I’m a farmer, ask me anything

[AskAFarmer]

As title! :)

(I do realise people aren’t following this AMA to read my rants on govt food & farming & environment policy I do apologise, I’m off now).

I've just come back from Lidl, I buy British because air miles bother me, I was glad to see how much produce was British - strawberries, kale, apples, carrots and potatoes all British plus the beef. I've only started shopping there recently - austerity measures - so am still checking their credentials.

Aldi and Lidl are really good, they really do Support British farming and local produce, instead of just paying lip service like the others.
For example, our local Lidl gets milk, cheese, butter, yogurts etc from the local creamery 7 miles from the store.

Another climate change expert was saying on the Today programme yesterday morning that if we’re serious about keeping it below 1.5, we all have to switch to a plant based diet.
I’m a meat eater, enjoy it two or three times a week but could cope with a vegetarian diet. I would really, really struggle without dairy.
What’s your view on the impact of livestock on the environment?

The thought of the world going on a plant based diet makes my blood run cold.
The reality is very different from the vegan dream. Veg grown by hydroponics, GM, millions of acres of plastic, the loss of biodiversity, no more grassland - at all.

No thanks!

How do you go on holidays?
Do you and your neighbours all cover for each other?

We just go at quiet times of year when the only job is to look round the sheep every day and check for illness/disasters etc, and we don’t go for more than a week. We get a friend or pay someone to go round them.
Our dogs live free range anyway so next door just takes over keeping an eye on them and topping up their food.

Also wrt the "they stay out overnight" - how do they/you manage the risk from predators trying to get them?

Generally they stick together, and apart from small lambs the risk isn’t too great.
If the rewilding lot get their way though and bring big cats back it might be a different story..!

How do farmers "tenant" farms? or lease them?

Word of mouth, adverts, council farms etc.

without family before....can you get started in farming?

It’s very hard. You need a LOT of money to get going from scratch, 6 figures at least.

Say you want a tenancy on a lowland council farm of 100 acres. With care and using other land for wintering, you could keep 300-500 ewes dependent on breed. So let’s say 400.

The land would go to tender and the best offer gets it. Generally speaking, to take an average from the whole country, good grassland is around £150 per acre per year.

So you’ve got £15k rent to find, as they’d want that upfront year one.
Then you need to prove you have the stock or the means to buy them, so based on around £110 per ewe you’d need around £44000.

Then you’d need a quad bike, and a good dog. Second hand bike and trailer, £3k ish? £700 ish for a part trained dog.

You’ll also need some contingency for feed, medicines, vet bills, extra kit, shearing etc etc. Let’s say £5k.

So on a council farm, the lowest rung really, you’d need at LEAST £70k.

From that, when you sell your lambs, if you get around 600 lambs to finishing from 400 ewes, and they average at £60 each, you’ll raise £36000 from them in your first year, out of which you need to pay all your costs and feed your kids.

But none of that would happen really, because some other fucker would probably bid £155 on the land in the first place 😂

Aldi and Lidl are really good, they really do Support British farming and local produce, instead of just paying lip service like the others.

That's good to hear. Our local Aldi is dire, really terrible quality but the Lidl is good so I'll stick with them.

Another way of doing it is share farming, which is more and more popular. Some old chap with loads of money and a farm helps you get going, and in return you share the profits.

'Farmers are the custodians of the countryside. It doesn’t look the way it is, and house the wildlife it does by accident. It is farming a farmers who shape the land, who protect the balance, and who respect the nature we live in, and it’s been that way for hundreds of years.

But isnt their evidence that UK wildlife and biodiversity is rapidly declining?

Are you from a farming family or did you move into it?

Do you dislike people who live in urban centres or suburban areas? Do you think that people who aren't farmers/smallholders/land owners should have any say in how the countryside/wildlife is managed, or in how farming should be managed?

What breed are your sheep? What happens to the fleeces?

I've seen a few fields of sheep recently who have a load of some sort of root veg on the ground for them to eat. What are they, and is it just specific to this time of year as I've never noticed this before?!

But isnt their evidence that UK wildlife and biodiversity is rapidly declining?

There is but it's much more complex than uncaring farmers.

It also depends on your definition of 'farmers' I like to refer to farmers and growers when talking about the agriculture industry. There's a massive difference between the environmental impact of a small hill farm in the Lake District, a zero grazing dairy farm in Lancashire and a huge industrial potato farm in Lincolnshire.

We are building more and more housing and people have busy lives and are choosing gravel/ patio/ pots etc to have an easy Maintenon garden rather than traditional hedges which were havens for garden birds. That and domestically people weedkill, slug pellet and mow everything in sight.

Like it or not the protection of top predators like the badger, buzzards etc have all played their part in the decline of Songbirds, ground nesting birds and small mammals (hedgehogs, voles etc).

In my opinion some of the most diverse areas we have left are the areas that are managed in some way - be that sheep on the fells or gamekeepered estates.

If you let everything turn to bracken nothing much wants to live there.

Great thread OP

I have a question that is potentially so embarrassingly ignorant I should probably have name changed.

Cows and sheep in the same field? Yes or No (and has it changed?)

When I was a kid I was told that they couldn't live in the same field because cows wrap their tongues around grass to pull it up and eat it and sheep nibble it close to the ground, meaning there wouldn't be enough for the cows to get hold of and they would starve. And because the cows pulled the grass up, it wouldn't grow for there to be enough to sustain the sheep (typing this and thinking about it as a grown-up I do now release that if true then this would also probably mean that it also then wouldn't grow to sustain the cows too if that was the case)

But I have noticed in recent years cows and sheep in the same field.

I am assuming that my parents at some point just panicked and made something up in the face of a relentless barrage of 'But why?!' questions rather than that there has been some ovine-bovine fair consumption agreement.

But I am curious

There are often tractors on the dual carriageway in my area and people often complain as they slow traffic. I don’t really opine on the matter, but I’m so curious, where are these tractors going? If they belong to a farmer why isn’t s/he just using them in his/her fields? They don’t appear to be pulling anything.

Yourenotheonlycuddlytoy, sometimes a farmer has fields in different places, miles apart, eg because they want to expand their farming but the nearest suitable land they can find to rent is 5 miles away.
Also sometimes they lend each other or share equipment.

Are all lambs born in lambing sheds? Or are some born out in the fields?

Depends on breed and system. Lowland ewes in sheds, tough hill sheep outside. Pros and cons to each way.

But isnt their evidence that UK wildlife and biodiversity is rapidly declining?

What Scrowy said.

It’s very convenient to blame farmers, but really farmer and managed land is where you'll see the most wildlife.

Do you dislike people who live in urban centres or suburban areas? Do you think that people who aren't farmers/smallholders/land owners should have any say in how the countryside/wildlife is managed, or in how farming should be managed?

Erm, no, of course I don’t dislike people from urban areas.

I think that people who have no working knowledge of an issue shouldn’t have a say in it - whether it be farming, schools or any issue really.

I've seen a few fields of sheep recently who have a load of some sort of root veg on the ground for them to eat. What are they, and is it just specific to this time of year as I've never noticed this before?!

It’ll be fodder beet or turnips or something, grown especially for animal feed.

Cows and sheep in the same field? Yes or No (and has it changed?)

Yes. I don’t think it’s changed!?

The bit about cows ripping grass up by the roots so that it won’t grow again isn’t really true though, sorry! They do like longer grass than sheep though.

I am assuming that my parents at some point just panicked and made something up in the face of a relentless barrage of 'But why?!' questions rather than that there has been some ovine-bovine fair consumption agreement.

There are often tractors on the dual carriageway in my area and people often complain as they slow traffic. I don’t really opine on the matter, but I’m so curious, where are these tractors going? If they belong to a farmer why isn’t s/he just using them in his/her fields? They don’t appear to be pulling anything.

Going to another field, going home, contractors going from job to job, on the way to be serviced or repaired, loads of reasons

And what Countess said!

Can I ask, when the clocks go back/forward, does it really help you and your work?