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

[Bury the Trash]

I'm leaving my children to decide what to do with the place. I listen to them. Ours can stand on its own, just. Up to them to expand or leave as is. I don't have a lot of ground but what I do have is easily managed, well fenced, in good condition, no FP's and I have super neighbours all round. Their choice to run it in wild-life or 'oliday mode or raise some livestock or simply have a pleasant local job that pays the minimal outgoings and continue the transformation from not a lot to quite a lot. I'd love to buy more land and probably could, It's been offered sub £10k, but I'm not willing to sit on a tractor all day and not knowlegable enough to be at the forefront of growing pulses or specialist wheat for baking so I'll just stick with what I know and enjoy the little things like The Pin Mill or The Medway or The Thames Barge race. plus offering 'oldies' advice to the next generation Ah, and working part-time in Ipswich which puts a huge smile on my face.
SS

sparetime Yachting?

 

[czechmate]

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.

I’m buying new stuff each year

 

[Chae1]

What would you like to see happen to your place?

Joel salatin books are the main reason I’m in agriculture. Likely solely responsible for more people joining agriculture in the past 2 or 3 decades than any other person in this country.

Recommend me 1 of his books?

 

[theboytheboy]

Most farms i know the family work happily in a partnership like I did with my dad . I don't understand this topic at all.
The hardest part for me was when dad had a stroke and could no longer work beside me

I'm with you on this one. Dad can be hard work (but I'm sure I am aswell).

I guess we are lucky to have or had an old man we want to work with most the time! I've said before I don't know if I will want to carry on if he wasn't here

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Does not have to be your own offspring ya know

Its not that easy is it
They will probably sell it when I'm gone so they don't want a tenant on it , and the improvements I'm doing year on year can only increase its value
Every farmer is different thats why its a stupid topic , far to much generalisation

 

[Lowland1]

I’m buying new stuff each year

Are you trying to impress someone? I don't think you are the hip trendy older farmer this thread is about.

 

[DrWazzock]

Grandfather bought it, father and uncle made a success of it through the 70’s 80’s and 90’s.
Hmmmm.

 

[steveR]

Are you handing over to the next generation in good time ? That’s if you have a next generation to hand over to

Closer to the truth for many, I suspect...

 

[Dead Rabbits]

What is retirement anyway? We seem to have the idea that you reach a certain age then you do absolutely nothing till you are unable to care for yourself then you go to live in a care home to die among strangers. I’m speaking in generalities but it’s useful to discuss.

Do we in the western world have “retirement “ figured out? It hasn’t been around long as an idea and has no historical predecessor. When people reached a certain age they lived with one of their family members and helped with the children or something along those lines.

When Europeans settled other lands and tried to integrate the locals. The effective way to do it was to remove the children from their home. The children who would be told stories from their grandparents never got that knowledge transfer and the old ways and culture were forgotten.

Are minimum wage strangers (or close to) the best people to be raising the children and caring for the elderly? I’m not so sure

What we do with the elderly as a society likely says more about the future of that society than anything else I think. Something to consider maybe

 

[bobk]

I’m buying new stuff each year

Mainly because you're rough .

 

[steveR]

Sadly I don't. But I do know I'm not planning on being anything other than a dog and stick farmer by the time I'm 60. Get the whole place sorted over the next decade and rent it out at some point, and let someone younger take it on.

Snap! Dog and stick, and spending some money putting in more infrastructure to make life easier handling the stock... The dog is Me/Herself... or wait until the daughter is up



Maybe!!

 

[suffolksmallholder]

sparetime Yachting?

Oh yes but very differnt type of yachts . V traditional Thames Sailing Barges where the skills are being kept alive and passed onto the next generation of youngsters.
SS

 

[czechmate]

Mainly because you're rough .

You couldn’t be more wrong. Mainly to avoid tax really and partly to make the job easier and more pleasant

 

[Dead Rabbits]

Its not that easy is it
They will probably sell it when I'm gone so they don't want a tenant on it , and the improvements I'm doing year on year can only increase its value
Every farmer is different thats why its a stupid topic , far to much generalisation

It’s not a stupid topic whatsoever. Most people will get old and most will leave something behind. You can have a say in it if it’s important to you.

 

[DrWazzock]

As I’ve said before, grandfather emigrated to England when he was 55 and started again. You are only as old as you feel. TBH I don’t feel much different to when I was 18. Age is a frame of mind. But with years comes experience and knowledge. As I get older I’d rather do less of everything but do it better than do a lot badly. I also fancy something outside of farming as you only live once. There won’t be a rerun.

 

[czechmate]

Are you trying to impress someone? I don't think you are the hip trendy older farmer this thread is about.

Been living with a fractured rib for 2 weeks. God, it’s certainly made me feel at least 10 years older

 

[bobk]

You couldn’t be more wrong. Mainly to avoid tax really and partly to make the job easier and more pleasant

Buying machines to avoid tax , worthy of a new thread .

 

[Drillman]

Evolution rather than revolution here, nothing really planned just how it happened. Any ideas were always discussed and we rarely fell out or disagreed as could see the other party had a valid point.
the older generation has health issues and realised whenever I was on holiday that the responsibility wasn’t what he wanted as he got older. in his words “your good at making problems go away”

By time I was mid 40s the Older generation realised there was nothing more they could add so told me to crack on and do it my way, They still like to know what’s going on, and think Mrs Drillman and myself have surprised them a bit with how we changed things so it works for us, but very rarely complains as can see we made things better.

edit - i Also notice that a lot of my neighbours have done the same

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Been living with a fractured rib for 2 weeks. God, it’s certainly made me feel at least 10 years older

I'm just starting to fall apart. Things that used to take a morning really do take all day now!
SS

 

[2wheels]

Sign of a misspent youth .

just like his bike, no reverse gear.