Clarkson’s Farm
Discussion
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
They don't go into subsidies, or amazon revenues either or the land managers salary etc. Which is fine by me. I enjoy the sport of trying to make the numbers work on each little micro venture. Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
Sway said:
He's never tried to suggest that he's relying on the farm to make money. Indeed, he's very open that he's not a normal farmer - he can 'go do another series of Millionaire' if he ever needs a cash topup.
So the fact the farm shop is doing so well off the back of his celebrity isn't to my mind reducing the authenticity of the rest of the economics of farming.
Oh yes I thought they balanced that pretty well, showed the struggle of making money from individual elements without trying to make it look like Clarkson himself was in serious trouble if it all went wrong, as clearly that wouldn't be the case. So the fact the farm shop is doing so well off the back of his celebrity isn't to my mind reducing the authenticity of the rest of the economics of farming.
My point was more so that the shop as it is now is immensely successful (which I'm sure comes with its own issues), so it'll be interesting to see how they portray that, as everything up till now has been a struggle.
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
Odd take on it. Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
I can’t see how the shop would make any difference to them, say trying tomatoes. Then showing how hard work it is to produce tomatoes that end in naff all profit or a loss due to weather or insect disaster.
aparna said:
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
They don't go into subsidies, or amazon revenues either or the land managers salary etc. Which is fine by me. I enjoy the sport of trying to make the numbers work on each little micro venture. Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Well, on opening day they did a grand worth of business but on other days they were pretty quiet. The pictures indicate that they have days where they are overrun but they have only so much to sell so the average sale isn't likely all that large and they are running limited hours from what I can tell. On a 40% margin as was mentioned they aren't getting rich from the shop once you include operating costs. KTF said:
The only number that was quoted at the end was the circa £100 profit on the arable part of the farm. No numbers at all on the other parts of the business or how they depreciated the assets, etc.
Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
He has owned the land since 2008, and rented the land to other farmers, so the same company that owns the land probably owns the farm stuff? Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
Probably bought the land mainly as a long term investment, and if it breaks even on costs then that's a bonus. Whether or not he makes an operating profit on the shop, the sheep, or machinery is mostly incidental, except for sport and interest.
And that's before you even get to the TV production aspect. How much are Amazon paying. He owns a production company already?
I would guess the farm shop is another angle entirely. He is building a brand, which can then be stamped on t shirts and produce of various origins, if fit succeeds, then a brand easily scales. The farm shop is just a means of promoting that brand.
Edited by aparna on Thursday 29th July 17:29
KTF said:
The only number that was quoted at the end was the circa £100 profit on the arable part of the farm. No numbers at all on the other parts of the business or how they depreciated the assets, etc.
Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
The main farm was Curdle Hill Farm, he renamed it Diddly Squat. The shop is over the road and about a mile away, but I have no idea how it's structured financially.Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
aparna said:
He has owned the land since 2008, and rented the land to other farmers, so the same company that owns the land probably owns the farm stuff?
Probably bought the land mainly as a long term investment, and if it breaks even on costs then that's a bonus. Whether or not he makes an operating profit on the shop, the sheep, or machinery is mostly incidental, except for sport and interest.
And that's before you even get to the TV production aspect. How much are Amazon paying. He owns a production company already?
I would guess the farm shop is another angle entirely. He is building a brand, which can then be stamped on t shirts and produce of various origins, if fit succeeds, then a brand easily scales. The farm shop is just a means of promoting that brand.
I think that's how it started... Probably bought the land mainly as a long term investment, and if it breaks even on costs then that's a bonus. Whether or not he makes an operating profit on the shop, the sheep, or machinery is mostly incidental, except for sport and interest.
And that's before you even get to the TV production aspect. How much are Amazon paying. He owns a production company already?
I would guess the farm shop is another angle entirely. He is building a brand, which can then be stamped on t shirts and produce of various origins, if fit succeeds, then a brand easily scales. The farm shop is just a means of promoting that brand.
Edited by aparna on Thursday 29th July 17:29
However, with his love of it/the farm shop/TV show - I could very well see this being his 'retirement' platform replacing Grand Tour... Hence the brand/book/etc.
aparna said:
He has owned the land since 2008, and rented the land to other farmers, so the same company that owns the land probably owns the farm stuff?
I suspect the farm is owned by JC personally rather than by a company where he is the shareholder. Charlie's file on the farm was labelled 'J & F Clarkson' - F being Fran, Clarkson's ex-wife (they were still together when the farm was purchased).ralphrj said:
aparna said:
He has owned the land since 2008, and rented the land to other farmers, so the same company that owns the land probably owns the farm stuff?
I suspect the farm is owned by JC personally rather than by a company where he is the shareholder. Charlie's file on the farm was labelled 'J & F Clarkson' - F being Fran, Clarkson's ex-wife (they were still together when the farm was purchased).C Lee Farquar said:
KTF said:
The only number that was quoted at the end was the circa £100 profit on the arable part of the farm. No numbers at all on the other parts of the business or how they depreciated the assets, etc.
Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
The main farm was Curdle Hill Farm, he renamed it Diddly Squat. The shop is over the road and about a mile away, but I have no idea how it's structured financially.Based on the VAT number shown on the farm shop page it comes back as Curdle Hill Farm which appears to be the farm shop only.
https://find-and-update.company-information.servic...
No accounts published yet. I have no idea what the farm istelf comes under but I would expect it to be registered somewhere?
Seriously though (and correct me if I misheard ), but I found it worrying they spend £14k on seeds, but £35k on fertiliser and £15k on pesticides.
Lily the Pink said:
Cliffe60 said:
Seriously though (and correct me if I misheard ), but I found it worrying they spend £14k on seeds, but £35k on fertiliser and £15k on pesticides.
I'm interested to know why you find that worrying - is it the total amount, or the ratios ?Greg_B said:
Getting to this one a bit late but have plowed (sorry) through the first 5 episodes and I like it fine. Yes, there is some staged cocking-up no doubt, but nothing at all like what we saw on TG or TGT. Unlike the unrepentant silliness those (especially latter episodes of TGT) descended into, most of what is seen here comes across as fairly genuine. Certainly the various tractors et al getting stuck at the bottom of a muddy hill in the episode where he builds a pond seemed a bit cringey but such things seem unavoidable in this genre.
I found the discovery and recommissioning of the Victorian water network quite interesting and I wished they had gone into that in more detail. That in turn made me wonder (not knowing much at all about farming on this scale) if they ever considered using that as a basis for establishing some sort of irrigation of the drought-parched fields. It certainly seemed to make more sense than either the tanker option or the solar-powered garden sprinkler.
His success at growing potatoes made me wonder how they just seemed to magically appear. Perhaps the camera crews were not around when they were planted. I remember from a short time one summer visiting a small farm that planting potatoes is (or at least used to be) fairly tedious as you needed cut-up pieces of seed potatoes to be sown somehow, which I got to do and found fairly backbreaking. Getting a crop of several tons of the things certainly involved some hard work.
That is the biggest takeaway for me from this, in that it shows how hard making a living farming can be. I have some work experience dealing with grape growers at wineries, and the amount of labor involved in getting those vines to produce just the right grapes was something I always found mind-blowing. I always wondered why those grape growers did it. But clearly, it is a lifestyle choice and provides a great deal of satisfaction when they get it right.
The one thing that I did not particularly enjoy was anything to do with the sheep after their introduction. It ate up a lot of time and they just seemed like a very bad idea that should have been abandoned fairly quickly. I found myself fast-forwarding through much of those segments.
In summary though, a good series all-around and I look forward to S2.
Odd that you couldn't be bothered to follow the sheep story. It was one of the more interesting elements and JC himself said that he found them the most rewarding part of the whole thing. If you'd actually watched those bits you might have found it interesting too rather than giving up, your choice though. I fekking hate sheep btw, got rid of ours 30 years ago but we still have sheep grazing our fields during the winter. They are marvellous animals really but unbelievably styoopid and infuriating.I found the discovery and recommissioning of the Victorian water network quite interesting and I wished they had gone into that in more detail. That in turn made me wonder (not knowing much at all about farming on this scale) if they ever considered using that as a basis for establishing some sort of irrigation of the drought-parched fields. It certainly seemed to make more sense than either the tanker option or the solar-powered garden sprinkler.
His success at growing potatoes made me wonder how they just seemed to magically appear. Perhaps the camera crews were not around when they were planted. I remember from a short time one summer visiting a small farm that planting potatoes is (or at least used to be) fairly tedious as you needed cut-up pieces of seed potatoes to be sown somehow, which I got to do and found fairly backbreaking. Getting a crop of several tons of the things certainly involved some hard work.
That is the biggest takeaway for me from this, in that it shows how hard making a living farming can be. I have some work experience dealing with grape growers at wineries, and the amount of labor involved in getting those vines to produce just the right grapes was something I always found mind-blowing. I always wondered why those grape growers did it. But clearly, it is a lifestyle choice and provides a great deal of satisfaction when they get it right.
The one thing that I did not particularly enjoy was anything to do with the sheep after their introduction. It ate up a lot of time and they just seemed like a very bad idea that should have been abandoned fairly quickly. I found myself fast-forwarding through much of those segments.
In summary though, a good series all-around and I look forward to S2.
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
Where did you get the idea from that he "made" £7k from? What I recall was that he lost quite a bit of money on them, which comes as no surprise to most farmers, especially given how he was employing so many people to help him look after them.Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
DaveGrohl said:
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
Where did you get the idea from that he "made" £7k from? What I recall was that he lost quite a bit of money on them, which comes as no surprise to most farmers, especially given how he was employing so many people to help him look after them.Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
I can't recall now, were the potatoes planted by the previous farmer or JC. The OSR was certainly the previous incumbent.
Re S2 there's certainly more mileage to be made on the administrative hollyhocks and interference from officialdom that folks have to deal with, though it won't make particularly spectacular footage like diggers sliding down muddy slopes.
Lily the Pink said:
Cliffe60 said:
Seriously though (and correct me if I misheard ), but I found it worrying they spend £14k on seeds, but £35k on fertiliser and £15k on pesticides.
I'm interested to know why you find that worrying - is it the total amount, or the ratios ?FiF said:
DaveGrohl said:
ch37 said:
It'll be interesting to see how they manage the 'it's financially bloody hard to run a farm' angle in series 2 when it's obvious they are comfortably making thousands every single day from the farm shop. Worrying about only making £7k from some sheep will seem a little pointless when the shop probably has that kinda turnover on a daily basis.
Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
Where did you get the idea from that he "made" £7k from? What I recall was that he lost quite a bit of money on them, which comes as no surprise to most farmers, especially given how he was employing so many people to help him look after them.Maybe they will double down on the 'farming is bloody hard' angle that came across really well in S1, but again we all know the farm itself can now sustain more employees without any intervention from JC's bank balance.
I can't recall now, were the potatoes planted by the previous farmer or JC. The OSR was certainly the previous incumbent.
Re S2 there's certainly more mileage to be made on the administrative hollyhocks and interference from officialdom that folks have to deal with, though it won't make particularly spectacular footage like diggers sliding down muddy slopes.
C Lee Farquar said:
Lily the Pink said:
Cliffe60 said:
Seriously though (and correct me if I misheard ), but I found it worrying they spend £14k on seeds, but £35k on fertiliser and £15k on pesticides.
I'm interested to know why you find that worrying - is it the total amount, or the ratios ?ralphrj said:
C Lee Farquar said:
Lily the Pink said:
Cliffe60 said:
Seriously though (and correct me if I misheard ), but I found it worrying they spend £14k on seeds, but £35k on fertiliser and £15k on pesticides.
I'm interested to know why you find that worrying - is it the total amount, or the ratios ?Gassing Station | TV, Film, Video Streaming & Radio | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff