Our farm is not generational. This is unusual in the UK. Statistics are hard to come by, but what data is available shows that 90% of farms are generational. In terms of income, the opposite is unfortunately true. Large industrial farms, such as ours, generate the bulk of farming revenues. Granted a lot of small farms sell only at markets where the tax receipts are not much of a tradition. The tax office has limited interest because even if these farms were included their contribution would be minimal.
As I indicated in the past, the immobilization on our farm is more than 20 million pounds. Compared to American farms our capitalization is small. I have seen US wheat farms where it takes a month to complete the harvest. On our worst days, it takes maybe two or three days to complete the harvest on our old farm. Our old farm has about 250 acres of corn -- over two days it can easily be harvested. The challenges are speed of transport and storage.
Norfolk has always had the most valuable farmland in the country. As of 2022, the value per acre is around ￡8,400 for a simple reason, it is the best-served agricultural land (and oldest) in the entire country. Not only is the land flat it is of high quality and the weather is excellent. Services are plentiful and there is a lot of qualified labour. We got a "deal" when we bought the old farm, but that's because the land needed a lot of remedial work. The new farm is much better and is about 80% developed.
Our farm is also unusual because we target very specific markets (hotels and restaurants trade), we are not the only one, in fact, our wholesalers work with three other farms like ours (two are in the South West and one is in the North. All four of us use similar technologies -- we all use polycarbonate high tunnels, and we all cross-produce our crops. As an example, Jennifer "built" a revenue model for the porc business -- but she didn't in reality she contacted (via our wholesaler) a farm based in the South West that had artisanal porc production (they are going to supply us with the pigs and piglets in a few weeks), and they confirmed our economic assumptions. We work with the wholesalers on the type of porc we are raising, because there are specific supply issues. They also raise forest pigs.
We do this because our wholesalers need a steady supply of exotic products. Our butter problem is the exception to the rule, all four of us have demand that exceeds our production capabilities. For our farm, the new milk parlour will cost nearly￡350,000. We need 50 stalls to be able to process about 250 cows per day. It takes 15 minutes to milk 50 cows at a time (it's 5-6 minutes for each cow, but processing time adds up, cleaning and moving the cattle along). Door-to-door (set up and cleaning) is a solid two hours twice a day.
What makes us unusual is that we harvest all year round to meet customer demand. As an example, we only harvest our tomatoes when they are red (and ripe). Green tomatoes are left on the vines.
Note: I was asked why we don't just give the chicken away to our staff. First off, this is not a charity, our staff is fully aware of our contribution to the chicken bonanza, but they pay the bulk of the real costs themselves (feed and harvesting). 1,200 chicks is a lot, but it's totally manageable, and really not as hard as it sounds. We sell the chicken at cost. The rest, we can justify as a reasonable farm expense that we would have even if we didn't sell the chickens to our staff. And as I said, spending the entire day, with our employees and their families is fun and invaluable. For my wife and I, it is probably the most "connected" day we have with our employees.
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