a blog about a struggling farm
Feb 20, 2020 18:41:01 GMT -6
PrincessJessi, tippwarrior, and 1 more like this
Post by dimi88 on Feb 20, 2020 18:41:01 GMT -6
Just a quick note before I start, English is not my native language. Also I have a form of dyslexia so I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes I will surely make.
Welcome to my blog about my farm just outside Chambly-sur-Meuse in the south of France. The purpose of this blog is to keep you all updated (hopefully regularly) about what is happening on my farm.
To start of I would like to give you an overview of my farm and its history. The farm used to belong to my uncle, I have spent many summer holidays there as a kid. Living in the big city myself I always enjoyed my holidays helping my uncle on the farm. As the years went by and I started my busy working life in the city my visits to the farm became less and less frequent and so did the contact with my uncle.
About 5 years ago my uncle died and since I was the closest relative he had I inherited the farm. At first I thought about selling it, but after visiting the farm in order to make arrangements with the real estate agent, I changed my mind. Too many happy memories, and to by honest I grew tired of my life and job in the big city so I decided to keep the farm.
What I didn’t fully realize at the time was the state of the farm, it was nothing like I remembered from my time there as a kid. And the farms financial stat was even worse. I knew the farm had a mortgage when I accepted the inheritance, but I didn’t know there were also several other loans and a tax debt. All in all the farm was almost a million euros in debt. The last five years I have worked very hard to pay back the debt, but at the moment there is still over 700.000 debt left. At least I have paid back the tax debt and with a new business plan for the farm I have managed to extend the period in which the loan has to be paid back to the bank.
I have also done a lot of work to the farmyard. A lot of buildings and sheds needed to be fixed up. Some were beyond repair. For example there was an old sheep barn in the yard that was about to collapse so I tore it down and placed a cheap and simple shed in its place.
Here is an overview of the land I own:
I own fields 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 20, 36, 44, 46 and 47. I also own the farm in between the cluster of fields in the north-east of this map and the yard in the south-east. This may seem like a lot, but the fields in the area are mostly very small. Two of the fields are actually pastures for my Limousin cattle, where they graze most of the year. On most of my arable fields I have a rotation of cereal crop/maize/sunflowers. And recently I have started a rotation of potatoes/canola on other fields. On one field I had tree saplings planted 3 or 4 years ago for my firewood operation (more on that later in one of my updates) Apart from the Limousin cattle I also have some Yorkshire pigs. I also have a couple of chickens but the eggs they lay are mostly for personal use (although the local bakery does give me a nice French baguette of croissant every now and then if I give him the eggs I don’t use). Some time ago I made an investment in machinery to wash and sort potatoes, with a plan to offer these services to other farmers. They say you gotta spend money to make money right? Well so far it hasn’t been a great success, but more on that later in one of my updates.
Like I said most of the fields around here are very small and that makes it hard, if not impossible, to compete with the large scale farms up north. That is why I have decided about two years ago to switch to organic farming. It takes a lot of time before you are officially certified as an organic farm though, so it will take another full year for the transition period to be over and before I can finally start to profit from the higher prices for organic products. This transition made the last couple years more difficult than it already was since my yield dropped considerably after I stopped with herbicide spraying and the use of artificial fertilizer. But I think it will really be worth it after I finally get certified.
Well that was it for my first blog about my far. More details, pictures and updates will follow soon!
Welcome to my blog about my farm just outside Chambly-sur-Meuse in the south of France. The purpose of this blog is to keep you all updated (hopefully regularly) about what is happening on my farm.
To start of I would like to give you an overview of my farm and its history. The farm used to belong to my uncle, I have spent many summer holidays there as a kid. Living in the big city myself I always enjoyed my holidays helping my uncle on the farm. As the years went by and I started my busy working life in the city my visits to the farm became less and less frequent and so did the contact with my uncle.
About 5 years ago my uncle died and since I was the closest relative he had I inherited the farm. At first I thought about selling it, but after visiting the farm in order to make arrangements with the real estate agent, I changed my mind. Too many happy memories, and to by honest I grew tired of my life and job in the big city so I decided to keep the farm.
What I didn’t fully realize at the time was the state of the farm, it was nothing like I remembered from my time there as a kid. And the farms financial stat was even worse. I knew the farm had a mortgage when I accepted the inheritance, but I didn’t know there were also several other loans and a tax debt. All in all the farm was almost a million euros in debt. The last five years I have worked very hard to pay back the debt, but at the moment there is still over 700.000 debt left. At least I have paid back the tax debt and with a new business plan for the farm I have managed to extend the period in which the loan has to be paid back to the bank.
I have also done a lot of work to the farmyard. A lot of buildings and sheds needed to be fixed up. Some were beyond repair. For example there was an old sheep barn in the yard that was about to collapse so I tore it down and placed a cheap and simple shed in its place.
Here is an overview of the land I own:
I own fields 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 20, 36, 44, 46 and 47. I also own the farm in between the cluster of fields in the north-east of this map and the yard in the south-east. This may seem like a lot, but the fields in the area are mostly very small. Two of the fields are actually pastures for my Limousin cattle, where they graze most of the year. On most of my arable fields I have a rotation of cereal crop/maize/sunflowers. And recently I have started a rotation of potatoes/canola on other fields. On one field I had tree saplings planted 3 or 4 years ago for my firewood operation (more on that later in one of my updates) Apart from the Limousin cattle I also have some Yorkshire pigs. I also have a couple of chickens but the eggs they lay are mostly for personal use (although the local bakery does give me a nice French baguette of croissant every now and then if I give him the eggs I don’t use). Some time ago I made an investment in machinery to wash and sort potatoes, with a plan to offer these services to other farmers. They say you gotta spend money to make money right? Well so far it hasn’t been a great success, but more on that later in one of my updates.
Like I said most of the fields around here are very small and that makes it hard, if not impossible, to compete with the large scale farms up north. That is why I have decided about two years ago to switch to organic farming. It takes a lot of time before you are officially certified as an organic farm though, so it will take another full year for the transition period to be over and before I can finally start to profit from the higher prices for organic products. This transition made the last couple years more difficult than it already was since my yield dropped considerably after I stopped with herbicide spraying and the use of artificial fertilizer. But I think it will really be worth it after I finally get certified.
Well that was it for my first blog about my far. More details, pictures and updates will follow soon!
