Jobs allied to farming

[CopperBeech]

Everyone has to start somewhere

Yes and I’m not being harsh. But there is a difference between learning a craft, such as dry stone walling, hedging or shearing and getting better through practice.

But with zero farming experience or background, or qualifications, it would be rather a hard sell to try and convince people to pay you to consult / advise them on how to farm successfully / profitably.

I’ve been farming for a fairly long time now and have just started to do some consultancy, in one or two niche areas where I have a lot of experience and which many others don’t .... yet. However it’s taken years of unpaid conversations and helping folk to get to the point where I feel I can charge for it, and currently it’s the odd bit of work here and there.

If you want to farm and get money on the side - some thing like relief milking, hedge laying, mechanics, welding etc would be far better ideas. You can learn the skill and equip yourself and practice on your own stuff / in your own time.

Something like a mobile welder would be a good crack, you can also do both ag and non ag stuff.

 

[Bury the Trash]

ill put it more bluntly, needs more soldiers not officers, there's a shortage of young practical workers .

 

[kiwi pom]

Hello,

I posted on here before asking about drystone walling as a potential profession to go alongside farming, and I got some really informative responses.

Would anyone be able to give me some more advice on other jobs that are related/allied to farming that would be interesting and would allow me to farm on the side.

From having a look online I have found rural surveying, agriculture consultancy, hedgelaying, agroecology

I would be willing to work towards professional qualifications.

Agronomy seems to be something that crops up a lot (no pun intended) but I'm not much interested in the arable side of farming.

Any more ideas?

Are you wanting physical work like drystone walling, fencing, foot trimming etc or more advisor, inspector, training type roles?

 

[kiwi pom]

ill put it more bluntly, needs more soldiers not officers, there's a shortage of young practical workers .

Very true but my children are 7 and almost 9, I'm currently aiming them a little higher than basic manual roles. If and when they get qualified in roles such as doctors, engineers, lawyers etc and find they don't like it they can always milk cows, lay drains or work in a factory.
If there's a shortage of people willing to do a certain role, there's usually a reason for it.

 

[Wink]

If you are interested in livestock - butchery/meat processing.

 

[thorpe]

I'm West Midlands so I don't think there's a massive amount of drystone walling in the immediate local area, but nearby places like Shropshire, Peak District, Welsh borders, North Staffs may have more

but think on would you like to pay what you would to charge to build a wall ontodays ag returns?

 

[Kidds]

but think on would you like to pay what you would to charge to build a wall ontodays ag returns?

Learn the trade in fields and ply your trade in fancy gardens and new roads/bypass etc. A55 up Bald Ricks way must have cost some money for the walls.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

how about shearing sheep, or mole catching, fencing, drain jetting, foot trimmer, learn to AI and get a job with Genus, sheep scanning

 

[thorpe]

ill put it more bluntly, needs more soldiers not officers, there's a shortage of young practical workers .

to many been to uni , they wont do the soldiers work because there over qualified , hope we never have another war we wont have any soldiers but plenty of officers.

 

[unlacedgecko]

to many been to uni , they wont do the soldiers work because there over qualified , hope we never have another war we wont have any soldiers but plenty of officers.

A degree does not an officer make.

Plenty of enlisted personnel with degrees also

 

[Drystoning]

Are you wanting physical work like drystone walling, fencing, foot trimming etc or more advisor, inspector, training type roles?

Being outdoors doing physical work is what interests me the most. However, as I would like to work within the rural sector, I would not rule out a more advisory/office based role. Especially when it comes to providing for the family, I wouldnt want to go down a path that wouldnt allow me to have a reliable and decent income stream.

 

[CopperBeech]

If its a physical skill, something transferable and scaleable is good. IE Fencing - you can put up garden stuff, paddock stuff etc without much machinery, and as you grow, you can add machinery to tackle bigger jobs. Same with welding, you can weld a farmers stuff, a normal persons stuff, or make a fire pitt out of scrap metal and flog it on eBay etc etc.Too niche and you are competing with folk who are very good and have a good name in a small pond.

 

[Drystoning]

Yes and I’m not being harsh. But there is a difference between learning a craft, such as dry stone walling, hedging or shearing and getting better through practice.

But with zero farming experience or background, or qualifications, it would be rather a hard sell to try and convince people to pay you to consult / advise them on how to farm successfully / profitably.

I’ve been farming for a fairly long time now and have just started to do some consultancy, in one or two niche areas where I have a lot of experience and which many others don’t .... yet. However it’s taken years of unpaid conversations and helping folk to get to the point where I feel I can charge for it, and currently it’s the odd bit of work here and there.

If you want to farm and get money on the side - some thing like relief milking, hedge laying, mechanics, welding etc would be far better ideas. You can learn the skill and equip yourself and practice on your own stuff / in your own time.

Something like a mobile welder would be a good crack, you can also do both ag and non ag stuff.

Apologies if my first post wasnt too clear. With no farming experience there is no way in hell I would try and advise others what to do but if necessary I would be willing to gain the experience and qualifications to get me to that point.

 

[ollie989898]

Seriously, if you can put up fences or build walls you will make far more money in less time building such things for householders, small holders and developers than you will ever make out of farming. Who the fudge wants to be building dry stone walls in the pishing rain for £25 an hour? You can earn that mowing lawns in some parts of the country.

 

[Skintagain]

I know a lad building garden walls for £100 per square metre. He’s busy too. He’s bloody neat though

 

[CopperBeech]

Apologies if my first post wasnt too clear. With no farming experience there is no way in hell I would try and advise others what to do but if necessary I would be willing to gain the experience and qualifications to get me to that point.

I was a little blunt so I’m sorry, but it’s a bit less about qualifications than it is about Experiance and knowledge, ultimately you could learn a ‘trade’ or ‘skill’ quicker and almost use that to get into farming if that makes sense. Ie the walling - rich folk have nice stone walls as well as farmers and rich folk have more and cheaper land to rent than farmers depends what kind of farming you want to do I guess. Same with mechanics, lots of farmers and other folk would be keen to have one about the place.

 

[kiwi pom]

Being outdoors doing physical work is what interests me the most. However, as I would like to work within the rural sector, I would not rule out a more advisory/office based role. Especially when it comes to providing for the family, I wouldnt want to go down a path that wouldnt allow me to have a reliable and decent income stream.

Doing physical work like fencing, foot trimming, welding etc will always keep you busy, especially the dirtier/harder jobs that farmers can't/wont do BUT you have to be able to do them properly and build up a name for yourself and to do that you probably need to start off working for someone to learn your trade. It takes time though, there's too many self employed builders, mechanics, fencers, landscapers, etc, out there who rushed the learning part and set up by themselves before they really understood the trade. That's why there so many horror stories of people hiring "experts" and getting a terrible job done.
How old are you?

 

[beardface]

Yes and I’m not being harsh. But there is a difference between learning a craft, such as dry stone walling, hedging or shearing and getting better through practice.

But with zero farming experience or background, or qualifications, it would be rather a hard sell to try and convince people to pay you to consult / advise them on how to farm successfully / profitably.

I’ve been farming for a fairly long time now and have just started to do some consultancy, in one or two niche areas where I have a lot of experience and which many others don’t .... yet. However it’s taken years of unpaid conversations and helping folk to get to the point where I feel I can charge for it, and currently it’s the odd bit of work here and there.

If you want to farm and get money on the side - some thing like relief milking, hedge laying, mechanics, welding etc would be far better ideas. You can learn the skill and equip yourself and practice on your own stuff / in your own time.

Something like a mobile welder would be a good crack, you can also do both ag and non ag stuff.

Sounds like most advisors/inspectors!

 

[Vader]

Very true but my children are 7 and almost 9, I'm currently aiming them a little higher than basic manual roles. If and when they get qualified in roles such as doctors, engineers, lawyers etc and find they don't like it they can always milk cows, lay drains or work in a factory.
If there's a shortage of people willing to do a certain role, there's usually a reason for it.

Same, kid is 10 and I would rather him do another job and farm as a hobby if he wants.

 

[Cowmansam]

Very true but my children are 7 and almost 9, I'm currently aiming them a little higher than basic manual roles. If and when they get qualified in roles such as doctors, engineers, lawyers etc and find they don't like it they can always milk cows, lay drains or work in a factory.
If there's a shortage of people willing to do a certain role, there's usually a reason for it.

Aye snobbish attitudes and bad education system