Downsizing due to Brexit and the cost of Machinary.

[Feldspar]

Your proberley right but we kept talking to him and he would clear a field of partridges just before dark for drilling. We have a small shoot at home so there is a bit of sympathy. There are parts of the farm not shot by the in hand shoot that we saved for nighttime 24hr drilling. I am also a tenant to the Estate so can also just move through the hegde and be off the centre core of the shoot. But it is all pita and it all adds up to not being worth all the hassle for very little.

Very interesting comments re the shoot. We are just considering a bit of land which has a big partridge shoot over it. Could you just expand a bit more on what makes it so difficult. Thanks.

 

[TWF]

Interesting decision and to echo above comments it's laudable that you have followed the logic of the numbers.

Yes it was quite an easy decision in the end. Trouble is my tractor/ccombine driver has now just handed in his notice as he was worried about the lack of overtime going forward. Not the best news you want to hear the day before your holiday and havest only three weeks away. But it does give us more scope for some more radical changes.

 

[TWF]

Very interesting comments re the shoot. We are just considering a bit of land which has a big partridge shoot over it. Could you just expand a bit more on what makes it so difficult. Thanks.

Basically it curtails any night work as they roost out in the middle of the fields and won't move much in the dark , so if cultivating or rolling you could soon end up with a large bill on your plate for a few hundred partridges at over £30each.
Field walking needs to be done from the outside in as all they want to do is walk over to the next parrish.
Every time we want to go spraying from september on we would inform the keeper so he could walk the outer boundaries where we would start and work on the out lying fields first. You also sometimes have to think of the direction of travel to sweep the birds back in and not push them off.
Once shooting had started they didn't want anything disturbing the day before . You were fine on the shoot day but only after they shot each area. If it was really critical the odd time ,they would let us. Its not so bad when you have a large area, as we just went somewhere else.
The worst time for the keepers is just before the season starts and are fully stocked. As the season progess life gets a bit easier then in February you get free run of the place.

 

[Feldspar]

Basically it curtails any night work as they roost out in the middle of the fields and won't move much in the dark , so if cultivating or rolling you could soon end up with a large bill on your plate for a few hundred partridges at over £30each.
Field walking needs to be done from the outside in as all they want to do is walk over to the next parrish.
Every time we want to go spraying from september on we would inform the keeper so he could walk the outer boundaries where we would start and work on the out lying fields first. You also sometimes have to think of the direction of travel to sweep the birds back in and not push them off.
Once shooting had started they didn't want anything disturbing the day before . You were fine on the shoot day but only after they shot each area. If it was really critical the odd time ,they would let us. Its not so bad when you have a large area, as we just went somewhere else.
The worst time for the keepers is just before the season starts and are fully stocked. As the season progess life gets a bit easier then in February you get free run of the place.

Hmmm... doesn't sound great. Enough constraints on farming as it is without that.

 

[TWF]

The Estate let part of thier land to a small syndicate and I have no constraints, a lot easier also I even get a day out with them.

 

[startinghandle]

never had any of that problem when were farming.. perhaps it is because we only had 70 acres but that was enough to be faced with a big tax bill back in the 70's

 

[Spud]

The person taking that 1600 ac on now in the lead up to brexit must be bonkers because if he/she already has 1600 ac of surplus capacity then they are set up wrong already, but likewise if they are reequipping to do the extra work then they are mad ...... completely mad. There are to many variables in BPS, potential food imports, machinery price hikes due to unfavourable trade agreements all underlined by the fact the government want the UK to be an organic producer and gardening haven rather than a commercial producer. Now is the time to consolidate and prepare for the potential future, and not take risks.

Where there is threat, there is opportunity. Clearly, your veiw is different to mine, and sure there will be some belt tightening. Diversity and flexibility will be key going forward, as will judging each opportunity on its merits. Its not all madness and it will be hard work. Depends on the will to survive I suppose

 

[glasshouse]

Yes it certainly makes it quite difficult to farm around a shoot. You need a good relationship with the keeper with lots of give and take. In the early days it wasn't to bad as we were drilled up by the end of September. Agromanist had the hardest job trying to walk crops with out moving too many birds off the place.

pheasants used to claim 40 or so acres in a good year, 100 in a bad one needing redrilled.

 

[glasshouse]

Your proberley right but we kept talking to him and he would clear a field of partridges just before dark for drilling. We have a small shoot at home so there is a bit of sympathy. There are parts of the farm not shot by the in hand shoot that we saved for nighttime 24hr drilling. I am also a tenant to the Estate so can also just move through the hegde and be off the centre core of the shoot. But it is all pita and it all adds up to not being worth all the hassle for very little.

Its never a good idea to contract farm for your landlord.

 

[TWF]

Its never a good idea to contract farm for your landlord.

Time will tell. We had a good relationship and hopefully it will carry on. At the moment I am still picking up tree shear jobs from him in the woods which are pretty over grown on the rides.

 

[TWF]

pheasants used to claim 40 or so acres in a good year, 100 in a bad one needing redrilled.

The pheasants don't do too much damage. The partridges usually take the first 12m around all the game covers in Osr.

 

[Brisel]

Its never a good idea to contract farm for your landlord.

Only if they make it worth your while. They get the tax perks of farming in hand but require a contractor to get their hands dirty. Plenty of successful CFA agreements out there, benefitting both parties. We just get to hear about the bad ones!