Beef cattle, numbers game or myth?

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

My 32 year old tractor boost my ego no end !

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

I worked danmed hard to fit a new chassi and recon my old landrover that saves me alot on replacing and upped its value , was that working smart or hard ?

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

I made a shed and built it with the help of one other and saved 30-40k , was bloody hard work long hrs , was that hard work or working smart ?

digger64 · Nov 8, 2022

Hilly said:
I worked danmed hard to fit a new chassi and recon my old landrover that saves me alot on replacing and upped its value , was that working smart or hard ?

depends if something else suffered or created more work as a consequence or not

Highland Mule · Nov 8, 2022

Bossfarmer said:
who says ive got ego boosting machines? mine are bought 2nd hand as cost effectively as possible, this strategy along with a decent stock number/acreage allows me do do things in house far cheaper than a contractor can, i dont see how variable costs would go way down? i would say 500 at 200 is a more realistic figure to work with that 50 at 2000, 50 will prob leave next to no profit when fixed costs are taken into account

I meant profit after fixed costs.

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

digger64 said:
depends if something else suffered or created more work as a consequence or not

No because i worked hard and did other things before after inbetween but was long hrs and hard work

prehaps i should have just sat in the house ! I like doing that …

How Dairy · Nov 8, 2022

Hilly said:
How many hrs should farmer work ?

As many as they want as long as it is costed in. It is an overhead and overheads shouldn't be more than a 1/3 of income

Highland Mule · Nov 8, 2022

Hilly said:
I worked danmed hard to fit a new chassi and recon my old landrover that saves me alot on replacing and upped its value , was that working smart or hard ?

How much did you save per hour? For £10/hr, it wasn't smart, but for £100 it was. Unless you enjoy doing spannering as a hobby of course, in whuch case who cares?

Hilly said:
I made a shed and built it with the help of one other and saved 30-40k , was bloody hard work long hrs , was that hard work or working smart ?

Same question.

Hilly said:
I dont know because i don’t know what a living is but quite a few , if i only wamted a living id get a job not have a business.

I'd say that there are plenty with a better standard of living from a job than we would ever have from a business. I'd happily swap pay cheques with the boss of BP, but he 'only' has a job.

ridger · Nov 8, 2022

som farmer said:
hard work never killed anyone, so they say, but it certainly fudged a lot.

Hard work never killed anyone but long hours did

How Dairy · Nov 8, 2022

Hilly said:
My 32 year old tractor boost my ego no end !

Perfect! Whack in a value and depreciate at 10% per year. Say it is worth £15k, I would depreciate at £1500 in the first year. If you have a policy e.g. buying second hand kit you could technically reduce the depreciation rate but it is a real cost and I would be looking to take the cost out and park it in a bank account ready for reinvestment.

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

How Dairy said:
Perfect! Whack in a value and depreciate at 10% per year. Say it is worth £15k, I would depreciate at £1500 in the first year. If you have a policy e.g. buying second hand kit you could technically reduce the depreciation rate but it is a real cost and I would be looking to take the cost out and park it in a bank account ready for reinvestment.

I dont like money in bank as it depreciates at min of 10% best spent
On appriciating assets then when new tractor needed cash in said assets ,,,

Bossfarmer · Nov 8, 2022

Hilly said:
No because i worked hard and did other things before after inbetween but was long hrs and hard work prehaps i should have just sat in the house ! I like doing that …

the key to being successful in business according to some on here is to take it easy, do as little as possible so not to overstress urself or the wife/kids, loads of leisure time, simply "work smart" and its job done,

oh i forgot get rid of your cattle theyre too poor a return for the work just continously crop your farm sell all the straw!

Highland Mule · Nov 8, 2022

Bossfarmer said:
the key to being successful in business according to some on here is to take it easy, do as little as possible so not to overstress urself or the wife/kids, loads of leisure time, simply "work smart" and its job done,

oh i forgot get rid of your cattle theyre too poor a return for the work just continously crop your farm sell all the straw!

Nobody has written that.

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

Highland Mule said:
How much did you save per hour? For £10/hr, it wasn't smart, but for £100 it was. Unless you enjoy doing spannering as a hobby of course, in whuch case who cares?

Same question.

I'd say that there are plenty with a better standard of living from a job than we would ever have from a business. I'd happily swap pay cheques with the boss of BP, but he 'only' has a job.

Bossfarmer said:
the key to being successful in business according to some on here is to take it easy, do as little as possible so not to overstress urself or the wife/kids, loads of leisure time, simply "work smart" and its job done,

oh i forgot get rid of your cattle theyre too poor a return for the work just continously crop your farm sell all the straw!

Looks that way, be good if it were sustainable

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

This is great

the beauty of farming is to a large extent we all do what we want ! And that is why we dont have ordinary jobs .

Bossfarmer · Nov 8, 2022

Hilly said:
Looks that way, be good if it were sustainable

ive seen many try it, the farms suffer the cow money usually gets spent on fancy tractors

Hilly · Nov 8, 2022

Bossfarmer said:
ive seen many try it, the farms suffer the cow money usually gets spent on fancy tractors

Oh that would be a bad decision imo . But if someone likes tractors more than cows …

Samcowman · Nov 8, 2022

Bossfarmer said:
the key to being successful in business according to some on here is to take it easy, do as little as possible so not to overstress urself or the wife/kids, loads of leisure time, simply "work smart" and its job done,

oh i forgot get rid of your cattle theyre too poor a return for the work just continously crop your farm sell all the straw!

There needs to be a balance between 100hour weeks and not doing a lot.
What I think some of us are struggling to see is how is it ok to work from 7am to 10pm (assuming an hours worth of breaks a day) every day of the week all the year?
We have just moved to a new tenancy and have been working harder and not smarter at times, purely just to get the animals fed and watered. Calf rearing carrying or pushing water to 200 calves is definitely hard and not smart but there is an end of goal of once the calves were weaned then the shed can have the auto feeder set up and proper running water in.
another example of smart not hard instead of shovelling cake for the weaned calves every day we bought 3 beef feeders and get the cake out of the silo into the loser bucket and tip it in each pens feeder every morning. Both ways get the job done one saving time and my energy which means I am more flexible to be able to take the kids to school in the morning when my wife is working or take daughter to netball.

som farmer · Nov 8, 2022

Bossfarmer said:
i reckon farmers that have worked hard might have more joint problems etc when older but a stronger heart, lazy overweight types wont outlive someone thats stayed fit

60+ 2 spine ops
several emergency admissions
need 2 sticks
all caused by hard labour, can't do much at all now
But, hey oh, me hearts all right.

Bossfarmer · Nov 8, 2022

Samcowman said:
There needs to be a balance between 100hour weeks and not doing a lot.
What I think some of us are struggling to see is how is it ok to work from 7am to 10pm (assuming an hours worth of breaks a day) every day of the week all the year?
We have just moved to a new tenancy and have been working harder and not smarter at times, purely just to get the animals fed and watered. Calf rearing carrying or pushing water to 200 calves is definitely hard and not smart but there is an end of goal of once the calves were weaned then the shed can have the auto feeder set up and proper running water in.
another example of smart not hard instead of shovelling cake for the weaned calves every day we bought 3 beef feeders and get the cake out of the silo into the loser bucket and tip it in each pens feeder every morning. Both ways get the job done one saving time and my energy which means I am more flexible to be able to take the kids to school in the morning when my wife is working or take daughter to netball.

i tend to be 6am to 8pm but prob an hours work of breaks a day so i technically only working 93 hrs, some days in the winter ill be a lot less but some in the spring/silage/harvest a lot more so it averages out i suppose, i know guys up at 2am milking cows so i feel ive got it reasonably easy in comparison

Beef cattle, numbers game or myth?

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Up to 25%

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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