Farming from March to September Only

[texas pete]

I must admit as a small sized farm I've been getting pretty jaded recently. I can grow the crops reasonably well but finding the harvest weather is just getting worse and worse each year. Establishing crops doesn't take long but harvesting is getting worse and worse. Also prices are very static and there is no access to environmental grants in Wales at the moment.

Shovelling all profits into paying off a divorce taking any joy out of things as well. Sometimes wonder better off renting out for spuds/ caulis/ maize etc for a bit. Will shag the land but so what?

From experience, don't make major decisions when you're pee'd off with the job.

 

[DrWazzock]

I busted a gut to drill winter wheat in January and February. The January drilled stuff was OK and I got it harvested. It was on decent soil. The February drilled stuff on our more usual grade 3 wasn’t worth doing. Drought means it’s shrivelled rubbish and had to spray off secondary tillers and wait, so now it’s shaking out or sprouting. 3 years out of 4 winter wheat ends up with 2 tons per acre here due to early summer burnup. We do have a heavier fields but they are very heavy and autumn establishment is tricky then needs a big chemical spend to keep the blackgrass down. Makes me feel tired just thinking about it.
I ditching anything that makes me feel tired or drains my bank account.

 

[texas pete]

I ditching anything that makes me feel tired or drains my bank account.

Women?

 

[DrWazzock]

Think it’s a good idea. Can you easily meet your fixed costs, insurance, rates, electric etc etc without dipping into your earnings from elsewhere and going forward without bps.

No. We desperately need to free up a significant amount of time to earn other income.
We need to reduce overheads associated with having too many different agricultural crops/livestock. Selling the livestock will halve our assurance costs for starters, and will reduce the amount of kit we need to maintain and insure.
I will probably repair mowers during the winter or some such activity that fits in.

 

[DrWazzock]

Never under estimate the amount of time livestock take up and the amount of kit they need. Hay/silage making, straw baling etc all make for complexity and expense. Forgot muck spreading. Mixed farming is a lovely idea but hardly viable IMO.

 

[DrWazzock]

We could have just as easily said scrap the arable and go all sheep and we might do that in the future but we don’t know where the export trade is going. The key is to keep it simple and lean.

 

[Northern territory]

I must admit as a small sized farm I've been getting pretty jaded recently. I can grow the crops reasonably well but finding the harvest weather is just getting worse and worse each year. Establishing crops doesn't take long but harvesting is getting worse and worse. Also prices are very static and there is no access to environmental grants in Wales at the moment.

Shovelling all profits into paying off a divorce taking any joy out of things as well. Sometimes wonder better off renting out for spuds/ caulis/ maize etc for a bit. Will shag the land but so what?

I think there is a general downb

No. We desperately need to free up a significant amount of time to earn other income.
We need to reduce overheads associated with having too many different agricultural crops/livestock. Selling the livestock will halve our assurance costs for starters, and will reduce the amount of kit we need to maintain and insure.
I will probably repair mowers during the winter or some such activity that fits in.

It’s a question we are all facing. We are a similar size to you with cattle and sheep. Keeping more and more to try and pay the bills. It is time to look at ways of doing things differently to reduce overheads.

 

[DrWazzock]

Winter cropping is possible without lashings of chemicals here and watching your bank balance melt away after harvest on agrochemicals just doesn’t float it any more for me.

 

[DrWazzock]

Do less but do it better? Do a simple job for somebody else with the time freed?
Be realistic about really works without having to bust a gut keep you awake at night, or risk your sanity or bankruptcy.
Dunno, just floating ideas, but we are trying the all arable spring combinables route next year.

 

[digger64]

We could have just as easily said scrap the arable and go all sheep and we might do that in the future but we don’t know where the export trade is going. The key is to keep it simple and lean.

We could have just as easily said scrap the arable and go all sheep and we might do that in the future but we don’t know where the export trade is going. The key is to keep it simple and lean.

Surely scrapping sugarbeet would simplify everything and give most of the benefits you wish to achieve and benefit the other crops in many ways also using a contractor for certain specific operations , without radically dismantling other enterprises completely .

 

[DrWazzock]

The beet is going. It ties me up all winter either harvesting or loading lorries, not full time but you can’t get much else done because you have to be around or take weather opportunities.
The happiest time we had here was when it was all combinables with no livestock or beet.

 

[Rookie]

The beet is going. It ties me up all winter either harvesting or loading lorries, not full time but you can’t get much else done because you have to be around or take weather opportunities.
The happiest time we had here was when it was all combinables with no livestock or beet.

With sugar beet, could you still grow it and go down the harvesting and haulage scheme with British sugar and get it lifted and away in a couple of days near the start of the season. (Maus loading from field) This would allow you to still grow it but free up your time.
The only downside is that you loose some control?

 

[digger64]

The beet is going. It ties me up all winter either harvesting or loading lorries, not full time but you can’t get much else done because you have to be around or take weather opportunities.
The happiest time we had here was when it was all combinables with no livestock or beet.

Is all your land suitable for cropping ?

 

[bankrupt]

Women?

Round here, texas pete, many women of my recent acquaintance seem to have been brainwashed by some scurrilous rumour that your local arable man's no longer the richest chap in the district.

And, in the cold light of dawn, some don't take too much of a shine to my 18yr old Vauxhall.

 

[unlacedgecko]

We could have just as easily said scrap the arable and go all sheep and we might do that in the future but we don’t know where the export trade is going. The key is to keep it simple and lean.

I know a local contract shepherd who'd be happy to assist with this

 

[CPF]

It’s great . We leave the UK ,end of October Or Beginning of November Turning early March spending time with our daughter and son in law in Australia and a quick visit over to New Zealand been Doing it since 2014 ,miss all the UK dreadful winter weather , and leave the Uk farm for our other son-in-law to look after while we are away. I don’t think we’ll be going this year. Some Sort of bug is stopping My Wife and myself wanting to go. But we will miss them for not being able to see them. And my bit of Australian farming .

 

[Renaultman]

It’s great . We leave the UK ,end of October Or Beginning of November Turning early March spending time with our daughter and son in law in Australia and a quick visit over to New Zealand been Doing it since 2014 ,miss all the UK dreadful winter weather , and leave the Uk farm for our other son-in-law to look after while we are away. I don’t think we’ll be going this year. Some Sort of bug is stopping My Wife and myself wanting to go. But we will miss them for not being able to see them. And my bit of Australian farming .

Now that sounds like my idea of the perfect life. I wouldn't even mind having to work a bit while I was out there

 

[Hereward]

Sounds like a plan @DrWazzock keep things simple, mixed farming with a diverse rotation sounds great but it doesn't pay the bills, at least not without economies of scale in all areas.

Here the only paying crop is first Wheat, spring Barley would be my second choice however.

Cover crop or stewardship followed by October drilled milling Wheat is what I'm planning.

Sugar Beet and Livestock went years ago, whilst I miss them and reminisce they both made earning off farm income difficult and made having time for a break impossible.

 

[puppet]

I thought arable farming WAS just March to September?

 

[bankrupt]

I thought arable farming WAS just March to September?

Was when I started, puppet.

80% Spring Barley, 20% fallow - £595/ton, in today's money, right off the combine at 18%.

Biggest problem we ever had was sack hire - £130/ton penalty for lost bags.