The family farm

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
I tend to disagree,farming if a way of life. It’s in your blood and the want to farm is pretty hard to get away from. Yes it’s a business but if we expect to be paid fir every little thing we do it would never work. The economics would usually are in favour of selling if it’s an owned farm as the money that’s invested in land and machinery would earn a high amount of profit invested wisely.
If your farming doesn't pay for itself it just gets ground down more and more until you end up doing the scrapyard challenge way of farming where everything you touch breaks, everything is knackered and held together with bale string, 6 tractors and one good battery between them etc etc. That is pretty much where we were and it was bloody miserable.
Or you can farm because you enjoy it and subsidise it with money from elsewhere, nothing wrong with that but it isn't a business any more it is a hobby no matter what the scale.

I agree with what you say but what can you do with the money?. I know neighbours who sold and invested. Turned out very badly but its easy to say badly in hindsight. They are looking at their former farms now worth alot more .
Well in my case I bought a much smaller farm, did the house up and built some new sheds. I have carried on doing what I love doing but without so much pressure and with equipment that works.
The farming part won't make me any money but the increased value from investment in the property has made me a lot richer (only if I sell of course). That wasn't why I did it but it is a nice bonus, I have probably made more money in the last 3 years than in the last 3 decades.
 

gatepost

Member
Location
Cotswolds
I Have only just inherited my bit at 60 being the tenant all my working life, I have young who are interested, but for me it's not about the money at all, I grew up in the back streets of Gloucester, most folk don't get to live in the 'freedom to breath' like we do, I want it there for any future generation to just enjoy if they want.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Surely it’s better still to sell early, give the money away to the eventual recipients and spend seven years watching them enjoy it? Still no IHT, and the CGT aspects can be addressed at minimal cost by a decent accountant.
The main thing is that she provides for herself , life is not a shelf for your offspring, if they are no longer your dependents that is
 

PhilipB

Member
If you inherited the family farm and you worked it for a lifetime and were getting on a bit fitness wise with no family help ( not interested) would it be a bad thing to sell what’s been in your family 250 years . Because maybe the guilt afterwards is worse than working alone and living alone now the children just come back for holidays really . Just wondering if anyone on here has done it and felt it was the right thing then regretted it. Also my guilt would not just extend to the land and the ancestors. I have made it a safe haven for waders and many species of flora and fauna . I would hate to think of someone developing where the lapwing nest. What to do as I couldn’t stay here without livestock to keep me moving but on the other hand it’s not an ideal place to stay at the back of beyond on

If you inherited the family farm and you worked it for a lifetime and were getting on a bit fitness wise with no family help ( not interested) would it be a bad thing to sell what’s been in your family 250 years . Because maybe the guilt afterwards is worse than working alone and living alone now the children just come back for holidays really . Just wondering if anyone on here has done it and felt it was the right thing then regretted it. Also my guilt would not just extend to the land and the ancestors. I have made it a safe haven for waders and many species of flora and fauna . I would hate to think of someone developing where the lapwing nest. What to do as I couldn’t stay here without livestock to keep me moving but on the other hand it’s not an ideal place to stay at the back of beyond on your own

To come at it from a different angle, lots of other people have made very good points, i think the loneliness you mention is key.

If you are happy on the farm then, though physical health is fading, you might still die perfectly content prising apart a bale of hay with arthritic fingers, even though everyone else thinks "poor thing, she should have been in a home years ago".

But if the loneliness seems to be freezing you up, bit by bit, then get out, and tell the ancestors you couldn't do it alone.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
Surely it’s better still to sell early, give the money away to the eventual recipients and spend seven years watching them enjoy it? Still no IHT, and the CGT aspects can be addressed at minimal cost by a decent accountant.
I don't disagree with you, but you cannot give the farm away and reserve the benefit of living there for free, so OP would need to be 100% happy to sell.
 

Overby

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South West
I Have only just inherited my bit at 60 being the tenant all my working life, I have young who are interested, but for me it's not about the money at all, I grew up in the back streets of Gloucester, most folk don't get to live in the 'freedom to breath' like we do, I want it there for any future generation to just enjoy if they want.
I think we all feel the same but the OP says there's no interest from the next generation...which definitely skews things.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
I don't disagree with you, but you cannot give the farm away and reserve the benefit of living there for free, so OP would need to be 100% happy to se

I think we all feel the same but the OP says there's no interest from the next generation...which definitely skews things.
I think she has already made her mind up , just looking for reassurance
 

crofteress

Member
Livestock Farmer
Great answers all of you thank you so much. Love the quote ' prising apart a bale of hay with arthritic fingers' [ I have really bad arthritic fingers ]Thinking of a 3 year plan now, staying on here, but couldn't sell as I could never come back once I did. Thinking of building a smaller house for me and if any family members with children want to buy this one as a family house then thats good. A nice new wee house id be quite happy Have a young relative in mind to let the land to . I don't like holidays I get homesick no matter where I go so think thats enough for me to realise I couldn't settle anywhere else
 
Farm has been in family 100 years, first as tenant then owned, sold as sitting tenants and then bought back, 4 generations in total.
We have 3 sons who have not followed in farming. They were told when I was 50 that they had 10 years to make a decision.
We have now started down the contract dairy faming route to help me taper off and tied it over for a further 10 years. The plan is to move close to the sea so my wife can swim daily, but come back 1 week in 4 to do all the jobs that contract farmers don't!
If it does not work we will sell and try to spend it all so there is no fighting when we are gone!
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Great answers all of you thank you so much. Love the quote ' prising apart a bale of hay with arthritic fingers' [ I have really bad arthritic fingers ]Thinking of a 3 year plan now, staying on here, but couldn't sell as I could never come back once I did. Thinking of building a smaller house for me and if any family members with children want to buy this one as a family house then thats good. A nice new wee house id be quite happy Have a young relative in mind to let the land to . I don't like holidays I get homesick no matter where I go so think thats enough for me to realise I couldn't settle anywhere else
Slightly different to your first post but good luck whatever you decide
 

honeyend

Member
Not sure if this counts, we bought part of a split up family farm, it was sold to pay for old age. What was left was cobbled together buildings, the houses were basic, ours was made of asbestos, and and the saddest thing for me was the milking parlour, with the coat hook and light switch at the entrance, but the roof was long gone, even though the pipework was still there. Not long after they sold one brother died.
I think you need to think about the things you like about your life style, and what is too much. I like my view and my cows, my husband loves his sheds, so eventually we will rent out the grazing, may sell the house and move to the village, which has just about everything but is still a proper village, and perhaps put a caravan in shed so we can stay over.
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
Only works if you can guarantee living for 7 years

Yes and no - if you live less than that, then the taxman gets a bit, but it is a sliding scale. Better to see the money being enjoyed than not though, agreed? I certainly don't intend to wait until I'm dead before the next generations get some help, assuming I accumulate more than my own needs, of course.
 

czechmate

Member
Mixed Farmer
Yes and no - if you live less than that, then the taxman gets a bit, but it is a sliding scale. Better to see the money being enjoyed than not though, agreed? I certainly don't intend to wait until I'm dead before the next generations get some help, assuming I accumulate more than my own needs, of course.

I started years ago and I hope I have plenty of years yet. Youngest finishes uni next year, that’ll be an eye watering hole to work on😬
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

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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