James Herrick: Do we really need all this farm kit?

I’ve recently come to the realisation that most of us farmers have been completely brainwashed, myself included.

Just before Christmas, I was fortunate enough to be part of a small contingent that attended a  three-day “Roots to resilience” course.

The course had been put together by the amazing AHDB Beef and Lamb team, who had flown Dallas Mount of Ranch Management Consultants from Wyoming, US, to deliver a condensed version of the seven-day “Ranching for profit” course.

See also: James Herrick – exercise gives me mental clarity

About the author

James Herrick

James Herrick is based on his family’s suckler beef and arable farm in Leicestershire. A passionate conservationist, he’s keen on using technology to maximise agriculture’s profitability and lessen its impact on the environment. Away from the farm he likes to compete in triathlons and endurance races.

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As part of the course, we were taught how to accurately and effectively predict the value created by our livestock enterprises, create stock flow charts, facilitate business meetings and much more.

It was probably the best thing I have ever done for our business. 

At one point, Dallas started talking about business overheads and something changed, as if he had flicked a switch in my head. 

I found myself transported back to the yard at home and critiquing every bit of kit.

Do we need it? Could we manage without it? If we didn’t have it, would we buy it or just do something different? And then the realisation hit. 

How much stuff are we sold because a machinery rep or feed company told us it would make all our problems better?

Bigger tractors, feed additives, feeder wagons, fertiliser, chemicals and so on.

In fact, this very publication will be strewn with adverts claiming they have the answer to all your problems when, realistically, they are probably just going to be another added complication to what was once an extremely simple concept. 

I have began to wonder whether much of what’s become commonplace on farms today is simply an expensive monuments to tax avoidance.

Are we just making decisions to increase the value of our final product with no consideration for the cost of production?

I’m not for one minute suggesting everyone goes out and sells all their kit, merely that at a time when one of the main concerns within agriculture is profitability, we start to really question where our money actually goes.

After all, in farming, production is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king.