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What's going on?

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
is it better for them to throw their cash around here in the UK, or another country, while l am uncomfortable about it, it probably is better spent here, and it's not peanuts, amount wise.
he is making some very generous offers, bought at least 7 farms, probably more.
Ask the underbidders on those seven farms what they think.
 
the mobile texts are right, and the s african estates are right, he treated 1 local farmer to 3 weeks over there, as he wanted, and got, his farm.
Wherever it came from, he must be a damn good business man, to amass the cash he's spending now.
Quite agree on how he earns his money. But the stories on how it’s being spent are becoming more and more unbelievable.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Quite agree on how he earns his money. But the stories on how it’s being spent are becoming more and more unbelievable.
you ought to go up there, you can walk the gardens, £48 season ticket, they are huge, and very well maintained, just don't buy a drink, it really is something to see, and you only see a small part. Eventually, there will be museums, demonstrations, of cider making, bakery etc, tree walk, 30 ft up, roman villa, huge, with the original, undercover, next to it, woodland walks, falconry etc.
my OH regularly walks up there, with friends, there is always something different to see, she asked, and got, a ride, car park to entrance, for me, nothing is to much trouble, great for kids, as well, lots of water, and frogs squirt at them, as they go by.
Used to shoot the woods, 30 yrs ago, some banks, have completely gone, staggering.
 
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you ought to go up there, you can walk the gardens, £48 season ticket, they are huge, and very well maintained, just don't buy a drink, it really is something to see, and you only see a small part. Eventually, there will be museums, demonstrations, of cider making, bakery etc, tree walk, 30 ft up, roman villa, huge, with the original, undercover, next to it, woodland walks, falconry etc.
my OH regularly walks up there, with friends, there is always something different to see, she asked, and got, a ride, car park to entrance, for me, nothing is to much trouble, great for kids, as well, lots of water, and frogs squirt at them, as they go by.
Used to shoot the woods, 30 yrs ago, some banks, have completely gone, staggering.
I’ve looked round. Yes it’s good quality work. But some of the bullshxt figures going around for the works done has no foundation in fact.
 

Dead Rabbits

Member
Location
'Merica
It won't always be the case that farmers who don't milk a lot do so because they don't enjoy milking

I've just dropped from 6 milkings a week back to 2 a week because I find milking is the easiest job to delegate and I just don't really have time to milk every day. I enjoy milking but it's fair to say I enjoy it a lot more when I'm doing 2-5 milkings a week rather than 10+.
Nobody milking your cows will care as much about your business as you do. If you can’t ever do anything but daily chores you never get to step back and think.
 
Quite agree on how he earns his money. But the stories on how it’s being spent are becoming more and more unbelievable.

I couldn't believe it either but I understand this bakery isn't the sort of thing you see at the back of a village shop. It's a sizeable building and more of a factory than anything, multiple floors etc. I'll find out another day, my memory is very hazy about what was said.
 

Homesy

Member
Location
North West Devon
private treaty, you get approached. One farm, 350 ac advertised at 8mil, haven't heard any rumours they have bought it, they don't act that way, preferring the 'private' approach, and a non disclosure clause.
There is no such thing as non disclosure for property sales. It is in the public domain when registered with the land registry. Anyone can look it up.
 

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
There is no such thing as non disclosure for property sales. It is in the public domain when registered with the land registry. Anyone can look it up.
Next door is rumoured to have been sold for £21k an acre,I’ll wait 6 months and pay my £3 to find out.
 
We milk more than 500 cows and the last 6 months has been tough with staff. The older generation of staff have been superb but there is a turnover of the younger generation that businesses will just have to get used to. Covid really hasn’t helped matters and for young single people it’s been a struggle for them not being able to go out so I really do sympathise with them.
On the plus side an advert we have had running for the last few months has had over 800 applications many with no experience, other industry’s have laid many people off and quite a few of the general population are feeling the pinch. 2 guys with no experience have been a great addition to our team. Dairy farming is a tough job and even with extra time off it still isn’t that an attractive job and it certainly isn’t for everyone.
My view is these large farms that are selling have lost there foreign labour due to covid and the local workforce just don’t want to work the hours the foreigners did. They came here to work as many hours a day as they could manage to send money home and the locals don’t want that and who can blame them.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
We milk more than 500 cows and the last 6 months has been tough with staff. The older generation of staff have been superb but there is a turnover of the younger generation that businesses will just have to get used to. Covid really hasn’t helped matters and for young single people it’s been a struggle for them not being able to go out so I really do sympathise with them.
On the plus side an advert we have had running for the last few months has had over 800 applications many with no experience, other industry’s have laid many people off and quite a few of the general population are feeling the pinch. 2 guys with no experience have been a great addition to our team. Dairy farming is a tough job and even with extra time off it still isn’t that an attractive job and it certainly isn’t for everyone.
My view is these large farms that are selling have lost there foreign labour due to covid and the local workforce just don’t want to work the hours the foreigners did. They came here to work as many hours a day as they could manage to send money home and the locals don’t want that and who can blame them.
It was alway going to end badly
 
It was alway going to end badly
But things are looking bright for the industry if you can ride the storms. I don’t buy the fertiliser excuse, even at £600/ton it’s only added 1.7ppl to our costs. If we had to rent extra land instead of buying fert it would be an equivalent of £1500/ton. It’s a mistake not to buy it in my view. Although those who don’t will probably produce less milk and put even more pressure on the processors which can only be a good thing for the industry
 
There is no such thing as non disclosure for property sales. It is in the public domain when registered with the land registry. Anyone can look it up.
It goes in ‘bandings’ by the land registry. If you pass the land to another as an asset of a ltd company or a pension fund then only the ltd company or pension fund changes hands and the land can be declared at ‘average market value’. It helps to reduce (what used to be called) stamp duty on land but it may also attract the attention of the Revenue in other ways.
 
We milk more than 500 cows and the last 6 months has been tough with staff. The older generation of staff have been superb but there is a turnover of the younger generation that businesses will just have to get used to. Covid really hasn’t helped matters and for young single people it’s been a struggle for them not being able to go out so I really do sympathise with them.
On the plus side an advert we have had running for the last few months has had over 800 applications many with no experience, other industry’s have laid many people off and quite a few of the general population are feeling the pinch. 2 guys with no experience have been a great addition to our team. Dairy farming is a tough job and even with extra time off it still isn’t that an attractive job and it certainly isn’t for everyone.
My view is these large farms that are selling have lost there foreign labour due to covid and the local workforce just don’t want to work the hours the foreigners did. They came here to work as many hours a day as they could manage to send money home and the locals don’t want that and who can blame them.

The 2 guys you took on, are they British? Just out of interest. And how did you word your advert to get such a good response? What are you doing differently to the rest of the industry do you think?
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
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