Moving Industries

EAS.IB

New Member
Evening All,

I have been in two minds for a couple months now over how I want to go forward in my working life. Since a young age I have always loved farming with the livestock, machinery and the country pursuits which go with it however my career is in financial services although most our clients are farmers.

This year I have been taking holidays and going with friends who work on farms to do some mowing and silage carting which I enjoyed. It was a totally different experience and you appreciate that there is more to a tractor driver than sitting and driving. You have to watch for people around you on the roads and in the field along with being able to try to fix those issues with overheating or ingestion on an implement.

I thought I would write on here and see whether anyone has been in a different industry and moved across into agriculture or even some first hand thoughts from you members with multiple years of experience.

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.
 

czechmate

Member
Mixed Farmer
Evening All,

I have been in two minds for a couple months now over how I want to go forward in my working life. Since a young age I have always loved farming with the livestock, machinery and the country pursuits which go with it however my career is in financial services although most our clients are farmers.

This year I have been taking holidays and going with friends who work on farms to do some mowing and silage carting which I enjoyed. It was a totally different experience and you appreciate that there is more to a tractor driver than sitting and driving. You have to watch for people around you on the roads and in the field along with being able to try to fix those issues with overheating or ingestion on an implement.

I thought I would write on here and see whether anyone has been in a different industry and moved across into agriculture or even some first hand thoughts from you members with multiple years of experience.

Thanks for any thoughts/advice.


I moved from steel fabricating. Farming had always been my dream. The reality of actually being the farmer (as opposed to farm worker) in this day and age is not really all you might hope for.:(. if you could actually make a living, working 40 hrs per week like most, then yes it would be great but the reality of having to work the best part of 100 hrsper week, every week (certainly over 4K per year) just grinds you down, especially as you get older.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I worked as a professional engineer till I was 35 but was brought up on this farm so in some ways never really left it. I spent most of holiday time here working. In some ways I am still working as an engineer as most of the arable work relies on being able to keep the machinery going.

It all depends how you intend to shift from your present career into agriculture. I wouldn't have shifted out of engineering into agriculture just to drive a tractor or look after stock on somebody else's farm. The life of most farm staff is arduous and precarious as far as I can see and not that well paid. But if it's what you really enjoy then go for it. I'd get a bit more hands on experience first before I made the move though. Maybe you could change back if it didn't work anyway.
 
You sound a bit like me when I was in my early 20's. I was working in accountancy for Massey Ferguson but hating it and wanting to do what I'd done most weekends and holidays since childhood which was practical farming. I got offered a job as a cowman through a friend and then did relief milking and tried to set up my own small dairy unit. But, the imposition of milk quotas and lack of capital made it impossible to move forward. So I went back to financial services, set up my own firm and now farm 140 acres of which 120 is owned debt free. The only problem is I am now aged 60! If I had stayed in financial services from the start I probably could have achieved this 10 years earlier.

So the advice from my experience is if you want to farm do it along side a good outside job for a period because farming is capital hungry and prices are very volatile.
 
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Frodo2

Member
What stage of your career are you at? Also as said financial services could mean anything. If you are full of energy, but currently sitting at a computer entering data all day, with no window to look out, I am sure sitting on a tractor seems like fun.

Roll forward 20 years and hopefully your career will have evolved to being a respected professional, providing some sort of management guidance with a reasonable salary and set hours.

Meanwhile in a parallel universe you will still be driving a tractor working 14 hr days hoping it rains on Saturday so you can go to your sisters wedding.

My advice would be to learn from your clients and wait for the best opportunity to develop your own business. Assuming you were not born minted, I am afraid it is unlikely to be in commodity production, but some niche. As you work with lots of businesses you are in a good place to spot it.

Ultimately though there is absolutely no point in ever being unhappy, so go with what will make you happy.
 

EAS.IB

New Member
Thank you all for those comments on your personal experiences and advice.

It is a fairly life changing decision and carries alot of Pros and Cons for the agrument, I am someone who like's to commit to a job and do it properly which I guess stems from my current role because if it doesn't go right the company is being sued.

I think what I will do is speak with some of the contractors I deal with and see if they need any weekend help/assistance, I'm not looking to be paid for it just want the "work experience". At the end of the day my original thought was to leave the business I am in already and work for a contractor for a year, if it doesn't go well then I have the experience to move back into the game but if I like it and can live from it then I can do another year or so. I'm not someone who will quit because it's early mornings/late nights or minus 4 outside, I just have more of a passion for farming than I do insurance.
 

Beowulf

Member
Location
Scotland
If you're established in a reasonably well paid job that you still enjoy, stick at it. Do a bit of farm work in your spare time to scratch the itch.

Farming seems a lot more fun when it's not how you earn your living, judging by the comments on this forum.
 

Sackofnuts

Member
Location
Cumbria
Go for it. Don’t spend your life thinking “what if”. You only get one go at life and you should try everything. There will always be pros and cons that’s just life but you’ll never know until you give it a whirl. A lot of people will be negative about farming but strangely enough they still do it!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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