Uni student asking farmers help.. please

[Uni_Farmer_Kitty_England]

Hello, I am postgrad student reading Agriculture at uni. My name is Kitty and I hope to complete my masters soon..

Can I please ask the farming community 2 questions. If you have any time and happy to reply I would honestly appreciate it. Part of my research is in to 'Why farmers farm and why did they choose 'that' product'.. and so with that in mind, I would like your input and help.

Scenario: you have a small starting farm of 100 acres and you have £100k in the bank and no debt behind you. You have no partner, no kids - you do have an able fit working dog. The farmhouse is on the land without major overheads. No livestock are in place. No fields are set. You have a barn, but it's empty. No machinery, no stock. You literally walk in to the farm with your dog, a cup of tea, new wellies and a rain coat.. what will you buy? what will you farm?

You can choose your region. You can choose livestock/arable/agritourism/horticulture/viticulture/aquaculture etc...

Remember you are starting from scratch with all your experience, knowledge, skills and education.

Q1. What farm would you have.. and why? ​

Q2. If you want to go deeper.. Is your choice driven by profit or lifestyle?​

Thank you in advance for any replies. And I wish you all the very best with your farming choices. May the sun shine at the right time and the rain fall in the right places (in the right amount)

 

[Grass And Grain]

Probably bed and breakfast pigs, just so there's some half decent and secure income to keep head above water. If no suitable buildings, do them outdoors using tents and feeders supplied by pig company (i.e. not using much of your own capital).

Would need to be careful buying machinery, as £100k would soon vanish. Second hand loader tractor, bale trailer and a muck trailer. Second hand telehandler if feeling flush, but try to manage without and get contractor in to muck out. That said, you can get one to do the job for £10k, £12k for tractor, bale trailer £1,600, muck trailer £4,000, power washer £1,200.

SFI. 25% unharvested cereals (£1,070/ha). 75% legume fallow. Hope you can get straw for muck deal with a neighbour for the pig bedding.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Could get £250/acre rent for maize ground and 5% interest on the savings, that’s 30k without any work, could get a job on a farm and get the same again

 

[onesiedale]

assuming it was wholly owned, get it lined up for BNG credits. and graze cattle over it to suit - job sorted.
If it were tenented, very different matter. Very simple grazing livestock system. Part-time operation. Work off farm if I needed to supplement income.

 

[Sam Partridge]

Down the cup of tea
Sell the dog
Chuck the wellies and coat in the bin
Go to vegas, £100k on black

 

[Sam Partridge]

But seriously, I would be doing the same as now. Diversifications of events and caravan storage. Fodder beet, Small bales hay and straw, more profitable/acre. Stay fairly small so we're not on the ridiculous treadmill of always bigger and bigger, so better lifestyle balance. However I would like better access to main roads for larger machinery than now though. We have to be pretty inventive to get off farm at the moment

 

[crashbox]

Depends what the farm is suited for.

Hard to make profit from 100 acres on commodity arable or dairy.

Vineyard (need good soil and knowledge, and time)
Buy milk calves and sell as stores (TB)
Soft fruit (need expertise).

 

[Vader]

Hello, I am postgrad student reading Agriculture at uni. My name is Kitty and I hope to complete my masters soon..

Can I please ask the farming community 2 questions. If you have any time and happy to reply I would honestly appreciate it. Part of my research is in to 'Why farmers farm and why did they choose 'that' product'.. and so with that in mind, I would like your input and help.

Scenario: you have a small starting farm of 100 acres and you have £100k in the bank and no debt behind you. You have no partner, no kids - you do have an able fit working dog. The farmhouse is on the land without major overheads. No livestock are in place. No fields are set. You have a barn, but it's empty. No machinery, no stock. You literally walk in to the farm with your dog, a cup of tea, new wellies and a rain coat.. what will you buy? what will you farm?

You can choose your region. You can choose livestock/arable/agritourism/horticulture/viticulture/aquaculture etc...

Remember you are starting from scratch with all your experience, knowledge, skills and education.

Q1. What farm would you have.. and why? ​

Q2. If you want to go deeper.. Is your choice driven by profit or lifestyle?​

Thank you in advance for any replies. And I wish you all the very best with your farming choices. May the sun shine at the right time and the rain fall in the right places (in the right amount)

Rent it out at 200 quid an acre.
Buy 2nd hand 200 hp tractor and a 12 ton trailer and work for local big farmer during harvest.

Harvest work plus 20 grand income from rent will sort me if no family to support.
Plenty of spare time then for hobby's.

 

[Uni_Farmer_Kitty_England]

Down the cup of tea
Sell the dog
Chuck the wellies and coat in the bin
Go to vegas, £100k on black

May i have permission to quote this It's brilliant. I would state anonymous.

 

[stroller]

Cannabis would be the most profitable, but the distribution and staying out of prison is the difficult bit.

 

[spin cycle]

lets see .....what a lovely little thought excersize

first off ....NO RED TRACTOR

so....100acs in ten ten ac fields ......all arable potential.... sandy clay loam

field one....ahl2 winter bird food
field two....ab8....flower rich margins and plots
fields three ,four and five split in half.....4 'crops'.....gs3 grass cut for hay (sell for nags) then left......2ha spring barley then 2ha of ab6 enhanced stubble (stubble turnips after aug 1st).....and 2 ha of ab11 cultivated areas for arable plants....2ha fodder beet .....2 ha peas (then stubble turnips)
fields six ,seven and eight.....grass for 120 ewes
field nine gs4 ...hay for sheep
field ten....3ha of gs4 and 1ha spare grass for rams/odds sods/few chickens

always have plenty of grub to keep ewes/fatten lambs.....sell surplus

coupla nash 885xls....standen rapide....class dommy....opico grain drier and all 80's kit.....2 more barns to store kit/bales/corn etc and lamb in existing barn

 

[Lowland1]

100 acres grade 1 silt. First year if I could get a contract it would be in tenderstem broccoli . Then I'd be looking at a mix of vegetables and a little bit of corn for a rotation. I'd be off to the local collective sale for a bit of equipment but would look to hire stuff in as and when required.
Profit is essential to maintain or establish a lifestyle.

 

[Jdunn55]

Hello, I am postgrad student reading Agriculture at uni. My name is Kitty and I hope to complete my masters soon..

Can I please ask the farming community 2 questions. If you have any time and happy to reply I would honestly appreciate it. Part of my research is in to 'Why farmers farm and why did they choose 'that' product'.. and so with that in mind, I would like your input and help.

Scenario: you have a small starting farm of 100 acres and you have £100k in the bank and no debt behind you. You have no partner, no kids - you do have an able fit working dog. The farmhouse is on the land without major overheads. No livestock are in place. No fields are set. You have a barn, but it's empty. No machinery, no stock. You literally walk in to the farm with your dog, a cup of tea, new wellies and a rain coat.. what will you buy? what will you farm?

You can choose your region. You can choose livestock/arable/agritourism/horticulture/viticulture/aquaculture etc...

Remember you are starting from scratch with all your experience, knowledge, skills and education.

Q1. What farm would you have.. and why? ​

Q2. If you want to go deeper.. Is your choice driven by profit or lifestyle?​

Thank you in advance for any replies. And I wish you all the very best with your farming choices. May the sun shine at the right time and the rain fall in the right places (in the right amount)

assuming I own the farm outright

mortgage the farm to supply a loan for a robot and 60-70 dairy cows loose housed. New shed for youngstock. Entire farm into sam 3 on sfi scheme.

If i dont own the farm, entire farm in sfi sam3 and rear heifers for a local dairy farm.

 

[BigBarl]

Bang it all into herbal ley or legume fallow for 3 years and stack as many SFI options as you can on top. Use the £100k to make the house nice, keep the dog as a pet and go and get a 9-5 job that pays half decent with 24 days paid holiday and tidy up the farm at the weekends. Use contractors for establishing the SFI options and annual topping / rent out the grazing if suitable.
whilst the three years of SFI is going on use some of the £100k to start trying to get planning for free range eggs - when the three years of SFI is up then hopefully you’ll have the sheds built (on borrowed money) and the eggs will be providing an income to take over.

 

[Scholsey]

Buy a 180kish buy to let in local town with the 100k, borrow the balance, scheme/rent the farm out, work for someone else, could stack shelves in tescos and still bring home 50-60k a year with the rent/SFI and wage.

 

[uztrac]

Rent it out at 200 quid an acre.
Buy 2nd hand 200 hp tractor and a 12 ton trailer and work for local big farmer during harvest.

Harvest work plus 20 grand income from rent will sort me if no family to support.
Plenty of spare time then for hobby's.

Yes,that is the message to Kitty.

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

I think the replies aptly sum up the state of the industry and the dubious nature of making 100 acres work unless it is that grade one silt!!

I know Kitty has asked us the relevant questions but I would ask her how much experience she has of practical agriculture and the economics of it.
Putting the £100 k in the stock market, letting out the land and using the dog on a local livestock farm would probably bring you in at least £25k wages and no risk, another £20k rent on the land and a few caravans in the sheds.

As already stated not large enough for Cereals. Viticulture would only plant 2 acres and 4 years before any return.
Aquaculture very tricky.
Livestock wouldn't buy much stock, in the good old days you could buy draft ewes at a sensible price but with cull ewes staying at a high price the profitability looks slender.
You don't really want to go milking even with robots, still a 7 day a week tie.