Signs you are dealing with a 'Rooter'

Kevhog1988

Some interesting comments or takes on the situation described above.

Anyone getting the chance to inherit a farm is in an extremely favourable position to the majority of people in Ireland at the moment. I grew up in a cottage with an acre of land but always had a keen interest in farming since a child. Now have 13 acres of our own (Albeit mortgaged) & have 20 acres leased. My plan is to keep tipping at work as my main focus and farm part time and hopefully buy more land as and when i can. If i was in the person aboves shoes with that sort of land at my disposal i think i would be looking at going full time though.

kerryjack

It must be heart breaking to build up a large farm and have no young person interested in taking it on, I know of 2 lads that has sons that have no interest in taking over and not only that won't live with in a 100 miles of the place, sad really.

whelan2

We were talking about this yesterday, local farmer, big farm, good set up. Son at home with him but gets no say at all. Father's way or no way. Only a matter of time before the son leaves. He already is under alot of mental pressure and imo would be better off a million miles away from the place

carrollsno1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120065993#Comment_120065993

Relief milked for a fella who never got away from home and was on the farm his whole life when he had his first breakdown. Even though the farm was signed over and everything in his name he still had the auld fella in his ear the whole time. I dont know the ins and outs of the farmers mental problems however the language his father used to describe the situation was desperate altogether, not to mind what he said to me about a neighbouring farmer who was up trying to counsel the farmer as he had experienced similar back in the 80s. Long and short of it the fella went back farming on and off since then and tried to get on with it but the farms advertised for lease/partnership now with an outside party.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120065364#Comment_120065364

I think though if you're in that situation you need to move on, lease out the place and or whatever. No point killing yourself working into your 80s. I often say it to my young lad are you sure this is what you want.

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120066101#Comment_120066101

Unfortunately, the realities of dairy farming for your son won't really hit him till he's married wife and kids, and you've stepped backed and can't put in a good days work to take the pressure off so to speak, in the process of spending the guts of 70k here putting in air gates front and back/air batch feeders acrs, and a drafting unit simply to leave the parlour that any half decent relief milker can come for 4-5 evening milkings a week and milk in comfort and stay long-term, have a good lad got at the minute and the pressure it's taking of us with finishing earlier in the evenings and been able to get to jobs that usually don't get done is a game charger

jaymla627

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120065364#Comment_120065364

You'd swear it was a burden, given land rental prices and what rental income you'll get from a well set-up dairy unit to lease, should it not be seen as fair enough the kids have went down other avenues and it will leave said farmer with a great pension whenever they decide to retire, I'm 35 now 3 kids aged 1-5, if none of them show a interest ill be leasing the place before I hit 60 lifes to short

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120066410#Comment_120066410

I think the pendulum will swing the other way and land will lose it's value, for renting at least, we 'll be grateful for anyone to take our land, I can't see a great pension for you in 25 years time.

The amount of farms waiting in the wings to be leased in the next ten years is huge. A neighbour asked me lately when my lease was up so that he'd have his leased before mine came on the market again there must be 200 acres in it.

Huge opportunities out therefor young people, farmers sons and daughters, without resorting to farming, and they're taking those opportunties now

Dickie10

yeah i see the same around me, i said it before theres definitley a huge differeence in the culture of the youth locally here than further down the country towards farming, i see huge interest by young lads and girls in midlands/border areas, not half as much in east. I have only one farm mearning me being farmed the rest are set out. id say at rough estimate totalling around 600 acres. I was thinking of buying a bit myself as an investment soon, i dont think i would bother farming it for a while but set it out on 5 year lease to spuds or carrot men? dont you get first 40k on leased land tax free? if i were to buy an apartment and rent it out the monthly rent will be taxed? i work off farm so would end up giving taxman a hefty amount each year. is thier anyone here who has bought land and rented out to get the value of this tax free rental income?

funkey_monkey

I thought @Grueller said the son was single (or no children) - hard to get the inclination to do it all up with no one coming behind you to pass it on to or to work it with.

Reggie.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120066662#Comment_120066662

I know a fella looking for 200 acres to lease

davidk1394

Following the recent few posts I decided to put in my thoughts. A certain amount of rooting isn't a bad thing. It makes you appreciate the good things when you get them. When I started out here long before cows and it was sheep and cattle there was a bit of rooting but that's because we didn't have the money for the nice stuff so we got by. As the years will move on I'll invest money to make things easier. It's gas, I was talking with the father and we were talking about the pure hardship some jobs were and how far we came since then. We had a good laugh about but thinking back, it wasn't too funny at the time 🤣

Regarding the relationships between parents and children I am very lucky to have a good relationship with my parents. While it mainly revolves around farming I'm trying to broaden the interests between us. @carrollsno1 I think you'd be better off to do your own thing for a while that doesn't involve farming, I understand that's easier said than done.

I agree with what @wrangler said too. Land around me is making upwards of 350 an acre easily. I was sitting down with a few friends who are also farming and the same age as myself and we listed out places that will probably come up for lease in the next 5 to 10 years. We're considered young farmers and we're closer to 30 than 20 !

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067196#Comment_120067196

I said it on a thread here a few months back, if any one of us on here was to stand in his yard and go around in a circle and name out all the farmers joining them, the vast majority don’t have an heir to the throne.

Land is making crazy money around here, any block of land that comes up for lease is easily making €600 per acre now. I know a couple of men who are leasing a bit for a few years with the intention of selling then. One man told me he wants to sell first when it’s still worth money as in 20 years time there’ll be that much land for sale around him due to no successors that it’ll be worth nothing.

It’s probably too late for a lot of us posting here but davidk if you’re in your 20’s now you could have great opportunity before your 40’s to buy land at a reasonable price.

Sheep breeder

Previously a lot of rooters had a son tied into the farm with too busy to go to school and he stayed with daddy and became a picture of daddy and farmed away like him. Now everyone has had to go to school and have got a good education and opened the door to travel and different lifestyles. A neighbour with a very well laid out farm has 3 sons on different continents and no interest in farming now, when teenagers all were mad to farm but went to college and life changed. Farming is now a business not a life commitment

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120066974#Comment_120066974

No sorry funkey. Married, two children.

Mod snip

I want to protect the individuals identity.

G.

Fantasyland stuff on here. Land prices are going one way and that’s up.

Equities are tanking, inflation at an all time high, national debts creeping up everywhere.

Land offers a guaranteed return on investment often tax free.

Tonynewholland

For years it's been said land will get cheaper with all the ageing farmers but I can't see the price dropping much anywhere that's suitable for tillage or dairy. A few hundred acres more with the gear the big tillage lads have now is nothing and nearly every dairy farmer could do with more land

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067641#Comment_120067641

Factor in automation then a large institutional land owner can ramp up easily.

funkey_monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067516#Comment_120067516

Sorry - must have got muddled with some other posts.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067641#Comment_120067641

At the minute you’re 100% right, and in the short term prices will stay rising. Where the change will happen is over the next 1 or 2 generations. When them big dairy and tillage farmers that need more land now end up with no one from the next generation that wants to farm it due to better options, like the man from Gruellers example, what happens then? There’ll be plenty of land for sale and not as many buyers. We’ll be more like the European farmers then where the few that stay at it will be big scale and the small lads will be gone.

Go to any land auction around you, count the buyers there under say 35, then count the buyers over say 50. The under 35’s will be outnumbered by a long shot.

FintanMcluskey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120067284#Comment_120067284

Absolutely.

Also the mother at the time was content with going nowhere on holidays or otherwise, & having the dinner on the table when she was told to.

Very few would be content with the life of a farm wife like that nowadays

When looking at taking over a farm that requires enormous investment to modernise, it would be prudent to stay a bachelor as otherwise the stress will be felt both on the farm & in the house.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120065364#Comment_120065364

If they are not interested, you can't make them take an interest.

Siamsa Sessions

As @davidk1394 said, there's nothing wrong with a bit of rooting. No better man than myself for pulling and dragging.

But any rooting I'm doing is only short-term and while it might take me a while to get it sorted, I consider myself doing something wrong if I'm still rooting at the same thing in 12 month's time.

e.g. Last winter I was scraping out cubicles with a hand scraper, this year I have a scraper for the back of the tractor. Last winter, I had a round feeder in the middle of the yard and had to lock cattle into the shed before lifting the feeder and putting in a bale, but this winter I have feed barrier in place.

All small things (that take me ages to sort out!) but it makes the work manageable. And safer.

Some fellas change too as they get older. I've a neighbour who had a health scare a few years back. Pure rooter before that but he's made changes around the yard since then. Nothing fancy, but he's much better set up now and easier at it now. Still spends the same amount of time in the yard but much of it seems to be spent talking on the phone these days!

youllbemine

Plenty land in the north east going for mad money. I know its maybe different as it is some of the best land in the country. Can't comment on what I happening elsewhere.

Land is certainly being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer farmers (more like businessmen as mentioned before) through purchases and long term leases. Always has been that way and always will be, the small men are either selling up or benefitting from tax free income and full time work. Also know of a few scenarios on 200 acre farms where all the tillage work is done by contractors and bit of beef or suckling done on tbe rest of the land, bit rented out every year all whild having farmed it all themselves before. Probably results in more spare time and faster bank balance!

I know of multiple young lads (25-35) who are in line to take over large farms in next 10-15 years all have expanded and invested in land, machinery, technology and all are building or have recently built big houses on the land. Plenty opportunities for them and plenty money being made too.

Not sure its necessarily a good thing having less farmers across more acres an further concentration. Isn't that why the land league was set up!

Tonynewholland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068076#Comment_120068076

I see a lot of land being bought by farmers sons who work away from the farm or didn't get the home farm. They seem to prefer to invest in farm land than other property. The tax system is favouring it at the moment. It's a bad system where the young farmer is doing the hard work to pay for another man's land.

1373

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068525#Comment_120068525

I was bought up a rooter also . My dad had the farm maxed out stocking wise , cattle stuffed in everywhere, equipment struggling, machinery dying. Did us no harm when I look back . Gave us a good grounding.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068538#Comment_120068538

I've two friends, both widows, one has 600 acres and the other has 400 acre s, all rented out, family doing other things.

Quite a few of my friends would have land rented out now .

Tonynewholland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068902#Comment_120068902

With farms that size there would have been paid labour doing most of the work over the years and not child labour. It's mostly lads that worked on farms from a young age that have the most interest in farming

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120068243#Comment_120068243

The tams top up for women is starting to make sense

kk.man

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120065077#Comment_120065077

I got the farm very young here....stayed at it till i was 24...rented it out for years. Bought property in Dublin..did well. On renting the farm was good for a few years then different tenants ...bad experience. Rented property in Dublin..all bad experience. I retured to farm a few years back. I have a good job after it all but nothing rented again. Renting stuff is not simple either.