Farmers suffering from lack of cash and overworked

[hawkeye]

Well i was talking to one of my farmers the other day and he was over the moon wheat had just gone up by £30 per ton compared to last year :o :blink:

[Brad93]

I had a young farmer approach me for work the other day as he said money was tight :o .

 

He has just converted and sold 4 barn conversion for over £4 million pounds :blink: .

 

I laughed, he said whats up, I said am I right in thinking you own your farm out right yes he replied and the four barns you sold I asked .

 

Regards OTH

 

Most of the farmers i know are tight so and sos

 

But what has been said about the return from barn conversions being little is true after all the hassle put into getting there, especially as most old barns will be covered by natural heritage rubbish. This is also why you see a lot of farms run down etc, because it is to expensive to be done up because it is a listed farm or building

Edited August 12, 2010 by Brad93

[pigeonblasterian]

When i see any of the farmers i know they are always doing something.If it is too wet on the land they are in the yard doing something.Always seems to be a job to do on a farm. :o

[njc110381]

Well the farmer I got my first ever permission from has just gone bankrupt. He works his **** off seven days a week and has done all his life. It certainly doesn't pay him well! There's no nice car. Ok his tractors are pretty tidy but nothing spectacular. I can't see how things have gone wrong for him, it's certainly not down to lack of trying!

 

I've worked for him on a couple of Christmas mornings so he can finish early and have some time with his mrs and kids! It seems that he never stops but until now he's never really grumbled.

[Nial]

I cant see that you need the work myself .

 

 

But you can't slag him off for wanting to work.

 

?

 

 

Nial

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

To pickup on some points may by you guys.

 

I have worked in the farming industry read my profile quite intresting reading for the intrested.

 

I said I would be and have aired my views with farmers I shoot for and have never lost any shooting for having my views very hard for a farmer to question my trail of thought stood next to 100k worth of motors and 500k worth of combine yes some do borrow money for tractors combines etc but some dont.

 

Until a few years ago you could access a websites to see the now fazed out subs one farmer in our area was getting £1.2 millions pounds a year for over 5 years for growning nowt.

 

I am not suffering from green eyed monster problem was just intrested in how your farmers are holding up in the current world.

 

As sometimes we all become blinkered and only intrested in shooting and whats happening to them can affect us and what happens to crops etc.

 

Cheers for your views .

 

OTH

[al4x]

the interesting thing is a lot don't borrow money for machinery and do have cash reserves but that also tided them over in years where they were loosing money hand over fist. I think you'd be pretty surprised looking at their accounts how little is left from what is usually a fair sized business, certainly a profit margin few in true business would think it was worth writing home over. If you look at what their farms are worth most who own outright do it for the love of the land and simply because they want to pass it onto their children rather than for the money. After all if it was purely money few owned farms have owners that would need to work if they sold them yet they do and usually work their backsides off.

Yes machinery is expensive but a farmer isn't much of a farmer without it and even a £150K combine that does the work of two older machines and means one less farmworker to pay is a sound financial investment, usually the ones who have gone bust are the ones that failed to maintain and renew their equipment

[Cookiemonsterandmerlin.]

The original poster can go out for the day charge £1k to trim 3 leylandii trees and no risk. Farmers have to cultivate, plant fertilize and spray and then hope it all turns out well in the end, in practice weather, fire and disease and all sorts can turn a profit into a big loss

 

 

Yes I can al4x

 

But I have earned and worked my way to where I am today not been given it by my family.

 

In the real world what I have invested in tools and my trainning costs compared to my humble up bringing is fair greater pound for pound than any land owner round here.

 

Of course there risk I have to comply with alot regs that farmers are still exempt for some many things eg tachos on there landrovers for towing livestock ,H@S is nothing but a joke .

 

Working time directive etc.

 

So ther is alot of saving in agriculture .

 

Regards OTH

Edited August 12, 2010 by Over the hill

[al4x]

there is a definite chip there OTH about being given your perceived wealth. I've a mate who farms, on a crown tennancy so will take the farm over from his dad. they both get an income from it and somewhere to live, don't own it live a reasonable life but do work very hard for it. Last year for the first time they both hit the higher rate of tax, now thats something an awful lot of people do who do mediocre 35 hour a week jobs with 25 days holiday etc etc. I reckon you ought to turn your envy on bankers as they really are the ones swanning arround in range rovers and Porsches

[Cranfield]

Nowadays, just about every new item of machinery on a farm, including the vehicles is leased.

The days of Farmers spending £75K on a new tractor and £200+k on a combine harvester out their Bank account are long gone.

So don't be too impressed by the shiny machinery.

[mick miller]

Alex has it spot on, here are folk arguing the toss about farmers who have a smart car or a new combine. The real target of vitriol should be those at the head of banking institutions making huge profits by monetizing 'toxic' assets and large multi-nationals that are driving down labour costs by lobbying for increased immigration.

As usual the British idiosyncrasy of pointing the fingers at those around the same earning level, or those at the bottom of the ladder raises its repellent head, whilst completely ignoring the real issue; the relentless drive by those at the very top to increase their profits and earnings exponentially at the cost of everyone beneath them. Take a look at the earning of the top 100 CEO's then tell me they actually deserve those massive salaries and bonuses, whilst those beneath them put up with pay freezes and increasing job insecurity as manufacturing is shipped off to the latest global sweat shop.

 

It makes me want to spit.

[al4x]

Gregs the bakers got on my man boobs yesterday saying the price of wheat was going to hit profits, now come on whats £50 a tonne difference make per bread roll its so inconsequential its ridiculous. Farmers have had a hard time from supermarkets etc food has never been this cheap and they have taken a pasting. Our dairy industry mostly went bust and we're now importing milk all because the buying power of the big buyers forced prices below which it could be produced. I could go on and on on this subject

[Lord Geordie]

Spent 3 years as a farm hand it was bloody hard work but I really enjoyed it. It's a choice not only in career but in my view in lifestyle also

[paulf]

Locally to me in a ten mile radius six out of the ten or so farms, six have diversified. I know the local farmers quite well and none are exactly destitute but then again they aren't making a fortune either. Most of the kit as cranfield mentioned is either leased or they have big loans.

Edited August 12, 2010 by paulf

[starlight32]

Its the tenant farmers who struggle the most, they have to find £85-00 an acre (average) before they make a penny. It is these one that its the hardest.

 

If I was a farmer I would maximise and diversify like many do nowadays from the land. Shooting rents,horse grazing etc is an excellent bolt on to their business.

 

Someone posted about horse grazing being a good earner, I will second that and I am not a farmer.

 

My mother has a healthy sized paddock of a few acres, and now we dont keep horses and she is in retirement it is a nice income. Plus the demand is there, as people knock on the door every month asking availability.

 

I rent a fair bit of shooting (game/wildfowl) and to be honest I dont have a problem paying for it, at the end of the day you cant have it all for nowt, farmers are in business to make money from their land.

Edited August 13, 2010 by starlight32

[fluke2]

Friend of ours just inherited a farm up in the borders she came

to pick up the wife last week in a new merc sports thingy,she

says the amount of cash her uncle left is disgusting after twisting

skint for years,she also doubled a guys wage that works there

to 18 grand a year and stopped collecting his £42 a week rent

Edited August 13, 2010 by fluke2

[badshot]

Gregs the bakers got on my man boobs yesterday saying the price of wheat was going to hit profits, now come on whats £50 a tonne difference make per bread roll its so inconsequential its ridiculous. Farmers have had a hard time from supermarkets etc food has never been this cheap and they have taken a pasting. Our dairy industry mostly went bust and we're now importing milk all because the buying power of the big buyers forced prices below which it could be produced. I could go on and on on this subject

 

 

Haven't been on for a while been too damn busy. You are on the money there al4x, at £100/ton there is about 5p of wheat in a loaf of bread, at £200/ton there is 10p, so next time they are saying the 25p increase is down to the price of wheat you will have something to reply with.

 

Not even going to comment on the **** that's been put up on here.

[Albertan_J]

I'd like to see these farms with range rovers and x5's because up my way most places are family owned and run except the few odd commercial farms. They might have a few people odd jobbing and for the most part if they aren't at work on there farms there helping out another farmer down the road swapping combine work for drillings or offering grazing when needed. Farmers are definitely richer then bankers and work less hours

[rigwallet]

One of the perms i shoot on the man works hard far his cash he ant no big truck and he ant no loads of cash he rents the buildings and land dont get property developers mixed up withreal hard working men