fencing and a very long boring bit

today i have been mainly fencing. the ground is so hard. we bust five posts trying to get the strainers in, then we had to resort to making a metal post that would not shatter in order to create a pilot hole for each post. the land owner then comes over and says 'when i was a lad i fenced this whole field by hand on my own, don't know what your moaning about it being hard'

he very narrowly avoided having a new 'pilot hole' created in his backside, the only thing that saved him was that i had bust all my spare posts! especially after he moaned that some of his horsey clients wanted to pay him in kind not cash (wink, wink) why after six years of having horsey people here has nobody offered to pay me in kind? am i that ugly? should i put my rates up to encourage lateral thinking?

update on life aims:

1- hair is all still there, the shower plug was slightly blocked but they were long and brown. definitely not mine.
2- slightly less solvent than yesterday as still have not had cheque for last fencing job. (you know who you are)
3- no carp. though have not been fishing so not surprising really.
4- still married
5- no horsey people murdered

so really progress on two out of five, i think i should count number five as a neutral result, no murder is good but then again it is a horsey person so probably nobody would moan about it anyway.

by the way if you like my blog feel free to become a follower by clicking the button to the right. it will give me great encouragement that somebody is actually reading this!

out of interest to nobody in particular i have cut and pasted a precis i have done for Nuffield to go in there annual report and to encourage people to read my main report. so if you have trouble sleeping at night read the next 1846 words and i am sure you will have no trouble!


Surviving the Learning Curve of Farm Diversification

My Background

My background was not in farming but after growing up in the commuter towns of London, I eventually took over my grandparents’ farm at the tender age of twenty-one.

At sixteen I left home and moved to my grandparents’ farm in Helions Bumpstead, Haverhill, as a young farmer on a one hundred and thirty sow pig farm with three hundred acres of arable land.

I have done my best to increase farm income by diversifying the farm – my projects to date have included a fifty box livery yard, a duck farm producing sixty thousand meat ducks a year, private storage, commercial and residential property, equine fencing, contracting and a double glazing business. I also spent two years developing (rather disastrously) an indoor Tilapia fish farm.

What excites me is the prospect of making a business out of nothing (like the ‘Pea and Poop’ concept you will read later on), or creating an income from redundant or previously underperforming assets. All farmers have underperforming or even completely unrecognised assets on their farms; you just need to see them!

The aim of my Nuffield Study is to create a resource for farmers to use which will hopefully help them identify and develop alternative income streams. I want to give prospective entrepreneurs encouragement through the experiences I have had on my travels and through my personal projects, that this is achievable, and to make people realise that actually everybody does have opportunities regardless of their location, financial position or current skill set.

Developing a new enterprise can be very challenging. You will face many obstacles along the way. Some will cause you to just alter your plans, others will lead you to completely change your whole way of life. ALL obstacles you face will develop and grow you and your business, whatever the outcome.


South Africa

I started my tour in January 2009 by visiting South Africa. My thinking behind this destination was that if I wanted to visit farmers who had been forced to overcome obstacles, who better to talk to than farmers who had to cope with a difficult climate both political and environmental, and a limited export market. This forces farmers and entrepreneurs to closely identify the needs and demands of their local markets, something we are only really just starting to learn in the UK.

It was a very interesting country to visit with its diverse cultures and environment. Most of the diversification projects I saw where specific to South Africa, however the lessons I learned were extremely relevant.

Bernard Wooding and Lindsay Hunt (Hunt Africa) saw that the rise in game farming, eco tourism and big game shooting in Africa as an opportunity. This boom has led to massive rises in land values across Southern Africa. Bernard and Lindsay realised that people travel to Africa to see the ‘Big Five’ - elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and cape buffalo. All these species could be bought and shipped onto new game parks except for the buffalo. This is due to the prevalence of TB in the areas holding wild stocks of buffalo and wildlife movement laws which forbid the transportation of TB ‘at risk’ buffalo into areas free of the disease. Bernard and Lindsay learnt that to get a buffalo out of a diseased area they needed to get hold of the animal before its mother exchanged any bodily fluids with it and then raise it on a jersey cow until it could be licensed as clean, not as easy as it sounds!
Anyway after ten years of successfully moving and breeding they have a herd of over seventy-five TB clean animals which are in massive demand all over Africa as they can be moved anywhere. They are so successful that they could sell all their stock forward for the next five years! They are so successful that they are selling twelve buffalo a year and are in profit after the first two! And at >R500,000 per buffalo it’s not a bad earner!

Even though ninety-five per cent of farmers I met complained about the effect of outside investors buying up farms to create game reserves resulting in a dramatic increase in land values. If they could only look at the problem with a positive mental attitude then they could see that there is a whole wealth of opportunities out there as a direct result of game farming, like the buffalo example given. In the UK a lot of farmers moan about various things like being overpopulated or busy roads that, with a change of attitude, could result in a great business opportunity.


Australia

I chose Australia as a second study country as it is a very similar market to that in the UK. The population has a similar lifestyle and aspirations to the UK. Also, I had seen a concept in South Africa that was being heavily developed in Australia, so a trip there allowed me to investigate this opportunity further.

While in Tasmania I visited an extremely inspiring business called ‘Pea & Poop’ which was completely unexpected as I was lost and only stopped to ask directions! This farmer, in a very remote location in Tasmania, had spotted a demand for compost mulch. He had identified that he had two valuable waste products in pea straw (which decomposes very fast making it ideal mulch) and stock yard cattle manure. He decided to experiment and mixed the two together with the addition of a small amount of water resulting in a very saleable product once bagged. His entire production equipment consisted of a broken down cement truck to mix the product, a trailed forage chopper to chop the pea straw and blow it into the mixer and a loader to manoeuvre the straw bales. The mulch is hand bagged and then delivered to consumers and retailers all over Tasmania. Sounds like a simple business plan doesn’t it? Well it is.

This example shows the true value of an idea; in this case it is £80,000 profit per annum! How many people have access to similar facilities and raw materials? Most would I imagine. I found this business truly inspirational.


Lessons Learned

In all I visited approximately sixty different businesses ranging from very small home based enterprises to multi million pound agribusinesses.

The first thing any farmer should do when trying to develop an alternative income is analyse their own personal motivation and skills. This is essential in helping to identify what kind and scale of enterprise would suit you best.

Personal Analysis

Decide what you want from your business -Establish your aims first, and remember them during your future planning.

Analyse your strengths and interests - Appreciate your strengths and work with them. Accept your weaknesses and strive to improve in those areas!

Get over your failures! - We have all made mistakes in the past, get over them. Remember that’s why they put erasers on pencils! (Quote – Lenny from ‘The Simpsons’)

Develop Strong Foundations

Once you have analysed your skill set and understand what motivates you it is important to ensure that you are developing from a strong foundation within your core business. Don’t forget to actually identify what is your core business. This sounds obvious, but if you run a mixed farm and you do just one set of accounts, are you sure that you are not just subsidising one enterprise by another? Maybe you would be able to increase your income to meet your aims (if they are financial) by just re-organising or scaling up your existing business. For example contracting out arable land to concentrate on a livestock enterprise, or even selling it to release capital for an expansion project elsewhere.

Develop from a position of personal strength - Develop yourself concentrating on your weaker areas. Establish strong relationships with your staff, colleagues and partners.

Ensure your core business is strong before developing onwards - Secure your core business; make the necessary decisions, however hard they may be, to allow you to go forward confidently and strongly.

Make difficult decisions early which will make life easier - Reduce liabilities if necessary, change core enterprise structures in order to meet personal aims and create firm foundations.

Diversification Preparation

So once you have looked deep within yourself and your business and you have come to the point where you can develop your ideas, what do you do then?

Research your ideas well, remember to think laterally - Failure to prepare is preparing to fail! Time spent in research will save a lot of time and money in the future. It is better to find out things before you start rather than when you are heavily invested.

Investigate your business associates - Don’t get any nasty surprises later on. Learn as much about your associates before you go into any new partnerships.

Develop strong partnerships - Remember that two heads are better than one! Try to establish links with people who balance your skills and weaknesses.

Plan for positive and negative outcomes - Always ensure you have an exit strategy before starting any project. It is easy to plan before you start how you will spend your new profits, but remember to think of all possible outcomes!

Look for opportunities around you - There are opportunities everywhere. Think laterally and be open to new ideas, cultivate an open mindset to opportunities.

Don’t ignore problems - Don’t stick your head in the sand. Face up to problems as and when they arise. Remember the old maxim, that the first loss is usually the least!

Employ in the skills that you may lack - Don’t be too proud to accept your weaknesses. Surround yourself with people who have the skills that you don’t. Employ consultants to assist in the short term.


Conclusions

During my travels I have seen many different businesses and different situations that farmers have worked through. I have learned from the ways they have coped, or in some cases have not coped, with their individual problems. I have learnt a lot more than I could ever put in my study (though please read it as there is a lot more in it!) In my report I have done my best to give an insight into how you could develop your enterprise further and some of the pitfalls that you should avoid. I hope that you are inspired to go out there and find and develop your own projects.

For me personally, since returning I have listened to my own advice and dramatically restructured my business. I am also developing a consulting business to help other farmers develop concepts on their units. Feel free to contact me to discuss any ideas that you may have.

Andrew Gage andyg125@hotmail.co.uk

anybody read this far? I bet not!