Introduce Yourself

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Hello all. I'm a wheat and alfalfa farmer from Eastern Washington State USA. I farm about 2400 hectares (5900ac) in an extremely low rainfall area we around 8"-10" (203-254mm) of rainfall a year. I've always been fascinated with UK ag.
Welcome aboard. The contrast with what we do here could be very enlightening.

With such low rainfall you might find Roy's thread here interesting https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...dom-thoughts-i-never-said-it-was-easy.186684/
 
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wanderer

Member
Hello all. I'm a wheat and alfalfa farmer from Eastern Washington State USA. I farm about 2400 hectares (5900ac) in an extremely low rainfall area we around 8"-10" (203-254mm) of rainfall a year. I've always been fascinated with UK ag.

Having seen your vast US farms I think you would consider Britain quaint in comparison... but we wouldn't change our landscape for the world! :)
 

Waves of Grain

New Member
Having seen your vast US farms I think you would consider Britain quaint in comparison... but we wouldn't change our landscape for the world! :)

From what I've seen every place has its challenges and benefits. However I've watched your farms with a certain amount of envy. The green landscape and many small villages have a lot of charm. I live in a very rural area. The nearest town is Bickleton which is an old west style town established in 1879 (most of you probably have homes older than this) and our population is around 100 in town with 250 living within a 40mile circle. The nearest city (45,000 people or so) is over an hour drive away on a winding road down through the Simco mountains. This time of year here everything is brown and dried up. The only green here are the Juniper and Ponderosa Pine trees in the large canyons and mountains on the west edge of town.
 

wanderer

Member
From what I've seen every place has its challenges and benefits. However I've watched your farms with a certain amount of envy. The green landscape and many small villages have a lot of charm. I live in a very rural area. The nearest town is Bickleton which is an old west style town established in 1879 (most of you probably have homes older than this) and our population is around 100 in town with 250 living within a 40mile circle. The nearest city (45,000 people or so) is over an hour drive away on a winding road down through the Simco mountains. This time of year here everything is brown and dried up. The only green here are the Juniper and Ponderosa Pine trees in the large canyons and mountains on the west edge of town.

Probably not dissimilar to Australia in many ways I guess. Massive wide open countryside with a scattering of buildings and water towers with wind pumps to drive up the water from boreholes. It has it's own beuaty :)

My youngest son is in Savannah Georgia right now and has been coaching soocer there for five years. He loves the USA and says the people are amazing. He would like to settle there but can't get a green card sadly...
 

pellow

Member
Location
Newquay
Hello, my name is Agne, I am working with my parents on their farm.
I think you will be interested in these tools since it really helped to improve my and my relatives farming results a lot:

GPS Fields Area Measure (bit.ly/2oVrNED) - this app helped to measure the fields and to determine the property lines a lot. It was easier to explore and mark the most important places in the field and customize the information. I seemed it very useful.

Field Navigator (bit.ly/2NtEchc) this tool helped to save a lot of money since we didn't have to buy an external parallel driving assistant. It reduced the workload, size of untreated areas and helped to avoid overlaps.


Its worth advertising it in the Classifieds
 

Rocket54

Member
Location
North Yorkshire
Hi all
I was privileged to have grown up near Scarborough with my 3 brothers, my step father was a farmer and we had many great times enjoying the countryside, helping on the farm. I have a great respect for our farming community and in another life would love to be a farmer. I am looking for some woodland I can rent or manage from a local farmer, So f I can help please let me know.
 
Evening all. Gareth here.

So I've always had an interest in the outdoors, mother has been on farms be it on liveries or helping out. From my mid teens I was either doing the spuds or hay and are straw bailing.

I myself am an engineer by trade, but a serving royal marine. However my days are winding down and I'm ready to spend some time with family now.

This leads me onto my main intro really.

My family are forth ate to have acquired a 75 acre farm, with some liveries on. Mum has always had her horses here.

I have expressed a huge interest in studying and learning in a way to regenerate the farm into a thriving family affair, however my dad who is an inexperienced farmer (much like myself) says it just isn't viable. They previous years have been fully contracted out generating a nearer £4.5k net profit once everything has been paid and split.

I still believe that it could be viable to reign in the contracting and learn to do this ourselves.

Anyone able to maybe guideline this option please.

Just to add, we minimal machinery so will be looking to purchase a some essentials.

Thanks for your time all and I really look forward to your advice.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Evening all. Gareth here.

So I've always had an interest in the outdoors, mother has been on farms be it on liveries or helping out. From my mid teens I was either doing the spuds or hay and are straw bailing.

I myself am an engineer by trade, but a serving royal marine. However my days are winding down and I'm ready to spend some time with family now.

This leads me onto my main intro really.

My family are forth ate to have acquired a 75 acre farm, with some liveries on. Mum has always had her horses here.

I have expressed a huge interest in studying and learning in a way to regenerate the farm into a thriving family affair, however my dad who is an inexperienced farmer (much like myself) says it just isn't viable. They previous years have been fully contracted out generating a nearer £4.5k net profit once everything has been paid and split.

I still believe that it could be viable to reign in the contracting and learn to do this ourselves.

Anyone able to maybe guideline this option please.

Just to add, we minimal machinery so will be looking to purchase a some essentials.

Thanks for your time all and I really look forward to your advice.
Hi Gareth, welcome aboard. Those who've served Queen and country are especially welcome here (y)

Where is the land? What's the topography? What state is it in? Conventional thinking is that 75 acres is too small for a living. Think a bit deeper though and it can easily be done.

75 acres of soft fruit or vegetables is quite a big place. A few years ago, If it's south facing and near an 11kv+ line, then companies were offering contracts to cover it in solar PV panels on ground mounts for 25 years and pay £1000 per acre per year rent. :eek: They then paid you extra to manage the vegetation round the panels which can be done by grazing sheep ;) That may come back with the recent IPCC report.

Have a look at @Kiwi Pete thread here https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...planned-holistic-grazing-for-starters.224870/ to see what can be done on 100 acres (yes, I know he's in NZ but it can be done here too if you're flexibly minded).

Good luck.
 
Hi Gareth, welcome aboard. Those who've served Queen and country are especially welcome here (y)

Where is the land? What's the topography? What state is it in? Conventional thinking is that 75 acres is too small for a living. Think a bit deeper though and it can easily be done.

75 acres of soft fruit or vegetables is quite a big place. A few years ago, If it's south facing and near an 11kv+ line, then companies were offering contracts to cover it in solar PV panels on ground mounts for 25 years and pay £1000 per acre per year rent. :eek: They then paid you extra to manage the vegetation round the panels which can be done by grazing sheep ;) That may come back with the recent IPCC report.

Have a look at @Kiwi Pete thread here https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index...planned-holistic-grazing-for-starters.224870/ to see what can be done on 100 acres (yes, I know he's in NZ but it can be done here too if you're flexibly minded).

Good luck.
Thanks Holwell.

So last year was OSR now going onto part barley part seed hay (I believe from speaking with parents) 35 acres are open flat split into 2 equal fields approx 1k from the main residence. The other 30 ish is on the farm itself and on a gradual uphill slope again split into a 10 and a 20 acre respectively.

Forgot to mention it's in north east essex.

I shall habe a read of kiwi Pete's page, very keen to reinvigorate the business
At a young 31 3/4 I feel there is years left to build this back into a cared for an thriving family business. If I don't, it's just go through the contracting route and looking slightly run down.

I've thought about the solar route but part of me has reservations about it as I really want to be out there working the land. However I'd not until now considered a split.... 35ac solar, 30ac fruit, veg, market garden kind of homestead idea
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Hi Gareth

Welcome along, hope you find plenty of interesting reading on the forum.

Don't take too much notice of me, I am incredibly backwards :ROFLMAO: but smaller land area is a huge advantage especially if you are not too entrenched in methods - it can be a real rut sometimes and any successful business has to be adaptive.

Usually the best way to get money to drop out, is to forget about the money..

Your land sounds like a clean slate, which really is the ideal starting point.

You will no doubt see me around, I like to challenge the status quo :rolleyes:
 
Thanks Pete. Appreciate it.

As for the land it absolutely is! The stigma to shake for me is we have had strong connection with it for 20 years and back then it was a bit if a tumble down relic, outsourced for every service and never really a business.

Now my parents run the show and at ages between 59 and 69 they are in the bracket of "why change it. If previous people have failed how could we"

I however am gung no let's get it back up to date and working again.

A larger farm that is next to ours decided just to sell up for a huge sum to developers. That is hands down not my intention nor theirs.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Smallholdings are where the future of food really lies.
Larger operations tend to focus on the bulk commodity production and there is simply no use trying to play their game - it's a struggle no matter what the scale, because it is overly regulated and turning into a rat-race - whereas you can be much more hands-on and attentive with less area, grow real food the proper way and market it as such... never mind the 90% who make it all about price, the best customer is the one you can wave to, the one who gives you custom because of belief in you

There are these people all around us, I sell boxed lamb, direct to sheep farmers :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
it makes very little sense to give food to supermarkets, processors and let them add the value to it - better to produce half as much and add the value ourselves.

:)

I am mainly a part-time farmer, livestock and bees so far, and I work full-time off the farm for now as it suits me to do so, but I would like to turn my gardening into something that benefits the local community; even though there are many others selling veg there are some things I can do better.
I just need to create the right microclimates which requires me to get the right trees in the right places, so it is a work in progress.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 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/
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