The Disappearance of the All Round Farmer

[DrWazzock]

With the demise of mixed farming, the specialisation of the industry into arable and livestock units, the employment of specialists in agronomy, contract services and the increase in the size of farming businesses are there really many all round farmers left who can turn their hand from ploughing to lambing a sheep, to devising a spray programme?

Are we, by way of specialisation brought about by increased unit size and complexity, in danger of losing the all rounder farmers who can see a farm as a balanced system of livestock and crops and can understand and integrate such a system successfully?

Round here we see continuous arable land "worked to death" while livestock units intensify. People in the industry seem to have polarised into being machinery operators and enthusiasts or into stockmen.

What is really needed are people who understand stock and arable crops and who can integrate them successfully into a balanced system, or what I'd call good old fashioned proper farming by good old fashioned proper farmers.

We have lost sight of farms as balanced systems and have become too narrowly focussed IMO.

 

[Steevo]

Regulation doesn’t help things. You can do everything, or know about everything, to satisfy all rules yourself.

 

[DrWazzock]

Regulation doesn’t help things. You can do everything, or know about everything, to satisfy all rules yourself.

True. Qualify Assurance on a mixed farm now asks a lot of a one man band farmer.

 

[two-cylinder]

The ever increasing legislative burden will overwhelm the 'try to do it all' farmer, and machinery costs will sink farms that need a bit of everything.
Simplification and specialisation are necessary to save costs and hassle.

 

[DrWazzock]

A lot of farmers known to me do seem to shape their farms around their personal preference for stock or arable, rather than what would be best for the farm, which is often a mix of the two.

I think a good farmer puts personal preferences aside and does what's best for the farm.

 

[kfpben]

One of my neighbours is an excellent all rounder, has grown his business impressively and often is awarded let land over the big arable boys. No flash kit but well farmed land and good stock.

Personally I find it hard to keep up to speed with everything- not only crops and stock but also the office/accounts/regulations/office DEFRA rubbish side of things.

 

[DrWazzock]

The ever increasing legislative burden will overwhelm the 'try to do it all' farmer, and machinery costs will sink farms that need a bit of everything.
Simplification and specialisation are necessary to save costs and hassle.

In the short term yes, but I see farms now where there has been no grass or livestock for a generation and the land is "mined out", all humus gone. Crying out for grass and stock but the owners "don't like stock" or are tractor men. People have got hung up on fancy machinery and lost sight of making best use of the farm. I personally have more enthusiasm for machinery than stock, but without stock my soils die so I have to have the stock for the sake of the farm. That's real farming in my view.

 

[digger don]

The way i put it is,, the big farm is deskilling the countryside!
I am a small farm i own only 100acers and rent another 80 acers. And would only survive because i do everything. We make all are own crops i fix all my own kit and turn my hand to everything. This was the way of the country! A man that spends the whole day in a parlour or. Just on a feeder wagon or even just scraping yards every day may work on a farm but i dont see how they can be a farmer!....

 

[Spud]

Interesting subject

Neighbour (very good farmer) used to keep cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry alongside his arable land. When one member of staff retired, the cattle went. When the next one retired, most of the sheep went. When his dad had to retire, the pigs went. (happened to coincide with investment being required in infrastructure)
At the same time, his poultry enterprise has slowly grown. Its not a particularly big, or dry farm (in fact some of it floods) but always looks well. Does everything himself with a bit of casual help. Not a man for complication, makes it look easy and always seems to have time for life. Have to say I admire that!

Next village has two dairy farms, one very traditional, do most things themselves, steady away. Other one lost some land to a big arable concern when landlord sold up and buys forage in and exports the muck. Another in the village has cattle in folds and sheep on land unusable for anything else alongside arable crops. We have b&b pigs on straw yards. In theory, cattle would make some sense here, some wetter ground could be used for silage, root crops for feed, plenty grain and straw etc. But I'm no cattleman, and dont feel such an enterprise would succeed due to mostly my lack of skill. The pigs turn straw into 1500t of fym every year, its a simple system and it works, so I dont see that changing.

By my observations, its the bigger farms (notably estates) that are generally contract farmed (often short term agreements) where the diversity has disappeared. No one is going to maintain or invest in livestock infrastructure (ie implement a long term strategy) on a short term agreement.
In the 80's and 90's, our local estate employed a dozen men, milked 200 cows, fattened some bulls, grew a diverse rotation and made investments in things like sheds, concrete, irrigation and facilities. For some time now, the stock has long gone, no roads built, no sheds built, the arable ground contract farmed on short term agreements. Is it going forward agriculturally? Is it sustainable? Not like it was. Its not alone. There are many, once busy, diverse, varied farms, that have been disbanded from their traditional mixed farming operations. Sad really.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Weather pattern has changed farming .to risky to grow arable here in the West. I used to grow 200 acres wheat and barley . I grew 6 acre this year an it's lost rotting in the field

 

[Dry Rot]

There are a lot of small farms in Scotland, called 'crofts'. The tenant usually has a second job, sometimes several. Crofts are usually mixed farms and will have a variety of livestock. probably home grown crops, and almost certainly hay or similar fodder.

Two politicians were discussing the utility of these farms. One argued that they were uneconomical. The second that they were essential. The first was amazed and asked what they could produce that a big farm couldn't produce better. The second answered, "People".

Love her or hate her, Maggie Thatcher was a grocer's daughter. She always claimed that being brought up in that evironment taught her the basic rules of economics. Small farmers have to do the lot, the whole family mucks in and works together, with neighbours as well, and that's a pretty good education for life.

 

[hindmaist]

Hmmm.Average sized mixed farms used to carry staff.They were specialists in their job.

 

[gatepost]

I grew up with mixed farming like most on here, but at collage end of 70s the push to become experts in one field was being taught, scale wasn't. I am still interested in all things farming although you wouldn't get me in the devils own device ,a milking parlour! I am disappointed talking to others including the young who either have no knowledge or interest in the bits of farming they aren't interested or involved in, I think this is a weakness which has evolved, it stops some from looking at their farms in a broader way.

 

[ThatsSomeSheep]

So many one man bands now, perhaps with neither time nor (sadly) inclination to do "mixed" properly.

Doesn't mean the farms / soils should suffer.

Lots of scope for link ups between specialists to get the most from and for the land.

TSS

 

[Princess Pooper]

The rules and regulations bit is the killer rather than the husbandry skills. I have hands-on experience in dairy, beef, sheep, pigs, layers, turkeys, guinea fowl, cockerels, game rearing and running a shoot, combinable crops, hops, some fruit, some field veg, woodland and conservation work. So when I joined ADAS as a farm business consultant I was able to work across most sectors. Then as cross compliance started to bite, along with stewardship schemes, catchment sensitive farming etc, it was harder to keep abreast of everything and the cpd requirement was substantial to keep up to date. What I was very good at was helping organisations such as Defra to understand farms and how they worked and how a strategic overview was essential rather than keeping things in silos. Now doing all the record keeping, cross compliance etc on our farm with dairy, sheep, arable and HLS, it is pretty difficult keeping tabs on it all as well as keeping abreast of technical developments at the husbandry end and actually fitting some farming in. The risks of falling foul of cross compliance or some legislation is greater the more enterprises you have. And that's before you add in any requirements for grants etc.

 

[Chae1]

In the short term yes, but I see farms now where there has been no grass or livestock for a generation and the land is "mined out", all humus gone. Crying out for grass and stock but the owners "don't like stock" or are tractor men. People have got hung up on fancy machinery and lost sight of making best use of the farm. I personally have more enthusiasm for machinery than stock, but without stock my soils die so I have to have the stock for the sake of the farm. That's real farming in my view.

No offence but how has your own business progressed over the past ten years under your present system? 'Real farming' as you put it.

Going by your threads you start on here you seem to go from one disaster to the next with machinery, crops and livestock. Then say there's no money in job.

 

[gone up the hill]

The rules and regulations bit is the killer rather than the husbandry skills. I have hands-on experience in dairy, beef, sheep, pigs, layers, turkeys, guinea fowl, cockerels, game rearing and running a shoot, combinable crops, hops, some fruit, some field veg, woodland and conservation work. So when I joined ADAS as a farm business consultant I was able to work across most sectors. Then as cross compliance started to bite, along with stewardship schemes, catchment sensitive farming etc, it was harder to keep abreast of everything and the cpd requirement was substantial to keep up to date. What I was very good at was helping organisations such as Defra to understand farms and how they worked and how a strategic overview was essential rather than keeping things in silos. Now doing all the record keeping, cross compliance etc on our farm with dairy, sheep, arable and HLS, it is pretty difficult keeping tabs on it all as well as keeping abreast of technical developments at the husbandry end and actually fitting some farming in. The risks of falling foul of cross compliance or some legislation is greater the more enterprises you have. And that's before you add in any requirements for grants etc.

This above.

Rules and red tape are what are destroying mixed farming for most family farms, only larger ones can justify the hassle of being in several different sectors.

And im afraid to say Farm assurance has speeded up the demise of mixed farms
dramatically.

 

[Chae1]

This above.

Rules and red tape are what are destroying mixed farming for most family farms, only larger ones can justify the hassle of being in several different sectors.

And im afraid to say Farm assurance has speeded up the demise of mixed farms
dramatically.

How long does farm assurance take? I do all of ours for cereals and suckler cows. I reckon 3 days per year.

 

[Goweresque]

There's a reason people specialise, its more efficient. If you have arable crops, you need arable kit, and arable buildings. If you have livestock you need livestock kit and livestock buildings. On a small to medium sized farm that means you need double the amount of kit (and maintain and replace it) to farm an area that you could do with half as much kit if you went for just arable or just livestock.

My father used to grow a field or two of barley to mill for his stock, he ran an old Ransomes combine to cut it. Every year he'd spend ages getting the thing ready to use, and more time fixing it when it broke down, in the end he realised it was cheaper (and a lot less hassle) to buy grain in from an arable neighbour. Specialisation really is cheaper.

(As an aside the Ransomes combine sat in the yard for years, one day a chap turned up having seen it from the road asking if he could buy it for export, for parts. Bits of it ended up going to Timbuctoo in Africa where they were still using them to harvest something or other. The front wheels I still have, my father fitted the axle to a Kidd rotaspreader, in what could have been the first every large wheeled spreader, at the time (70s) they all had small wheels that sank into the mud).

 

[Spud]

How long does farm assurance take? I do all of ours for cereals and suckler cows. I reckon 3 days per year.

You're probably not far off at that, in terms of finalising everything. Its more the constant recording of info, the amount of ways there is to be tripped up, fear of an inspection etc that multiplies the stress and discourages diversity, as opposed to the actual time doing the paperwork. It matters not what one does, its what one writes down that counts. A very good farmer on the ground can fail an inspection by been mediocre at paperwork. I fail to see how constantly incresing the need to record ever more info adds any value to our produce or increases food safety. It adds cost, makes us less competitive, and increases stress, just to keep a few clipboards in work. Not a fan.