New job, kind of and a new life

underdog

As some know, my father passed away last month, and he was a farmer, so......yeah I'm now essentially a farmer, and a body piercer a few hours a week (when that's allowed to open back up) but the full time hours will be spent on the farm so it can continue to run.

As a result, another situation has come up. To make life easier for my step mother on the farm, and with her future years in mind, we are looking to move to the farm to live, which brings planning plans and a self build, and the chance to build the dream home.

And here's a photo of the lamb we fostered chilling on the sofa, he's now 9 days old and looking healthy and well, it was touch and go if he'd make it for the first 6 days.

PolarityMan

Wow thats a big change..excited or terrified?

underdog

PolarityMan said:

Wow thats a big change..excited or terrified?

The farming is fine and enjoyable, getting planning for a family home on farm land, now that terrifies me in all kinds of ways.

Devil#20

When are you going to eat the lamb? Looks like you could probably get a dozen or so Rogan Josh's out of it as it is but maybe if you wait a while you'll get more. 

Funkfingers

Devil#20 said:

When are you going to eat the lamb? 

Blunt but true to life. There is not much room for sentimentality in farming.

ICBM

A few weeks ago while I was walking in the fields I found a sheep stuck in some deep mud and unable to get itself out - it was looking very weak and barely able to hold its head up, but it was a bit big for me to shift and I wasn't really dressed for the part anyway, so I went and found the farmer and let him know, and he came down and rescued the unfortunate creature... which as I expected was a very mucky job! It was so cold and wet that it was unable to stand at first, but recovered after a few minutes.

It was nice to see an animal saved from suffering and probably dying like that, but I'm not under any illusion that the biggest favour I did for the farmer was to save him the not insignificant financial value of a sheep. But, it's still one of the better feelings I've had coming back from a walk.

Enjoy your new life, it's probably not for everyone but if it is for you then hopefully it will work out well .

underdog

Devil#20 said:

When are you going to eat the lamb? Looks like you could probably get a dozen or so Rogan Josh's out of it as it is but maybe if you wait a while you'll get more. 

Never, the final twist to this tale is, I'm a vegetarian, and have been for 30 years. 

Also the rule at the farm is if the animal is given a name, it lives it's life to the full at the farm, any bottle fed lambs get named. So Crumpet (my son's choice of name) will have a pretty good life for a sheep.

Truth is sheep have little profit in them and are profitable only if you have massive amounts of them or your own posh farm shop. Most small farms keep them as lawn mowers and also usually as part of a condition of the land being used for farming.

Cranky

Very sorry about your father.  I hope that it's a good life for you on the farm.  My folks came from farms but wanted nothing to do with it, which I guess skips a generation.  

Interesting combination, farming and piercing.

p90fool

Funkfingers said:

Devil#20 said:

When are you going to eat the lamb? 

Blunt but true to life. There is not much room for sentimentality in farming.

And yet most of the best farmers I know are quite sentimental about their animals, though often not in front of each other. 

RedRabbit

underdog said:

PolarityMan said:

Wow thats a big change..excited or terrified?

The farming is fine and enjoyable, getting planning for a family home on farm land, now that terrifies me in all kinds of ways.

My nephew and his family are a couple of months off coming out the other side of the process.  It's taken about 3 years from them first deciding to build to get to this point.  Getting planning permission on agricultural land can be tricky.

Just on a practical note - don't forget to look into the self build VAT scheme.  Should get you a decent chunk of VAT back when the build is completed.

maltingsaudio

Good luck with your new life, at least your starting it as we go into summer, farming in winter isn’t pleasant but I’m sure you know that.

axisus

My brother in law would be so envious of you! To the point of getting depressed about it.

He's worked all his life in the city, and burned out having a bit of a breakdown about a year and a half ago. All his life he wanted to work on farms. He did it for 2 weeks at 18 years old and has always said that they were the happiest working days of his life.

underdog

p90fool said:

Funkfingers said:

Devil#20 said:

When are you going to eat the lamb? 

Blunt but true to life. There is not much room for sentimentality in farming.

And yet most of the best farmers I know are quite sentimental about their animals, though often not in front of each other. 

Definitely agree with this, lots of surrounding farms here and the animals are not only treated well generally but are given every ounce of care and respect.

@RedRabbit ;; be interested how they got the yes

RedRabbit

underdog said:

p90fool said:

Funkfingers said:

Devil#20 said:

When are you going to eat the lamb? 

Blunt but true to life. There is not much room for sentimentality in farming.

And yet most of the best farmers I know are quite sentimental about their animals, though often not in front of each other. 

Definitely agree with this, lots of surrounding farms here and the animals are not only treated well generally but are given ounce of care.

@RedRabbit ;; be interested how they got the yes

Not really sure but I think it helped that it was a conversion rather than a new build.  I'll probably see them tomorrow so I can ask if you like.

PolarityMan

underdog said:

PolarityMan said:

Wow thats a big change..excited or terrified?

The farming is fine and enjoyable, getting planning for a family home on farm land, now that terrifies me in all kinds of ways.

Have to say I'm a bit jealous of being in a position to self build! I would be measuring up the size my home studio with integrated drum room instantly! 

MagicPigDetective

Good luck with the new life. If you need any planning advice, happy to help. 

BigMonka

What an exciting change! Best of luck to you.

strtdv

@underdog if the sheep aren't profitable and it sounds like you're not planning on very large scale farming, do you mind if I ask how you're planning to make it work as a business?

Many years ago I worked on a sheep farm, fairly small (only 150 ewes). The farmer had a good medical retirement pension and the farm turned a small profit, but was as much an interest/hobby as anything else. Most of the profit was in picking the breeds so that your lambs finished at the right time when prices were good. We kept Charollais which finished early in the season when there was high demand, and Texels which finished late when supply was relatively low compared to demand, but it was a bit of a gamble as if meal prices were high your profit would be literally eaten up.

As you'll already know the fleeces are virtually worthless (it's often cheaper to burn them than to pack them).

Rare breeds might be the best way to turn a profit

Most of the farmers round here keep cattle if the land is good enough, though milk prices are pitiful and robot milkers are fairly expensive (though probably the only way of doing dairy farming on a worthwhile scale). I don't know enough about beef farming to comment, and in County Fermanagh almost none of the ground is of good enough quality to grow crops.

thermionic

At least you have the skills to put tags in the sheep's ears!

Good luck with it all.

underdog

MagicPigDetective said:

Good luck with the new life. If you need any planning advice, happy to help. 

I need billions of it, you may regret that offer

underdog

strtdv said:

@underdog if the sheep aren't profitable and it sounds like you're not planning on very large scale farming, do you mind if I ask how you're planning to make it work as a business?

Many years ago I worked on a sheep farm, fairly small (only 150 ewes). The farmer had a good medical retirement pension and the farm turned a small profit, but was as much an interest/hobby as anything else. Most of the profit was in picking the breeds so that your lambs finished at the right time when prices were good. We kept Charollais which finished early in the season when there was high demand, and Texels which finished late when supply was relatively low compared to demand, but it was a bit of a gamble as if meal prices were high your profit would be literally eaten up.

As you'll already know the fleeces are virtually worthless (it's often cheaper to burn them than to pack them).

Rare breeds might be the best way to turn a profit

Most of the farmers round here keep cattle if the land is good enough, though milk prices are pitiful and robot milkers are fairly expensive (though probably the only way of doing dairy farming on a worthwhile scale). I don't know enough about beef farming to comment, and in County Fermanagh almost none of the ground is of good enough quality to grow crops.

The ticking over money come from the stables, we just rent out stables and fields to them, the owners of the horse take care of everything else. Now the stables are built and fields sectioned off it is just a matter of waiting to be paid every month.

We have a garden centre that does well at Christmas time with handmade Holly wreaths and also wooden garden ornaments, benches etc and of course the usual baskets and flowers during spring and summer 

There was talk of rare breed sheep 2 years ago by my father, but of course it never happened due to his cancer diagnosis.

For me my business is the tattoo shop I own that my wife works at full time, so keeping the farm running is more a help to my step mother and making memories for my son and any money I will give to my step mother.