sick of propping up non performing farms

Some of the points are not realistic.

Plenty of lads have to spend big money on machines - not because they want a fancy toy but because it is an essential tool to their work. 25 years ago we got away with a 95HP yoke when we made 3-400 bales of silage a year at home. Although that was also for a baler with no knives and didn't pack as tight as modern bales. Fast forward to today and it would be more than 5X that amount. A big job back then would have been 80 bales on the ground to be picked up in a day. Nowadays, a busy day is 300+. There is no scope for downtime of machines or unreliability.

A tillage man with a massive 200HP machine and plough sticking out the back of it isn't just buying a big toy. He's putting the money into that because it is the only way he can get enough ground covered to make it viable. The days of having local lads on call whenever you need to get them in for a day or two here or there to drive a tractor for you for small money are gone. He can't have two or three small tractors. Go big or go home.

Same as how the lads on site with the wheelbarrows and shovels are replaced by the little mini-digger. The mini-digger isn't cheap but it's less expensive and more reliable than trying to get a few random lads in with wheelbarrows for a few days. It's not an expensive toy. You just can't run your business like that now.