We’re haunted here with solar farm fellas calling in… I crunched the numbers 👇🏼
they’re on about €1,300/acre growing @ 3% which after 40 years would be €4,240/acre by year 40
let’s say inflation is 6%/year during those 40 years, to be getting the equivalent in year 40 as you got in year 1 you’d need to be getting €13,371/acre but as I said it’s actually €4,240/acre you’d be getting
I know a lot of people interested in solar panels but something that goes over their heads is how compounded inflation is your enemy over 40 years… I’ve a modest home, cost about £30,000 to be built in the early 1980’s… for someone to buy the site and build the house today you’d be talking about €500,000… then take into account the farm itself we have was bought for £4,800 in the 1940’s, a modest bungalow in the 1980’s cost about 6 times what the farm cost in the 1940’s
there’s guys around here now that would pay close to €500/acre for rented land now, a retiring dairy farmer could get every penny of that tax free… at €1,100/acre for the solar panels, if you’d a good off farm income by the time you’d have the tax paid you may only be doing about the same as a fella with the land leased tax free to another dairy farmer
Probably unrelated but when I hear solar company "purchasing" land, alarm bells go off. I'd encourage you to do a small bit of research on them and if they trace back to Offaly, the solar is a lie, with worse intentions to follow.
These energy multinationals are straight as a meander.
The GAA came out to distance themselves from that and IFJ had to issue a correction. Stephen Robb from IFJ just cheerleading the industrial takeover as per.
I give you that the price increases may be linked to some loss of farmland
The Inflation aim is 2% and not 6%. Run the figures for farming the land and put in all labour, building and machinery costs and see what the figures look like. I've an outside farm and I'd leave it off to solar no bother.
Why not call them up then?
Send on the number
They're not hard to find, every auctioneer has a few
Most of the lads convasing for solar panels are only carpet baggers. You have no idea who you will end up dealing if it ever gets the go ahead.
you need to be near a esb substation and even at that ,some stations are over loaded already with wind and solar .
That's what I thought
We have stuck with the farming this long it would be a pity to trow in the towel now that the tide has turned. Even the Kerry ceo Pat Murphy now admits that young lads won't milk without a strong milk price a change from last year when he said that with 5 cents margin we were doing OK.
A strong milk wont stop the tide ,no young fella in their right mind is going to put up with the daft range of control and red tape their is in dairy farming coming from the Dept of Ag .
wasn’t there strong rumours that the browns in east cork were getting out of cows and solar panels going in
I'd say Murphy hasn't a clue. He's not worried about nitrates, keeps talking about the large milk pool, 7 factories, bla, bla, bla. He learned his lesson last year about speaking his mind.
Planning going in there for them
Did I read on the SFP letter this week, that even farmers that outwinter need 16 week slurry storage.
I know a lot of lads with a few cattle, that have no housing.
Up to a few years ago I worried about rules and regulations, splash plate, slurry storage, 10 metres from a ditch, chlorine free, limits on P and N. Ect.
i break so many rules nowadays. That I can't keep track of them so, I don't worry
that was always the case with stock being outwintered
I see a good future in it, I’m still young (I think)
Plenty of good operators will clear 2 k a cow this year
Hopefully they might have a different perspective, a fresh take on things.
One of the worst things about the current ag education system is that the placements are sending students to the very worst type of farms in a lot of cases.
A lad here the other day keeps no records of anything, no animal remedies, no fertiliser register etc. He's younger than me and just said fook them all
Are sheep kept on those solar sites??
Was locked with TB all Winter, gone clear now. A blessing in disguise as we didn't sell any cull cows. Prices going up every week.
Unfortunatly its chancers like that that put the whole industry at risk via issues like antibiotic resistance, product recalls and potential market closures etc. At the end of the day farming is not unique in the food chain in terms of regs, you should see the compliance needed to set up the likes of farm shops, selling food online etc.
I bet if he was running any other type of business, he'd run it as well as he's running this one. Imagine if he was a hauliers, no insurance, bald tyres, no nct, no tacho...but fook em all..
My oh lived in dread of the rsa despite the lorries being 100% they've the fear of god up lads for no reason. Started oh lorry today. It's been over 2 weeks since he's been home and first turn no bother
Bad Bastards alright I'd say. Maybe we don't have it too bad in farming.
I don’t know what it’s like in other sectors but farming regs aren’t as tough as the IFJ make out. A lot of the supposed changes and “tougher sanctions” that they say are coming every week are just click-bait and sensationalism.
For the first time in 10 years I didn’t buy the IFJ this week and I don’t feel any worse off. I’m going to start buying Ireland’s Own instead - it’s better for you head and there’s no mention of farm regs!
I havent read a ifj in years, dont miss it much but you do lose contact with rules and regulation, They always highlight the important dates
irelands own is a great read to be fair, I often buy it “for the parents”! used to read the journal cover to cover but it’s a bit repetitive when you are reading it for a few years. They do a good podcast series and with all the online content is easy keep up I find.
I find the podcasts very good. Jack is actually a bit of a laugh. Adam is totally out of his depth in my opinion. Darren is well clued in.
