Old folks should chuff off.......

Goweresque

Member
Location
North Wilts
Let the doddering old fools potter about till they want to retire, and get your own chuffing mortgage and buy your own bit of chuffing land.

Thats all fine except that the doddering old fools have had it all their way at both ends. They inherited their place when they were still relatively young, because life expectancy in the 70s and 80s was still only late 60s/early 70s for men, but having inherited it in their 30s or 40s can easily expect to live well into their 80s. So the next generation might well be nearly 60 by the time they inherit. Its not an equal equation. The post war generation have (as in so many things in society) grabbed all the benefit for themselves at the expense of the later generations. Housing, pensions, university education, inheritances, they've got the best of all the deals. Their parents had to fight wars and die young, their children are sat wondering how they can manage to pay for their education, buy a house and afford a family.

My personal experience shows the trend - my grandfather died in his late 60s in the early 1970s and my father inherited the farm aged about 38. He's still with us now aged 85 (mainly due to the heart op that wasn't available for my grandfathers generation) and if other ill health matters hadn't forced him 10-15 years ago to pass things on to me and my sister, he'd still be ruling the roost today, and I'd be in my 50s wondering when I'd ever be able to take over.

I definitely think that there should be some carrot and stick within the tax system that makes people retire at a certain age. Or at least forces them to take the next generations into the business or face losing tax benefits, or even their state pensions. Its done in France, which is often lauded as being far more pro-farmer than the UK - you can't claim subsidy once you get to retirement age. Thus forcing the elderly through financial pressure to let go and hand things over the the next generation.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Thats all fine except that the doddering old fools have had it all their way at both ends. They inherited their place when they were still relatively young, because life expectancy in the 70s and 80s was still only late 60s/early 70s for men, but having inherited it in their 30s or 40s can easily expect to live well into their 80s. So the next generation might well be nearly 60 by the time they inherit. Its not an equal equation. The post war generation have (as in so many things in society) grabbed all the benefit for themselves at the expense of the later generations. Housing, pensions, university education, inheritances, they've got the best of all the deals. Their parents had to fight wars and die young, their children are sat wondering how they can manage to pay for their education, buy a house and afford a family.

My personal experience shows the trend - my grandfather died in his late 60s in the early 1970s and my father inherited the farm aged about 38. He's still with us now aged 85 (mainly due to the heart op that wasn't available for my grandfathers generation) and if other ill health matters hadn't forced him 10-15 years ago to pass things on to me and my sister, he'd still be ruling the roost today, and I'd be in my 50s wondering when I'd ever be able to take over.

I definitely think that there should be some carrot and stick within the tax system that makes people retire at a certain age. Or at least forces them to take the next generations into the business or face losing tax benefits, or even their state pensions. Its done in France, which is often lauded as being far more pro-farmer than the UK - you can't claim subsidy once you get to retirement age. Thus forcing the elderly through financial pressure to let go and hand things over the the next generation.
do i read right in that you are peeved at having to wait longer/too long to take over ? if thats the case why didnt you just start your own,thats what i did when i was 25 , went self employed , and started my own flock with 35 ewes and a ram. and rented a pig farm.
Mind you i did take on the rest of it not much later as well but sort of beside the point,as there was no one else to do it.. and if i hadnt it wouldnt be here in its current {albeit modest} form if i hadnt iyswim.
 

colhonk

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Darlington
Gosh, am so dissapointed, thought there was a lot of savy people on here but no one seems to have worked out WHY they (?) want young people to farm....Tis because young people will work like silly ++ckers all hours for little return because all will come right and be better tomorrow :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:. where as the oldies have worked out that tomorrow never comes.(y)
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Not sure that it's that easy for any youngster to go out and get a mortgage to start farming the value of land far exceeds its ability to pay back borrowed money. So the young can't get a start and the old cling on with their subsidies and their collections of aging farmmachinery.
Subsidies... Bingo !!!

It was never easy getting a mortgage. We bluffed one out of the AMC with a business plan quoting future profits of £5k an acre growing organic carrots. :cool:
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
Subsidies... Bingo !!!

It was never easy getting a mortgage. We bluffed one out of the AMC with a business plan quoting future profits of £5k an acre growing organic carrots. :cool:
i didnt inherit sheep quota which was around at the time as i built my flock numbers up . A lot did have huge numbers on the ewe premiun that i had to compete with for winter grass keep etc.
Im not bitter about it though, nor when that abattoir that went bust when i sent my biggest ever lot of lambs in. quite hard to take when your young.
Getting a house to live in was a fair battle as well come to think of it, ah well.
 

2wheels

Member
Location
aberdeenshire
Old folk who retire at 50 to spend the next 30 years complaining and writing letters, sipping tea through sour faced thinnlips, washing their car every day, and existing only to be complete pains to everyone should be fed to a government incinerator. Others all fine.
you know how when you go to the mart etc. there is always some old guy saying how he did/would do things. when i retired i swore i wouldn't turn into that guy but i think going by my posts i have failed. 🤔 :)
 

Goweresque

Member
Location
North Wilts
do i read right in that you are peeved at having to wait longer/too long to take over ? if thats the case why didnt you just start your own,thats what i did when i was 25 , went self employed , and started my own flock with 35 ewes and a ram. and rented a pig farm.
Mind you i did take on the rest of it not much later as well but sort of beside the point,as there was no one else to do it.. and if i hadnt it wouldnt be here in its current {albeit modest} form if i hadnt iyswim.

No, I was 'lucky' in that other health issues forced the generational swap over 10 years ago, I took over at roughly the same age as my father did from his father. But for many people my age (50) there is a still a 70-80yo generation above them holding all the reins who are fairly hale and hearty and have no interesting in handing things over, despite their children being well past the age they were when they inherited. The post war generation have grabbed all the benefits of increased life expectancy for themselves, and won't let go voluntarily. That is what is causing a lot of the trouble in the multi-generational farming industry.
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
i see your chip is doing well.,old man.

btw, how are your off spring getting on with the help that youre giving them?
I don't have an issue with anyone inheriting but they should n't think they are any cleverer for it . In a lot of cases it's a curse rather than a benefit. I could have hung on and tried to do something at home rather than go off on my own but working with my Dad was hard and as he got older he got less innovative and more set in his ways and also less inclined to risk. So off i went. Inheriting a small farm in your fifties isn't much good so they (kids) can have a go with it. Since coming here we have had two farming businesses starting from scratch the first one went from zero to a million pounds turnover in ten years then we sold it because I needed a guaranteed income to pay school fees as there's nothing free here. So I got a job for six months that didn't work so we started again. In the last ten years we have gone from start up to four times the previous turnover.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
Well I’m of a ‘certain age’ & I’m chuffing off nowhere , so all you so called bright young things can bog off or I’ll fart in your general direction , your mother was a hamster & your father smelt of elderberries . [emoji849]
Wait a few years until junior comes back with big plans.
You'll be 3rd in decision making process by then, as will I.

I've just bought a direct drill and sold 2 ploughs. I'm down with the yoof!
 

robs1

Member
Its a difficult one I took over the farm at 28 as my old man was 42 when I was born had always been a reluctant farmer, I worked mental hours to buy out an aunt who owned half the land, bought more we were renting then had to buy half off my ex wife. At 61 I still love farming but hate the FA crap etc like most do, we also have a flat that over looks the sea we try and spend a decent amount of time, luckily one of my stepsons loves the farm and hopefully will take it over as both my kids have good jobs/business elsewhere, however we still need an income and there are IHT issues to sort.
 

DieselRob

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
North Yorkshire
There’s an old farmer in his 80s round here, land contract farmed, 2 young lads doing the grunting and shunting with the stock but “I’ll never give up”, when he was a young lad he said to an old chap on the estate, “it’s about time you old folk buggered off and let us young ones have a go”. I wonder if he would appreciate the irony if someone called him up on it
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
There’s an old farmer in his 80s round here, land contract farmed, 2 young lads doing the grunting and shunting with the stock but “I’ll never give up”, when he was a young lad he said to an old chap on the estate, “it’s about time you old folk buggered off and let us young ones have a go”. I wonder if he would appreciate the irony if someone called him up on it
I dare you. ;)
 

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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