The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: ricardodba on April 10, 2017, 12:09:33 pm
-
Hi Guys,
I've been a member on here the last couple of years, since I moved to house with a bit of land in the remote, rural countryside.
Since then , my passion (if thats the right word), to be involved with farming has again been re-ignited (i didnt pursue the faming career as my parents didnt think it was right at the time).
Im now at the point where i've had enough of the boring, inspire-less IT career and want to change my career and lifestyle - its a bit crazy even when I start to think about it!
So, i have been looking at what steps i can take. There are a number of farms which are open to tender in the area I would like to live in, with 10 year tenancy agreements. They are large farms 300-400 acres and most probably, im just not experienced or knowledgeable enough to take this on...but no harm in trying right!...
Im thinking that i need to put together a business plan and speak with the bank with regard to finances and then make an application for the tenancy of a farm.
Yes, this may sound absolutely mental, but I dont see any harm in trying to put a business plan together and see what happens!!
So, do you guys have any hints, tips or experience in how I can get the ball moving here?...At the end of the day I assume id be up against experienced farmers applying too and the owners of the farm wouldn't want to take a risk on me...but you never know!
Any help will be much appreciated .
Thanks.
-
I have more or less been here... v early mid life crisis in my 20's. Gave up an awfully dull and poorly paid (relatively) IT career to pursue what I thought was something of an idilic farming life. God knows how, but I got 2 jobs as 'stock manager'... one after other (again, somehow I was headhunted... bonkers!).
Anyway, some anti depressants, and counselling later and I could finally start to see what was going on. I was searching for meaning where there wasn't any, and searching for happiness everywhere but internally.
Now this may not apply to you at all, but after the above, I went back into IT... realising that was the only way I'd earn enough to buy a holding. I got back to work and built and built myself.. training etc. I ended up going into contracting, which increased exposure to interesting things, and added variety, and after 10 years of hard work, we have our holding in Devon.
Obviously your ambitions and situation maybe totally different to mine, but there were enough parallels for me to think it worthwhile to mention this.
-
Why are there so many farms for rent around you?
-
Why are there so many farms for rent around you?
i should have been more precise!...there are 2 farms which arnt that close to each other but are in same county.
-
That's really interesting, farmershort. I'm always fascinated to read people's stories :thumbsup: .
Yes, this may sound absolutely mental, but I dont see any harm in trying to put a business plan together and see what happens!!
A business plan is a good place to start I suppose. The trouble is, there's no such thing as renting "a farm", or indeed "a smallholding". They'll all be different, and will need different approaches to get the best from them. Our three nearest neighbours all run very different types of farm operation, according to the ground they've got and what they've found works for them. If there's one thing I've learned in six years of smallholding, it's that context is everything!
So, your business plan will have to be tailored to the farm you want to take on. I think your biggest challenge will be getting good enough data to know if that plan is workable or not. Then of course you'll have to sell it to people who are probably much more knowledgeable than yourself.
I'm just thinking aloud here, but I hope this is helpful:
We're all chasing the sweet spot at the centre of this Venn diagram, right?
(https://bobbiblogger.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/rich.jpg)
So whilst the answer right now may seem like 'give it all up and go farming', where does that fit on the diagram? Would you love it? (maybe). Are you good at it? (not yet). Does it pay well? ( :roflanim: ).
There is a way of getting started with less risk though. If you find a small parcel or two of land to rent, you can get started with sheep for instance, and then could use references from the first landowners to secure other land to build up your business and the numbers of livestock. You could do that to test the water without giving up your IT work (maybe you'd have to move job or location for it, but you could still keep that as the thing that pays the bills until you're sure). You might even find that having farming as an interest outside work gives you enough enjoyment to enable you to stomach the "rich but bored" of your day job. I'll be honest, that's where I find myself right now.
Also, if in a few years time you wanted to go for a full farm tenancy, you'd be a proven winner, rather than "hey, I've got this crazy idea", which I think would put you in a much stronger position?
-
Look at this from the other side ......... My asset is my land , I've spent years learning about it and getting the best from it........ Now for whatever reason I'm going to rent it to someone else ............ It certainly won't be to someone with no experience ( would be like lending your Ferrari to a learner driver!)
-
I have more or less been here... v early mid life crisis in my 20's. Gave up an awfully dull and poorly paid (relatively) IT career to pursue what I thought was something of an idilic farming life. God knows how, but I got 2 jobs as 'stock manager'... one after other (again, somehow I was headhunted... bonkers!).
Anyway, some anti depressants, and counselling later and I could finally start to see what was going on. I was searching for meaning where there wasn't any, and searching for happiness everywhere but internally.
Now this may not apply to you at all, but after the above, I went back into IT... realising that was the only way I'd earn enough to buy a holding. I got back to work and built and built myself.. training etc. I ended up going into contracting, which increased exposure to interesting things, and added variety, and after 10 years of hard work, we have our holding in Devon.
Obviously your ambitions and situation maybe totally different to mine, but there were enough parallels for me to think it worthwhile to mention this.
I think that's a lot of us lol
I studied computer science at uni as well lol
Then I had mid life crisis in my 20s, well I'm still 27. Then i went back to college and studied agriculture. Now i do live on half an acre but am still dreaming of my own farm.
The more I studied computing the more I hated it!
-
It's not just the smallholder dreamers though. I have three friends called Robin, James and Stuart. Robin hated his job in IT, so quit to re-train as a quantity surveyor. James hated his job as a quantity surveyor, so quit to study accountancy. Stuart meanwhile hates working as an accountant, and yearns for a career programming computers. I swear I'm not making this up! :roflanim:
-
It's not just the smallholder dreamers though. I have three friends called Robin, James and Stuart. Robin hated his job in IT, so quit to re-train as a quantity surveyor. James hated his job as a quantity surveyor, so quit to study accountancy. Stuart meanwhile hates working as an accountant, and yearns for a career programming computers. I swear I'm not making this up! :roflanim:
Loooool
I had a friend at uni who loved computers and it but was studying pharmacy. He said if he were formally studying it he would start hating it and pharmacy is just a job.
-
Hi
Thanks for posting this, it is indeed very interesting.... May I suggest something though? It may be worth signing up to https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php They will be able to give you a lot of very good advice on farming methods, plans etc, etc.... All the best with your new venture though.... Wish we had more land, but we have to make do with what we have.
-
I think that's a lot of us lol
I studied computer science at uni as well lol
Then I had mid life crisis in my 20s, well I'm still 27. Then i went back to college and studied agriculture. Now i do live on half an acre but am still dreaming of my own farm.
The more I studied computing the more I hated it!
There certainly is a "type" in this downshifting game.
I started as Comp Sci and then shifted to Software Engineering after the first year. I know that by the end of the 2nd year I was growing to hate coding, but there was something about networks which I found sort of interesting... I managed to luck-out, well sort of, in my first role and accidently ended up as deputy network manager.... not a big network by today's standards. It was then a fraught and bumpy path eventually leading to network architecture, which is what I do now. I really fits the way that my brain works, and I honestly do in enjoy it, as much as anyone can enjoy a desk job.
Sadly I can't yet package any of this experience up into nice sound-bites for other starters on the path, but people always used to keep telling me "play to your strengths".... moving industry entirely is sometimes a winner, but not as often as finding your niche within or around your own industry.
-
It's not just the smallholder dreamers though. I have three friends called Robin, James and Stuart. Robin hated his job in IT, so quit to re-train as a quantity surveyor. James hated his job as a quantity surveyor, so quit to study accountancy. Stuart meanwhile hates working as an accountant, and yearns for a career programming computers. I swear I'm not making this up! :roflanim:
ahhhh, the good old existentialist void, and how to fill it :)
-
I started in software engineering, gradually moved into project management of technical projects. Enjoyed the work and the money but something was missing.
When I left to have a 'grown up gap year', with the intention of WWOOFing to learn more about livestock, and hoping I'd end up with livestock of my own, my colleagues asked wouldn't I be bored?
:roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
Never a dull moment, every day's a school day. Will. Never. Stop. Learning. (Which also means you also never stop making mistakes :/)
-
You need to get loads of practical experience , you may have the best business plan in the world ( written with help from other people) but if you got selected for an interview then you need to know what your talking about! You'll also need a massive amount of cash available to stock a 300 acre farm!