- Location
- Lincolnshire
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently.
If all I did was grow one particular crop or concentrate on one particular enterprise then my life would be whole lot easier and most likely more profitable.
I think this is what has changed re small mixed farming businesses. Whether it’s sheep, cattle, cereals or break crops, it’s nothing like as simple as it used to be. You need health plans, integrated pest management, better storage etc etc. Each facet of the mixed farm has become a specialism itself, and TBH it’s easy to become Jack of all trades, master of none.
What’s the answer? Collaboration with other specialists? Let parts of the farm for different cropping specialisms? Or solider on spinning a lot of different plates at once?
I get the agronomic benefits of mixed farming, I really do, but commercially and logistically I find it harder to make it stack up especially if you want any time off at all.
If all I did was grow one particular crop or concentrate on one particular enterprise then my life would be whole lot easier and most likely more profitable.
I think this is what has changed re small mixed farming businesses. Whether it’s sheep, cattle, cereals or break crops, it’s nothing like as simple as it used to be. You need health plans, integrated pest management, better storage etc etc. Each facet of the mixed farm has become a specialism itself, and TBH it’s easy to become Jack of all trades, master of none.
What’s the answer? Collaboration with other specialists? Let parts of the farm for different cropping specialisms? Or solider on spinning a lot of different plates at once?
I get the agronomic benefits of mixed farming, I really do, but commercially and logistically I find it harder to make it stack up especially if you want any time off at all.