Sentimentality or lack of money or just stuck in their ways. No doubt if I’d continued to work with my Dad I’d either have killed him or myself. ‘Sentimentality is a farming epidemic. It prevents us from selling grandad's tractor for something more efficient, modifying the flint walled shed with tiny doors where uncle Jedd milked his first cow, from turning the odd shaped field with 15 corners and low yields over to stewardship or even changing practices that have stayed the same since the war for no other reason than tradition.
My Grandfather and father both succumbed to the disease. I had hoped for immunity, but even now as poor health is forcing me to consider new options, I'm finding it very difficult to accept what may have to change.
The theme is repeated time and time again sadly .I always find it quite sad when someone has built up a successful farm but their children don't want any part of running it.
Obviously you shouldn't force them, they should do whatever they want (and perhaps be glad they've had a good start in life) still sad though.
My dad was telling me the other day that the farmer who's parlour I learnt to milk in when I was a kid is selling his cows and renting out his ground as his children don't want to know. He was in the process of taking over from his dad when I started there while still at school in the 80's.
I don't suppose it will be a working farm again
Exactly , the job ain’t no walk in the park for sure it ain’t for the faint hearted.If it’s all so wonderful, why is it reported that a large % of farmers are depressed or stressed.
It has its advantages but there’s a reason so many offspring don’t want to follow in the footsteps .
Grandfather had his whole life under ground digging coal , hated it but did it.It's a job. Unfortunately the job requires continually beating the weather, or looking after animals at unsocial hours. Not really the average 9-5 job. There it is. So what.
The modern idea is you must love your job, or fudge off and get another one. 50 years ago, Nobby would spend 40 years down a coal mine. I doubt whether he enjoyed it. Today, Chantelle spends 4 months in a job, then finds something else, usually at the other side of the country.
Cracking social commentary there @7610 super q
What made it an ok way of life? The community, the social club, strikes one out all out, the time without helmet and overalls on, working the allotment of a weekend, greyhound racing on a Wednesday night???? very few people “love their job.” Hands up whose looking forward to retirement.Grandfather had his whole life under ground digging coal , hated it but did it.
Sentimentality or lack of money or just stuck in their ways. No doubt if I’d continued to work with my Dad I’d either have killed him or myself. ‘
‘Why don’t we put drinkers in all the pigs?’
‘Because they will waste water’
‘Why don’t we use the Forklift to load potatoes into the riddle rather than forking them in?’
‘Because they’ll get cut’
‘Why can’t I have a radio in the tractor?’
‘Because you can’t hear the machine behind’
But I always wanted to be like my Dad and I learnt a lot from him possibly a lot about how I’d like to do it differently. So I went off and did it on my own rather than fighting him.
I wrote 'like', not 'love'.Is it not a prerequisite of moving to Wales?
I always love it at a farm sale when you see someone you know is worth millions, possibly tens of millions in a holey shirt and string for a belt.I was always told in Sociology that farming was the only occupation where you couldn't ascertain someone's social status or class, whereas in all other walks of life you can tell pretty much immediately.
I always wonder what sheep farmers do all summer. Once lambing’s over it’s a doddle until they put the rams in again. Bit of shearing, draw a few lambs . What else is thereClothes maketh man so let's be honest ...........
No one in the right minds would chose to dress as livestock farmers do
(Agronomists & arable farmers might as well be in an office excepting the two months of the year when "work" takes place)
I always wonder what sheep farmers do all summer. Once lambing’s over it’s a doddle until they put the rams in again. Bit of shearing, draw a few lambs . What else is there
I always wonder what sheep farmers do all summer. Once lambing’s over it’s a doddle until they put the rams in again. Bit of shearing, draw a few lambs . What else is there
Have we met?A ‘proper’ farmer would have a mix of enterprises. That way they could lurch from one badly managed busy period to the next…