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We presold our dairy equipment

10 days ago I mentioned that we would soon dismantle and sell our old dairy equipment.  Yesterday Jennifer sold all our equipment to a single buyer.  In two months he will take possession and dismantle the entire milking system.  The insane part, while the new equipment is expensive, we actually sold our old equipment for 103% of what we paid in 2019.  I actually checked with our accountant and we had depreciated that equipment by 63% (the equipment was depreciated by 85%, but every year we maintained and repaired the equipment and part of these expenses were capitalized).  It's not a huge amount but it means that we will report a capital gain on the sale of our milking parlour...

Jennifer told me that the price of used equipment has exploded, mainly because the price of new machinery has risen dramatically (about 40% over the past five years), but also more farmers have been looking at used equipment to reduce capital expenditure.  We have about 25 buildings across the two farms that are used as cattle shelters, hay and equipment storage.  Some of the equipment we never use.  I suggested that we inventory everything and see what we can sell.  As an example, we have two old bailers that we've never used, which I kept as backups -- but we don't need anymore.  Jennifer has decided that our additional labour will be used to not only identify all the equipment but also bring it out into the maintenance shed, fix it and sell it if appropriate.  

Some will say that women are not strong enough to move farming equipment, but for a long time now, moving farm equipment has required far more muscle power than any "man" can provide.  We use either our forklift or tractors, as Jennifer said, women too can press pedals and set chains.

In other news, the first pigs have been relocated to the first corps of trees.  Our pig forewoman installed about 700 meters of temporary electrical fence and she found a building to act as a sty (a low building which is filled with straw in which pigs take shelter).  These are sows and their brood, and a few gilts and boars (30 in all).  Jennifer said that watering the pigs was the biggest challenge but they are using IBC tanks that we fill once a week.  As for feed, it's a combination of grain plant mass from our high tunnels and the rest is rooting the forest (which is the pigs' favourite activity).  A small percentage of our damaged fruits and vegetables (there are several hundred kilos a week that usually go into our biodigesters) is now diverted to the pig area.  We tried to diversify our cattle feed in the past with high tunnel waste, but cows are picky eaters.

Our laying hens have been producing massive amounts of eggs in the past few weeks.  We are not entirely clear what changed (this is not a weather thing), but we've gone from 4/5 eggs a day to more than a dozen, so Jennifer has begun giving the eggs to our staff.  It started organically when one of our staff noted that eggs were piling up (eggs can last several weeks refrigerated), and so Jennifer took the executive decision.  I don't know why I didn't think of that.  

Yesterday I signed the contract for the purchase of four Case 280 tractors.  The tractors were delivered this morning, all four for  "testing", as the transfer has not been made yet.  Even Jennifer was surprised.  She contacted the dealer early this morning telling our rep that the purchase agreement had been signed, and at noon two lorries arrived with the tractors.  Two are the four-tire variant the other two are the eight-tire variant (reduced wheel load and increased towing capacity).  That means that Jennifer has to speed up her training regiment for tractor operators...

My wife spoke to our cook last night (early UK time) about ensuring that there was food in the fridges for the children.  Generally, we have guests two or three times a week, there are a variety of reasons for this, and it has nothing to do with our farming activities, which is why we have a cook.  Last night we had another surprise, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend will also be at the house over the weekend.  Jennifer and Adam will be there too because their current flat is full of boxes in preparation for the move to their new flat in a few weeks.  It's a shame we are not there, but it could not be helped.




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