Are farm children prepared to live off farm?

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
Recently helped an internet illiterate neighbour recruit a beef stockmen to help him as he wanted to slow down. Advert clearly stated no accommodation on the farm, but that the salary was significant enough to compensate for that. It's Sussex so not exactly rural, would be a 10-15 minute drive from the farm to the village.

The number of people who enquired about the job and then pulled out when they were told they'd have to find their own accommodation was astounding, many children brought on farms didn't even seem to understand the concept of private rentals, that they were entitled to live on the farm. There isn't any breeding stock so no operational requirement to live on the farm. Do farming parents do enough to prepare their children for adult life? I suppose many of them haven't rented before either but was quite atonishing.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I’d imagine it was more a case that the wages offered wouldn’t cover the cost of decent private rental in Sussex.
It was ever thus. I was brought up on a farm. Moved away for work. I remember a 1 bedroom flat above a takeaway in Sale , Cheshire being something like £500 a month in the early 90’s. Would have taken over half my professional engineer salary so not considered worth it by me. Ended up renting a room for £30 a week in a sh!t area. Lived there all week. Went home at weekends. Landlords coined it in. 7 of us in the house, 2 in the cellar. Drugs and crime rife. The wonderful housing market based economy. Fine if you own/inherit property. sh!t if you just need somewhere to live.
Would anybody afford to move away now and find decent property to rent for most agricultural wages on offer? I doubt it. Best is usually a rat infested caravan overlooking the slurry pit, like my mate lived in on a beef unit before he told them where to stick it and got a nice job in a factory.
Why is it considered good for youngsters to start their careers in awful soul destroying conditions?
 

Formatted

Member
Livestock Farmer
Would anybody afford to move away now and find decent property to rent for most agricultural wages on offer? I doubt it. Best is usually a rat infested caravan overlooking the slurry pit, like my mate lived in on a beef unit before he told them where to stick it and got a nice job in a factory.
Why is it considered good for youngsters to start their careers in awful soul destroying conditions?

Well exactly, the salary did more than compensate for the lack of house, even after tax but that is exactly it, many would have rather lived in a caravan on the farm, which wasn't on offer for exactly that reason.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Character forming...
Depressing. At a time when I was trying to train to build my career I had many sleepless nights and added stress due to the general disruption of living in a shared house with druggies and claimants. Trying to learn various software packages etc with virtually no sleep wasn’t good. I got through but it could have been a whole lot easier and pleasanter. I suppose if I’d paid my entire salary out as rent it would have been better but what’s the point of working then? Some contemporaries who did that are still up their arses in debt. They always have and still do live hand to mouth feeding their earnings into our insane property based economy.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I came to realise though why only 5 out 70 graduates off my engineering degree actually went into engineering. All the rest went into the City, accountancy etc. If I hadn’t been such a naive farm boy I’d have done the same! Or maybe I wouldn’t actually. I like engineering. Finance is eye wateringly boring.
It’s a rot really. This country has had 50 years of rot with the move to dependency on financial services and the property market with everything else left to wither.
 

super4

Member
Location
Dorset
Not sure what Sussex is like, but here in Dorset there is no accommodation to rent any where. I have friends living on friends sofa's as they have no other choice. If a place comes available then landlord can select the best tenant. 2.5x rental income as salary needed as well.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Well exactly, the salary did more than compensate for the lack of house, even after tax but that is exactly it, many would have rather lived in a caravan on the farm, which wasn't on offer for exactly that reason.
Must be a decent salary to rent an acceptable pad in a Sussex village. Even here you’d need £700 a month to rent something habitable in our village. An agricultural worker ( they are all self employed 50 something year old piece workers here now) would need to be on £30k to live comfortably in this rural backwater.
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
2 of our 3 have bought houses of their own, the other is renting one of our cottages at mate rate allegedly saving for a deposit on something to buy, he only needs another 100 grand or so.
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
Must be a decent salary to rent an acceptable pad in a Sussex village. Even here you’d need £700 a month to rent something habitable in our village. An agricultural worker ( they are all self employed 50 something year old piece workers here now) would need to be on £30k to live comfortably in this rural backwater.
Aren't most farm staff on 30K plus now? They are here.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Aren't most farm staff on 30K plus now? They are here.
Wouldn’t really know how it works out equivalent to an annual salary but here £10 to £12 an hour is the norm but for only maybe a few hours a week in winter to as many as you can work at harvest. “Working managers” will be on more and will be full time salaried maybe up to £45k. They earn it as well!
 

vantage

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pembs
I've always wondered why we've never been able to employ anyone!
IMG_20220228_103214.jpg
:ROFLMAO:
 

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
In general I think children brought up on farms are not very worldly wise, or familiar with some of life's realities, however it is not exclusive to them. I*n addition, it also depends what part of life we are talking about.

I think the education system in general is very poor are preparing children for life, and teaching life skills.

Further education throws them into that environment where the first trip to University is a new page in life, and all the issues relating to providing for themselves is part of the shock :scratchhead:

You must compensate for the level of IQ (sorry to be blunt) of young people who choose farm labour as a job, however this needs to change as the technology and expectations change.

So, who do you want ?

A sxxt shovel'r, or someone who can deal with the demands of a 21st Century Farm ? As at the moment, you appear to attracting those that can't even read the advert properly.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I don’t know. I think I was much more worldly wise about the realities of business and making and living having been involved in the accounts at home from an early age. Everything went on round the kitchen table so you were aware if not completely involved in budgeting, planning etc.
The fact that I took umbridge to the idea of working purely to pay rent to a landlord rather than to build savings for the future was down to my “education” obtained round the farm dining table. Others, from urban areas would meekly enter into a 25 year mortgage agreement as they simply could not see the slavery it entailed in my view, having not had the same farmyard grounding in “making things pay”.
 
Depressing. At a time when I was trying to train to build my career I had many sleepless nights and added stress due to the general disruption of living in a shared house with druggies and claimants. Trying to learn various software packages etc with virtually no sleep wasn’t good. I got through but it could have been a whole lot easier and pleasanter. I suppose if I’d paid my entire salary out as rent it would have been better but what’s the point of working then? Some contemporaries who did that are still up their arses in debt. They always have and still do live hand to mouth feeding their earnings into our insane property based economy.
You make an old caravan overlooking a slurry pit sound very appealing.
 

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
I don’t know. I think I was much more worldly wise about the realities of business and making and living having been involved in the accounts at home from an early age. Everything went on round the kitchen table so you were aware if not completely involved in budgeting, planning etc.
The fact that I took umbridge to the idea of working purely to pay rent to a landlord rather than to build savings for the future was down to my “education” obtained round the farm dining table. Others, from urban areas would meekly enter into a 25 year mortgage agreement as they simply could not see the slavery it entailed in my view, having not had the same farmyard grounding in “making things pay”.
A great attitude to have, but you have to walk before you can run. You see paying almost half your salary in rent as madness, some will agree with you. However, it depends what you want from life, and what sacrifices you are willing to make to get their. Looking back would you do the same again ?

I have children who have paid the painfully high rents in and South of London, however to achieve there objectives and career aspirations, that is where they had to be, and what they had to do at that time. They now have careers and salary's that has allowed them to buy property and pay the ridiculously high prices in that area.

The rental market is driven by supply and demand, and if you are in an area where prices are high, and you need staff, then you need to pay them accordingly.

Maybe the farmer who needs staff would be wise to invest in property that he can rent to his own employee's.
 
Ended up renting a room for £30 a week in a sh!t area. Lived there all week. Went home at weekends. Landlords coined it in. 7 of us in the house, 2 in the cellar. Drugs and crime rife. The wonderful housing market based economy. Fine if you own/inherit property. sh!t if you just need somewhere to live.


Been there in the UK and other countries.

Councils, Civil Service, Government and Authorities not bothered either.

I once reported someone in my flats for dealing in drugs .. Police didn't even bother.
 

D14

Member
Recently helped an internet illiterate neighbour recruit a beef stockmen to help him as he wanted to slow down. Advert clearly stated no accommodation on the farm, but that the salary was significant enough to compensate for that. It's Sussex so not exactly rural, would be a 10-15 minute drive from the farm to the village.

The number of people who enquired about the job and then pulled out when they were told they'd have to find their own accommodation was astounding, many children brought on farms didn't even seem to understand the concept of private rentals, that they were entitled to live on the farm. There isn't any breeding stock so no operational requirement to live on the farm. Do farming parents do enough to prepare their children for adult life? I suppose many of them haven't rented before either but was quite atonishing.

You have to remember some farming families are living in the dark ages with no real concept of the world. Its a very sheltered way of life and comes with many expectations. There is no hope for these people in my view and I've come across many of them as a judge on farms competitions. The way they speak to people and the way they act is shocking some times.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Been there in the UK and other countries.

Councils, Civil Service, Government and Authorities not bothered either.

I once reported someone in my flats for dealing in drugs .. Police didn't even bother.
Yes. Large areas of our own country are actually abandoned by the Law but nobody seems that bothered. That’s what I noticed. These areas are”contained” rather than sorted out properly. Everything we hear from government over the years about leveliing up etc is nonsense. Just sort the crime out. Simple. Allow folks to get on with their lives without the millstone of antisocial behaviour and all the detritus that drugs and criminal gangs bring to city areas. There is never any action, never any real penalties. Nothing but hot air.
 
You have to remember some farming families are living in the dark ages with no real concept of the world. Its a very sheltered way of life and comes with many expectations. There is no hope for these people in my view and I've come across many of them as a judge on farms competitions. The way they speak to people and the way they act is shocking some times.
There’s an awful lot of people not living in the real world.
Just what the real world is is a matter of perspective depending on where you’re looking in from.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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