Farmer Diaries

Evidently, last night turned into an engagement party for our eldest daughter.  Thank God Roger bought so much Champagne.  Everything hurts this morning;  Bouldering with my future son-in-law was fun but there is a price to pay.  This morning, getting out of bed to do the milking was harder than usual.   Jennifer, our farm manager was there with me, and two farm hands to do the milking.  Knowing that she was childless tonight, we invited her (several times) to our New Year's Eve celebrations.  At first, she refused, but my wife did her usual magic trick yesterday and got a yes.   Aside from chairs, rugs, lamps, a computer, sofa and decor, my new office is ready to go.  I had forgotten that we had a massive desk in that attic.  Because it was so large, it was in parts.  It is more than six feet wide and nearly four across.  It's insanely large but somehow fits the space rather well.  My wife pointed out that we ha...

Peter called now that his back home from China.  There is no doubt that it was a traumatic experience, first and foremost was what he found.  He had nearly 100 meetings, all his meetings with the founders or CEOs of successful private Chinese companies.  100% Chinese companies, not subsidiaries or joint ventures. His observations: (1) The government has zero interest in the Chinese private sector.  There is no room for discussion, in fact, the CEOs of Chinese companies universally told Peter that there is no one to talk to in government.  They cannot get a callback.  All production data is now considered secret and there are daily inspections of their offices by the police.   (2) Fines for everything.  These rich Chinese complained that they get fined for all kinds of crazy things, windows are not painted red, get a fine, paint the windows red, get another fine for painting the windows red. Cars are towed away for no reason, and fines are imp...

A solid portion of my afternoon was spent in the farm office with Jennifer, the farm manager.  Two days ago we established an action plan and over the past 24 hours, Jennifer has started implementing it.  My first task was to take out of the farm office all documents and files that concern our private lives.  I was not about to have two offices, so everything was in my farm office.  It is amazing, that I have more than 20 bankers' boxes of documents to store in the house.  Jennifer's new office looks bigger and better for it.   One thing that I noticed is that the amount of printed documents has declined dramatically.  2023 was the first year on the farm where almost everything is digital.  Several documents have to be paper-based, but they are fewer and fewer.  Even our maintenance log is digital now.  Inspection logs are still paper-based for our refrigeration units, although with the various alarm systems the issue there is regul...

It is one of the things we did on the farm, every employee can purchase, at cost, our meat birds.  Chickens were one of the first things we did on the farm; we have two distinct flocks -- egg layers and meat birds.  In 2019, the meat bird production was supposed to be only for our family's consumption.  But we got three batches of 25 chicks; the third was sent by mistake, and we could not send them back.   So we decided to give the extra to our employees.  That proved popular so in 2020 we offered to sell the chicken to our employees at costs (only the feed).    Last year, on average, each employee bought 7.25 chickens.  They signed up before Christmas for how many chickens they wanted.  This year our 133 employees signed up for 8 chickens each.  Our 2024 chick order will be for 1,200 birds.   This year on September 23, we processed the entire flock (900 birds)  All our employees and their families helped us make...

Last night I had a conversation with my daughter and her boyfriend, both of whom are GPs, and they wanted to go over my test results.  Turns out I was right, although my weight is up my muscle mass is top of the chart for my age group.  On my heart condition, she was less happy.  Before they could recommend surgery to insert a pacemaker they wanted to try changing my physical activities.  Although I work on the farm, it doesn't include any cardio workout.  My daughter suggested either running or climbing.   I started to laugh because climbing in Norfolk is a bit of a challenge, the place is flat.  My daughter ever the mischievous one pulled out a brochure for an indoor climbing wall about half an hour away.  Guess what is my daughter's boyfriend favourite sport -- bouldering!  They booked a Saturday morning 10 to 11 am slot for both him and me.  The climbing center is only 40 minutes away.  So this morning after a light breakfa...

Farmers tend to be a conservative lot.  The King, as was the Queen, is an important land owner who has for decades preached and practiced ecological/biological farming.  The King is no fool and is acutely aware that not everyone in the kingdom can afford a free-range chicken at  ₤11 a unit against an ordinary broiler chicken at  ₤ 5.  He has a respected, powerful and long-standing voice in the British farming community.   I suspect that as for popstars we want two things from our King, we want the dignity, and the aloofness which creates the separation of state and nation, that the crown brings to government, but we also love the daily drama/entertainment that popstars provide.  To a certain extent, the Royal family does play this game too. I thought that the King's coronation played mostly all the right notes.  Like many Britons, I was disappointed that Prince Andrew still holds such a preeminent position within the Royal court.  Like h...

I left the farm early this morning.  As I walked into the office to get the truck keys David stood there, crutches and all.  He looked at me and said, I could not sleep the condenser unit on the Case 7220 needs to be replaced.  I said, how did you sneak out of the house, don't let Jennifer find you here she will kill you dead!  We laughed but he still skipped back to his truck and went home.  I would visit David on my way back to explain two things:  how phones work and what we mean by medical leave. Because my eldest daughter is stubborn, this morning I had to drive to Norwich for a heart test.  There's nothing like getting on a treadmill for 15 minutes at 8 am.  Still, my daughter is right, I have largely ignored my doctor's recommendations, and added half a stone in weight over the past five years.  I think it's additional muscle mass, but we are going to find that out today, she also scheduled a full body fat analysis. I am relatively cer...

Getting money out of China is not that hard. Talking about all those complicated schemes, the reality is that there are tons of simple ones.  The best is called transfer pricing.  Let's say you own a French export firm that sells widgets, and you buy the widgets for $5.00 each.  You then export the same widgets to China at $10.00 a widget.  If you own both the importing and exporting firms, you will have transferred $5.00 per widget out of China.  I'm exaggerating for effect, but the potential is easy to see. Other tricks are more complicated, you imported 500,000 tonnes of iron ore per month, but the real imports are only 75% of that total...who will count.  The truth is that in a global trading system, it is very difficult to stop money from exiting.   I am always amazed when I hear about all these complicated schemes (art was a good example some years ago).  The other system is "underground" financial institutions, but that doesn't work we...

At 8 am this morning the first of two cement pours started.  By 11 am the two pours were completed, but it will take the contractor the rest of the day to finish the slabs.  The weather is perfect for curing concrete it's 11c and cloudy and no frost on the horizon!  The builders will be able to assemble the two warehouses in about two weeks once the cement is sufficiently cured. The team taking down the wooden barns has brought and installed a protection barrier and wireless security camera system around their worksite (weathered barn wood is very valuable).  The steel buildings will be removed starting in mid-January. Although our guys are going to trench the two properties for electricity and gas, our contractor will get the permits, and the equipment, to tranch under the county road.  There are all kinds of rules about power lines crossing public land, standards have to be adhered to and engineering drawings have to be submitted to the utility for their appro...

Our eldest son is now married!  Their flight to Morocco takes off tomorrow afternoon.  As the festivities had started at 3, the adults retired around 9 pm.  My wife and I left the ballroom. Adam stayed with all his friends and the younger guests,Jilian left the party at 9 as she is in her first trimester.   The chef did a marvellous job, thank you Marcus for your hard work and that of your team.  As I told Marcus, I've got another three to go!   My parents died many years ago, they were older.  My wife's parents were at the chapel but they are in poor health and their driver took them back home right after the service (they live about 30 minutes away).  Jilian has one set of grandparents, they are staying with us, and they really were the life of the party.  Jilian's grandfather made a very funny speech; in the early 1980s, he was a very well-known comedian and is still immediately recognizable.  It was nice to have my siblings...

So a few family members heard that Adam and Jilian were getting married today.  I assumed that we would find maybe 50 family members and friends to join us for the happy event.  The timing and the shortness of preparation almost made it sure that few would be available. We are now expecting 92 guests, it is a very small chapel, and a friend of Jilian's will be playing her electric organ, so Jilian will have her wedding march.  This morning, I called the caterer in a panic and his reaction was priceless:  No problem, but I am short of provision and I cannot go, so Roger and I volunteered.  Roger got the booze and I found all the provisions (it's easy when you know who has what you need).  We got more chairs and tables delivered. We even got one of those executive portable bathrooms (at 92 guests the house facilities could be overwhelmed).   My wife tells me that they found a beautiful wedding gown for Jilian. As for me, the next two hours will be d...

It's just after 2 pm, and I just enjoyed a roast beef sandwich with Roger Jillian's father.  The house is quiet as everyone has gone shopping for tomorrow's wedding.  This morning, I went to make sure that the farm manager's new house was ready, she is moving in tomorrow.  I checked the heating and the water.   I think that Roger and I will probably go for a walk...to our nearest local, the truth is that a good ale has to come from a cask.  Their food leaves a little to be desired, and I suspect that around 3 pm the place will be quiet as everyone goes shopping (Boxing Day is a big thing in the UK).  Roger is an industrialist, who owns several UK businesses, his biggest one is involved in steel fabrication.  But he told me that he owns about 20 different companies.  Among them, it turns out, is a specialist high-end travel agency.  Roger told me that he called them from his car, and said "Find me a beautiful place for a honeymoon not too...

I should make a point of stating that the economics behind biodigesters are great in the UK because of the country's energy infrastructure.  If our farm was in North America, LPG would be a far cheaper source of energy, and a farm there could never justify the economic cost of biodigesters.  In the same way, our farm could not justify the massive tractors that are used in the US, our farm is too small.   The reason I say this, is you have to be conscious of your environment when making economic decisions.  I never understood Germany's passion for solar power.  If you ever travel to Northern Europe and Germany in particular, you will notice two things, in winter the nights are long and the days are short, and even in the summer there's not much sun.  Probably the worst place in the world to install solar panels, and yet... People make uninformed economic decisions all the time.  Not only private players but public ones too (e.g. UK government's han...

In the last few days, both the FT and Bloomberg published articles which stated that China's CCP is losing control of the economy.  Both articles had tons of supporting data, as one commentator put it, despite the level of self-denial about the scale of the problem facing China, the evidence is now overwhelming, and impossible to hide.  Tens of millions of empty apartments, a massive public debt burden, and appalling workmanship on both private and public projects are there for all to see. Ten days ago I related my ex-employer client's real estate story that they had lost about 22% of the value of the real estate that had bought between 2010 and 2018, after selling all their domestic real estate holdings. I mentioned that I had no way of verifying this data.   Well, official Chinese government data shows an 8% drop in the last 24 months. A few days ago, the Chinese company that provides market pricing data for private real estate transactions stopped publishing....

This is a working farm, and there are no off days.  Cattle have to be looked after.  This morning I was part of the crew, with my youngest daughter (it was her idea) to take care of the milking cows.   The idea of getting up to milk cows and goats at the crack of dawn sounds good on a Sunday afternoon, but not so much on a cold and wet Monday morning. On the bright side, everything went according to plan, the cows were their usual curious self. It still takes a calm hand to quietly direct cows to their milking stations.  Then of course we had to take care of the goats.  Two farm hands were there with us, and by 8 am we were all done.  My daughter was smiling and like me looking forward to a well-earned breakfast, we stopped by the chicken coop to pick up overnight eggs (only five) and made our way to the house.   The kitchen was a hive of activity. This Christmas morning the entire clan was up and about.  A real breakfast was being prepa...

Early on I implied that our farm came with a large house that had been built by one of my wife's ancestors, I also wrote that it had a large number of guest rooms. Aside from our quarters, and that of our children, we have an additional nine guest bedrooms.  This being the 21st century, we assumed that our children and their boyfriend/girlfriend would "share their rooms", after all, we are not simpletons to think otherwise, just asked them to keep the noise down...our youngest daughter turned beet-red when my wife made the announcement.  Our granddaughter is sleeping in our room, for the entirety of our eldest daughter's stay with us, a concession she makes to her mother, and I don't mind at all!   The house is grand enough to have its own chapel, it was consecrated a while back, in fact, its predecessor building was one of the first private chapels consecrated after Henry the 8th broke from the catholic faith. Our chapel was rebuilt in 1748.  How do we know -- ...

Peter an ex-colleague and long-time friend went to China in early December to meet with some of the firm's clients.  The firm only did this once before, and I had been the one visiting China. In 2018 we had to shut down our Hong Kong "one-man" office because our representative left prematurely due to a family emergency.  After that, the firm had a hard time finding a replacement.  Anyway, before the replacement could fly out covid shut the place down. Peter left for a two-week visit to meet about 100 clients.  Since I had been the last one doing this trip, he called to get some local colour.  The only advice I gave him was to not travel with any documents, authorities were always curious.  Everything should be digital.   Just as Peter was to fly home, the authorities found "irregularity with his visa".  Cutting to the chase, last night Peter landed at Heathrow.  Peter had been detained for four days. Today, Peter called to give me the lo...

So this morning, Adam and I picked up a Christmas tree for David's family.  David has three very young children, and therefore picking a Christmas tree would be a bit much for the family.  We stayed the morning, helping the girls decorate the tree, and then made our way home before lunch.  Adam was in an excellent mood, but then he just got excellent news on the work front (congrats Adam!).  We got home with our 4-meter-tall Christmas tree.  As we arrived I saw there were a lot more people than expected for lunch!  I thought it was bizarre that our youngest daughter's new boyfriend was not around this Christmas, what I didn't know is that all the significant others of Adam's siblings were joining us for Christmas.  Our eldest daughter has a two-year-old the happy outcome of a failed relationship.  What I didn't know is that she is in a fairly new relationship with a doctor (our daughter is a GP in London), and they have now been living together fo...

The truth about organic farming is different from what most people think, it's far more complicated, especially, if you want to be fully certified as bio/organic.  Our farm has that advantage, in addition to being located in the United Kingdom, where certification is not only complex but intrusive, of being considered as testing ground for many new agricultural practices.  Our ability to replenish the land with both organic and inorganic supplements is critical.  Although we don't grow soya beans, it is one of the most demanding crops in terms of potassium.  A favourite of the vegan/vegetarian but only some of them realize how destructive to the land soya bean production is in mineral depletion.   In the UK, 100% of our potassium comes from Russia (and Ukraine...). Yeah, so the greens' strong appetite for soya products supports the Russian economy, and it's not a pretty sight.  These mines are very polluting and are rumoured to use forced labour. ...

Overnight, I had a question about our private client business.  It was developed during the pandemic since restaurants were closed, and demand for food had exploded.  Our production is somewhat unusual since we specialize in heirloom products, and therefore of limited interest to the general population.  However, through their contact, our distributors (well there are two of them) said they could support up to 500 delivery per week mostly in large cities and specifically in areas where they already operate.   These are entirely the clients of our distributors, they selected them with their own criteria, and it also helps us greatly because sometimes we overproduce certain crops.  Last summer we had a bumper crop of strawberries. We produce 500 retail boxes per week, it may not sound like a lot, but it is.  The bulk of our produce about 90% is for restaurants and hotel trade which have specific requirements.  The meat side of the business was start...

It's very late and I cannot sleep! In the five years we have operated the farm we've not had a single serious accident.  Today that changed; David our lead mechanic was pulling a PTO transmission from one of our large tractors, it gives power to other things than the tractor's wheels. The damn thing is heavy, about 150kg; when he unbolted it, it fell on his foot and despite his safety boots he broke his foot.  He should have used the crane, he was tired it was the end of the day and really he just thought that with the equipment at hand, he could remove this transmission alone.... Yes, we have all the equipment in place, yes he should have used the overhead gantry yes he could have called someone to help him, even if it's just to tell him that it's probably too heavy, but that's why they are called accidents.  This happened at 5 pm, so immediately we called an ambulance and the police because it was an industrial accident and we needed a police report for the in...

So this young woman commented about having a greenhouse on a vacant lot in Norwich (the main city in the East of England).  I wrote back that the first thing she needed was to obtain a soil sample to ensure the soil was suitable. When we bought the farm we had over 500 samples taken all over the farm to establish the ground quality, especially since the farmland had been partly abandoned for the past decade.  She said that at  ₤100.00 it was too much, and I said, that since most of the sites in the city of Norwich are brown, in that they have been previously used, it is important to know that there are no heavy metals or other dangerous chemicals in the soil. Her reaction was amazing, she was very keen on having a biological garden but really didn't worry about the soil in which her tomato plants would draw their nutrients.  I said, you will be using raised beds for your tomatoes and other greens, but the reality is that you need to know what is in your soil, and wha...

I guess that we will be buying an additional tank for our methane after all.   Over the past few months, we've had several electricity utilities/distributors which operate in our region come to the farm to "inspect our power plant facilities, to ensure they conform to their requirements".  This is entirely my fault.  Last summer we were accumulating too much methane for our tankage capacity, and so instead of selling the excess gas, that would have cost us some money, we (and I mean me) decided to produce excess electricity and sell it to the grid.  Because of all the rules and regulations, we had to specify our overall capacity and timing for the sale of electricity (our capacity is almost 200 Kw) which is a lot but more importantly, it's available 24/7, because it's gas powered.  It should be noted that the two generators are large because we burn methane and smaller generators are difficult to adapt to burn unconventional gas, plus they are advanced and ...

 A beautiful day to be outside today.  No fun and game, the entire day was spent making sure that everything was tied down for the predicted wind storm tomorrow.  Our high tunnels are particularly susceptible because there is constant movement and so screws and bolts have a tendency to become undone.  We have 20 high tunnels each more than 300 meters long, about 40 meters wide and 14 meters high.  The real issue is the cross-bracing.  We used both forklifts and our scissor lift to tighten every bolt down there are thousands.  Our high tunnels are covered with polycarbonate, so they can withstand strong wind and strikes from flying debris.  We should be fine...there is also talk of flooding but all our high tunnels are at least two meters above the flood level. Still, it added a bit of fun.

When we first looked at building our farm in 2018, we made a few money-saving decisions, the most important is that we purchased our milk herd from a retiring farmer and we also purchased his milking parlour equipment.  It was the right decision at the time.  The equipment dates from around 2004/05 and was perfectly serviceable, our installers replaced some tubing but otherwise, the milking parlour was in good shape.  It is a mature technology. Now, we are building a brand new milk parlour because our milking cows are moving from the old farm to the new farm.  So we are looking at brand new equipment this time because, after 20 years of daily service, the old cattle parlour's systems need to be replaced.  Fear not it will not be destroyed instead good chunks will end up on Facebook's marketplace and be sold to other farmers for spare parts or expansion of their current systems. All our cattle are chipped, nothing unusual there, we have sensors throughout the far...

 What does the United Kingdom offer trade-wise to the USA?   Not a labor pool, not natural resources, in fact, in many trade aspects the UK is a direct competitor to the US.  The truth is that the US, which has grown increasingly protectionist, has no appetite for trade deals as such with anyone not in North America!  The Yanks probably don't feel they need to reward the conservative government since they are the ones that screwed it up.  These trade talks were driven by No 10's desire to change the conversation away from Brexit and Europe.  The  US has much appetite for the UK to repair its relationship with Europe.  Strategically, it's a lot more important.  This week's real focus is preparing the farm for the forecasted blizzard during Christmas.  Make sure the animals have good wind protection, that's all they need or want.  Their winter coats are full on now, so anything that increases the heat will make them uncomfortable...

The surveyors have finished their work, and we got the new boundaries certified and registered with the county.  The money was transferred from escrow and today, with Jennifer, our two Formans, my wife and the sellers we did the round of the farmyard, the buildings and how we will manage the space.  Mostly it's building removal.  None of the demolishing will be done by us, rather with the five of us, we can be sure that everything is done according to plan, and that conflicts are resolved.   The main farm entrance is some distance from our house's grand entrance, on the boundary road which separates the two farms.  The new farm's entrance will be directly opposite our current access road.  It's on a long stretch of road, so it is safe for large lorry turning.  The new farm has two silos, we inspected them and they are fine for sillage (corn feed) but we may need more, right now we use bags, but the disposal of these bags is challenging (they are a...

It was when the Daily Mail and the Telegraph (both strong pro-Brexit supporters) started to have articles about how "we" were sold a bad deal in voting for Brexit, that I wondered about my country.  The United Kingdom not only voted to exit the EU but had a second opportunity to change course and decided full speed ahead. Of course, it's politically motivated, the Conservative "thinkers" cannot assume responsibility for the debacle, moreover, they ran the show, throughout the exit process.  There is no doubt that for these paleoconservatives Brexit was always going to be a success...because.   A few facts: (1) Many Europeans are happy to see the back of the United Kingdom, we were never committed to the Euro (never mind that France and Germany never supported the UK in its fight to remain in the EMU...).  We were always bitching and were not on the same development page at all.   (2) Europe has serious problems of its own that have nothing to do with t...

Autumn on a farm is like having children...you forget from one to the other, the amount of work necessary.  The problem is snow, we get it every other year and equipment or supplies left near access points can become circulation hazards.  So this week I spent two days scoping the yards to ensure that all equipment and supplies are inventoried and stored properly. We had a bit of a scare on Monday night when the alarm for one of our two freezers went off in the middle of the night.   I arrived at our packing shed, where the freezers are located about five minutes after the alarm went off, and within 25 minutes there were four of us. Each having been contacted by text (yes our freezer talks to us...).  It took an hour, and we were about to start shifting frozen meats to the other freezer when David (yes our lead mechanic) found the problem --- a blown fuse.  Once that was replaced everything started up again.  The maintenance company was contacted and th...

In my previous life, as a fund manager, our firm had little interest in Asia.  The reason was that about 30% of our assets under management were from Chinese investors, about half was from European investors and the last 20% was from UK-based investors (I left the firm more than five years ago, and I have no idea as to the source of assets today).   European investors had little appetite for anything that was not European or American (the world's largest and most liquid market).  Asian investors had zero appetite for Asian exposure.  They give us funds to invest to specifically diversify from Asia.  It's only after retiring that Asia became of interest, it's not a passion, but when we built our biodigesters I received a lot of information on the equipment and firms.   I became a fund manager after the collapse of the Japanese stock market.  I was invited to many seminars about Japan as a prime market for investment, but I always had a nagging...

 We didn't see that one coming! A few weeks ago, I put up a notice to our employees that we were looking to hire a farm manager.  Effectively the chief operating officer of the farm.  We had some ideas as to who we could hire, there was the son of a neighbour that has just graduated with a master's in farm management, and there were others who put their hats in the ring. Over the past two days, we interviewed three final candidates, and this morning we made it official:  Congrats Jennifer!  Her qualifications and references were by far the best, and we knew her.  She really stood out among the candidates, and she is one of our pickers.   Her qualifications were hidden in plain sight.  She has been with us since the beginning, working four mornings a week.  She is one of our first hires, and she came to the farm because she was a single mother with two young children, moving back home following a divorce and family proximity.  She wa...

I met Adam Posen in 2005, at an event sponsored by the Bank of England where he was an advisor.  He was particularly "un-American" in his analysis of the world, it's not that he was not an American, he was, but rather that he was able to put himself in the shoes of those who he analyzed. It was a speech by Adam that made me take a real look at my future in the City.  My sector (wealth managers) was going to be largely moved to Europe, but the rose-tinted investors were all taking the view that everything would be fine.  In a nutshell, I was able to sell my participation in our business for a substantial sum of money.   My wife is almost as old as I am and could see the writing on the wall.  Once you hit 50, your future as a partner in a law firm is questionable, especially if you are not a rainmaker.  The decision was challenging but almost made itself for us.  Top "dollars" for our house and investments! Zeihan, another American is far more conte...

The short answer is yes, but this answer has to be tempered.  We could have purchased a far smaller farm and sold our products in the market, but when we built it we had a particular marketing objective:  Make hay from the impact of Brexit.   We purchased the land for about  ₤ 6,500 per acre, the land we just purchased was slightly less than  ₤ 8,000 per acre, but is in much better condition.  Our land required a lot of remedial work (e.g. fencing, shrubbery removal replanting etc) and none of the original farm structures were useable or safe. The land alone was several million pounds, so the answer is yes, we were rich when we started.   Modern farming, especially if you intend on selling your product (as opposed to substance farming) requires a great deal of money because there are many regulations as to food production.     We did very well in the financial sector, the gravy train was very welcoming.  In addition, early...