"Improving Our Lot" - Planned Holistic Grazing, for starters..

[holwellcourtfarm]

It would be fudgeing interesting to start a "productivity / efficiency / profitability" thread and find out what everyone's definitions are - I believe many have little clue of what they want to do and tend to use them interchangably as it suits them to

Oh no please don't start a 'productivity/ efficiency/ profitability thread on here!

Is that a dare Pete?



'Cos you know what I'm like with dares

 

[Henarar]

The grass or the sheep?

both

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Oh no please don't start a 'productivity/ efficiency/ profitability thread on here!
People change the definitions to suit their own needs.
It's what cash that stays in your pocket (or assets that you keep ) is what matters .

Some of it, at least.... I don't disagree that money is a necessary mechanism for the business, but time is what matters most to my crew - time is what we share, and make decent memories with

Then probably nurturing our farm environment, the animals wellbeing and contentment - the assets we keep

Then the profitability, which is still crucial, but the other parts are more crucial than the money, as it mostly is other people's...
if they want it, they can have it back, I would sell everything else and pay the bank - but growth is faster elsewhere just now

That's my view on money, I hold it in contempt for what it does to our world, but need some, and more if I want to retire..

 

[Treg]

Some of it, at least.... I don't disagree that money is a necessary mechanism for the business, but time is what matters most to my crew - time is what we share, and make decent memories with

Then probably nurturing our farm environment, the animals wellbeing and contentment - the assets we keep

Then the profitability, which is still crucial, but the other parts are more crucial than the money, as it mostly is other people's...
if they want it, they can have it back, I would sell everything else and pay the bank - but growth is faster elsewhere just now

That's my view on money, I hold it in contempt for what it does to our world, but need some, and more if I want to retire..

Ah yes measuring money is completely different to measuring success, time with family & creating a happy environment, I personally would count as being successful, others may see it different.
Now measuring success may create a interesting thread!
Or perhaps @Henarar could start a what's being produced in your garden thread? Ducks in mine by btw.

 

[Henarar]

Ah yes measuring money is completely different to measuring success, time with family & creating a happy environment, I personally would count as being successful, others may see it different.
Now measuring success may create a interesting thread!
Or perhaps @Henarar could start a what's being produced in your garden thread? Ducks in mine by btw.

better to let the sheep sort it out than use all that fuel in the mower, bloody grass on the lawn grows better than anywhere else

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Is that a dare Pete?



'Cos you know what I'm like with dares

Go right ahead, you know how it works?

Light the fuse, come back tomorrow to inspect the wreckage
A good way to learn how folks think, so you can think different, like - and you'll soon see some funny ways of justifying loading up with liability to avoid paying tax

It will also help keep us off the trending threads bit

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Some of it, at least.... I don't disagree that money is a necessary mechanism for the business, but time is what matters most to my crew - time is what we share, and make decent memories with

Then probably nurturing our farm environment, the animals wellbeing and contentment - the assets we keep

Then the profitability, which is still crucial, but the other parts are more crucial than the money, as it mostly is other people's...
if they want it, they can have it back, I would sell everything else and pay the bank - but growth is faster elsewhere just now

Sounds about right Pete

That's my view on money, I hold it in contempt for what it does to our world, but need some, and more if I want to retire..

You want to retire!

Now we all KNOW you're not a "proper farmer", they never retire, they just keep I̶n̶t̶e̶r̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ advising the next generation.

 

[Henarar]

Sounds about right Pete


You want to retire!

Now we all KNOW you're not a "proper farmer", they never retire, they just keep I̶n̶t̶e̶r̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ advising the next generation.

I need to tire before I retire
isn't retire that what other folks do ?

 

[Kiwi Pete]

better to let the sheep sort it out than use all that fuel in the mower, bloody grass on the lawn grows better than anywhere else

Grass is funny like that!

I have been asked a few times why grass grows better here than there and the answer - 90% of the time - is overgrazing causing the differential, or microclimate, or a combination

Lawns don't get overgrazed because we don't mow it more than we need to, but livestock keep going back and forward eating bites if we let them - most regenerative grazing addresses that "extra bite" issue and stops eating grass that was previously grazed (recovering) by limiting the time they are in a place - life is motion

Sheep grazing looks good, by the way, they won't be busting out today

Sounds about right Pete


You want to retire!

Now we all KNOW you're not a "proper farmer", they never retire, they just keep I̶n̶t̶e̶r̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ advising the next generation.

Yep I wouldn't mind leaving the kids to it if they are handy and buggering off around the country in a bus - be a tourist
If they are not keen then I can't say I didn't try

But that is a way off, I could die or be bankrupted or be paralysed again at anytime so I don't dwell too much on planning it all out just yet - the land will be here long after I am

best I can do is not let it fall to pieces around me - I am powerless to change what will be in the end, a life lived; I would rather be remembered for what I gave, than what I did

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

Go right ahead, you know how it works?

Light the fuse, come back tomorrow to inspect the wreckage
A good way to learn how folks think, so you can think different, like - and you'll soon see some funny ways of justifying loading up with liability to avoid paying tax

It will also help keep us off the trending threads bit

Challenge accepted

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/how-do-you-define-agricultural-success.228390/

I'll leave it a few days to brew before I look back in

 

[CornishTone]

Challenge accepted

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/how-do-you-define-agricultural-success.228390/

I'll leave it a few days to brew before I look back in

I’ll get the pop corn!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Challenge accepted

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/how-do-you-define-agricultural-success.228390/

I'll leave it a few days to brew before I look back in

I got in smartish and said my bit

Not sure if I got them the right way or the wrong way now

No doubt there will be enough other definitions to let me "benchmark"

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

I've stopped for a cuppa and couldn't resist a peek......

Some interesting answers already.

Just wait till the braggards see it

 

[Ukjay]

I've stopped for a cuppa and couldn't resist a peek......

Some interesting answers already.

Just wait till the braggards see it

Stopping for a cuppa, now now - that will never do!!

 

[Kiwi Pete]

I've stopped for a cuppa and couldn't resist a peek......

Some interesting answers already.

Just wait till the braggards see it

It is a really good thing to be mindful of, I think.
Was discussing things with my dear old Mum (mother's day here) and commented how Dad always had time for the important stuff - even if it was simply going fishing and putting the fish back - or hobbies, family, community stuff... as you'd expect for a quiet and non-assuming sheep farmer he would have been staggered that almost 800 turned up to pay their respects..

- I didn't spell that out but to me that is agricultural success - being well connected and well respected to your community for being a contributor. I alluded to that... but is that peculiar or something we all strive for?
Not recognition, that's vanity; but respectful connections?

Getting deep again!

 

[Treg]

It is a really good thing to be mindful of, I think.
Was discussing things with my dear old Mum (mother's day here) and commented how Dad always had time for the important stuff - even if it was simply going fishing and putting the fish back - or hobbies, family, community stuff... as you'd expect for a quiet and non-assuming sheep farmer he would have been staggered that almost 800 turned up to pay their respects..

- I didn't spell that out but to me that is agricultural success - being well connected and well respected to your community for being a contributor. I alluded to that... but is that peculiar or something we all strive for?
Not recognition, that's vanity; but respectful connections?

Getting deep again!

I would say Respectful connections was spot on Kp.

 

[Henarar]

I've stopped for a cuppa and couldn't resist a peek......

Some interesting answers already.

Just wait till the braggards see it

you may be surprised

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

you may be surprised

I hope so, really.

But it seems so many lose sight of what is really important in their lives. Some years ago a family near here started talking on lots of arable contracting, to the point where they are cropping over 5000 acres with just 2 brothers and 1 man and travelling quite a way too. One brother's wife said to mum, at a farming dinner, that for most of the year a strange man crawls into bed with her every night and leaves before she's up the next morning and the kids are lucky if they even see him once a week. That's no life.

 

[Henarar]

I hope so, really.

But it seems so many lose sight of what is really important in their lives. Some years ago a family near here started talking on lots of arable contracting, to the point where they are cropping over 5000 acres with just 2 brothers and 1 man and travelling quite a way too. One brother's wife said to mum, at a farming dinner, that for most of the year a strange man crawls into bed with her every night and leaves before she's up the next morning and the kids are lucky if they even see him once a week. That's no life.

some seem to be never satisfied

 

[Kiwi Pete]

https://viewer-nsdr.landcareresearch.co.nz/soil/id/nsdr/sa_site/1933?view=sitereport

Not sure if this will work, hopefully someone else can report back?
It is the nearest official soil survey to here, anyway, may be of interest. The horizons here are similar on average to the survey, we would have what I would call a foot of topsoil and then a spadelength of subsoil, very friable as far as you can dig hence the water storage capacity here

Also very prone to smearing being a silty clay loam, but a very usable base for our style of farming.