The apprentice

If you wanted to be rich beyond your wildest dreams would you want to do a days work again.....if the answer is no then 400k wouldn't do that,Christ down here if you wanted to buy a nice family sized house you'd be out the next day working

Ducati899 said:

If you wanted to be rich beyond your wildest dreams would you want to do a days work again.....if the answer is no then 400k wouldn't do that,Christ down here if you wanted to buy a nice family sized house you'd be out the next day working

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Alot of farmers would have to work for 20 years or more for 400 k. so it would make them wealthy beyond there dreams.

Clive said:

You have never met me have you ?

And you clearly know nothing about my past ?

What do you ACTUALLY know about me and how much I pay myself or may or maynot be worth ?

However what any of that has to do with me wanting to take on an apprentice to give someone an opportunity in this industry I really don't know

Maybe you're right ? I won't bother thinking about long term staff requirements i will cut my current staff pay to the bare minimum I can get away with and kick them out of houses the moment they dare not do 100hrs a week for me and then maybe I will become rich beyond my wildest dreams !!!

Seriously how you can draw such conclusions from such limited infomation about man you don't know and have never met ir a business you have not been involved in I really have no idea ???

Whoever you have worked for in the past has clearly had a big effect on your outlook and rest of your life, whoever that was it wasn't me !

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Things you post, like 400k is only a decent salary, your on a different planet.

Clive said:

You have quite an obsession with money ? What do you want to do with it all ?

Maybe a job in a bank would have been right for you, it's ideal for people who want big salaries but don't mind doing pointless mind numbing jobs and sone get very wealthy doing it

Agriculture isn't going to make anyone rich beyond their wildest dreams !

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I dont think working in a bank is pointless, i think 400k would make alot of people very very happy, if your earn 15k a year 400k would make you rich bywd , obviously they would still have to work etc, as you say it depends on mind set and aspirations.

Clive said:

It is a hell of a decent salary

What I posted was its not 'rich beyond wildest dreams' in relative terms of a world where are those that are can spend that on a small party or weekend running cost for their yacht !

To my mind "rich beyond wildest dreams" is what the super rich of this world have (people worth 100's of millions) and certainly not anyone on a salary even if it is a very good one

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To be honest agriculture has made alot of folk wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, 30 years ago no one would have belived the values of land, alot sell retire and are wealthy beyond anything they ever dreamt of.

I was incredulous ladt night watching benefit tenants. The landlord moaning his arse off about benefit cuts, running his evictees to the council in his new range rover

Clive said:

You have quite an obsession with money ? What do you want to do with it all ?

Maybe a job in a bank would have been right for you, it's ideal for people who want big salaries but don't mind doing pointless mind numbing jobs and some get very wealthy doing it

Agriculture isn't going to make anyone rich beyond their wildest dreams ! And that applies to an apprentice or a farmer running his own farming business

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Dose commenting that alot fo farmers will have to work for 20 plus years to earn 400k make me obsessed with money ? your been daft.

glasshouse said:

I was incredulous ladt night watching benefit tenants. The landlord moaning his arse off about benefit cuts, running his evictees to the council in his new range rover

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glasshouse said:

I was incredulous ladt night watching benefit tenants. The landlord moaning his arse off about benefit cuts, running his evictees to the council in his new range rover

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Hes probably a spoilt brat that thinks they can pay the rent easily.

I am bewildered by the course this thread has taken.
Some one asks for views on business progression by employing an extra bod that they don't need full time so suggests an apprentice.
Some one else suggests farming is pants , so don't bother.
Have I got it?



Then a big argument over lack of money or not.

I think that your perception of "rich beyond your wildest dreams" is all relative to the amount you are used to seeing in your bank balance on a regular basis. Personally if I saw 400k in my account I'd feel rich beyond.................... In fact if I could see my account in the black for a change I'd be pretty damn chuffed.

But anyway back to the OP. I think the success of a apprenticeship depends not only on the apprentice but also on the farmer, you are always going to get good and bad of both.

Take for example my son, not a apprentice but out in his middle year from college. The first place he worked at biggish estate very modern and forward thinking but treated him like a general dogsbody. Spent all of last harvest running the grainstore, yes an essential job but not the most exciting by a long shot, but he knuckled down and did it (bloody long hrs as well) although I did think at one stage that, that would finish his farming career out of sheer boredom.

Fast forward a year the farm he is now on for harvest and has been since early June, still a big farm not as modern in methods and certainly not in equipment. He's having a great time earning good money and more to the point he has learnt far more at this place in 3 months than he did at the last one in nearly a year! I've watched his confidence grow from day one. If he's not been sure on something, someone has taken the time to explain. He is now doing pretty much all of the cultivation work and this week he's had two brand new tractors on demo (Fendt, JCB) that only he has driven.

My point is you've got to be prepared to let/help them learn, some slowly and some quickly. It's a circle of events as his confidence grows in what he's doing their confidence grows in him, as their confidence grows in him his confidence grows in what he's doing etc etc etc. But for this to happen you need to evaluate the apprentice pretty quickly but you also need (presuming you have them) your other employee(s) to be willing to help. To many times I've seen youngsters taken off a certain job because someone moans, that, that's their job they always do that! They won't learn if you don't let them.

Hope that all makes sense!!

Morph said:

I am bewildered by the course this thread has taken.
Some one asks for views on business progression by employing an extra bod that they don't need full time so suggests an apprentice.
Some one else suggests farming is pants , so don't bother.
Have I got it?



Then a big argument over lack of money or not.

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Pretty much !! its all relivent though, a youngster starting out in an industry should know the bad as well as the good before making up their mind, now farming, most dangerous occupation in the uk, high suicide, high debts, would you encourage your children into it if their was no farm in the family ?

With such a negative view on farming do you intend to stay in the industry long term?

Clive said:

It's interesting that many see the grain dryer and stores as the worst job on an arable farm suitable for the most junior member of staff ?


guess what I do all harvest when i'm not sat behind a PC screen !!

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sat on a beech somewhere warm?