I see a lot of farmers working well into their eighties (and still going really hard) and I think to myself that they are very foolish. Surely if you have worked hard all your life, there comes a time when you can step back and take things a little easier.

I suppose some of these farmers do not have anyone to take over the business and they feel that it is their duty to continue farming. It is a bit like a life sentence where you have to continue farming the land until you die.

I like to tell myself that I am not going to be one of these people and that I am going to step back and have a life after farming.

However, I am luckier than most in that I’ve three sons who are very keen to take over the running of the farm. Some people might even think that with the three sons, I could retire anytime as they are well fit to do the work and do not need me.

Either way, I am definitely giving them a lot more day-to-day responsibility and am letting them make a lot of the decisions about the future direction of the business.

They are definitely very capable and mostly I just go along with whatever decisions they make.

However, there is one big glaring problem and that is the amount of work there is to be done. We have grown the farm massively over the last number of years to try and make it provide a living for us all.

There has been a lot of work getting the calf-rearing enterprise up and running and then trying to make improvements on the land that we have purchased.

On top of this we have kept more ewes and cows as well as finishing extra cattle.

All in all, it makes for a very busy farm.

Spring

This manifests itself even more in the spring. We lamb all the ewes and most of the cows through March and April, so it is pretty much all hands to the pump.

This year we were filling one of the calf houses during this period, so it made busy people even busier.

We did see this all coming and tried to plan ahead. My eldest son William advertised for lambing assistants, with his intention to retire me from lambing duties. He had some interest and eventually got two veterinary students to come along.

They were two nice lads, but they knew absolutely nothing about sheep or lambing. It turned out to be a waste of time. They could not be left on their own and were really only here to be trained (as if we were not busy enough).

It ended up that they did not stay very long and I was taken out of retirement and back on to lambing duties along with my wife.

Easier

The good weather this spring did make our job a lot easier. Cows and calves were getting out after a few days and ewes and lambs were out very quickly. This all helped reduce the workload. William and I would split the night shift and this ensured that we each got a little sleep.

However, the long dry spell meant there was also a lot of field work to be done. We have had a lot of fallen trees that needed to be tidied up as well as slurry and fertiliser to go out. On top of this we were trying to put up new fencing around land we had recently purchased.

All in all, it has made for a very busy spring for all five of us. The good weather helped us get through it, but I do not think that we will get many springs like this.

Share

Back to the subject of my retirement. I honestly do not know who is going to do my share of the work when I am not able or willing to do it. There is probably enough work for four full-time people through the year, but not enough money to pay for any extra help. On top of that, where do you get someone who is a benefit and not a hinderance?