change of career

danpaddyandy

hey im a qs working in my profession since i left college 2 years ago. I have always had a big interest in farming and over the last few years i am finding myself being drawn towards farming and have little or no interest in my job
My ideal profession would be a suckler farmer and finishing all the progeny.
I am currently doing the green cert and we re visiting farms with 60-80 closed herd sucklers on 100 up acres.
I am going to be taking over our own farm of drystock 40 to 50 stores on around 65 acres in a few years
I am trying to figure out would i have a good standard of living if i finished work and started on my ideal career. I feel we do not have enough land to hold 60 or more sucklers while finishing the progeny.
In the future a mortgage would have to be paid for, probably a family to look after,a new suckler shed to pay off for, 30-40 acres would need to be rented/ideally purchased. I wonder would my ideal career turn into a nightmare without an off the farm job. i do the lotto twice a week without fail.

wiggy123

i look about getting a job--prob part-time!
buy easy calving cows and use gd bull, either a BB,or a good CH..sell all calves as weanlings...you could then have enough land for 50+ cows, rent land for silage maybe!

reilig

20 years ago, my father was making a good living on 45 acres of land and milking 15 dairy cows. He sold the milk quota in 1993 (when things got bad in dairy) and bought 60 acres of land with it. He made an ok living out of it by keeping 30 sucklers and 100 ewes for 5 or 6 years, but every year the income went down and down. I have it now, and its at 120 acres, but this would not be enough to have an income that would cover the mortgage and keep us at the level of lifestlye that we were reared with by my father.

My point is that these days you need more and more land in order to turn an income. You can have good years and make a lot of money, but for every good year you will have 2 bad years when the prices are under the cost of production and you will need to have money put aside to keep yourself going.
Its a great lifestyle, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the farm, but for now it won't support me and my wife without my off farm job. So to give up a job to take up farming is an awful risk unless the O/H has a good job??

Keep doing the lotto anyway!!!

adne

reilig wrote: »

20 years ago, my father was making a good living on 45 acres of land and milking 15 dairy cows. He sold the milk quota in 1993 (when things got bad in dairy) and bought 60 acres of land with it. He made an ok living out of it by keeping 30 sucklers and 100 ewes for 5 or 6 years, but every year the income went down and down. I have it now, and its at 120 acres, but this would not be enough to have an income that would cover the mortgage and keep us at the level of lifestlye that we were reared with by my father.

My point is that these days you need more and more land in order to turn an income. You can have good years and make a lot of money, but for every good year you will have 2 bad years when the prices are under the cost of production and you will need to have money put aside to keep yourself going.
Its a great lifestyle, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the farm, but for now it won't support me and my wife without my off farm job. So to give up a job to take up farming is an awful risk unless the O/H has a good job??

Keep doing the lotto anyway!!!

Good Advice....

Keep the Day job, everything you make on farming is a plus rather than a neccessary

poor farmer

reilig wrote: »

20 years ago, my father was making a good living on 45 acres of land and milking 15 dairy cows. He sold the milk quota in 1993 (when things got bad in dairy) and bought 60 acres of land with it. He made an ok living out of it by keeping 30 sucklers and 100 ewes for 5 or 6 years, but every year the income went down and down. I have it now, and its at 120 acres, but this would not be enough to have an income that would cover the mortgage and keep us at the level of lifestlye that we were reared with by my father.

My point is that these days you need more and more land in order to turn an income. You can have good years and make a lot of money, but for every good year you will have 2 bad years when the prices are under the cost of production and you will need to have money put aside to keep yourself going.
Its a great lifestyle, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the farm, but for now it won't support me and my wife without my off farm job. So to give up a job to take up farming is an awful risk unless the O/H has a good job??

Keep doing the lotto anyway!!!

good advice agree good lifestyle but very long hours 80/90 perweek 60 milkers 20 sucklers 250 other cattle 60 acres barley/maize living a frugal life but getting it hard to make ends meet

blue5000

Dan, keep up with the lotto anyway.
What sort of an income are those farms that you're visiting making? The best you could hope for is about half what they're making in suckler to weanling operation run well. What sort of money is needed to service a mortgage, and develop buildings as well?
Cattle sales are going to be your income, Reps is gone with a mickeymouse scheme in it's place. Suckler cow welfare scheme got halved last yr in the budget.
|I don't think suckling could support bank borrowings to buy land, a bank would look much more favourably on you if you could keep the dayjob as well as farming. After all you spent 4 yrs in college to do qs, don't chuck it away too fast.
All the best.

johngalway

PM sent.

Like the username

What part of the world are you in?

red_diesel

reilig wrote: »

20 years ago, my father was making a good living on 45 acres of land and milking 15 dairy cows. He sold the milk quota in 1993 (when things got bad in dairy) and bought 60 acres of land with it. He made an ok living out of it by keeping 30 sucklers and 100 ewes for 5 or 6 years, but every year the income went down and down. I have it now, and its at 120 acres, but this would not be enough to have an income that would cover the mortgage and keep us at the level of lifestlye that we were reared with by my father.

My point is that these days you need more and more land in order to turn an income. You can have good years and make a lot of money, but for every good year you will have 2 bad years when the prices are under the cost of production and you will need to have money put aside to keep yourself going.
Its a great lifestyle, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the farm, but for now it won't support me and my wife without my off farm job. So to give up a job to take up farming is an awful risk unless the O/H has a good job??

Keep doing the lotto anyway!!!

How times have changed! My parents raised a family of 5 children on a 50 acre dairy farm milking 25-27 cows. We also kept all calves, sold beef heifers at 18 months, put heifers in calf and sold bullocks at 24 months. We weren't rich but we weren't on the breadline either. We're all in our 30's now so I suppose up until the mid 90's this setup could keep a family going.

€4 * twice a week * 52 weeks per year * 40 years working = €16,640.00 spent on the lotto at current prices.

Your chances are 1 in 8,145,060 of winning the jackpot.

(despite the above I do play the lotto occasionally)

Cran

found this trend interesting as currently part time with 120 acres. have an intense job and def affects how the farm is set-up and managed, if I was full time believe could be alot more effecient and profitable etc... how much land do people think you need to live decent farming, know there is exceptions and specialised farms that need less but in general?

tabby aspreme

A lot of the well established suckler farms have large single farm payments, someone starting off will not have this, even if the farm is profitable this money is there and being used to pay for borrowings for buildings etc. A job and 65 acres versus no job 100 acres and a load of debt, you would have to be brave , or married to a teacher:)