looking to the future post 55- 60, I can't see me continue to manage as a contract shepherd or employed shepherd.
No plans or wishes to retire but what options will there be?
Work beyond farming seems alien but I'm not naive to think the body will want to fight sheep into retirement.
Ideas thanks
 

yellowbelly

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
N.Lincs
I'm not naive to think the body will want to fight sheep into retirement.
You're right to think about it. But if you're under 55 you've likely got a year or two in hand yet.

Hit 64 this year and it's the first year I've noticed that things I've done for years, without batting an eyelid, are getting a bit harder to do :facepalm:

Got clobbered by a tup last week. A few years ago, I would have jumped up and thought no more about it but I can still feel where the fecker hit me :inpain:
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
A lot is possible in agriculture, without the "heavy lifting" aspect. Maybe you could farm people?

Farmstay/B&B is good if you have the balance right, eg you have enough farm going on that you have something to demonstrate, without being bogged down by it
 
You're right to think about it. But if you're under 55 you've likely got a year or two in hand yet.

Hit 64 this year and it's the first year I've noticed that things I've done for years, without batting an eyelid, are getting a bit harder to do :facepalm:

Got clobbered by a tup last week. A few years ago, I would have jumped up and thought no more about it but I can still feel where the fecker hit me :inpain:
Good on you for keeping fit. Ive seen my father a few friends fathers slow down rapidly after 60 and as a 2nd born son I'm not in the lucky position to inherit the farm to allow a spouse to pick up the slack.
Witnessed a neighbour sack a ageing shepherd due to him slowing down with age. Poor lad was lost after that too old to retrain and too old to be hired as shepherd again
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
When dad retired he went and helped out at the local undertakers . He loved it . Took him away from the farm (which was good for me) and wa something completely different . He would do a bit of pallbearing or taking attendance names at the church door occasionally a bit of driving .
He didn't need the money but he did need something to do and he could choose when he did it .
 

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
Plan has always been to drive a tractor if the body gives in before the mind
failing that stacking shelves at tesco
Neither of which give me butterflys in the belly but would keep food on the table.
I'm still young but watching the older generation with bad hips, knees, hands manual labour can catch up on you
Tractor driving not so attractive these days . I used to be able to sit on a tractor for hours on end but now ,even though I still do during harvest time , I still can't wait to get off the tractor .
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
See if there is a school farm or similar local to you, offer to pass on your skills and take the kids showing. It doesn't have to be voluntary, schools have budgets for working with kids with special needs.
This is a great idea.
Ag colleges are normally crying out for people who actually know what they're doing practically.

It does mean you need to like teenagers though.....
 
Going off on a tangent - watching Clive Owen at 67: yes he’s fit, but you can see that walking is getting to be a struggle. Not the easiest of land, and I certainly couldn’t have managed to do what he still does when I was 67.

Going back to the OP. Is there a local market where you could find some work as a drover? Auction room porter?
 

DRC

Member
Going off on a tangent - watching Clive Owen at 67: yes he’s fit, but you can see that walking is getting to be a struggle. Not the easiest of land, and I certainly couldn’t have managed to do what he still does when I was 67.

Going back to the OP. Is there a local market where you could find some work as a drover? Auction room porter?
Didn’t he have a hip operation on one of the earlier series
 

DRC

Member
When dad retired he went and helped out at the local undertakers . He loved it . Took him away from the farm (which was good for me) and wa something completely different . He would do a bit of pallbearing or taking attendance names at the church door occasionally a bit of driving .
He didn't need the money but he did need something to do and he could choose when he did it .
It was a younger cousins insistence that we carried my uncles coffin, rather than on a trolley, that buggered my back up. He said this isn’t Tesco’s . I’m suffering with a bad back and hip at the moment and have had to pay contractors to plough and drill the last field and get pig muck out .
 

Tim W

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
Looking to the future post 55- 60, I can't see me continue to manage as a contract shepherd or employed shepherd.
No plans or wishes to retire but what options will there be?
Work beyond farming seems alien but I'm not naive to think the body will want to fight sheep into retirement.
Ideas thanks
Having sheep that don't need so much work is a good start
If i had to dag/handle sheep as much as my neighbours i'd have given in a while back ?
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
This is a great idea.
Ag colleges are normally crying out for people who actually know what they're doing practically.

It does mean you need to like teenagers though.....
I was wondering something similar but perhaps advising all these new people taking up small holdings. There seem to be more courses these days. (Not for me though, I am rubbish with people!).
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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