How would George Henderson get on today?

Pasty

Member
Location
Devon
Thank you for this thread. Sounds like a Salatin of old. Salatin himself says there is nothing new under the sun and only modern tech has allowed him to expand on models that were already created. I shall be adding these books to my Santa list although I've already got Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Ross Brawn on there. I believe our land can give us way more than it does and without raping it. Modern knowledge and technology should mean that every acre is being used to it's best, building soil and retaining carbon at the same time. We are some way off understanding how that would work at all.
 
Collecting farm built innovations takes me to plenty of mixed and diversified farms and many are successful. But they need a special kind of farmer. One who can focus on a dozen different enterprises and achieve acceptable to good results in each. One prepared to enjoy driving a 30 year old combine and will keep a truck, tractor and implements on the road. Also one prepared to get the welder out and make and mend. I have featured Frank Henderson in PFI and it is always a real pleasure to go there. He is both inventive and brilliant at thinking through problems. Viz: his bale accumulator making stack of 48 conventionals which is a complete home designed handling system. Racehorse hay goes from field to barn to wagon to stable without being touched by hand. Then there's his concrete mixer, maxi gutters for buildings..... The issue of a social life is something quite new. Many, in fact most, of George Henderson's generation found satisfaction and a good life on their farm and in their local community. Think of pioneers like Hosier, Patterson, and a hundred others. They certainly didn't know about 42 hour weeks. In our more affluent times it seems as if the 4 day stag party in Prague, the two weeks in Australia and the 2 day weddings are normal and expected. Deprivation has a different meaning, even in farming circles it seems.
 
I was very fortunate to meet George henderson as a young boy I wanted to ask him about his poutry and I had taken a list of questions to ask him, he saw me take the list out and roared with laughter and said to my father "your lads got his head screwed on" My father was not amused but Mr Henderson as I always called him well you did in those days said had my father got anything elsw on and when he said yes yes well pick him up afterwards a proper gentleman I even got him to sign my very battered copy of the farmers Ladder
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
The main thing in farming is to look at progress with open eyes .
Flat eights are history im afraid . You can count lorry drivers who want to haul and stack small bales by hand on one hand , im sure there are plenty that use them but no one wants to buy in bulk what they produce
 
To find those kind of farmers you need to look into alternative farming,organics and the such. Plenty over here small, one man operations making it pay.
[/QUOTE] You also need to take advantage of opportunities offered. We could not grow tomatoes cheap enough to compete with the Spanish imports but a neighbour said could we grow Okra nd Mooli Radishes. Myboss and I had no idea what they were let alone how to grow them but said we would give it a try. Then it was a quick drive to our local Horticultural College in Pershore to get the relevant information We grew very good crops of both which our neighbour sold for us at the Indian ethnic market in Birmingham at a very good price and profit! The following year he wanted us to grow more of them plus Bitter Gourds and Herb Coriander these also sold well though why anybody would want to eat Bitter Gourds is beyond me they are revolting. In subsequent years we grew Bok Choi, Choi Sum to replace some of our Brassica rotations. You never know what you can do if you dont take the opportunities.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Collecting farm built innovations takes me to plenty of mixed and diversified farms and many are successful. But they need a special kind of farmer. One who can focus on a dozen different enterprises and achieve acceptable to good results in each. One prepared to enjoy driving a 30 year old combine and will keep a truck, tractor and implements on the road. Also one prepared to get the welder out and make and mend. I have featured Frank Henderson in PFI and it is always a real pleasure to go there. He is both inventive and brilliant at thinking through problems. Viz: his bale accumulator making stack of 48 conventionals which is a complete home designed handling system. Racehorse hay goes from field to barn to wagon to stable without being touched by hand. Then there's his concrete mixer, maxi gutters for buildings..... The issue of a social life is something quite new. Many, in fact most, of George Henderson's generation found satisfaction and a good life on their farm and in their local community. Think of pioneers like Hosier, Patterson, and a hundred others. They certainly didn't know about 42 hour weeks. In our more affluent times it seems as if the 4 day stag party in Prague, the two weeks in Australia and the 2 day weddings are normal and expected. Deprivation has a different meaning, even in farming circles it seems.
Spot on
George henderson and frank worked smarter AND harder.
There are always opportunities, probably more so in the poverty stricken days when they were growing up.
there were no fatcats grabbing all the land to collect subsidy in their day.
The old guy that let them the farm wouldnt do that today, his agents would bring in a contractor.
Just look at those guys who got going during the bse apocalyps, cheap land, cheap stock, etc, they are flying.
 

unlacedgecko

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Fife
A Nuffield Scholarship Report also called "The Farming Ladder" by Michael Blanche is well worth downloading and even reading.
George Henderson's book has long been a favourite of mine. He took advantage of the situation and opportunities available to him at the time. Of course things are different today and those of us who started from scratch more recently used other opportunities rather than following old formulae.
Having said that I would love to have a mixed farm but I just have to be realistic.

I read it monthly. It’s my inspiration to do what I do.

If anyone isn’t aware, Mike also produces a highly informative and amusing podcast, the Pasture Pod. @Global ovine Recently had his own episode.

 

Bogweevil

Member
He would love it, he got close to his customers in the modern way, he had many joint enterprises long before FBT etc and he would love social media being not at all slow in coming forward and giving his own trumpet a good hoot
 
Not for the horse trade
Nor the pony trade. On my visit, some years ago now, his product was racehorse hay and he generously told me what he did to produce it. Trainers buy on quality. Bales are grouped into 48s and then moved on special trailers he's designed, put into the shed and taken out for the wagon all using the telescopic. There's no Lister elevator, (what my boss/friend called the Lister Aggrevator) involved!
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Nor the pony trade. On my visit, some years ago now, his product was racehorse hay and he generously told me what he did to produce it. Trainers buy on quality. Bales are grouped into 48s and then moved on special trailers he's designed, put into the shed and taken out for the wagon all using the telescopic. There's no Lister elevator, (what my boss/friend called the Lister Aggrevator) involved!
I never said small bales
90% of farms who supply them to the trade have moved on to bale packers
 

Cowmangav

Member
Location
Ayrshire
I read this book in my teens and can still remember parts of it , so it made an impression on me - but then I was at that age. When my grandfather ( retired tenant farmer born 1892 and who made money in WW2 , and became quite savvy on the Stock Market ) saw me reading it he said , perhaps unfairly " Oh , the man who never made a mistake !"

The things I remember were 1) his ambition to be a £1,000 a year man , the salary a business man would expect but not what farmers could earn in the 1930s.
2) His tale of being at a farm auction where there were young sex linked RIR X LS chickens being sold. The auctioneer explained the sex link process ( gold cock crossed with silver hens produces silver males and gold hens ). Unfortunately the auctioneer got it wrong and thought the offspring were the same colours as the parents, and proceeded to sell the brown female chicks as males. When G Henderson tried to correct him he was told that if he had come to disrupt the sale he could make him self scarce . So Henderson bought the cheap chicks, as he had done his best to prevent the error. I think Henderson claimed that because he read a lot , he was better informed than the other farmers there.

3) His dairy cattle ( Jerseys ) - he said the land was too thin to dairy in summer so he devised a system of rearing Jersey heifers and calving them out , selling them then to dairy farmers , and rearing the offspring to keep the herd going. However 75 years or more before sexed semen I couldn't work this out. Did he keep enough heifers with faults and problems to milk to rear the calves with , and calve them again? Can someone with the book tell me if there's an explanation? Just buying in heifer calves would be dodgy , as a good few would be getting sold for a reason , and diseases would come in if done regularly. I suppose he could buy young calves at dispersals , but they are often the dearest trade of all!
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
Interesting book, just finishing it now after noticing this thread. One thing that really stands out is his asserting that the only way to deal with tramps is personal violence... it was a different world back then. :pompous:
 

Tartan Farmer

New Member
I'm currently re-reading George Henderson's books; 'The Farming Ladder' and 'Farmers Progress'.

For those who don't know, George Henderson was a very successful farmer on 85 acres in the Cotswolds. He and his brother Frank 'devised' or adapted a system of highly intensive mixed farming on an acreage that many at the time said was too small. They started with very limited capital, and built up their enterprises out of profits. Within very few years of taking on a tenancy they were able to buy their farm, and went on to buy other farms where they installed tenants that they had trained as pupils in their own system back on the home farm.

George was a strong advocate of highly intensive production, keen to turn over his money as many times as possible through the year, as opposed to the traditional production systems that would see a farmers capital turned over once every 1-2 years or longer. He advocated having many enterprises, ie. Cattle, sheep, poultry, pigs and arable. With the livestock constantly building up fertility and the arable land utilising it. He aimed to, and was successful, in increasing productivity year on year through this constant fertility building and ensuring each branch of the business grew out of profits.

Reading his book, He tells of how he was rarely required to alter much of the system, through hard times and good, war or peace. He felt it was fail proof and could stand the test of time.

He did diversify, and had alternative income streams, but these were born through spotting opportunities rather than a need. Quite different to small farmers being told they MUST diversify as in recent years.

What I'm asking is, are there people out there doing similar now. Making a 'proper' living on farms, say sub 100 acres? Mixed farms that don't therefore rely on one niche enterprise? Is it still possible?
Are there people farming by his methods (or similar)?

Someone on here must have known him or his descendants, are they still going? What would he say about the small farm today? We constantly hear how small farms must go, that large agri business is the way forward, economy of scale and all that...but I cant help thinking that there is room for both.

Am I nuts?

To clear up some confusion, there were two Franks at Oathill Farm. George's son is called Frank and so was his brother who he started the farm with. It's an inspirational book and one that I read whilst I was at school, it really inspired me and I must read it again. George's wife only died last year but she wrote a sequel called 'Oathill Farm, the next generation' it updates where all the children are today and what is happening at the farm. Frank (senior) also wrote a number of books including 'Making mechanised farming pay' and one on farm buildings. I recently read an article written by him for a magazine back in the 1960's where he talks about how they couldn't work out why the cows were favouring one of the two bales of straw they were given each day. When the realised the straws origin it became clear, the straw from their own farm, which was by and large organic, was eaten in preference to the one from the neighbours who were by that time farming conventionally. Fascinating stuff.
The farm itself is still thriving and as mentioned Frank (junior!) and his sister Louise still do a lot of hay and straw despite threatening to retire every year. Cherry products have been based on the farm almost since they started and two of Franks grandsons work there, one of whom has been there for nearly 20 years. So it's another chapter for the business but the farm has touched so many peoples lives and I feel privileged to know it well.
 
caroline woolley,somerset
Am trying to read George Monbiot’s ‘Regenesis’. Full of flummery so far and No Mention of the Henderson brothers. GM is a Journalist who has never farmed in his life but does own part of an orchard. He has drawn on the experience of many, many people but not his own. I am struggling to take him seriously!
Have others read this tome? I red the Henderson books years ago and am minded to find some copies.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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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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