Farm Value

theguzman

I will be inheriting our family farm this year as my father is now in his late sixties and starting to slow down in years and activity, his health is deteriorating also. I was not born nor did I grow up there, our family home was away from the farm and my father was mid-fifties when he himself inherited it when my grandmother finally died over a decade ago. I spent many days thee as a child but I have no Bull McCabe like affinity for the land. For me it another asset and I sweat my assets and make them work for me, not me working for them.

I know very little about farming nor have I any real interest in it. I have alot of of back problems especially with lifting, this week I was trying to take care of things there as the father was in hospital. I am not physically able to lift heavy bags of feed or man-handle sheep due to my back. I'm the only son here to put things in context. There is over 500 sheep there as the neighbouring farm is rented also by my father.

The brutal weather, general loneliness of this rural area and absolute depression of such a life has made me question the entire mentality of it. Its been a while since I endured such brutal weather as I spent alot of my twenties living in warmer climates and this is not a life I could ever envisage here for myself. I am not a farmer but I have the greatest respect for those who are. I left this place and have no regrests I met my partner and she is not Irish and we spend increasing amount of time in her country, and I can only tolerate Ireland from May to September she does not want me to sell the land however and loves to spend warm summers here. There is no financial requirement for me to sell and I could just lock the gate and get rid of the sheep and let it to the birds if needs be. However it represents another opportunity to increase my own wealth, I look at everything from a financial perspective.

The farm holding itself is exactly 320 acres of mountain with around 35 acres of pasture fields and the rest mountain. I am not sure of the value and selling it is just one option I could take. Another would be long-term letting to another farmer, ideally a young lad who'd be able for it and be able to make a go of it, However what I'll call the farm infrastructure is heavily neglected, fences falling down, sheep trespassing, out of a total of 26 gates in the entire farm just one is hanging and opening and closing properly. No power in the outhouses or water, the whole place is in a decrepit state.

The road to the farm and farmhouse is not drivable by car it is that bad, I spent €8,000 myself last summer on a rockbreaker, diggers to bring half of it up to pre-tarrring level. The old farm house my late grandmothers place is in good enouigh shape but could be brought up to an acceptable condition with around €30,000 investment, mainly on the road so people could drive to it without wrecking their cars.

Some lads had suggested to me to pay a man to run it but you can't find workers like that anymore. I know there is minimum stocking levels but I plan to sell all the sheep off the land as I unable for them. Forestry is also an option but again I don't know what to do. In my own mind I would sell the place and use the money to buy a few houses as I am already a landlord in Ireland now having invested in a second house last year. Far easier money for less work, buying Farmland as an investment will give a very low return on investment I find unless you are prepared to work very hard at it and even then it becomes a multi-generation effort.

_Brian

Possibly your best option is a lease, no sense killing yourself for something you’ve no love for.

theguzman

_Brian wrote: »

Possibly your best option is a lease, no sense killing yourself for something you’ve no love for.

I know its like how long is a piece of string but what would people here want to give to rent such a place? Its mountainous in Kerry but the fields are pretty good although more for grazing and not cutting hay or silage. Ideally I'd sign maybe a 5 to 10 year lease if I was to let it out. I'd probably have to spend another €20,000 to bring it up to standard.

This year the father is planning to fence the mountain in but I am refusing to allow him do it as he want's to use the cheap thrash softwood stakes which will crack at the base and be rotten in fifteen years. I myself prefer for at least a thousand oak fencing stakes mixed with a few dozen concrete standers be driven across the mountain you can track a digger up there so no problems like that, they'll be still standing when my bones are in the grave. This is just an example of the half arsed approach absolute misery approach my father takes to everything there.

If I'm honest the fact that the place belonged to my temperamental grandmother who was constantly threatening to will it to my Aunt unless she got her way and we didn't own it and coupled with my fathers own backwards ways turned me totally against farming and his mistreatment of my mother over the place too is another factor in it.

amacca

You are 100% correct to object to the softwood stakes imo anyway....a waste of money and a dead cert guarantee the job will have to be done again....I'm currently replacing thrash like that now!


The amount of money you would have to put in and your circumstances/lack of real interest does seem to indicate that leasing would be the best option

you get some income from it, you don't have to invest and its still there for you etc if you ever change your mind.....+ maybe it could be a nice break holiday home during the summer months if the house portion wasn't leased.

roosky

Also long term lease is a tax free income for you.