Jobs allied to farming

Scholsey

Member
Location
Herefordshire
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.


Yet, ironically, there’s also a huge shortage of doctors and engineers!
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Yet, ironically, there’s also a huge shortage of doctors and engineers!
and seemingly a vast oversupply of people who want to do a stupid/funky degree in a 3rd rate institution, come out after 3 years straight into a fantastic salaried job, expecting all the benefits and pension, have half the bliddy year in holidays, never be held accountable for their fudge ups, and mostly tell me how to do my job.
(sorry, did I go off on one then?)

OP?
We've been here before with the walling job.
If you've the desire to do physical work - and I DETEST the concept that physical work is what lesser people have to do cos they can't be the above- get some skills, deal honestly, develop a strong work ethic, and get out there.
There's a world of work needs doing - after all, half of Eastern Europe have been able to find employment here.

Advice I give to aspiring young wood workers I meet in the sawmill (a part time job run beside farming, which kinda grew) ....
...I tell em don't focus on specialist work (quoting the example of a lad who assured me he was going to make one specific type of chair for his fame and fortune).
Learn the basic trade, pref under a master, then do whatever needs doing. The world is chock full of creaky stairs and doors that need fixing.

Locally, the demand for lads to simply mow lawns/tend hedges for rich older blow-ins is phenomenal. Work is everywhere.
Get out there and do it.
 
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?
Late 20s. Have always done lots of exercise and like to stay active which would probably be a good starting point for the physical nature of the job. Would be happy to work for someone else for a while to learn the ropes.
 
and seemingly a vast oversupply of people who want to do a stupid/funky degree in a 3rd rate institution, come out after 3 years straight into a fantastic salaried job, expecting all the benefits and pension, have half the bliddy year in holidays, never be held accountable for their fudge ups, and mostly tell me how to do my job.
(sorry, did I go off on one then?)

OP?
We've been here before with the walling job.
If you've the desire to do physical work - and I DETEST the concept that physical work is what lesser people have to do cos they can't be the above- get some skills, deal honestly, develop a strong work ethic, and get out there.
There's a world of work needs doing - after all, half of Eastern Europe have been able to find employment here.

Advice I give to aspiring young wood workers I meet in the sawmill (a part time job run beside farming, which kinda grew) ....
...I tell em don't focus on specialist work (quoting the example of a lad who assured me he was going to make one specific type of chair for his fame and fortune).
Learn the basic trade, pref under a master, then do whatever needs doing. The world is chock full of creaky stairs and doors that need fixing.

Locally, the demand for lads to simply mow lawns/tend hedges for rich older blow-ins is phenomenal. Work is everywhere.
Get out there and do it.
Believe me, I do want to JFDI but I cant leave my current job until spring/summer next year, so I'm using this time to get ahead and see what's out there.

I 100% agree with your point regarding physical workers. I am sure there are many tradesmen, wallers, farmers, builders etc who could easily be successful in a more 'intellectually challenging' career but have chosen not to spend their days sitting in an office filling in reports and sitting at a computer. It is about time the physical jobs were looked upon more favourably.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Fencing first comes to mind
Ipposible to get at short notice , they are the plumbers of farming
If I wanted advice I would ask on here , last person I would asked is a payed expert
I'm always tickled by the financial advisor role.
Who the fudge, if they knew what they were talking about, would be peddling low level carp like that?
Surely they'd borrow ten gozillion, double it overnight, and be on a tropical beach, by now?

So, by default, those doing such jobs - that the likes of I would come across, must be ...er...2nd grade.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
Believe me, I do want to JFDI but I cant leave my current job until spring/summer next year, so I'm using this time to get ahead and see what's out there.

I 100% agree with your point regarding physical workers. I am sure there are many tradesmen, wallers, farmers, builders etc who could easily be successful in a more 'intellectually challenging' career but have chosen not to spend their days sitting in an office filling in reports and sitting at a computer. It is about time the physical jobs were looked upon more favourably.
I found that when I was working as a training officer, the boys who made the best apprentices and tradesmen, where the ones who could have done A levels if they had wanted to, but rather had chosen not to. All a bit unfair really, the boys who if they chose could be really academic also when they chose, ended up with the best hand skills too.
 
Fencing first comes to mind
Ipposible to get at short notice , they are the plumbers of farming
If I wanted advice I would ask on here , last person I would asked is a payed expert
Interesting. Any ideas on the start up costs to fencing and a rough time it takes to become 'good enough' to actually get people to pay you to do their fencing?
 
I found that when I was working as a training officer, the boys who made the best apprentices and tradesmen, where the ones who could have done A levels if they had wanted to, but rather had chosen not to. All a bit unfair really, the boys who if they chose could be really academic also when they chose, ended up with the best hand skills too.
I've always been reasonably academic so all through school I was encouraged to go down a more professional route, with the trades tending to be recommended to those who didn't do quite as well in exams. Farming was never even mentioned as an option. But I couldnt imagine spending the next 40-50 years sat behind a desk hence the reason I'm looking into jobs that are outdoors and physical, or at least split between office and outdoors. No doubt some people would see this as a step backwards when i could be working towards mega money in something like accountancy or law, but so be it.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Interesting. Any ideas on the start up costs to fencing and a rough time it takes to become 'good enough' to actually get people to pay you to do their fencing?
You will need a post knocker , few thousand new and a tractor,
Fencing is all about the quality of work , I suppose the only way to learn that is work with someone else, ATB Used to put on training courses
Thing is lads who are born farmers like myself don't really think about these things as we learn alongside our parents , every day was a School day
 
Interesting. Any ideas on the start up costs to fencing and a rough time it takes to become 'good enough' to actually get people to pay you to do their fencing?

The best way would be to go abs work for a fencing contractor and learn the trade, and get good before going it alone.

I hate to say it and maybe it sounds bad, but you seem to want to set up a solo go it alone buisness straight away. The answer to most things will be go and work for a master at it and learn the trade, you will have money coming in while learning.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
I do a bit of fencing now again, I'd hate to put you off but it's hugely competetive, a lot of folk think they can put up a fence, but they can't nessesarily put up a fence they can expect payment for, and the equipment costs to be efficient enough to be competetive are truley eyewatering, when you add it all up. Ime the best paying jobs are the ones where you have minimal kit, hedglaying, for me at least is a much better game, I can go to a job and earn the same for a days work with a £200 chainsaw, than I can with literally tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit fencing. I think the answer to making a living in the rural economy is to be flexible, a lot of the work is seasonal anyway.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
I do a bit of fencing now again, I'd hate to put you off but it's hugely competetive, a lot of folk think they can put up a fence, but they can't nessesarily put up a fence they can expect payment for, and the equipment costs to be efficient enough to be competetive are truley eyewatering, when you add it all up. Ime the best paying jobs are the ones where you have minimal kit, hedglaying, for me at least is a much better game, I can go to a job and earn the same for a days work with a £200 chainsaw, than I can with literally tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit fencing. I think the answer to making a living in the rural economy is to be flexible, a lot of the work is seasonal anyway.
My friend was doing contracting most things baling etc, that's eye watering , not a postknocker a few hand tolls and a chainsaw , it's the man that makes the fence not the cost of his tools imo [emoji3]
Don't know what area your from ,but most farms around here have fences rotting off and to few fencers to replace them
 
Yet, ironically, there’s also a huge shortage of doctors and engineers!


Any wonder why?

Yeah, I want to be a electro/mechanical engineer. Gets posted to a fudging oil rig or coal mine 1000 kilometres from civilisation or going from site to site up and down the country fixing stuff on contract so you are a nomadic hotel dweller with tools and letters after your name.

Wanna be a doctor? Yeah, great, welcome to healthcare- the perpetual avalanche of 'customers' many requiring 24/7 care so that means someone somewhere has to work the nights, weekends, holidays, Christmases. Yes, some of the salaries are great. Still want to do it?
 
The best way would be to go abs work for a fencing contractor and learn the trade, and get good before going it alone.

I hate to say it and maybe it sounds bad, but you seem to want to set up a solo go it alone buisness straight away. The answer to most things will be go and work for a master at it and learn the trade, you will have money coming in while learning.
I don't deny that it would be nice to go it alone and be self employed so you get to set your own rates, choose which jobs you want to take on, decide what days to work (aside from all the bad points) etc but I am realistic in the sense that I know I'd have to spend a good amount of time being employed and learning the job. Any questions I ask here are purely so I can know what to expect down the line rather than thinking I can do all this immediately.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
My friend was doing contracting most things baling etc, that's eye watering , not a postknocker a few hand tolls and a chainsaw , it's the man that makes the fence not the cost of his tools imo [emoji3]
Don't know what area your from ,but most farms around here have fences rotting off and to few fencers to replace them
Plenty of fencers in herefordshire, it is a never ending job, I'll agree. Did your friend buy his tractor just to go baling or does he do other things aswell? It is absolutley correct that it is the craftsman that is accountable for the quality of work, but you'll be hard pressed to make any kind of money if your only doing 50 meters a week no matter how good your fencing is, also it's not just the post knocker and a spade and hammer, you'll likely need a trailer to get materials to site, and a truck of some sort to pull it, paid help etc.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Plenty of fencers in herefordshire, it is a never ending job, I'll agree. Did your friend buy his tractor just to go baling or does he do other things aswell? It is absolutley correct that it is the craftsman that is accountable for the quality of work, but you'll be hard pressed to make any kind of money if your only doing 50 meters a week no matter how good your fencing is, also it's not just the post knocker and a spade and hammer, you'll likely need a trailer to get materials to site, and a truck of some sort to pull it, paid help etc.
He had been in contracting for years built up slowly , was making sod all so sold everything bar the tractor and bought a new postknocker, he's Flatt out but the quality of his work is spot on ,
I think fencers are born not made , I know plenty who I would not let near one of my fences
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Given it some thought today, and I suspect with ELMs - the new subsidy system- and the way things are going...
Planting/ tending trees?
Hedgelaying? (a lot easier on the back than walling!)

Both need only basic handtools in many cases.
 

Tubbylew

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Given it some thought today, and I suspect with ELMs - the new subsidy system- and the way things are going...
Planting/ tending trees?
Hedgelaying? (a lot easier on the back than walling!)

Both need only basic handtools in many cases.
I dunno about hedgelaying even, they seem to want them to go wild, from what i've read, trees every 6 meters etc.
 

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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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