I'm very glad that I haven't wasted too much of my life in pursuit of monetary gain, when all that matters for most people right now is where the next meal is coming from. It doesn't matter how much cash you've got in your pocket, the shops are still limiting what you can buy.
Even so, the current situation has opened my eyes and realise how close to getting stuck on the treadmill I have become.
Although my main interests are smallholding and self-sufficiency, my "day job" is being a sheep farmer. The size of my flock fluctuates depending on the availability and price of rented grazing, but at its peak it numbered over 500 head, together with around 30 cattle. A fairly tidy number.
My wife also works in the sheep industry, doing freelance admin work from her home office 3 days a week.
I think that I'm a reasonably successful sheep farmer: I'm well known as a producer of high genetic merit breeding stock, I head up what is probably the biggest collaborative breeding projects in Wales, and I sit on a number of agricultural committees.
However, the more sheep I keep the more work they generate, which means I have less time to spend producing food for my family, which means I need to keep even more sheep in order to make more money to buy the food that I would be producing if I didn't have so many sheep to look after
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On the face of it we're doing pretty well: for the last 2 years our profit on paper has been higher than ever before. But paper profits aren't worth the paper they're written on, as they also take into account the value of all your stock. Disposable income is a different kettle of fish altogether. The reality is that we're scraping rock bottom, with our housekeeping budget reduced to just £40 per week. The irony being that a significant part of that forty quid is being spent on stuff that we were producing ourselves when we had the time to do so.
Then along comes coronavirus. A bit of a shock to me who's always considered myself well prepared for an event such as this to find myself not so well prepared as I thought I was. My eye had really begun to slip off the ball.
Having said that, I'm happier now than I've been for years: The sun is shining, the birds are singing, money has suddenly become pretty worthless, all meetings etc cancelled, no need to go anywhere, just potter about on my own few acres producing grub for my family. Bliss!
So now for the re-evaluation bit: Once this outbreak is over I'm seriously considering resetting my life back to where it was 20 years ago. I'm thinking of giving up all the rented ground, and maybe even renting out some of the land that I own (or planting it with trees for future generations to enjoy), cutting back to just 50 ewes and a couple of cows, resigning my position on all those committees, and just doing the things that really matter. Making money isn't one of them, as the current situation has proven. Provided that I sell enough lambs to cover the cost of producing the ones that we eat ourselves it'll all be fine. Just like it used to be. We managed before and we'll manage again.
Anyone else out there doing a bit of soul searching during this interesting (and, dare I say it, rather exciting) period?
Even so, the current situation has opened my eyes and realise how close to getting stuck on the treadmill I have become.
Although my main interests are smallholding and self-sufficiency, my "day job" is being a sheep farmer. The size of my flock fluctuates depending on the availability and price of rented grazing, but at its peak it numbered over 500 head, together with around 30 cattle. A fairly tidy number.
My wife also works in the sheep industry, doing freelance admin work from her home office 3 days a week.
I think that I'm a reasonably successful sheep farmer: I'm well known as a producer of high genetic merit breeding stock, I head up what is probably the biggest collaborative breeding projects in Wales, and I sit on a number of agricultural committees.
However, the more sheep I keep the more work they generate, which means I have less time to spend producing food for my family, which means I need to keep even more sheep in order to make more money to buy the food that I would be producing if I didn't have so many sheep to look after
.On the face of it we're doing pretty well: for the last 2 years our profit on paper has been higher than ever before. But paper profits aren't worth the paper they're written on, as they also take into account the value of all your stock. Disposable income is a different kettle of fish altogether. The reality is that we're scraping rock bottom, with our housekeeping budget reduced to just £40 per week. The irony being that a significant part of that forty quid is being spent on stuff that we were producing ourselves when we had the time to do so.
Then along comes coronavirus. A bit of a shock to me who's always considered myself well prepared for an event such as this to find myself not so well prepared as I thought I was. My eye had really begun to slip off the ball.
Having said that, I'm happier now than I've been for years: The sun is shining, the birds are singing, money has suddenly become pretty worthless, all meetings etc cancelled, no need to go anywhere, just potter about on my own few acres producing grub for my family. Bliss!
So now for the re-evaluation bit: Once this outbreak is over I'm seriously considering resetting my life back to where it was 20 years ago. I'm thinking of giving up all the rented ground, and maybe even renting out some of the land that I own (or planting it with trees for future generations to enjoy), cutting back to just 50 ewes and a couple of cows, resigning my position on all those committees, and just doing the things that really matter. Making money isn't one of them, as the current situation has proven. Provided that I sell enough lambs to cover the cost of producing the ones that we eat ourselves it'll all be fine. Just like it used to be. We managed before and we'll manage again.
Anyone else out there doing a bit of soul searching during this interesting (and, dare I say it, rather exciting) period?
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with lots of important things to do, chasing my tail with little time to do all the things I loved like thousands of others I presume.
