Clive Bailye, a Peter Hepworth for the modern times!

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
I think his claims of hardship were exaggerated for effect. When Oliver Walston said he lost money, that was after paying himself a pretty decent rent. I think the sale of 1000 acres might really have been to buy out siblings after his father died as was the earlier sale and leaseback of much of the rest of the farm to a pension fund (which he later repurchased).

The predictions made in Against the Grain are finally coming true. Its hard to believe it took 22 years to kill off the CAP giro cheque.
In his 35 harvests book in 1991/2 he says he got rid of the land because of high mortgage payments and high labour costs but then in 1995 he went and bought the 2000 rented acres at Thriplow from Kent County Council Pension fund although from what he writes it seems the family had sold it to them previously.
 
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Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
its all about opinion, we all have our own and it will be a sad day when we dont. nobody is always right and hopfully always wrong! hepworth wasnt right all the time , although he often was but i never heard him say when he did get it wrong.
He often wrote about his mistakes and how his foolishness had resulted in abysmal yields falling to as low as 10.9 tonnes a hectare of spring barely or similar.
 
Location
Cambridge
Oliver's son David now runs the farm. Oliver was still about last time i was there about 3 years ago. David is a true credit to farmimg. He is also currently holding both Minnette and Tom B to account on twitter. He is a very very clever chap and also one of the best debators ive seen in recent farming time.
Worth following on twitter. He is also a real asset to his local community.
follow @ooohhh Farmer i think his handle is
Really? I always thought he was a bit of a knob.
 

Andrew K

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Essex
I could be very wrong on this but I believe Peter Hepworth died of a lung related disease, I also have a feeling that his son emigrated To Canada to farm.

I could be wrong though on both points.
Last thing I heard ,Paul Hepworth was running a machinery dealership called Hepson Eqpt and was selling Sumo stuff amongst other things.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Interesting video of Oliver's son


Showing us his new grain store & a new design of combine a axial flow. Incredible yeilds of 3 ton of barley & a totally amazing 4 ton of wheat, variety Norman. A more average 14 ton/acre sugar beet,

Thank you for that. Gracious what memories: FHDS Grants. Intervention. Burning straw. NSDO. Truly a different time. Norman, Brigand and Avalon.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Interesting video of Oliver's son


Showing us his new grain store & a new design of combine a axial flow. Incredible yeilds of 3 ton of barley & a totally amazing 4 ton of wheat, variety Norman. A more average 14 ton/acre sugar beet,
Must have been about 1980 i think.
Thats when axial flows arrived
Maybe 81
The claas 106 came out in 81
The eu cereals regime was taking off
 

NLF

Member
Must have been about 1980 i think.
Thats when axial flows arrived
Maybe 81
The claas 106 came out in 81
The eu cereals regime was taking off
It was 1981. The new dryer is mentioned in the farm report that year.

We had a pair of Claas Dominator 85s, followed by 96s then in 1984, we moved to 106s. Back in those days there was barely any kit on the farm more than two years old, a machinery dealer's paradise.

As Devils Advocate says, 1984 was an outstanding harvest. One field of Norman achieved 12t per hectare. We averaged 10t hect wheat across the whole farm (growing Norman and Virtues as 1st, 2nd and 3rd wheats), a feat we didn't repeat for many years. Every single tonne was sold into intervention.
 

NLF

Member
In his 35 harvests book in 1991/2 he says he got rid of the land because of high mortgage payments and high labour costs but then in 1995 he went and bought the 2000 rented acres at Thriplow from Kent County Council Pension fund although from what he writes it seems the family had sold it to them previously.
There was a fashion in the 1960s and 70s to sell and lease back farms. The idea was that the return on land as a landlord was 5 or 6%, whereas the return on a farmer's working capital was more like 10-12%. Thus, by selling the freehold of your farm (usually to an institutional owner) you could free up capital which could be redeployed into the business at a higher return. Sale and leasebacks were also used to buy out relations. With the benefit of 50 years hindsight (and inflation) it was a daft idea as the majority of returns from land have come from capital appreciation.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
There was a fashion in the 1960s and 70s to sell and lease back farms. The idea was that the return on land as a landlord was 5 or 6%, whereas the return on a farmer's working capital was more like 10-12%. Thus, by selling the freehold of your farm (usually to an institutional owner) you could free up capital which could be redeployed into the business at a higher return. Sale and leasebacks were also used to buy out relations. With the benefit of 50 years hindsight (and inflation) it was a daft idea as the majority of returns from land have come from capital appreciation.
It wasnt daft at all if u bought them back
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.1%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 67 35.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

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As reported in Independent


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

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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