The Snowball and the Hill

[glasshouse]

Not really no. Just a Sunday afternoon ramble, pondering how we get to where we are, and how we could maybe change it, make better use of time and energy etc.

I see a lot of agriculture going "corporate" but still many carry on in the precorporate family business way because they enjoy it despite diminishing returns and a load of hardwork. The psychology of agriculture fascinates me. You see all sorts of things going on and being played out in the different ways people farm.

I won't leave machinery outside probably because I'm a bit OCD. So then I over capitalise on sheds and spend too much time shifting stuff round, that kind of thing.

As a Ministry of Agriculture inspector once told me, when looking round a roughish farm, "They are just rough enough to make it go." But actually they didn't last long.

On the contrary, concrete yards, fancy offices and flowerbeds are often the precursor to the receivers arriving

 

[Beowulf]

On the contrary, concrete yards, fancy offices and flowerbeds are often the precursor to the receivers arriving

I don't often believe in such superstition, but an old boss of mine once told me never to invest in a business that had (or was about to) build a new head office. I dismissed it at the time as being another of his old wives' tales or some tidbit he had picked up at a golf club, but once I started looking after my own money I realised there was sometimes something in it.

*says the guy who's just bought the land to build a shiny new office. :/

 

[glasshouse]

I don't often believe in such superstition, but an old boss of mine once told me never to invest in a business that had (or was about to) build a new head office. I dismissed it at the time as being another of his old wives' tales or some tidbit he had picked up at a golf club, but once I started looking after my own money I realised there was sometimes something in it.

*says the guy who's just bought the land to build a shiny new office. :/

Clydesdale bank did it, so did RBS

 

[Cowcorn]

If I sell the kit it will be mostly go for just over scrap price and I won't be able to replace it.

If I had staff, I'm not sure it would be up to increased usage for say contracting, nor would modern staff be that keen to drive it. We used to have 4 people doing the harvesting and Autumn cultivations now myself and my brother part time as he is busy with the sheep.

It does feel like the end of an era. We will carry on till we retire, cash flow permitting, then that will be it.

It doesn't feel progressive any more. It feels like living in a time warp, a hang over from the 1970's with a legacy of old kit and buildings. I am not really complaining so much as making an observation. Others have expanded their acreage through FBT's and have borrowed immensely to modernise. They are busier than I am. I tried a bit of that a few years back but the rents and the wear and tear on the machinery didn't really warrant the meagre returns so I drew my horns in and haven't regretted it financially.

Hitch the plough on and round we go through another year.

I think I need a massive tidy up. Managed to saw up a wood pile before harvest so now have a couple of trailers of logs ..... in the shed.

Yes we do miss the folk that used to be around the place spreading the workload, doing all the odd jobs. The roof valley needs replacing.

The grain store is 250 years old though was reroofed sixty years ago. That roof is about knackered. I built a new modern shed (on a shoestring) to takeover as the grain store but it's full,of machinery. There isn't really the money there to knock down the old granary and put a single span over it. It's all wooden bins, floors, conveyor tunnels and elevators on their last legs, though is still useable. Just passes quality assurance but probably not for much longer. Takes me a week to clean it all out.

Yes it needs a serious rethink. We still grow all our own animal feed and do our own mill and mixing. We have a full set of potato growing and grading kit. Still grow sugar beet with all the kit that entails. Grow cereals, keep cattle and sheep. Some mornings it's difficult to know which way to turn first. We even had one milk cow until not so long ago.

Dad was asleep in his chair all day every Sunday when we were kids. No wonder.

Yet I dare say a large arable could take this on and not really notice it, so it's self inflicted really isn't it?

But the for time being it seems worth preserving. As it's still on balance more pleasure than pain....just.

Doc about the milk cow ,what happened her please dont tell me you were hand milking her for the house.? As regards mill and mixing maybe the time is right to get your llocal merchant to make up simple sheep and cattle rations at our age we cant do as much as we used to.
Thats what i do and dont regret it.i still have tthe crusher and mixer but it only does about 2 ton a year now. I wouldnt try to do to much building if you dont see a family member taking over.Your late father god rest him was probably exausted every sunday dont you fall into that pattern a good meal in the town with the family followed by drinks is a great morale booster for the week ahead.

 

[Baling Hay]

Although neighbour did straw baling this year, and it suited us both well, would not want to lose flexibility to do our own, you know there are only 5 good hay making days in a normal year.
Like us you may be trying to do to much yourself, but having contractors comes with a substantial bill, which has to come out of cash flow. Had osr DD last year contract, but I reckon the crop profit went out the gate the day I paid the 25 quid acre bill.
Not saying contractor was dear, and I was grateful to him, but if flea beetle had crop I was still paying bill.
With bygone kit like ours, you do the work for diesel price and repairs as far as cash flow is concerned.

If your OSR profitability is determined by a £25 per acre bill may I suggest you try something else?

 

[neilo]

saw a small beet harvester on ebay last month....thought 'that'll be handy for a few fodder beet and easy to store'.....sense prevailed when i realised it was as old as me....53

I keep looking at similar, after begrudgingly paying a contractor £90/ac to come in and lift mine with a harvester that’s likely older than me.

Then I remember the number of times we’ve had to stop because a shaft has broken, or a hydraulic ram has needed sorting, and how having one tractor means that I would have to drop everything off once i’d Filled my one trailer.
Sometimes it’s worth paying a contractor to run old kit & supply a tractor & man for you.

 

[Goweresque]

I don't often believe in such superstition, but an old boss of mine once told me never to invest in a business that had (or was about to) build a new head office. I dismissed it at the time as being another of his old wives' tales or some tidbit he had picked up at a golf club, but once I started looking after my own money I realised there was sometimes something in it.

*says the guy who's just bought the land to build a shiny new office. :/

Its not a new idea, it was probably first articulated in C.Northecote Parkinson's book, Parkinsons Law in 1958. He called it his Law of Buildings, which stated any organisation that finds time and resources to create the perfect headquarters to run itself from has signalled the point at which the organisation has reached its point of maximum power and achievement, and once the new HQ is built and populated will inevitably start to decline, and may even disappear entirely. This being based on the idea that organisations who are busy doing stuff don't have time to design and build new HQs, if there is time and manpower to devote to that then there is obviously not enough real work to keep everyone busy.

 

[DrWazzock]

I have worked as a self employed sole trader running my own ground works business, (which I should have stuck at) an employee of a multinational, and for the last twenty years as a partner in a long established family partnership farming business. Working as a sole trader was by far the easiest. It was easier to start and grow a small business from scratch, from a clean sheet of paper than it is to find meaningful direction and purpose for a long established business that comes with a legacy of strands that were once quite profitable but are now increasingly outmoded.

Yes we used to hand milk the cow for the house.

Anyway, time to crack on again. Soil sampling and ploughing today. After I have spent half an hour moving the lime spreader so the shepherd can get the small sheep trailer out.

I am not saying I don't enjoy this work. It's a nice hobby and just pays it way. Maybe that's fine. But it doesn't feel like we are operating at full potential.

It feels like we have ended up with this huge complex machine that needs a lot of maintenance but doesn't produce very much.

 

[GeorgeK]

I have worked as a self employed sole trader running my own ground works business, (which I should have stuck at) an employee of a multinational, and for the last twenty years as a partner in a long established family partnership farming business. Working as a sole trader was by far the easiest. It was easier to start and grow a small business from scratch, from a clean sheet of paper than it is to find meaningful direction and purpose for a long established business that comes with a legacy of strands that were once quite profitable but are now increasingly outmoded.

Yes we used to hand milk the cow for the house.

Anyway, time to crack on again. Soil sampling and ploughing today. After I have spent half an hour moving the lime spreader so the shepherd can get the small sheep trailer out.

I am not saying I don't enjoy this work. It's a nice hobby and just pays it way. Maybe that's fine. But it doesn't feel like we are operating at full potential.

It feels like we have ended up with this huge complex machine that needs a lot of maintenance but doesn't produce very much.

Things might feel different in a month or so, it's a stressful, busy time of year and we're all prisoners of our emotions. This is traditionally the time of year I stomp around telling myself 'this old kit is fookin scrap!' but when it's quietened down and we can get the old digger out again I'm glad we have the stuff

 

[DRC]

We often can’t see the wood for the trees. I’ve always kept most of my barley and sold it a bit at a time over winter to a farmer customer . Probably out of some sense of loyalty and because I’d always done it. Often the price never went up much and it meant tipping some wheat in other temporary stores , causing more work shovelling corners out etc.
This year it’s all gone at harvest and both sides of the main shed are filled with wheat , with no trying to back big trailers into cattle yards . It’s these sort of things that you have to think about as you get older.

 

[puppet]

Looks as if you are doing too much. Growing cereals, beet, potatoes, storing and processing them. Then you mention sheep and a shepherd. At least the hand milking has stopped.
If you rationalise your farming operations then the machinery will follow.
And either leave your sheep or machinery outside

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Ah. Bugger.

I have no place to talk on this thread. What bit of kit I have has to sleep under the stars. Not enough sheds or funds for sheds.

Me too. But I'm coming to the conclusion a cheap machinery shed would pay for itself. Even in summer oil pipes are prematurely perishing away in the sun.

 

[glasshouse]

You should spend your youthful years organising thr farm so it can be more easily run when you are older.
My landlord now has the benefit of that, not me

 

[Flat 10]

i'm beginning to revel in using old kit....sort of kitsch inverted snobbery.....bought an old set ransomes discs at an auction 20 yrs ago....never really used them.....but lifted them out of the brambles on friday.....strapped a dual wheel for some extra wt and disced up some grass.....might even grease it tomoz

Me too. Got the old 885 out last spring, dualled, gang rolls and drag harrows. Zoomed round getting a beet seedbed with low compaction and cost.
Someone even stopped to take pictures
The only thing is the seat, lights and radio are crap.......
BTW OP you can't put everything in sheds- Tractors, combines, drills, fert spreaders etc yes but bale sledges and old cultivators not so much.....

 

[David.]

If your OSR profitability is determined by a £25 per acre bill may I suggest you try something else?

I doubt I was alone, cutting sub ton to the acre crop?

 

[Baling Hay]

You should spend your youthful years organising thr farm so it can be more easily run when you are older.
My landlord now has the benefit of that, not me

That was generous of you!

 

[chickens and wheat]

Get a stubble to stubble contractor in, you spend your time tidying up then making sheds suitable to rent out,

There will be no need to keep stuff that might come in handy as it wont, because the contractor is doing everything.

 

[Henarar]

I have worked as a self employed sole trader running my own ground works business, (which I should have stuck at) an employee of a multinational, and for the last twenty years as a partner in a long established family partnership farming business. Working as a sole trader was by far the easiest. It was easier to start and grow a small business from scratch, from a clean sheet of paper than it is to find meaningful direction and purpose for a long established business that comes with a legacy of strands that were once quite profitable but are now increasingly outmoded.

Yes we used to hand milk the cow for the house.

Anyway, time to crack on again. Soil sampling and ploughing today. After I have spent half an hour moving the lime spreader so the shepherd can get the small sheep trailer out.

I am not saying I don't enjoy this work. It's a nice hobby and just pays it way. Maybe that's fine. But it doesn't feel like we are operating at full potential.

It feels like we have ended up with this huge complex machine that needs a lot of maintenance but doesn't produce very much.

that limespreader is nothing but a nuisance how much do you want for it ?

 

[glasshouse]

That was generous of you!

And ungenerous of him

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Ah. Bugger.

I have no place to talk on this thread. What bit of kit I have has to sleep under the stars. Not enough sheds or funds for sheds.

I really enjoy looking around farms in the local area while carting livestock.
It seems strange that 70 year old, 20 year retired ridgers and rusty coils of wire netting live in a shed, but the 100k tractor sits under the stars.... along with most "valuable stuff"

It seems very illogical and inverse to me.