Farm Management companies..... the way forwards?

T Hectares

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Berkshire
On the ground these companies definitely require a lot from managers to make things work and they work very hard to meet demands with tight resources.

In the case of the pure management companies like Velcourt they only exist because people pay for them and create a demand, so if people want to complain, go to the landowners that employ them!
I'd agree with this !!

It can often be the case that while a business looks financially safe and diverse from the outside, it may be not making the kind of returns it should and is saddled with high fixed costs, the land owner then employs a Farm management company to carry out the changes while the owner hides behind them.

And then the forum experts whine about how said management company "ruined" that traditional estate without knowing anything about it...

However, It would make more sense to me if the land owner employed a Manager directly to ultimately keep more cash in the business, but I guess a FMC is an easier option ??
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Aye but the manager is under the control of the FMC's so is pretty much hamstrung by the FMC stuffed shirts (probably based in a city f**king miles away) and can't run the places like they should be. Frustrating thing is that the managers they employ that I've known are very experienced, knowledgeable, competent people. I've also met/had to deal with lot of the stuffed shirts, only thing going for them is a piece of paper from some College.

Employing a manager directly is the way to go and was how the estates were run prior to the families calling n the FMC, in the first case when the old fella died, in the second the old fella is still hanging on (just). Just so bloody sad and the families and the estates would have been a hell of a lot better off just selling off and taking the hit on any IHT if they hadn't already handed them over.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
If ever there was a thread where rubbish was talked this is it, how many of you chaps could do the job, not many of you as your all sat on your @rse reading this, and some of you would run a mile at the very idea of working that hard or for that matter breaking a sweat, SOME of these outfits do a very good job..
Just because you are commenting on a thread does mean you are sat on your arse. Never heard of mobile phones?
A lot of folks on here have got the big farm management t shirt , even if they no longer do it, and have the wisdom of hindsight to see how stupid a lot of those big management companies are.
Brexit will see the end of them.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Its not appropriate to talk about that exact case on a public forum but like any business, sometime's its better to pull back from one part in order to focus more time and resources on another part that has the potential to do much better. Anyone in the area mentioned above knows that one of the companies has now taken on a much bigger piece of land anyway.

It was inferred that just because a company chooses to walk away from an agreement or farm etc that they have been forced to because they're in financial trouble
So they realised they had offered too much rent,, they couldnt make it add up and pulled out.
That still comes under "trouble".
Meanwhile the agent has been round the remaining tenants saying " bigfatcatcare /velcrumble/ etc are paying x, you will have to match it.
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
Yup owned/ran 250acre lowground unit alongside 2500 acres of high hill for 30yrs, so got the knackered wellies and sealskins if not the tweed jacket, mustard moleskins and college tie. So yeah, I could run an estate FMC style.
 
Location
East Anglia
So they realised they had offered too much rent,, they couldnt make it add up and pulled out.
That still comes under "trouble".
Meanwhile the agent has been round the remaining tenants saying " bigfatcatcare /velcrumble/ etc are paying x, you will have to match it.
Exactly the same thing happened in the early 2000's when commodity prices were low, big prior charges (rents) offered and then a couple years later worked out they had over-bid so either cut them or pulled out, left the (greedy) landowners high and dry
 

KMA

Member
Location
Dumfriesshire
I think the biggest problem is when family who have no knowledge/interest in the land inherit a farm or estate, so initially from their POV it seems reasonable and sensible to bring in an FMC. They'd really be better off either employing a manager direct or selling up.
 

DRC

Member
This thread and the one about working night shifts etc, are inextricably linked in my humble opinion. The race to the bottom, fuelled by the perceived need to farm 1000,s of acres, so paying high FBT rents, needing all the latest expensive machinery .
One of the main reasons there's all this black grass is that corners were cut with min till and poor rotations .
Then some have the audacity to look down their noses at those of us that farm lesser acreage, being referred to as lifestyle farmers and couldn't possibly be businessmen.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
This thread and the one about working night shifts etc, are inextricably linked in my humble opinion. The race to the bottom, fuelled by the perceived need to farm 1000,s of acres, so paying high FBT rents, needing all the latest expensive machinery .
One of the main reasons there's all this black grass is that corners were cut with min till and poor rotations .
Then some have the audacity to look down their noses at those of us that farm lesser acreage, being referred to as lifestyle farmers and couldn't possibly be businessmen.

^ great post, spot on !
 
Location
Devon
This thread and the one about working night shifts etc, are inextricably linked in my humble opinion. The race to the bottom, fuelled by the perceived need to farm 1000,s of acres, so paying high FBT rents, needing all the latest expensive machinery .
One of the main reasons there's all this black grass is that corners were cut with min till and poor rotations .
Then some have the audacity to look down their noses at those of us that farm lesser acreage, being referred to as lifestyle farmers and couldn't possibly be businessmen.

@Brisel
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands

Yes?

There are so many levels to the FMC/landowner agreement. Full management and consultancy package, through to just the FMC or agent recruiting a manager under direct control of the business owner, farm contractor etc.

There will always be hands-off owners, be they institutional investors, vacuum cleaner makers, aristocrats or an owner who has another outside interest who doesn't want to worry about day to day stuff. All want to outsource some level of responsibility. Brexit? God knows. The forthcoming changes will shake the sector up - I suspect there will be less in hand units and more outsourced. Smaller farms? The farmer might have to find an outside job to balance the books so why not collaborate with with one person who can run a few smaller units together? Maybe that's just my bias.

I'll rise to the dig from Shropshire. Scale isn't everything. Attention to detail is. Silvery tounged consultants will produce spreadsheets to the disinterested saying how much more you can make if X is spread over more acres.

I have no idea who makes more (and not just £) - the smaller more efficient farmer or the large scale one with lots of snouts in the trough. What do you want from life? Me? I'm paid to make someone else's assets sweat. Not in a smutty way either.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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