How much land does it take to pay an employees wages ??

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
There are two of us here on 200 acres through harvest and drilling. This autumn we have managed to complete the planned autumn drilling of half the farm with literally minutes to spare, often driving out the field as the heavens opened. We haven’t missed an opportunity. Would we have completed it with one person? No chance.
 
There are two of us here on 200 acres through harvest and drilling. This autumn we have managed to complete the planned autumn drilling of half the farm with literally minutes to spare, often driving out the field as the heavens opened. We haven’t missed an opportunity. Would we have completed it with one person? No chance.

on the large units round us that would be one days harvest and one days drilling.
 

teslacoils

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Which 200ac is better for the local economy?

Probably the one with zero stock, efficient contractors, and original farmers in well paid jobs elsewhere in all honesty.

In Japan the government subsidies jobs and crafts of great cultural importance like sword makers etc. That's how small family farms that want to do it all will keep going - as historical relics.

Hear a lot of "oh it's a shame there are no 100ac starter farms with houses to rent on 25 year tenancies" but at the same time "agriculture in worker shock as foreigners go home". Plenty of skilled jobs in agriculture - very few as full time farmers on small acreages.
 

mountfarm

Member
A good friend has 450ac of which 75ac is grass with sheep on it all year round and the rest is combinable crops of which 300ac is milling wheat and 75ac of spring crops. He has one tractor, 36m trailed sprayer which does liquid fert as well, a 3m drill, a 3m cultivator and 10m rolls. He uses a contractor for combining but he carts. He also has 150,000sqft of industrial let out, a biomass boiler heating it all. He does it all on his own with the biomass taking up majority of his time. Business turnover is around £800,000 and he works on a 20% profit margin after all costs. At times he needs help but he can’t find anybody who could do part time. It’s a nice business and way of life and one I’m envious of to be honest.
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Would suggest your on a proper hamster wheel if you need to farm at 150 cows per person.
there can be no fun in that.

I suppose it is about finding a balance so no one is under unnecessary stress. Systems will dictate how that ratio is geared.

3 big issues common to all dairy farms - Staff, Water, Sh!t .......... and not always in that order although we are finding staff is now No 1
 

mountfarm

Member
I suppose it is about finding a balance so no one is under unnecessary stress. Systems will dictate how that ratio is geared.

3 big issues common to all dairy farms - Staff, Water, Sh!t .......... and not always in that order although we are finding staff is now No 1
Staff are going to be our industries biggest problem going forward. Local estate has tractor drivers now asking for more money than the farm manager gets citing anti social working hours as the main reason. What they don’t know yet is that the estate saw this coming and is putting half the land into stewardship thus halving the number of staff they’ve currently got. Men driving tractors at £20/hour doesn’t stack up I’m afraid.
 
I suppose it is about finding a balance so no one is under unnecessary stress. Systems will dictate how that ratio is geared.

3 big issues common to all dairy farms - Staff, Water, Sh!t .......... and not always in that order although we are finding staff is now No 1
Must be doing something wrong then. None of those would rank in my top 10.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 75 43.6%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 61 35.5%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 27 15.7%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

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

  • 1,284
  • 1
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/
Top