160 acres arable

[glasshouse]

Hello all, I am currently in the position of working a stable job but the opportunity is on the horizon of the small family owned arable farm.
I know my way around a tractor but have never actually ‘done’ farming.
Is taking it on myself viable? All the machinery is bought and paid for albeit older gear. It all is currently earning its keep and farming year after year.
There would be a lot to learn I know that. And a pay cut. But would it keep a man busy and keep its head above water? Or is the future bleak for such a farm? Renting it all out to a larger farm a better option? Sentimental value is high and I feel I owe it to past generations to at least have a go.

Just do it
You will be able to fix everything u break
Plus go out to work three days a week

 

[Bury the Trash]

You can easily tits up a 160ac part time arable proposition by adding some stock just to keep busy.

Get contractor in for drilling and cutting. Do the low draft work yourself as that's the profitable bit.

If you want sheep / cows let a grazier come on and pay you for the pleasure. Ring them up when sheep die / cows get out.

Why make a hobby into hard work?

yes, livestock keeping is a completely different matter, a different type of responsibility and treating like just a numbers game is the wrong attitude imo.

 

[digger64]

Something seriously wrong with the industry if you can have an asset of at least 1.7 million + another 300k of gear and working capital invested in the job and all that money tied up still means you need to do a full time off farm job to live as the returns/ profit from the job are so poor that it cannot sustain even one full time wage!

I seem to remember at college -return on tenants capital was a key business performance indicator .
Another one was management and investment income - I dont think that matters or exists nowadays for some reason other !

 

[glasshouse]

I seem to remember at college -return on tenants capital was a key business performance indicator .
Another one was management and investment income - I dont think that matters or exists nowadays for some reason other !

It still matters, but in the land of printed money everything is upside down.

 

[glasshouse]

yes, livestock keeping is a completely different matter, a different type of responsibility and treating like just a numbers game is the wrong attitude imo.

There is nothing like keeping your own livestock
At least there was till the sfp penalties started

 

[MattR]

It all depends

That pretty much sums it up. Two examples:

160 acres A
Contractors do most of the major operations
Minimal equipment kept
Any repairs done by dealers
Grain is sold/moved at harvest, no dryer
Straw chopped
Input decisions left to agronomist, books left to accountant
Minimal buildings to maintain

160 acres B
Done by you with all your own gear
Repairs/maintenance done by you (some years a combine alone might take weeks of work pre-harvest)
Grain stored on farm (particularly if a mishmash of old bins, augers, elevators etc- can take huge amounts of time)
Straw baled and carried by you
Grain dryer to maintain and operate
Maybe hauling/spreading dung from nearby livestock farms
You take an active role in (or do own) agronomy
Do all own paperwork, VAT etc
Do your own building repairs (often a variety of old sheds and barns)
Carry out projects yourself, eg concreting, new shed, implement build/adaption

Both could be summed up as "farming 160 acres arable" but are vastly different propositions in terms of man-hours. The latter could easily be pretty much full-time at that scale, the former could be just an evening job at ten times that acreage.

 

[Dead Rabbits]

How can it be a weekend job when you have clutches and gearboxes to repair, roof sheets to put on, a wodge of spray tickets to get through, grain stores to clean out, dryer to repair, roguing to do, combine to get ready, seed to order, accounts to do every month, etc etc. There isn’t half some bollox talked about how it’s possible to do 180 acres as a part time job. It isn’t, it’s full time if you do it properly. But I even run my own lime spreader and sort out about 50 miles of under drains.

You sound like my dad and uncle. They grow about 600 acres of combinable crops and make it look hard. Not a knock it’s Just a different perspective. They always had the labor so grew the job to fit that. I never have the labor so streamline the job to what’s achievable.

 

[kiwi pom]

I’m busy from dawn till dusk. Half the morning cleaning the clutch parts and bell housing out on my tractor ready for reassembly. Half an hour talking to agronomist. Then took the drill I’d borrowed from a mate back to his farm. While I was there I got roped into fixing a diesel leak and wiring short on his Ford 6600. Took all afternoon. Got back home at 5pm. After tea sprayed the beet, two fields, one a mile away. Finished washing out by 9 pm.

There's lots of ways of doing the same thing, looking at your post, you talked to the agronomist for a bit, perhaps it could have been done on the phone and you sprayed a couple of paddocks after tea. So with slightly more reliable machinery that didn't need constant attention, your day could be classed as part time farming after work.

 

[Cowmansam]

If 300 dairy and all followers is manageable with 2 men 160 arable is not a full time no matter how you want to spin it your either rough as a dog on machines like taking them apart for fun or just talking dribble end of the day you plant it once pick a few weeds spray it two three times and Harvest it and don’t mention paperwork you want paper work get a super market contract and see what it really is

 

[Tarw Coch]

That pretty much sums it up. Two examples:

160 acres A
Contractors do most of the major operations
Minimal equipment kept
Any repairs done by dealers
Grain is sold/moved at harvest, no dryer
Straw chopped
Input decisions left to agronomist, books left to accountant
Minimal buildings to maintain

160 acres B
Done by you with all your own gear
Repairs/maintenance done by you (some years a combine alone might take weeks of work pre-harvest)
Grain stored on farm (particularly if a mishmash of old bins, augers, elevators etc- can take huge amounts of time)
Straw baled and carried by you
Grain dryer to maintain and operate
Maybe hauling/spreading dung from nearby livestock farms
You take an active role in (or do own) agronomy
Do all own paperwork, VAT etc
Do your own building repairs (often a variety of old sheds and barns)
Carry out projects yourself, eg concreting, new shed, implement build/adaption

Both could be summed up as "farming 160 acres arable" but are vastly different propositions in terms of man-hours. The latter could easily be pretty much full-time at that scale, the former could be just an evening job at ten times that acreage.

Sounds to me like option A has spent a large proportion of income, option B has kept a fair proportion

 

[Cowmansam]

Sounds to me like option A has spent a large proportion of income, option B has kept a fair proportion

Depends what he’s allowing himself as an hourly wage if he’s full time as he says mans on much less than minimum wage

 

[Hfd Cattle]

If it's 160 acres of arable take it on ...but ....you will need to learn how to ski to make it viable

 

[Tarw Coch]

Depends what he’s allowing himself as an hourly wage if he’s full time as he says mans on much less than minimum wage

Could easily be less than minimum wage depending on the hours put in but it sounds like he enjoys the job overall despite the problems the job throws up.
Could easily be making more than the average man in a job but working more hours.
Could well be a blend of hobby and making a living.

 

[Cowmansam]

Could easily be less than minimum wage depending on the hours put in but it sounds like he enjoys the job overall despite the problems the job throws up.
Could easily be making more than the average man in a job but working more hours.
Could well be a blend of hobby and making a living.

Oh I don’t disagree with that for him it seems to be a lifestyle thing and that’s perfectly fine but it’s the same as anything can make it as hard or as easy as you want to I know a guy milking 40 cows and it’s him and his mum and dad from 5 in morning till 5 at night some people just like to work hard not smart

 

[GeorgeK]

It's easy for a big farmer to think 160ac is no work, of course it isn't when it's not enough to warm up the coolant in the quadtrack and lexion. On a farm of this size the issue is turnover because there's not much leeway to absorb high or unexpected costs. I've read on here new tractors costing £2000 to be serviced, you don't get much fixed at a dealer for £5000 and an unexpected cost like that on 160ac will blow the budget for the year. So run old kit and fix it yourself, but of course you need a backup so you end up with 2 or 3 of everything and more plates to keep spinning. The fear of breakdowns keeps you hyper sensitive to every squeak, vibration and burning smell trying to catch problems before they cost too much. I'm not saying it's not possible or can't be very rewarding but some costs these days are so high they can be very worrying on a small turnover.

 

[Cowmansam]

Would you need anything more than a old 80 horse tractor on that amount of land can damn near fix anything on a 1980s model for less than 2k

 

[roscoe erf]

Sow it in a week go in with the sprayer a few times then harvest it in a few days
Keep the day job aswell

What do arable farmers do all day

Ski and moan

 

[Cowmansam]

Ski and moan

Don’t forget shooting

 

[delilah]

This is precisely the sort of farm that should be used as an acid test to see if there will be any point to ELMS.
Will the numbers make it a more attractive proposition to farm it as an autonomous unit, rather than handing it over to the birds and the bees ?
If so, then great, because it means there will be a reason for the next generation of farmers giving it a go, learning the skills necessary from their elders.
If not, then agriculture in this country is fooked, because one of the greatest threats it faces is loss of critical mass, of sufficient people coming through who know how to farm.

 

[stroller]

Reckon your just slow

Why work fast, take things easy!