[penninehillbilly]

We get the 'Whats on TV' mag, a letter in the back ( Feb26-Mar4, headed 'Fab Farmer') said what a great programme it is, helping contestants who want to live their dream of running a 25 acre farm for a year.
Just a thought, I wonder if the cameras will be following them all that year?
And what would the 'winners' do about their own jobs for a year?

[GrannieAnnie]

Well, Joy took me to the Sandringham Craft Fair today and Jimmy Doherty had a stall there.  Guess who was running it for him?  The winners of A Farmer's Life for me!  Ray and his wife!

They were very busy, but we did have a little chat.  Apparently they do only get the 25 acres for a year, with funding to help them out.  After that they are on their own.  They are going to concentate on mutton growing, and they said they really enjoyed doing the programme, and I also asked if there is going to be a follow-up of their year on the farm, but they haven't heard anything about it so far.

Unfortunately, they were rather busy, so that's all I got to chat about.  But they are very enthusiastic, and a very nice friendly couple.  I hope they do well and may be get to buy either that place or somewhere else.

And Jimmy gets free help to run his stalls!!!   

[evie2]

That's interesting Annie, I was just talking about it with Jules, who never saw it, and wondered what happened after the year was up.

I hope they do well and make a success of their venture

[Squiggly]

I watched this and thought it was very good, but Im not sure Id want it for a year if I knew Id never be able to afford to buy it or anything similar after the year was up.

Can't miss what you've never had etc..

[John]

Strikes me that 25 acres is minute by modern farming standards, although huge for a gardener! I wonder what sort of living you can make from that land, I'd have loved to have seen a business plan with a proper profit & loss etc but I suppose that's not what telly is all about.

[LittleRedHen]

I know I am being petty, but while watching this series, all I could think about was how Jimmy came home from a poultry auction with everything from ducks to hamsters when he was going to buy just a few chickens and with a very, very tight budget.  Dare I mention Guinea Pig Village?  And the two week saga of finding dead fowls littering the ground every morning before he finally did something about the fox?  I think I would like to read a book by Jimmy about what he learned from those first few years of farming.  No one learns to farm in one year, no one! 

[John]

I know I am being petty, but while watching this series, all I could think about was how Jimmy came home from a poultry auction with everything from ducks to hamsters when he was going to buy just a few chickens and with a very, very tight budget.  Dare I mention Guinea Pig Village?  And the two week saga of finding dead fowls littering the ground every morning before he finally did something about the fox?  I think I would like to read a book by Jimmy about what he learned from those first few years of farming.  No one learns to farm in one year, no one! 

I don't think you're being petty - you don't learn to garden in a lifetime, never mind farming!

I suspect the guinea pigs are a visitor attraction rather than lab supplies.

There were a challenges in the program that I found infuriating - building a fox proof run in a day. Good telly, I'm sure, but I wouldn't have trusted any of them to actually be safe. The one built with chicken wire had me shouting at the screen  Foxes can chew through chicken wire. How many times do we have to say it??

[billathome65]

Anyone got an online link to the show / series as I tend not to watch TV.

Cheers Bill

[evie2]

All you need to do is google, a farmers life for me, and episodes come up

[GrannieAnnie]

Yes Bill, it's on BBCIPlayer.

I did mention to Ray about the challenges, most of which not being relevant, but he said that they actually learned a lot from them even so.  And learnt a bit about marketing, which isn't their strong point!

Brian thinks the 25 acres is perhaps part of Jimmy's farm.  Then after the year is up, Ray and Jane go back up north and Jimmy gets another string to his bow!  Mutton farming?

I agree, you cannot learn to be a farmer in a year, and you won't make your furtune in a year or with 25 acres, but they are very enthusiastic, and I hope they learn enough to perhaps buy a little place afterwards.

No one has mentioned to them about making a follow up on it though.  Which should have started to happen by now if they were going to do it.  So I suppose we will never know how they get on!  

[Lindeggs]

Farming requires long-term vision and planning.  Not only can you not learn how to do it in a year, but you shouldn't even be thinking in terms of one year.  You should be implementing systems now that will only pay off in 5, 10, 15 or more years. 

Even at the level of a tiny garden, think about the long-term investment in equipment and hard landscape features, building up good soil over time, planning and setting up crop rotation systems, learning what crops work and what don't, saving seed from the best performers to plant agian next year...

Anyone who thinks you can (or should) make a profit out of farming in the first year is approaching it all wrong!  You should be making a loss in your first year, because you should be putting so much more into the land than you are taking out of it.

Sorry for the rant.  :blink:

[John]

That wasn't a rant - it makes perfect sense to me. We've just planted trees that won't be productive for 10 years. It took me 5 years to get the allotment soil something like.

I'd love to see Jimmy's face when they tell him they've sold off the turf, the topsoil and chopped all the trees down and sold them. But it made a profit.

[joyfull]

perhaps we could make a spoof tv film showing just that and post it on youtube 

[evie2]

OH thinks along the same line as Brian but reckons at the end of the year they will become  tenants farmers of Jimmy

[John]

I hope it does work out for them though. There's a huge difference between the dream and reality. Our neighbour summed it up "This self-sufficiency lark is expensive and hard work!" Still, they love it.