The family farm

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
I’m not a he I’m a she 🤭 but yes just wondering if anyone has sold the family farm and managed to live without guilt
Yes, I would also add that when we approached my father to ask his opinion he left it for us to decide and was pleased to see the progress we had made once we sold and bought elsewhere, bit different for us as we were only second generation and my father had built the farm from nothing.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
Does it matter if you keep a greatly reduced amount of livestock or even let the grass but potter on in and around the house?
I’m wary of selling up as I’m not sure I’d acclimatise to living in town. It’s very very different. Can you not carry on enjoying the wildlife but slacken off on the agricultural side?
Plenty used to do that round here. The nettlebeds got bigger but those today are redefined as “environmental focus areas.”
I wouldn’t rush it whatever you decide. I have also learned that a busy person is generally a happy person within the limits of physical health and capability. Can you reduce your workload to something more manageable but still keep yourself sufficiently occupied staying where you are?
You can sell up and not move to town.

I've never owned a farm and never in my adult life (since leaving my university town 20 years ago) have I lived in a town or, for that matter anything bigger than a hamlet.
 

SteveHants

Member
Livestock Farmer
You also must remember, plenty of people fade quickly when made to give up what keeps them going .
Not a farming story but that's what I've seen.

My mum - primary school headteacher. As soon as she retired, she's a school governor, heads up the village twinning committee (village now "inexplicably" twinned with one in the Champagne region of France), has my daughter often, takes her on holidays, etc etc. She now says she doesn't know how she had time to go to work.

My dad - Office job that he never really liked. Took early retirement, read all the papers every day, spent quality time in the pub, had a quadruple bypass.....

My mum seems not to have aged, the old man became "Old" very quickly - he's getting better now, helps out with a homeless charity, volunteers at a foodbank, does the odd shift in the library.

I think the key is keeping your mind busy.
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
It’s a flat tire. Takes twenty minutes to fix. Less time than it takes to Scroll thru a few posts on here. Not everything in life come down to money. If fir you it does then you have my sympathy.
You want to calm down a bit, I was only making the point that everything is for the business not for the way of life. I would feel sorry for me I’m doing very well for myself as someone who has never had any sort of leg up in life.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
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
It's not really a family farm now is it , it's your farm ?
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
Surely the farm is capable of employing a young bloke? That way things carry on as per normal, and it may give you a new lease on life to have a fresh face that is keen to learn?
very dangerous for a young chap, a "friend " went to work for an older man whose family had no interest. The old man promised him the moon and he worked for years doing many hours extra than he was paid for as the owner promised him he would look after him. Gradually the owners developed dementia and my friend did even more.
Owners passed away and the children sold up as quick as they could and my "friend" now 50 is high and dry
 

crofteress

Member
Livestock Farmer
They don't want the place they want me, my time and to not work myself to death , thats what I mean by not being selfish , that's just what my dad and brother did , worked themselves to death , not what I wanted of them but their you go

It's not really a family farm now is it , it's your farm ?
I hadn’t thought of it like that . Yes it’s mine but I think of myself as a custodian for the next generation. It’s been in our family since 1745 so it’s actually a lot more than 250 years .
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
I hadn’t thought of it like that . Yes it’s mine but I think of myself as a custodian for the next generation. It’s been in our family since 1745 so it’s actually a lot more than 250 years .
My family could go back many thousands of years in farming for all I know , my great grandad left a farm in llanbrynmair in the 18 hundreds to farm in Cheshire , walked all the way with is wife a 4 kids , I have 7 kids that don't want to farm And I don't have a pot of gold under the bed I can live off when I can no longer work , I could live like a hermit just incase one if them changes their mind I suppose
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
You also must remember, plenty of people fade quickly when made to give up what keeps them going .
I don't actually believe that. They were probably of an age and condition where they were or were about to fail quickly anyway.
However, some people have no other interest. My father was like that. Buwch a llo, buwch a llo! Just cow and calf. My mother's friend had a saying about such people...

Dyn ffyc-all, dim ond buwch a llo, buwch a llo. Gwybod dim am yr 'international situation'. Dim ond buwch as llo o un diwrnod i'r llall.

There's much more to life, or there should be for everyone, than just their work. People should work to make a living, not live to do or make work.
 

Flatlander

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lorette Manitoba
You want to calm down a bit, I was only making the point that everything is for the business not for the way of life. I would feel sorry for me I’m doing very well for myself as someone who has never had any sort of leg up in life.
I’m calm. Sorry if it came off any other way, glad Your doing good as it’s nice to hear. seems so many today are unhappy with their lot.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
I don't actually believe that. They were probably of an age and condition where they were or were about to fail quickly anyway.
However, some people have no other interest. My father was like that. Buwch a llo, buwch a llo! Just cow and calf. My mother's friend had a saying about such people...

Dyn ffyc-all, dim ond buwch a llo, buwch a llo. Gwybod dim am yr 'international situation'. Dim ond buwch as llo o un diwrnod i'r llall.

There's much more to life, or there should be for everyone, than just their work. People should work to make a living, not live to do or make work.
Do you have a plan ,or do you have someone who wants to carry on
 

bobajob

Member
Location
Sw Scotland
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
It will be surprising what a house costs to build nowadays, and the hassle factor of it all!
 

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Not a farming story but that's what I've seen.

My mum - primary school headteacher. As soon as she retired, she's a school governor, heads up the village twinning committee (village now "inexplicably" twinned with one in the Champagne region of France), has my daughter often, takes her on holidays, etc etc. She now says she doesn't know how she had time to go to work.

My dad - Office job that he never really liked. Took early retirement, read all the papers every day, spent quality time in the pub, had a quadruple bypass.....

My mum seems not to have aged, the old man became "Old" very quickly - he's getting better now, helps out with a homeless charity, volunteers at a foodbank, does the odd shift in the library.

I think the key is keeping your mind busy.
Keeping the mind busy is very important in my opinion

I know someone’s mother who after having children and raising them never went back to work or had daily job, sat on her arse obsessed with horse racing, hardly lifted a finger, early onset dementia before 60.
It could just be coincidence but I put it down to inactivity
 
It is scary how many of the males in our family (including cousins, etc) have popped their clogs around the time they were planning to retire, from 60-65ish. Dad and my uncle both went as did my sister's husband and both cousins' hubbies. Whether it comes from too much work or taking their feet off the gas pedal and slowing up is open to debate.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
It is scary how many of the males in our family (including cousins, etc) have popped their clogs around the time they were planning to retire, from 60-65ish. Dad and my uncle both went as did my sister's husband and both cousins' hubbies. Whether it comes from too much work or taking their feet off the gas pedal and slowing up is open to debate.
I suspect it mainly came from old age. For the average lifespan, half of all people will die before reaching it.
 
I suspect it mainly came from old age. For the average lifespan, half of all people will die before reaching it
So many men seem to have gone in recent years, it has focused my thinking on the subject. 2 mates in their 40s died last year, and two in their 50s. Out of our immediate group of friends from 10 years ago who used to come to our farm film nights, half are no longer with us and we haven't reached 60 yet. I know it is just how it looks and the stats don't lie, but I don't see all the over 80s men needed to balance the sums.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
For the average lifespan, half of all people will die before reaching it.
It doesn't work like that.
If 10 people are born on the same day and one dies after 12 months but the others all live until 70 years old the average lifespan of those 10 people is 63 and 90% of them exceeded it.
If 9 of them died at 12 months and only one of the group reached 70 the average lifespan would be 8 years (or just under to be exact) so only 10% were above average.
Average does not equate to half, it can but not necessarily.

Not picking on you particularly, I see a lot of people making the same assumption.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

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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