cropping

[DrWazzock]

Other than the odd flash in the pan, Farming just isn’t really a viable business proposition production wise unless you are on good land. Capital growth and tax relief is where it’s at. But it’s only worth something when you are dead.

 

[Pan mixer]

An intensive enterprise would help - unless it is pigs or poultry atm.

 

[VIP]

Farm it and get a job as well. You can farm 400ac in your spare time. Go drive a van for ASDA for £30k…..

 

[tullah]

Farm it and get a job as well. You can farm 400ac in your spare time. Go drive a van for ASDA for £30k…..

If you mean just counting those hours in the field sitting and listening to music on a tractor then yes it would be simple. Life's not quite like that.
What about office, meetings, maintenance, repairs and general upkeep on farm. I could do a never ending list. As they say there's always a job needs doing on a farm.

 

[teslacoils]

No, there's always a job that can be found if you want one. Without stock, 300ac is not a large time committment. A lot comes down to how much you want to out into gear, and the split of time you want between driving, fixing etc. You can spend a lot of time in a nice Fendt ploughing etc, or you can buy a cheap set of rolls, 5m discs, etc and do it that way.

Every farm is different. I'm about to prepare my brain for five weeks roguing, seven days a week, five or six hours a day. I mean, I hope it takes less time. And I hope my children come and help. But the actual "farming" takes very little of my year.

The benchmark for ease would be half the farm in with wheat. Half ab6 fallow. Contactor comes and shoves fibrophos on. Twice over with discs and press in August. Roll. Spray off in October. Contractor comes and drills it. Preem on. Sit back, light pipe until valentine's. 300kg urea per hectare on a chilly day. Now you've 200ac of wheat so that's not even one full days spraying. Four days spraying fungicides in three months of spring. Another dollop of urea. Contractor cuts wheat and carts it to central store. Baler man come bales straw.

There you go. 400ac farm. 12 days ripping it up. Two days spreading. 10 days spraying.

Beyond that ask yourself "does my being on farm add me any value?". Yeah, you could store it on farm. And yeah you could combine it and drill it yourself and spend hours fixing stuff. But if you don't enjoy that ffs get someone in to do the bits you don't want.

 

[Spencer]

No, there's always a job that can be found if you want one. Without stock, 300ac is not a large time committment. A lot comes down to how much you want to out into gear, and the split of time you want between driving, fixing etc. You can spend a lot of time in a nice Fendt ploughing etc, or you can buy a cheap set of rolls, 5m discs, etc and do it that way.

Every farm is different. I'm about to prepare my brain for five weeks roguing, seven days a week, five or six hours a day. I mean, I hope it takes less time. And I hope my children come and help. But the actual "farming" takes very little of my year.

The benchmark for ease would be half the farm in with wheat. Half ab6 fallow. Contactor comes and shoves fibrophos on. Twice over with discs and press in August. Roll. Spray off in October. Contractor comes and drills it. Preem on. Sit back, light pipe until valentine's. 300kg urea per hectare on a chilly day. Now you've 200ac of wheat so that's not even one full days spraying. Four days spraying fungicides in three months of spring. Another dollop of urea. Contractor cuts wheat and carts it to central store. Baler man come bales straw.

There you go. 400ac farm. 12 days ripping it up. Two days spreading. 10 days spraying.

Beyond that ask yourself "does my being on farm add me any value?". Yeah, you could store it on farm. And yeah you could combine it and drill it yourself and spend hours fixing stuff. But if you don't enjoy that ffs get someone in to do the bits you don't want.

Wow... Way to suck the joy out of it all..

 

[teslacoils]

Wow... Way to suck the joy out of it all..

Sorry. I've had years of dad having loads of tinkering. I just prefered to have a list of the winter jobs, get them done quick, and then that was that.

 

[VIP]

If you mean just counting those hours in the field sitting and listening to music on a tractor then yes it would be simple. Life's not quite like that.
What about office, meetings, maintenance, repairs and general upkeep on farm. I could do a never ending list. As they say there's always a job needs doing on a farm.

Agree…you’ve got all those bent nails that need straightening. A load of trial days to go to because there’s free pork rolls and it’s nice to meet up for a chat. Four machinery shows to bounce on some seats, kick the tires and tell the rep he’s overpriced, even though you have no intention of buying. You can make this job as difficult as you like, but plenty people make it work.

 

[colhonk]

Where is the joy in getting contractors in. I enjoy the tractoring ect, It`s just all the other sh^t that is imposed on us that spoils it

 

[teslacoils]

Where is the joy in getting contractors in. I enjoy the tractoring ect, It`s just all the other sh^t that is imposed on us that spoils it

Ah, horses for courses. The joy for me is not struggling to sort harvest labour; fixing my broken combine on the few good days while everyone else cracks on; etc.

 

[colhonk]

fixing my broken combine

Well, I can agree with that part

 

[ewald]

Part time farming a small arable farm works well in theory, looking at the hours needed - flexibility is the problem though.
If you have an off-farm job with set hours it isn’t always as straightforward - my two current issues are fitting in work around weather windows for spraying and trying to organise grain lorries on days I am here.

 

[teslacoils]

Part time farming a small arable farm works well in theory, looking at the hours needed - flexibility is the problem though.
If you have an off-farm job with set hours it isn’t always as straightforward - my two current issues are fitting in work around weather windows for spraying and trying to organise grain lorries on days I am here.

Yes, Im not sure how well it fits with a full time other job, unless that job happens to have extended summer breaks; the ability to take three weeks off in a row etc. Fits very well with another part-time job.....although occasional late nights spraying. Get one of those boom lights so you can see if its working ok.