The family farm

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
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.
Average isn’t a very helpful term, and can have a few different meanings, mathematically. Better to use mean, mode or median.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
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.
Yes I know that but you lose most before the first sentence ends. KISS!
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
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
No shame in it at all, what is required is that you need to remember what happened:
"I sold the farm"
and not dwell on the story about what happened: "been in the family for generations and I am the loser" because that's only the story about it

what real benefit is there in spending your "free years" attempting to appease your ancestors? They won't give you a sign.

I say that freedom is more important than obligation, if you are committed to farming then stay farming.
If you are committed to spending the rest of your life enjoying freedoms you didn't know you could have, go get 'em

just learn to work out for yourself that many people would be living vastly different lives, perhaps even getting more fulfillment, if they were living their life instead of being caught up in the story

I can imagine the story if I inherited our family farm, but I declined and it was sold to a couple of guys who really benefit from having a wee bit extra, and I have no regrets
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I suspect it mainly came from old age. For the average lifespan, half of all people will die before reaching it.
Not true, if 90% died at the age of 100 on the dot aand 10% died at the age of 10, it would give an average of just under 91 at death but only 10% would have been younger.
An extreme case I know but just a demonstration
Sorry I see I have beaten to this😉
 

PhilipB

Member
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.
I think your last paragraph is, for the vast majority of the population, a myth.

It's a myth put about by the culture to keep people in ghastly jobs devoid of real human meaning staring at computers so that they can pay for "quality time" doing paid-for leisure pursuits, which they are ,allegedly, passionate about.

In fact, very few people have fulfilling hobbies. The majority don't have the energy or the enthusiasm. And they die thinking the lack of fulfillment in their lives is due to not having found the time/ money/ enthusiasm for the leisure pursuit that would make their lives interesting.
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
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 have mentioned transactional analysis life script earlier in the thread, a life script is a script that is out of awareness we subconsciously live our life to (and our death), which I think has a big influence in the length of our life.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/life-scripts

 

thesilentone

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
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

A very tough decision to make, especially if you were to see a lifetimes work destroyed.

Your heart will tell you what to do, but there maybe ways to protect your assets long-term also.

Many land owning wealthy people started a Trust and gifted a large proportion of their shares to there favorite Charities. (these became the Trust). None had enough shares to gain control, however combined, they owned more than any family who inherited. (or all family beneficiaries if added together)

This structure protected the longevity of the business, as well as protecting it against those family members who would sell it off.
 

stewart

Member
Horticulture
Location
Bay of Plenty NZ
Pleased we got in when we did, Stewart! Would have been an extra $140k to do it now
Costs have definitely escalated, we got most of our materials before the price rises so not too bad, also got quite a bit a finishing items from UK, about half the cost of here. Biggest waste of money was compliance costs. Wouldn’t want to start building now.
 

Old Tup

Member
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 .
Guessing that Crofteress refers to Scottish North West…..and considering what went on in 45 and 46….interesting times to say the least
 

Old Tup

Member
No, the losing side. But they were gifted the land for devotion to the cause and clan
That was the topic of discussion in our house last night…..The so called winners…would have found it difficult to settle safely in the long term….The so called losers were not in much of a situation at that time to should we say make arrangements.
Unless of of course it was somewhere “Over the Sea”….
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
No shame in it at all, what is required is that you need to remember what happened:
"I sold the farm"
and not dwell on the story about what happened: "been in the family for generations and I am the loser" because that's only the story about it

what real benefit is there in spending your "free years" attempting to appease your ancestors? They won't give you a sign.

I say that freedom is more important than obligation, if you are committed to farming then stay farming.
If you are committed to spending the rest of your life enjoying freedoms you didn't know you could have, go get 'em

just learn to work out for yourself that many people would be living vastly different lives, perhaps even getting more fulfillment, if they were living their life instead of being caught up in the story

I can imagine the story if I inherited our family farm, but I declined and it was sold to a couple of guys who really benefit from having a wee bit extra, and I have no regrets
FB_IMG_1636845080946.jpg
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 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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