Family farms - how do you cope?

[Chasingmytail]

I can never understand how the funds works for a standard family farm. You see parents and big family loads kids yet the money has to be shared pay the bills and disposable income. Parents not really working as such but need to take a drawing. Financially I dont get how say a sheep farm can hold up so many individuals.

 

[czechmate]

I can never understand how the funds works for a standard family farm. You see parents and big family loads kids yet the money has to be shared pay the bills and disposable income. Parents not really working as such but need to take a drawing. Financially I dont get how say a sheep farm can hold up so many individuals.

With the value of land (uk, at the moment), the simple answer is it doesn’t work to tick all the boxes.

 

[Raider112]

Wills are important but need to be updated from time to time. I know of a situation where a large family had the estate shared fairly equally except the sons working on the family farms had a lump sum each before the share out. The old fella died a long time before his wife but the will didn't come in to force until she died, by which time the lump sum was worth very little and siblings who were on the whole more than comfortably off ended up getting a much bigger share than intended and the ones who worked the farms had to dig deep to buy their farms.

 

[kiwi pom]

I can never understand how the funds works for a standard family farm. You see parents and big family loads kids yet the money has to be shared pay the bills and disposable income. Parents not really working as such but need to take a drawing. Financially I dont get how say a sheep farm can hold up so many individuals.

What's a "standard family farm"? I guess everyone's situation will be different with debt, rent, tenancy or owned outright etc. Then there's the ability to run a profitable business, some can do it some cant. I should think the numbers could vary wildly.

 

[worker]

It's often sad in family farming situation when there is tension and business gets split up, often these situations aren't very nice for family to deal with the aftermath
[/QUOTE

Wills are important but need to be updated from time to time. I know of a situation where a large family had the estate shared fairly equally except the sons working on the family farms had a lump sum each before the share out. The old fella died a long time before his wife but the will didn't come in to force until she died, by which time the lump sum was worth very little and siblings who were on the whole more than comfortably off ended up getting a much bigger share than intended and the ones who worked the farms had to dig deep to buy their farms.

can lump sums be index linked?

 

[glasshouse]

I can never understand how the funds works for a standard family farm. You see parents and big family loads kids yet the money has to be shared pay the bills and disposable income. Parents not really working as such but need to take a drawing. Financially I dont get how say a sheep farm can hold up so many individuals.

Some farms have big off farm investments due to historical shrewdness, luck, or marrying money
Other farms have big off farm borrowings due to the opposite of above.
The difference can be hundreds of thousands annually

 

[Sheila Cooke]

I have several things for you.

Land Dialogues
This is a beautiful and thoughtful video about food, farming and climate change made by Clem Sandison.

Survey
I would like to invite you to participate in this research project at the University of Sheffield. The purpose of which is to better understand land management practices across the UK. There is a £500 prize draw for completing the survey, which take approx. 20 mins. The findings will be communicated to policymakers. Follow the link here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/sustainablesoil

The researcher's name is Dr. Anna Krzywoszynska, and she is interviewed in this video:

Farmers Weekly Event
I would like to invite you to hear me speak at this event on the 11th of March in the Scottish Borders:

Grass Management - Agenda - Farmer's Weekly