Clarkson’s Farm

[ChocolateFrog]

Blackpuddin said:

ChocolateFrog said:

Dr Jekyll said:

Doofus said:

Dr Jekyll said:

Do farmers who own their own large farms paid for years or generations ago still make a profit allowing for the capital tied up in the land?

If they revalue the land every year, and it increases, then perhaps.

That's an interesting thought.

But then why is the land as expensive as it is if you can't really make money by using it, just hope to sell it for even more to someone who hopes to sell it ETC ETC?

It's still a great way of life desired by many for a start.

If I had to choose earning £20k 'easy' money in an office or £20k working an average of 50-60hrs a week on my farm, I'd choose the latter everyday of the rainy week.

I like to think that too but am unsure about the lasting appeal of 4am starts on a long succession of windy, sleety November days.

I'd stick to arable farming.

Don't they all retire to their yachts in med once the winter wheat is in?

[ralphrj]

Sway said:

Demand for flour last year seemed to go through the roof!

Empty aisles of bread/flour - and hundreds of thousands 'trying out' home baking and stuff...

Demand for flour in 1.5kg bags went through the roof. Demand for catering sized bags of flour would have fallen considerably.

The shortage in the shops was caused by demand outstripping the millers capacity to fill retail sized bags.

[SydneyBridge]

I wonder if the farm would have done much better, if JC had not been around.

[Zetec-S]

Blib said:

I'm a city lad and the difference in quality is eye opening. There's no way I'd go back to Waitrose/ASDA if I can help it.

Since lockdown last year we've started getting our meat from the local butcher and a fruit & veg box delivered every week from the local greengrocer, we decided that since both of us were still working and actually saving money by working from home a lot of the time it felt right to try and give something back to the local community. Even got our flour from the local mill.

I was sceptical at first about the difference in quality, but have to admit there is a massive difference and would prefer not to go back if we can avoid it.

[TEKNOPUG]

ChocolateFrog said:

TEKNOPUG said:

You'd have to make it significantly different though. New crops, new machinery, new techniques, different livestock. You can't rely on the weather or JC naivety to introduce some jeopardy. Neither can it be enough just to see if he is successful this year, as again, there is no financial jeopardy. Otherwise you'll end up with a whole series of manufactured incidents. No one is going to watch if it all runs smoothly.

Or go for a smaller more dedicated audience to farming/Clarkson.

I think a second series would be a lot more difficult to produce and make a commercial success but I'd love it if he took the series down a more serious farming route, maybe showing what a good, relatively uneventful year looked like in comparison.

There wouldn't be enough content for a series though. The appeal is here is some one who doesn't know what they are doing, making lots of mistakes, here are the consequences, look how hard it is.

Second time round, he won't make the same mistakes, won't be surprised or unprepared for activities, will have addressed the issues etc. He won't be doing stuff for the first time, won't have to build a shop, won't be shocked by how difficult sheep are etc. So for a second series he has to do lots of new things again.

Alternatively it could just be a 10min weekly farming "diary". But there is still a considerable expense to having a film crew permanently on hand just in case something interesting happens.

As I say, unless he tries some radical new things, like being totally organic, no fertilizer, tries to grow pineapples or farm crocodiles, I fear a second series would result in a lot of manufactured scenes. I'm sure there will be a demand for a second series but you still have to storyboard and direct it to a certain extent.

[Andy 308GTB]

ChocolateFrog said:

Blackpuddin said:

ChocolateFrog said:

Dr Jekyll said:

Doofus said:

Dr Jekyll said:

Do farmers who own their own large farms paid for years or generations ago still make a profit allowing for the capital tied up in the land?

If they revalue the land every year, and it increases, then perhaps.

That's an interesting thought.

But then why is the land as expensive as it is if you can't really make money by using it, just hope to sell it for even more to someone who hopes to sell it ETC ETC?

It's still a great way of life desired by many for a start.

If I had to choose earning £20k 'easy' money in an office or £20k working an average of 50-60hrs a week on my farm, I'd choose the latter everyday of the rainy week.

I like to think that too but am unsure about the lasting appeal of 4am starts on a long succession of windy, sleety November days.

I'd stick to arable farming.

Don't they all retire to their yachts in med once the winter wheat is in?

My uncle has been a Pig Farmer all his life. He always says that you don't farm for the money - you farm for the lifestyle.
Which is an admirable statement.

However, his lifestyle is pretty good - courtesy of a well established non-farming retail business, property development etc...

[Guffy]

Watched all 8 episodes this week and thought it was a great blend of farce and factual entertainment. The core 5 folk really work well together and i hope we see them again.

[TurboHatchback]

TEKNOPUG said:

ChocolateFrog said:

TEKNOPUG said:

You'd have to make it significantly different though. New crops, new machinery, new techniques, different livestock. You can't rely on the weather or JC naivety to introduce some jeopardy. Neither can it be enough just to see if he is successful this year, as again, there is no financial jeopardy. Otherwise you'll end up with a whole series of manufactured incidents. No one is going to watch if it all runs smoothly.

Or go for a smaller more dedicated audience to farming/Clarkson.

I think a second series would be a lot more difficult to produce and make a commercial success but I'd love it if he took the series down a more serious farming route, maybe showing what a good, relatively uneventful year looked like in comparison.

There wouldn't be enough content for a series though. The appeal is here is some one who doesn't know what they are doing, making lots of mistakes, here are the consequences, look how hard it is.

Second time round, he won't make the same mistakes, won't be surprised or unprepared for activities, will have addressed the issues etc. He won't be doing stuff for the first time, won't have to build a shop, won't be shocked by how difficult sheep are etc. So for a second series he has to do lots of new things again.

Alternatively it could just be a 10min weekly farming "diary". But there is still a considerable expense to having a film crew permanently on hand just in case something interesting happens.

As I say, unless he tries some radical new things, like being totally organic, no fertilizer, tries to grow pineapples or farm crocodiles, I fear a second series would result in a lot of manufactured scenes. I'm sure there will be a demand for a second series but you still have to storyboard and direct it to a certain extent.

I've not watched the whole series yet but I would imagine there is plenty of new things for him to try. Cows, pigs, goats, more fish farming, different crops, probably a whole different set of weather and economic challenges. I would happily watch another year of his progress, it would also be nice to see how the projects he started this series mature over time.

[StevieBee]

Kaleb and Clarkson .... if the age's were reversed. Sort of.

[Thin White Duke]

I've watched the first three episodes so far. The first two were brilliant television.

It's interesting to note that Clarkson didn't splash the cash when buying equipment and that he's up and down in a 14 year old Range Rover. Nothing at all wrong with that, but I expected him to have a brand new or nearly new everything.

I wonder where he keeps his proper toys?

[Yazza54]

We are loving this show and Gerald is my fav

[Oilchange]

I didn’t work out if the £144 profit took into account the rebuy of farming equipment or not.
I imagine it must have. With that the equipment is in place for a profitable second year providing the apocalypse doesn’t happen…
As for supermarket produce, I was frying some chicken thighs yesterday and they practically turned into soup in the pan, so much water! Local butchers burgers tonight though

[Doofus]

Oilchange said:

I didn’t work out if the £144 profit took into account the rebuy of farming equipment or not.
I imagine it must have. With that the equipment is in place for a profitable second year providing the apocalypse doesn’t happen

That's not how capital equipment is accounted for.

[Oilchange]

Oh ok. How does it work?

[Tyre Smoke]

Loving all the townies here thinking that farming is 50/60 hours a week.



At the very least 70-80 is more realistic.

[Mikebentley]

[quote=Thin White Duke]I've watched the first three episodes so far. The first two were brilliant television.

It's interesting to note that Clarkson didn't splash the cash when buying equipment and that he's up and down in a 14 year old Range Rover. Nothing at all wrong with that, but I expected him to have a brand new or nearly new everything.

I wonder where he keeps his proper toys? [/quote
There was quite often a newish FFRR in the back of shots of the farmyard. The older one he was knocking about in is just that… I suspect.

[Thin White Duke]

Mikebentley]hin White Duke said:

I've watched the first three episodes so far. The first two were brilliant television.

It's interesting to note that Clarkson didn't splash the cash when buying equipment and that he's up and down in a 14 year old Range Rover. Nothing at all wrong with that, but I expected him to have a brand new or nearly new everything.

I wonder where he keeps his proper toys? [/quote
There was quite often a newish FFRR in the back of shots of the farmyard. The older one he was knocking about in is just that… I suspect.

I'll look out for it in future episodes.

[mikeswagon]

I grew up in rural Aberdeenshire, surrounded by farms. I've no idea how big the local ones are in comparison to Clarksons, I do recall thinking the parks we picked tatties (fields we harvested potatoes) in must be hundreds of acres on their own, and my kids don't know they're born as they'll never do this.

I've noticed the tramlines in the crops, never thought too much about the spacing, but loved Caleb's comments about cars going past noticing how uneven his were.

We're about half way through, trying to save it for weekends when I've got my son here, and if I'm lucky my daughter too now she's home from Uni. Loving it so far, they're a good mix of characters.

[liner33]

Tyre Smoke said:

Loving all the townies here thinking that farming is 50/60 hours a week.



At the very least 70-80 is more realistic.

My local farmer set off my Ring camera driving his tractor back to the farms at 0040hrs this morning, was back out at 6

[TEKNOPUG]

Oilchange said:

Oh ok. How does it work?

Amortization.

Depreciate the asset over the life of it's economic value.

For example, that £40k tractor, assume it has 4 years of life in it before it needs replacing. You account for the cost (value) of the tractor over 4 years, so you would deduct £10k from the accounts each year, for 4 years.

Or in sport, if a club buys a player for £50m on a 5 year contract, you'd divide the fee paid by the length of contract. So you would account for £10m for 5 years, not £50m in year one and then nothing after.