Speaking out for Small farmers.

[neilo]

Well I am a small farmer one of the 16500 eliminated from BPS payments due to size. Lets see how many of these large farmers survive without there BPS slipper money.

Did you get a chip for your shoulder instead?

 

[roscoe erf]

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/small-farms-have-a-huge-role-to-play-in-our-sustainable-future-charles-prince-of-wales.346859/#post-7580667
Good for him i reckon.

couldn't get the link to work then realised ive got it on ignore

 

[jondear]

I was a small farmer once. Then I was a bigger farmer for a while. Now I'm a small farmer again.
Hope this helps.

Didn't you have an orgasmic bit in the middle ?

 

[Yonlass]

If i was runnin a meal firm id rather have a lot of small customers than a few big 1s as they could leave and ud have nothin, eggs in 1 basket kinda thing

I was a feed rep back in the day. Straight out of college and sent out on the road with no customers. My boss said he'd rather have lots of little orders than a few large, because the big customer leaves a big gap if they go.
I picked up lots of smaller customers that the big feed firms weren't interested in delivering to. Or were screwing them on price to come out to them.

 

[kiwi pom]

It's an interesting one, years ago the countryside was full of family farms and families who worked on farms. Then things got more efficient, machinery got bigger and better and farms could get rid of staff. Workers cottages sold to rich townies, who didn't understand the countryside, while the workers moved to town to find work. It changed the make up of the countryside, but it was ok, people said it was progress.
Now progress is coming after the small farmers.
Can anything really be done to stop it?

 

[DrWazzock]

Well we keep trying. Sunshine helps. It’s all a bit bewildering really.

 

[Jimdog1]

It's an interesting one, years ago the countryside was full of family farms and families who worked on farms. Then things got more efficient, machinery got bigger and better and farms could get rid of staff. Workers cottages sold to rich townies, who didn't understand the countryside, while the workers moved to town to find work. It changed the make up of the countryside, but it was ok, people said it was progress.
Now progress is coming after the small farmers.
Can anything really be done to stop it?

The loss of small farms is killing the countryside and village life. I hope the tide will turn soon.

 

[GeorgeK]

Farms will continue to get bigger and more efficient until the UK road network becomes permanently blocked by Fendts having a lie down. "I remember the harvest of 2025, I walked 5 miles to work over a continuous line of 20t trailers lying on their sides."

 

[Dry Rot]

The loss of small farms is killing the countryside and village life. I hope the tide will turn soon.

It is certainly possible to create a small farm in certain counties in Scotland. But you might have to jump through a lot of legal hoops backwards as you do it!

Creating a new croft | Crofting Commission

Regulatory Applications - Creating a new croft

www.crofting.scotland.gov.uk

 

[Derrick Hughes]

It's hard to believe you can't start a small farm anywere if the will is there
Take Great Grandad Hughes , walked over 100 miles over the Welsh Hills with wife and new born , to find work in the Pits near Crewe . His aim to raise enough to buy a small farm and sell direct . Hes burried now in Betley Churchyard , 100 yards from his Shop and Farm, his dream forfilled

 

[Spuddler]

It can be done if the hunger to succeed is there.

 

[toquark]

Interestingly, the place I'm on was once a much larger unit before being split into 5 smaller holdings in the 90s, each with a house, yard and buildings. It wasn't done by the state or large estate, but by the previous owner who wanted to create smaller farms for people to start from. I would expect he also happened to do quite well financially out of the deal.

Reversal of the trend can very easily be done, the demand is certainly there, but it needs a flexible planning office. From what I can see, that is the major stumbling block.

 

[DrWazzock]

Well yes anything can be done with enough effort and luck but times have changed.
When my grandfather moved here in 1953 the land was £22 an acre. He wasn’t competing with lifestyle buyers. At the time he had just finished paying off the mortgage on his 100 acre dairy farm in Scotland that he’d started buying off his landlord in the 1920’s.
If you want to buy 10 acres of very average land now you’d be looking at £100k or more if it’s road frontage or equestrian potential. Its a non starter agriculturally unless maybe you have the balls and extra capital to put chicken sheds on it and have deep enough pockets to withstand the ups and downs. But why would you? And don’t forget the staggering amount of work involved, if not physical then mental.
Farming is like riding a bike. It’s easy, but it’s like the steepest hill in the lowest gear possible. It’s not a get rich quick scheme that’s for sure. Nice hobby when it’s going well.

 

[daveydiesel1]

Very possible to start a farm but u cant be picky about where u want to do it. Round here ground is fetchin 17k+ an acre as theres lots of farmers with sons at home wantin to increase but go down the road 10 miles and its cheaper as less farms with younger generation pushin the thing on. Also probably dont look for a perfect farm better buyin a bit thats a bit neglected and cheap as u can always cut the hedges and fence it over a few years

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You would have to rent

If you want to do it the old way ,it's a lifetimes work ,starting from the day before you left School , so you at a disadvantage already ,as the school leaving age as gone up [emoji24]

 

[Bald Rick]

Again we have this rubbish definition.

What is a small farm? How is it determined?

Can only be turnover but where is the line drawn?

Utter cock

 

[Breakthru]

Without subsidy a lot of large estates are not viable. Some may return to renting out with luck.

 

[delilah]

Again we have this rubbish definition.

What is a small farm? How is it determined?

Can only be turnover but where is the line drawn?

Utter cock

I was trying to find the words, you have done it for me. It's a massive problem within the eco movement, they talk about small being good and big being bad, with nothing to either define it or to back it up.

For me, it isn't size, but numbers. Of people. I would say we need more people working in farming, to reverse the long term trend towards less. Critical mass. Of skills and knowledge. That is the issue.

 

[Forkdriver]

Without subsidy a lot of large estates are not viable. Some may return to renting out with luck.

The problem of being in an area with large estates means you can never buy anything. My dad's rented farm was taken over by Velcourt. No chance of getting your foot in that door.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I was trying to find the words, you have done it for me. It's a massive problem within the eco movement, they talk about small being good and big being bad, with nothing to either define it or to back it up.

For me, it isn't size, but numbers. Of people. I would say we need more people working in farming, to reverse the long term trend towards less. Critical mass. Of skills and knowledge. That is the issue.

How far would you wind the clock back , could we not say the same thing when tractors replaced horses .