After a harsh lesson in the economics of buying and selling cattle recently, I am seeing our 60 ewes in a much more flattering light. The simple system we have with them has little dependence on the outside world and leaves the farm less exposed to commissions, levies and various middlemen who have their hands out.

For a part-time farmer such as myself however, whatever enterprise we have must be simple and straightforward. It should not overly impact the off-farm job or family time.

Tired, grumpy and broke

While there are lots of new ideas I would like to try, past experience has taught me these often have extra hidden costs in terms of your time and hard cash. Both of these costs are often borne by the family. What herself and our three boys see is Daddy being more tired, grumpy and broke than he should be.

Without pushing stocking rates or pumping out synthetic fertiliser, I have been guilty of trying to burn the candle at both ends and squeeze 25 hours into the day.

After five years of attempting to mimic what is best practice on farms 10 times bigger than ours, I am starting to open my eyes and look around our own farm

Too often, I would get up very early in the morning to “get a bit done” or “make a start on something” before breakfast and to help with getting the lads ready for school. It was the same with shifting cattle or sheep in the evenings after the lads were in bed.

And the results of these extra hours? Zero. Or at least nothing I could point at now.

After five years of attempting to mimic what is best practice on farms 10 times bigger than ours, I am starting to open my eyes and look around our own farm. Often, after trying to do something in several different ways with the sheep, I would arrive at the right way, only to realise that was pretty much what my father was doing 30 years ago with them.

The underlying principle from now on will be to set up and maintain as simple a system as possible

The sheep, then, and a small calf-rearing enterprise, will take all our focus for the next while. But an eye will still survey the layout of the farm, the sheds and roadways, soil types and whatever else the place might whisper to us.

One insight slowly emerging comes from the infrastructure already in place, how many acres are now available, and the optimal enterprise that would allow me to upgrade from part-time to full-time farming – should that decision ever be made. While that is a discussion for another day, the underlying principle from now on will be to set up and maintain as simple a system as possible. And if that means a drop in productivity, then so be it. That might even increase the return on investment for time spent and money invested on the farm.

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