glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
What annoys me about branson is his assertion that he did it all himself from nothing.
i couldnt care about the family money behind him, or the strings that kept him out of jail, but for gods sake admit it!!
Crisis, what Crisis?
- Thread starter ski
- Start date
i couldnt care about the family money behind him, or the strings that kept him out of jail, but for gods sake admit it!!
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
The remarkable thing is that i used to think like you clive, till about the age you are.
Then bse , foot and mouth, £60 wheat and my landlords nearly destroyed my business.
And i too owned the biggest combine then available.
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we al had that well the £60/wheat was a bit of a perk but as I have told you before not all landlords are like you say yours is, but you do like to generalise which is what gets on my wick
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Henarar, i wil add the word MY.
hillman
Member
- Location
- Wicklow Ireland
If @Clive you advocate delagation why did you spend so much money on the drill and not get a contractor to do it ?
Possibility cause you want to control that vital piece of your operation and the same holds true for a lot of farmers but yes at times we should pick up the phone ,but also harder to do if things tight as we can't pass on the costs
We have gone around in circles here and it boils back to cooperation either through a buying or selling group ,getting a larger order or batch to sell might shave a few ££s but it's demands loyalty !
Possibility cause you want to control that vital piece of your operation and the same holds true for a lot of farmers but yes at times we should pick up the phone ,but also harder to do if things tight as we can't pass on the costs
We have gone around in circles here and it boils back to cooperation either through a buying or selling group ,getting a larger order or batch to sell might shave a few ££s but it's demands loyalty !
But we had a co op in milk marque but the clever buggers though thy could make a penny more than the neigbours and it withered away, (not helped by governement but it was already before they stepped in) it doesnt seem to be in our mind set to be cooperative, cant see it changing, possibly because we have always tended to have bigger range of farm sizes so they can swallow the smaller ones or because we are a smaller land mass then say France and therefore more urban centered so the next generation will go to earn more in town than struggle on in farming. If you are a smaller farmer then the way to prosper is to get closer to the final buyer and cut out the middle men, there are dozens of way to make a decent living from a farm, not all of them include growing food, as we are on the edge of a town I fully acknowledge that is far easier for me than those in the middle of nowhere, but isolation can be useful for certain things
cudota
Member
- Location
- east lancashire
No your wrong there . Like you say when dairy farmers tried to stick together coops where bad now when its ended up as one bigger buyer taking the majority of the milk doing the same things the original coops where doing its good
Dont understand what you mean ?
cudota
Member
- Location
- east lancashire
Sarcasm ...the lowest form of wit
- Location
- Devon
I think you need to differentiate between owning land and farming. Everyone wants ownership but few want to farm.
We could be approaching a time when owners will pay us to manage their fields rather than charge rent. This could be the first phase of a reduction in land values..
The corporations don't want to farm, they'd have to pay us a minimum wage to do what we do now.
Many years ago, there was a study to see how more efficient farms could be, but soon stopped when they couldn't get anywhere near the low costs we already operated at.
The important thing is not size but to be at an optimum. The most you can produce at the lowest cost within your personal circumstances. The size needs to suit you rather than trying to work to a size, to be efficient.
We could be approaching a time when owners will pay us to manage their fields rather than charge rent. This could be the first phase of a reduction in land values..
The corporations don't want to farm, they'd have to pay us a minimum wage to do what we do now.
Many years ago, there was a study to see how more efficient farms could be, but soon stopped when they couldn't get anywhere near the low costs we already operated at.
The important thing is not size but to be at an optimum. The most you can produce at the lowest cost within your personal circumstances. The size needs to suit you rather than trying to work to a size, to be efficient.
That is why the state farms in the ussr were crap no one wanted to put in the hours, unlike an office etc if work doent get done they do it the next day and there isnt a problem, we all know farming isnt like that.
With low unemployment leading to higher wages it may turn out that some of the mega farm companies and farms run by agents could find that, despite their size they are the ones in trouble, family farms will work for nothing if they are keen to survive, a worker will still demand wages, pension, holidays etc if there is no profit to pay for this and little asset base to borrow against there could be some big changes
cudota
Member
- Location
- east lancashire
Recently talking to youngster that works on a very large estate .They start lambing time at christmas and don't finish till may with low land and hill flocks then into lambs going to slaughter and before long putting teaser tups out the amount of work to do is just relentless surely this can not be good for keeping good staff
- Location
- Lincolnshire
My brother has worked on large estates. Working 16 hour days through harvest time then told to b***er off in October. Welcome to the world of the big agribusiness. No respecter of people that's for sure. Only one thing matters and that's profit for those at the top.
that's the way in every seasonal job
Thinking that we will be paid to look after the land by the big owners is a long way from reality right now.
Farmers will fall over themselves to bid unsustainable rents for land. Until that ceases we will always be in a lessor's market.
Right. @DrWazzock - was your brother under the impression that this was a full time job? Every harvest job I have worked has been on the understanding of a defined start point and an approximate finish date. The one job where I was told to go unexpectedly early was on a small farm where the boss just thought he could finish the job off himself. May be he had just had enough of me. That doesn't mean I have a gripe about all small farmers being nasty people.
Farmers will fall over themselves to bid unsustainable rents for land. Until that ceases we will always be in a lessor's market.
Right. @DrWazzock - was your brother under the impression that this was a full time job? Every harvest job I have worked has been on the understanding of a defined start point and an approximate finish date. The one job where I was told to go unexpectedly early was on a small farm where the boss just thought he could finish the job off himself. May be he had just had enough of me. That doesn't mean I have a gripe about all small farmers being nasty people.
