is farming not a business

8560

why is farming listed here in soc rather than business.
is farming not a business

LostCovey

8560 wrote: »

why is farming listed here in soc rather than business.
is farming not a business

Because it's a way of life rather than a business.

Most Irish farms lose money, in a business sense (ie if you discount the subsidy).

Atilathehun

It's really a charity:cool: Producing and selling food at below cost to ensure the population is fed. That's a fact not a wind up.

maidhc

LostCovey wrote: »

Because it's a way of life rather than a business.

Most Irish farms lose money, in a business sense (ie if you discount the subsidy).

So do most businesses at the moment, but agriculture is probably the most important industry in the country at the moment.

Farming is NOT a way of life and farmers are the bigger fools to view it as such. If a farm looses money in a given year the farmer should be reviewing his business practices.

farmer1

Although I agree that farming is as much a ‘lifestyle’ as a business, if a farm is not run with even a modest profit in mind, you are mentally giving up before you start.
Any factories/processors reading this must be laughing because they are the ones making money off our ‘lifestyles’. Like all business farmers try to buy inputs as cheap as possible and sell their outputs for as much as they can, in a business like fashion. Unfortunately due our over production (90% of beef exported, 80% dairy exported) the purchasers can more often than not name their price.
Our Irish products can then be used to keep prices on the continent on or close to the floor. Our ‘green island’ image can be found poorly marketed on the bottom shelf in the majority of supermarket chains on the continent.

reilig

I know a lot of farmers that farm to make a loss. It enitiles them to Farm Assist or their wives to get onto good paying employment schemes or other types of financial assistance. It entitles their children to college grants etc. etc. It doesn't mean that these people don't have money - there's often a cash deal or 2 throughout the year that keeps them going. On paper, a lot of farms make a loss, but so do a lot of businesses. The fact is that they keep going because they are still getting enough to survive.

Agree with you though that farms should be run like a business and if they are not making profit, then they need to be examined. Although, in my own case and I'm sure in a lot of other people's cases, with an off farm job, it can suit me to occasionally make a loss on the farm by buying a machine or investing in facilities etc. etc. which can see a refund in some of the tax that I pay through paye also.

Muckit

OP,

In my opinion, whatever people do to earn a crust from '9-5' is their business. Any thing done in the evenings/weekends are their 'hobbies'. I have no issue with it being listed under Social. To be honest fulltime 'business' farmers haven't the luxury to be posting here while still getting paid;)


The vast majority of the farming sector in Ireland is 'part time' (although we all know farming is a fulltime job:D) This, as pointed out by other posters, allows the Supermarkets (and to a lesser extent the factories), the opportunity to manipulate and exploit the primary producer (farmer) to their own benefit.