Going farming

How about marrying a lady with a heap of land?! Sounds like the best way to get into farming to me.

My friends mother always told her to marry for money and learn to love 😂😂

My father used to say that everyone marries for love.
In cases love of the person.
In other cases love of their possessions or capabilities to provide a good lifestyle
An aul fella I used to work with used to always say to me "marry the land and take the woman to the altar". Unfortunately his wisdom dawned on me too late, as I often remind Mrs Tafkat :whistle:
 
@johndeere6920s how far would you have to travel to get into a good pocket of good ground, how much tillage is around you at the moment and how many lads are competing for that same ground? Not to be pessimistic but I think you're in the wrong part of the world to try and make a living out of tillage, tillage is going more and more towards scale to make an actual living from it, small margins from larger acres, I think what you're asking is akin to a lad saying to you he wants to become a pit silage contactor and there must be money out of it because look at Mark Troy or someone, I'd see no reason you couldn't go farming but like start up contracting it's a niche you'd need to find whether that's snail farming, pumpkin patches with some stock on a few acres to start if it's looking to actually make money. I started following "the long acre" on Instagram recently, it's worth a look to see how hard it is for someone to startup but also the rewards. If you were hell bent on tillage I'd imagine your best hope would be to find some lad who's interest might be lessening or be short of help and see would they share farm with you carrying out most of the work, then maybe in time you would have the opportunity to lease it.
 
And also trying to go renting a heap of ground off auctioneers is similar to a lad off the street walking into a mart buying cattle and the jobbers making a fool of them, in my area at least. A young ish lad has tried renting 2 parcels of land where two large tillage lads were also bidding he tried putting it up to them in one case going to €290 and the big guy went to €300 and the other he went to €300 and it went to €310 no Entitlements, they were just flexing their muscles because they can, they'll make little or nothing but the young lad won't be able to get a start. It's a blessing in disguise he didn't get it anyway, another thing about leasing land is if you discover after year one that you are in fact making little money well too bad you're locked into a lease and have to continue not like starting a new contracting service if it doesn't work out you can sell the machine.
 
What about buying/leasing a bit land that's neglected/needs plenty of work? You have all the gear to improve it. If it can be got at the right price though?
 
You'd get good ground around here no problem.
I would say the neglected ground would probably the best place to start.
If sums didn't add up set it in grass and sell the grass off it.
There's no fortune in that either bar you can get slurry cheap or free, very few people factor in the P&K replacement requirements when selling grass and before they know where they are they have the ground run down to a low index
 
You'd get good ground around here no problem.
I would say the neglected ground would probably the best place to start.
If sums didn't add up set it in grass and sell the grass off it.
I looks to me that you are suffering from the " clay disease " .
The best thing you can do is rent a couple of rough fields at as small a price as you can .
Burn them off, get a soil sample done and start from there .
Spring barley or oats and as you have slurry available correcting the nutrient status shouldnt break the bank ..
Dont forget to lime if the ph is low and engage the services of a good crop man who can tailor the spend to suit the potential output.
Avoid the " can salesman " type like the plaque as the end result could be a bill to be paid after all grain is delivered if things go badly for any number of reasons
Will you make money ?? Hopefully but life is not all about money and like a junkie on methadone you will be happy !!!
Oh and remember its the man who grows the crop not the machine so dont go overboard on expensive stuff .
As others have pointed out the days of making a good living from conacre are probably gone but it was not always thus and the future been unwritten who knows maybe the great days of the seventies , eighties and the first half of the ninties could return .
I must write a piece about my conacre adventures over 30 odd years sometime and how things changed .
Its a funny old game tillage but i can honestly say id beg before id give it up !!!
Some years i nearly had too !!
Best of luck to you .
 
I looks to me that you are suffering from the " clay disease " .
The best thing you can do is rent a couple of rough fields at as small a price as you can .
Burn them off, get a soil sample done and start from there .
Spring barley or oats and as you have slurry available correcting the nutrient status shouldnt break the bank ..
Dont forget to lime if the ph is low and engage the services of a good crop man who can tailor the spend to suit the potential output.
Avoid the " can salesman " type like the plaque as the end result could be a bill to be paid after all grain is delivered if things go badly for any number of reasons
Will you make money ?? Hopefully but life is not all about money and like a junkie on methadone you will be happy !!!
Oh and remember its the man who grows the crop not the machine so dont go overboard on expensive stuff .
As others have pointed out the days of making a good living from conacre are probably gone but it was not always thus and the future been unwritten who knows maybe the great days of the seventies , eighties and the first half of the ninties could return .
I must write a piece about my conacre adventures over 30 odd years sometime and how things changed .
Its a funny old game tillage but i can honestly say id beg before id give it up !!!
Some years i nearly had too !!
Best of luck to you .
Therein lies the eternal optimism of the farmer.amen
 
You'd get good ground around here no problem.
I would say the neglected ground would probably the best place to start.
If sums didn't add up set it in grass and sell the grass off it.

Neglected ground usually needs loads of dung, slurry and in particular lime which is all needed regardless of whether It's tillage or grass.
 
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