Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Background  (Read 7039 times)

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Background
« on: April 08, 2014, 10:48:13 am »
I've been musing on this for a while. . . . so thought I would ask. I really hope it doesn't get any ones back up!

So. . . out of interest, how many of the smallholders on here, come from the countryside originally?

And how many are originally town dwellers who wanted to 'get back to the land', for whatever reason, i.e retirement, health, buisness, or being swayed by numerous t.v programmes and fashion changes?

I only ask, because I live (and grew up) in a very rural setting, and have always been around farming / the countryside. For the most part of my youth, all the land was worked by people from the local area, and that is how they made their living. Now pretty much everyone there, is from somewhere else originally.

9 times out of 10 . . . . they had a well paid 'corporate' job and decided to sell their expensive house in the city and use that money (and their salary) to buy up some land and move to the country. Now. that's great, it's a good thing that more people are finding a connection with the land. . . .

However, in the area where I grew up, there are now, no productive farms. It's all people playing at it, or having lifestyle properties. The price of land has also gone through the roof, as people can afford to throw vast amounts of money at small pieces of land, to keep horses on etc, with no need for it to be commercially viable.

As such, no one from the area can afford to buy land or work the land anymore, and if they could, the price would be so high, and the parcels split up into such small bits, that it would be impossible to support a family on it as a viable income. . . . .

When I look out of the window, it seems that the familly farm has died a death. Now all I see is lifestyle properties and major agri buisnesses. . . . which is pretty sad really.

ZaktheLad

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Thornbury, Nr Bristol
Re: Background
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2014, 11:16:10 am »
I am a country girl born and bred on a smallholding!

Fowgill Farm

  • Joined Feb 2009
Re: Background
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2014, 11:29:13 am »
Born & bred Yorkshire country girl, Dad's family all farmers except Dad who decided to go into pharmeceuticals! Mum a townie. We and they do still live in small villages.
Mandy :pig:

cwmfarm123

  • Joined Nov 2013
Re: Background
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2014, 11:35:38 am »
Both of us from farming background, hubby brought up in farming, my grandparents farmers. Must say farming is in andrews blood. I married into it, love every day even in the rain lol

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Background
« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2014, 11:43:14 am »
Thanks for the replies. . . .

Cwm - haha  I know how it goes. My girlfriend is from London way originally, but she has taken well to stomping through mud in the rain, putting up fences in the rain, herding pigs in the rain. . . . . . and worrying about pheasants in the rain.

It must be in her blood to. I'm sure most women would have run a mile by now. I have her a cuddle this morning. . . . and she remarked (with surprise) that I didn't smell like animal s**t.. . . . . . . . I pointed out that her jumper was covered in mud and she had some straw in her hair. . . . haha.

Did I mention it rains a lot here?

in the hills

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Background
« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2014, 12:03:09 pm »
Brought up in the town. My father grew veg, kept hens and ducks and trained and worked gundogs. So I suppose a townie but did spend a lot of time outdoors and often on farms/estates with dad working dogs.

Around us are working farms/ smallholdings of various sizes. From what they have said locals were a bit anxious about 'townies' moving in and being a tight, very rural community I have been told that incomers aren't always thought highly of. However local farmer has told me that I am thought of as a proper country lady and that my children are more country children in their ways than his ever were. Family that lived here before were 'local' but did nothing with the land. I've been told by one farmer that it's great to see the land now being used. Phew  :relief:

So townie if you like.  ;D But maybe it's not good to put people in boxes.

Also, according to our closest farmer, it's very difficult for small family farms to keep going around here anyway. His farm, been in the family for generations, did used to be able to support a family but by the time he came to farm a lot of farms were getting bigger and bigger. Times changed. He got a job to bring in the income needed by his family. So even he had to have a job to support his farming.   ;)

I have been told about many small farms that have gradually been eaten up by ever growing nearby farms. Farms that had been there for generations.  I think in this area it is more to do with changes in farming than 'townies' moving in. Said the 'townie'.  :eyelashes: ;D

Ideation

  • Joined Apr 2014
Re: Background
« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2014, 12:41:18 pm »
Haha. . . . great reply! And I really wasn't trying to give off some 'holier than though' attitude with regards to country folk vs town folk.

Although I probably do have a wee bit of bitterness when I see folk from the city moving here and bidding on land, driving the price through the roof. . . . . . . and then sticking their horses on it lol. When I look at that land, and think . . . . . that could support me and feed my family haha. But that's life!

As you say, just as much land is eaten up by big agri buisness - we've had a load of local land bought up by a big farm, to grow maize. The farm was a really productive 100 acres of mixed farm . . . . now all of the gates and most of the hedges have been pulled out and the whole thing is planted for maize, never visited apart from by contractors to drill it, spray it and then harvest it. The quality of the land / farm is rapidly getting eroded!

We have had a few amusing incidents with city folk moving here for 'the good life'. My favourites include. . . . . one lot moving in nearby and seeing us doing a bit of ferreting and deciding that we were teriible, cruel people that they hated because we killed animals? Another lot tried to lobby the local council and kicked up a hell of a fuss about the muck spreading haha.

My only other moan (I do sound like a farmer now) is the horrible trend for buying up say 20/30 acres . . . . . with one house on it. . . .  and a couple of barns. . . . . and then selling of bits of the land and the old buildings for conversion or building, because the original 20/30 acres is too big for them to manage. What you end up with is 4 lots of people living on the 30 acres, rather than one lot, with the added traffic, conflicts of interest etc.

It's just something I find interesting to watch, it's not meant to be a dig at anyone and I apologise if it comes across that way!
« Last Edit: April 08, 2014, 12:43:12 pm by Ideation »

RUSTYME

  • Joined Oct 2009
.
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2014, 01:48:35 pm »
I grew up next to Northolt airport , on the edge of London then , now swallowed up in the sprawl of it . Although a townie i used to go 'wild' , living in camps in the local woodland and living off the land , and whatever i could nick off the milkman , eggs , bacon , milk , cheese etc , i was very streetwise too , lol .
I had 2 allotments , between 11 and 17 , that supplied all the veg for the whole family , 9 in total .
Then went to work in a factory , doing the system thing .
Moved to Wales when  i was 20 . Kept hundreds of chickens , ducks , geese , guinea fowl , pheasants ,as well as working on sheep farms , pig and cattle farms .
Did my survival thing , building a stone house , (10'x10' lol) , in the woods and living off the land .
Worked in an abatoir , tannery , knitting factory ( don't know what that was about ?) .
All the time i was learning old skills , stone work , making cart wheels , blacksmithing , basket making , anything i could learn about old crafts etc .
Then had a car smash and it all went wrong .
At 26 i was buggered . Every bone busted , massive head injuries , a mental and physical wreck . It took me 10 years + to get over it and learn to do everything again , albeit in a very different  way this time .
Now  i am 56 and i am living the life i want , soon to go offgrid completely . I have my dogs and horses , will be getting sheep , cattle , goats , poultry once i have the house up .
Townie ? , countryman ? Weirdo ? Whatever , i am me , doing my thing and watching the world go to ruin in it's quest for money and power , always more , more , more . 
I don't follow the main road , i tend to make my own track , but could never go back to a town life , not under any circumstances . Whatever time i have left will be lived my way right or wrong .

fiestyredhead331

  • Joined Sep 2012
  • NW Highlands
    • Facebook
Re: Background
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2014, 02:10:28 pm »
born and bred country girl, working the same croft my parents did and bringing up my kids in the same house I was.
Though there was a spell of about 6 years when I lived abroad and my parents never thought I'd come to this but much to their amazement I did  :thumbsup:
keeper of goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, dogs, cats, goldfish and children, just don't ask me which is the most work!

plumseverywhere

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • Worcestershire
    • Its Baaath Time
    • Facebook
Re: Background
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2014, 02:42:49 pm »
Born in London to a father who raised his own chickens, grew veg and lived self sufficiently (due to how his parents had coped during/post WW2).  Moved to countryside aged 8.   Then bought our own smallholding 5 years ago.  Looking to buy some of the neighbouring land to prevent ruddy David Wilson building more little boxes and turning our village into a town.
We do all we can to live off of the land, I'm  permanently covered in hay and mud.   Dislike some of the neighbours who were born and bred round these rural parts but complain about cockerel noises and the stench of animal sh*te when fields are sprayed - they are more like townies than we are...and I was born in London  ;D
Smallholding in Worcestershire, making goats milk soap for www.itsbaaathtime.com and mum to 4 girls,  goats, sheep, chickens, dog, cat and garden snails...

lilfeeb

  • Joined Feb 2013
  • Kinross-shire
Re: Background
« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2014, 02:50:19 pm »
Born and bred farmers daughter, but as my brother is taking over the parents farm, the rest of us (4 girls have had to make our own way) My oldest sister went into partnership with my parents on a small farm of her own. My other sisters are a doctor and a bibliographer and I am a manager in an office who has finally maanged to get back to the country albeit in a very small way. We have an acre and a half.

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: Background
« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2014, 02:55:27 pm »
I was brought up in the farming town of Biggar . There used to be a weekly market for sheep and cattle. No longer there now.  We had loads of freedom. just a great life for kids. Now it is full of old people who retire there.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Background
« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2014, 03:14:26 pm »
Now I see where you get your name ideation - too much thinking  :thinking: ;D  Good topic though


Born and bred farmers daughter, but as my brother is taking over the parents farm, the rest of us (4 girls have had to make our own way) My oldest sister went into partnership with my parents on a small farm of her own. My other sisters are a doctor and a bibliographer and I am a manager in an office who has finally maanged to get back to the country albeit in a very small way. We have an acre and a half.


As Lilfeeb, I am a born and bred farmer's daughter, my OH is from Crofting stock.  My brother, also clearly from a long line of peasant farmers, got the farm then promptly proceeded to convert everything he could to housing and does no farming whatsoever.  Meantime my OH and the family came into smallholding, very much the poor relation.

However, if you look back far enough, including in other countries, the standard solution to what to do with the farm has mostly been to hand it on to the eldest son, bypassing any females, and the rest of the children make their own way in the cities or the services.  In France they tried a different way I believe, and the farm was divided equally amongst the sons, so parcels of land became ever smaller and smaller and less able to provide anything more than a subsistence level of income.

Round here too (south of Scotland) the family farm is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.  Either small farms are amalgamated into monsters, often owned by overseas businessmen or corporations, or they are divided into smaller portions, with a house on each part and sold to 'incomers'.  If those incomers are going to farm the land then that has to be a step forward to my mind.  Family farms are no longer big enough to support a whole family so only survive by the skin of their teeth, with all or most of the family working outside the farm.  Even if smallholders produce only enough to feed their families with small sales at the gate, then that is one less family relying on those scary imports.

However, even here far from the city, people have bought up land for horse grazing and a bit of country life.  I am in two minds about this.  On the one hand, isn't it great knowing how many folk who are stuck in city life are desperate to get out and into the countryside.  On the other hand, the land could be put to productive use.  However, times they are a-changing and government policy supports the reduction in food production from our rural areas, relying on imports (That's the scary bit  :tired: :tired: :tired:) to feed our ever growing population.  However, land which remains unbuilt-on as grazing for horses can readily be ploughed up and returned to production, whereas land which is given over to housing and urban sprawl, has had its chips for food production.  :farmer: Hereabouts many famers are selling their land for forestry, which is almost as difficult to return to arable land as is housing.  They do it for the cash, which is good, but it's so often prime agricultural land  :(




Sabrina - lots of those old people who live in Biggar are in fact retired from their farms, to allow a younger son to take over.  There has been lots of new housing built so also plenty of commuters.  Countryside v housing....housing v countryside, the perennial problem as both are so important.  It's still a great wee town though  :thumbsup:
« Last Edit: April 08, 2014, 03:28:56 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

Sudanpan

  • Joined Jan 2009
  • West Cornwall
    • Movement is Life
Re: Background
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2014, 03:25:52 pm »
Born and raised in 'the smoke' but have ALWAYS felt I belonged in the country. OH and I managed to buy a 4 acre smallholding down here in Cornwall, building our house on the ruins of the old cottage that was once in the corner of this field.
Our neighbour is born and bred Cornish - his family have been farming here since the late 1800's. Neighbour started with 40 acres from his father, gradually built it up to 100 acres, was a classic mixed farm (cattle, pigs, arable and veg). He as 3 children - 2 daughters who have both married farmers, and a son. The son now works as the Logistics manager for one of the bug veg producers down here. One daughter's husband does farm his own land - cattle, sheep and veg (120 acre farm). However neighbour and other son in law have both done the sme thing which is keep their land, but not farm it - renting it out to the big veg producers. This seems to be very common - the smaller farms cannot compete commercially so the farmers rent out the land to the big producers and then do something else with their time - neighbour contract ploughs and his son in law runs a mixed bag of holiday lets, car restoration and agric machinery restoration.


doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Background
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2014, 03:36:11 pm »
Born centre of Aberdeen 70 years ago, lived in town with Grandparents, Mum, Dad and my sister till 16 years after I got married, then persuaded husband and two teenagers move out to Ellon - large house on third of an acre. Grew veg and fruit, but no livestock except dogs and cat.

Always played outside as a child, preferably near horses, but never managed to have one of my own.

Then after 1st husband was killed moved to Old Rayne with second husband to 24 acres, 2 barns - sheep, cattle, hens and ducks - and more dogs  :innocent: as he was into shooting and fishing.

When he was killed I downsized to one acre, so now only have 4 dogs and 1 cat, 6 hens, 5 ducks, 3 quail.  Feels like I'm a smallholder so I don't really care what anyone else thinks I am.
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

 

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