Farmer Diaries

 In 2014 Boeing's market cap was $91 billion.  It was the best-known aircraft manufacturer and had an impressive reputation.  The B747 was still selling and the A380 was proving to be an expensive failure.  The aircraft manufacturer was sailing high in the wind.  Then the company decided to change its future and become market-driven.  Share prices that had hovered around $100 rose to $420 in 2019.  A very successful strategy Wall Street and investors were happy as clams.  The word was good until the B737MAX and all the faults occurred.  In 2014, Boeing was sitting on a massive order book and had a great reputation.  All the way to today Boeing's share price is $192.  Nearly double what it was in 2014, market capitalization of $100 billion more or less where it was in 2014.  The BIG difference is its future; the order book is dry, the B737 is still a troubled child and even the 787 is in trouble, and to add to the trouble its re...

Shockingly, Donald Trump is still able to find legal representation, because the corpse of all the lawyers that have represented him in the past is knee-deep.  It is truly astounding how many have lost their law license over the years. I asked my wife because I was never an officer of the court.  But what she said is that lawyers are held to higher standards, and if they are found to have lied in court for their client they can be in a great deal of trouble.  As stupid as giving the client an alibie all the way to fabricating or at least representing false information. A lawyer will never accept a client's statement at face value, he will never represent that a client has done A or B, he will find other not officers of the court to say this or that.  What Trump has succeeded in doing over the year is to change his lawyers into co-conspirators.  This has happened many times over the years, but now with his legal problems especially all these lawyers who made fals...

An ex-colleague is of Venezuelan origin.  He was born there, but left in his early 20s to study in the US.  Although he wanted to return home, there was never a real opportunity when he started his career, he was soon hired by my ex-firm, he is a few years younger than me, but worked for me.  I really nice and smart guy.  Going back was never really an option.  His parents lived half and half between the US and Venezuela so when Chavez took power, they never returned and still live in Florida. We were discussing failed states, after my short write-up on South Africa, I have important ties with that country.   We discussed Venezuela, according to the government the economy is doing well (GDP growth of 5%) and everything is all right. On the ground things are different.  Daily power cuts and water cuts are standard.  Unless you work for the government you no longer have a refrigerator, generators were confiscated about two years ago.  Havi...

So, Westminster Council put a nice splash to celebrate Ramadan (which, by the way, is NOT a celebration, it's the equivalent of lent), Eid al-Fitr IS a holiday, Islam's second most important one (at the end of Ramadan)...  So when wishing a good Ramadan is like wishing "a good lent to Catholics"...Tone deff much?  Yeah, Westminster is run by Labour, my favourite kind, the lazy ignorant ones.  BTW, no trace of "happy Easter holidays" for Westminster Council until the very last minute.   That's racism.  I know it sounds as if it's trying to reach out, but it's really lazy comments about "other people we really don't care about" You know why? Because a 5-minute search on the internet will tell you everything you need to know about Ramadan.   Finally, guess where I heard this, yes from the foreman of our meat processing plant, I walked in yesterday afternoon, because he had called me about some issue he wanted to discuss.  When I arrive...

First, believe nothing of what you read in the newspapers, about Harry and Megan.  Trust only facts.  First, the king is still pissed with Harry, and the latest (and unnecessary) move to strike Harry's family from the Royal biography is at best petty at worse...well Andrew is still there! There is no doubt that Harry would like to spend some time in the UK, it is after all his home.  He spent several years defending it, and he has a real and profound attachment to the place.  Their departure from the Royal merry-go-round occurred through a series of accidents.  Harry and Megan wanted to dramatically reduce their role as royals, first because a lot of it is meaningless ribbon cutting and Megan discovered that the royal family really didn't like her very much.  The initial idea was to cut 90% of their royal duties and no longer count on the British government's patronage.  Basically, they would continue to represent the Queen but would do this as unpaid ...

For some obscure reason, I still get invited to Tory functions.  Don't ask me why, it seems that getting off these lists is harder than getting off the list of telemarketers.  So the county has some border issues, nothing dramatic but it has been dragging for quite some time, and every year or so, our local MP decides that this time, he will do something about it.  So he said two weeks ago! This is where it gets funny, he made this commitment just before the last election, and has, in fact, made it a local party commitment.   It was even on his old website...it was in his own words, an important priority. Guess what he has not done!  You got it in one, the boundary problem is there there.  Granted it's been like that for a while really.  The problem, we think, started around 1925, so are looking at nearly a century of false promises. If it were not so funny, it would be sad.

A cold Thursday, the weather here and in Strasbourg are nearly identical.  Our meat chickens have started arriving, they are coming in batches of 200 every few weeks (we actually pick them up from the hatchery).  More important the house is being readied for all the important guests...our children.  The whole lot, begin arriving this afternoon.  Our youngest daughter arrived this morning on the 11 am train, just in time for lunch.  She came "without her boyfriend"  as any father knows you don't ask questions about absent boyfriends...you rely on your wife for that task.  Our eldest daughter is arriving tonight with our precious granddaughter and her fiancee, that they were both able to be off this weekend is a treat.  Their new lodgings here at the house are about ready, the permanent heating system and electricity have yet to be finalized, and an inspection or two are still required, to obtain the residency permit (I know it makes no sense, but i...

 Monday was gloomy and cold in Strasbourg where my sister's funeral took place.  The Church and the cemetery were fine, as such a thing can be.  It was a sad day, The funny stories over dinner were forgotten, and many expressed how much they missed her and her humour.  The reception at their house afterwards was sad.  It was a long day, we went to the Airbnb we had rented and had a nice family dinner.  Our son and two daughters were there as well as their spouses.  The children flew home on Tuesday, there's a single direct flight to Gatwick.  We were sticking around for a while. (note: our second son could not leave -- he's in military school). Today, just after lunch, my nephews and nieces their spouses and my wife and I went to the notary's office as we had been directed for the reading of the will.  I asked my eldest nephew if he had any idea, but he didn't.  It was one of the first things that was cleared up.   My sister wa...

As we are still in France for a day or two, we saw the news from the Elysee Palace that France was sending troops to Ukraine.  What was interesting was the type of troops being sent a combination of military observers and maintenance people.   You figure that out when you dig deeper and find out what units are being deployed. It makes perfect sense, the Ukrainians have developed truly amazing new tools of war, the recent attack on Russian oil and gas refineries speaks not only of the distance they have reached but the portability and control they can exercise.  This is truly a game changer, in addition, their amazingly cheap and successful waterborne guided drones are a truly inspired solution.  For less than $30,000 the Ukrainians have transformed jetskis into guided munition that have decimated the Russian Black Sea fleet.  If the stories are true it seems that the Ukrainians have developed drones that fit in a backpack and can deliver guided munition 3 o...

Do you know why 2040 is a great date for ambitious green targets...it's in 16 years and by then most politicians will have retired.  Seriously, the only way to cut greenhouse emissions by 90% is to entirely kill agriculture.  We are not talking about carbon capture of greenhouse gas credits, we are talking 90% cut.  What people don't understand is the amount of processing that agriculture requires.  Let's take a low-hanging fruit, wheat, one of the simplest grains.  Yet, assuming that Monsanto doesn't exist anymore, from year to year the grain for the successive planting has to be stored.  You cannot just leave grain alone for a whole winter, rot will destroy about 15% to 30% of the seeds you have stored.  Grains need to be moved, we call it aeration.  That takes energy.  mechanical planting requires energy, if you want to be a reductionist you can say, we will use Oxes and carts...guess what, Methane from the Ox is a certainty. It doesn't ma...

Most people will be familiar with the name Truth Social Media, the brainchild of the Trump organisation to replace Twitter (or X as it is now known).  Of course now that it has been acquired by a SPEC (special purpose acquisition company) it is according to some worth anywhere from $3 billion to $ 6 billion.  Valuation for companies is rarely based on historical performance but still, Since inception in 2021 TSM has generated sales of about $12 million per annum and losses of about $40 million (figures from the IPO docs).   As an investors you have to understand that valuation is a tricky thing, because it is based on the expectation of future revenues and profits, and not the past.  Tesla at its peak had a p/e over 1,400, but revenues, and profits caught up, and the enterprise's valuation reflects that reality (p/e today 40.. stock price is higher then it was).  There has also been companies such as the GrillCheese Truck company that had a valuation of sev...

My eldest nephew (he is 16 months younger than me) was telling me about the deals they struck in Italy.  Two years ago they purchased a small village near Trieste where they re-building the town as a retirement community.  They purchased the entire town for less than € 200,000 (building and all).  As Michel said, for less than the price of an ugly apartment in Strasbourg. The plan, which is is near completion is to transform the entire village into a retirement community.  The small houses are perfect and will be able to support nearly 3,000 residents and a staff of nearly 1,000.  They are building medical clinics, and there is already a small hospital. The amazing thing, as the owner of the town they decide what can and cannot be built, and they control zoning.  Access to the town is restricted to residents, their guests and workers.  The idea is to create an Alsacian retirement community.  The family had planned three sales offices for the proje...

Did you know that 60% of the world's population lives in Asia!  Yet Asia only has 20% of the world's first-quartile fertile land.  In other words, 60% of the world's population is dependent on an agricultural basis that requires one of three outcomes:  food imports, fertilizer imports or famine.  These are the only three choices. Currently, Two of the five largest food exports, Russia and Ukraine are largely offline, and the world's second-largest exporter of fertilizer is also offline (Russia again).  The impact of this is not only felt in Asia which has seen explosive food price rises, but also, and almost more importantly, in Brazil, the world's 4th largest food exporter and the world's fourth largest fertilizer importer.  Brazil used to import 100% of its Potash from Russia.  In 2024, Brazil is looking for a new source, and while Canada is the largest exporter of Potash in the world, its production is fully committed for 2024 and even its 2025 and ...

I had forgotten how beautiful the city of Strasbourg can be even in the rain and the cold.  It is quiet this Sunday afternoon.  We landed just before lunch and had a spectacular Chourcoute Royal.  We split it in two, although it is a one-person dish (many potatoes, a generous helping of choucroute, seven sausages and four pieces of smoked ham).  Two large beers...It was a perfect lunch.   Three of our kids are joining us for dinner tonight (we rented a large house for the week) with the nieces, and nephews.  We are going to a brilliant place called Les Haras, we will be 19 in all.  A celebration for my sister, we will keep the sadness for tomorrow.  Perry my brother in law will be there too.  He is not a young man, as he is nearly 75 years old.  My brother's wife will also be there, with three of her children.  They keep in touch as they live only three hundred kilometres apart, and the cousins know each other very well.  ...

So the news is out, both the king and Princess Kate are undergoing cancer treatment.  It could be worse, it could be deadly, but it's still horrible.  We take health for granted, but no more for me and my wife, we have been booked for an annual checkup in London, in three weeks.  considering that both my sister and brother died of cancer, my sister's blood clots were apparently caused by the breast cancer treatment she had about a year ago.  She was in full remission, apparently. For us, the weekend, which was supposed to be quiet takes a turn, as we are flying to Strasbourg for my sister's funeral on Monday.  The French are adamant that the funeral must take place within a week, it is possible to have some extension, but it is not the way it is done, Saturday we are on our way.  We are flying directly again, almost back to where my Brother once lived.  This time we are staying for a week. I am very close with my nephews and nieces and I considered my ...

 Made in the USA is an old branding idea, yet when prices are everything, the Made in the USA label counted for little.  Why does the British government believe that such a UK-centric campaign will bear positive fruits?   Consumers will assume that the "British" section will be more expensive (not incorrectly by the way) and will steer clear.  Moreover, 60% of fruits and vegetables are already British.  So this is likely to harm produce, either because the reception is that they are too expensive or of lower quality.  Now, there is nothing wrong with having a small union jack on UK-sourced produces, but having dedicated sections is a recipe for disaster. There are 250,000 farms in the United Kingdom.   Most are very small and nearly artisanal, which is a problem.  The work on a small farm is backbreaking since they don't usually have the resources for heavy equipment.  The plants are too small for mechanized labour so the work is ha...

 90% of the time I drive my 1972 Land Rover.  It is not an electric vehicle, in fact, most of our employees would say it is almost not a vehicle, although it does go place where only UTV/ATV dare to go... Over the past few months, there has been the narrative about electric cars, and how the demand was falling.  For my amusement, I looked at the stats.  Obviously, all serious data is American, as usual.   Telsa accounts for about 65% of all-electric vehicle sales in 2023, 260,000, 230,000, 40,000 and 35,000 for Models Y, 3, S, and X respectively.  Total Tesla sales were 755,000 in 2023.  The rest of the field (Hyundai/Ford/BMW/Nissan/Volvo/ Rivian etc) accounted for about 450,000 units.   In 2023 total electric vehicle sales were 1.2 million units.  In 2022 total sales of electric vehicles in the US were 918,000.  The increase is about 30%, so the question is why are car journalists talking about the failure of the electric aut...

The end of South Africa has been long and coming.  It is not a case of wishing ill will for that country but just an observation of the long-anticipated collapse.  Pressures began in earnest in the mid-1970s.  The first real instance was the boycott of the Montreal Olympics where many nations decided to not participate.  This was the first true pressure on the country.  One impact was to significantly raise the cost of investing in infrastructure.  In 1975 the population of South Africa was 26 million, about half of what it is today. Between 1975 and 1994 when the ANC and the black majority took power, the cost of capital in South Africa tripled, mainly because a good chunk of the world would no longer trade with them.  They could not buy gas turbines from GE, or Alstrom.  So not only was the cost of infrastructure higher, but the white ruling class was no longer worried about the next 30 years, they were concerned with the next 12 months.  G...

 Today, we got unwelcome news, my sister died of a massive stroke caused by a blood clot.  We don't have the details, I received a call around 4 from my niece.  She called me from Newcastle where she lives.  she was making arrangements to fly to Strasbourg where her mother and father lived for the past 40 years.  2023 is turning into a horrible year for the family.  My niece wanted to inform me that she had died, and there were no plans yet for funerals I last saw my sister at Christmas at our son's wedding.  Like our brother, she looked fine, and in good health.  We would see her more often than my brother as two of her children live in the UK, still, it's a shock. It reminds me, in a more dramatic fashion of the events around Princess Kate who seems to be living her own kind of hell.  99% of the news about her or rumours are lies, they are not into public disclosure and if the Palace wanted people to know, they would say something.  Eq...

The last big construction job in the apartment started on Monday, the installation of the floor.  We were initially thinking of re-using the old floor boards, but what remains is in poor shape and insufficient, so we made the decision to install new flooring throughout the apartment.  After the flooring is installed the last step will be painting the entire space.  Everything should be ready by June 1st.  So we are meeting our newest deadline. As for the daycare, things are progressing quickly as our contractor switches labour from the apartment to the daycare centre.  It is getting more difficult now because the apartment is virtually done (flooring and paint are different contractors). the challenge is that the daycare is a commercial building, it must meet commercial standards.  The kitchen and bathrooms are perfect examples.  Still, with between 6-8 staff the requirements are justifiable, especially since we make three meals a day, breakfast, tea, ...

It was a VW commercial years ago, where people would buy GTI that had gone Essex and remove all the useless stuff, including very loud exhaust systems.  I know this is a strange direction for a farming channel, still I always wondered.  The quest for knowledge was driven by an old Top Gear episode where Jeremy Clarkson modified his vehicle by adding huge tires and raising the whole thing.  Invariably this leads to terrible handling.  The funny bit of course, was that Jeremy never seemed to learn his lesson, which was part of his charm on Top Gear. My future son-in-law asked if we had a barn where he could store an old car that he owns, as they will soon be moving permanently to the farm.  The car right now is largely in pieces, it arrived yesterday, it's a 1973 Jensen Interceptor.  As my son-in-law says it was a terrible car, but beautiful, in his spare time he is rebuilding it, not using old parts but rather redesigning the vehicle so that it can take a 3....

My wife spent Friday in a crisis meeting, one of our subsidiaries has a problem.  In the course of business, prior to our purchase of a significant percentage of the company, it entered into an unfavourable loan agreement that could not be prepaid.  The loan terms were usurus, and frankly should be illegal. Friday morning this lender had called its loan because the insurance on the primary building had been renewed a day late.  Before I tell the end of the story, you should  know that this was not only not intentional but entirely the fault of the insurance company that had made, we thought, a clerical error.  Not only did the insurance company recognized the error but immediately apologized and provided a letter for lenders.  In other words, the error was not that of our subsidiary but by a third party. This notice of loan default and immediate acceleration gave until Monday to repay the loan in full with interest and a penalty fees.  Again, normally ...

Donald Trump has to post a $500 million bond in his civil cause if he wants to appeal.  A lawyer friend just pointed out the "delicious" irony that it is Trump being hit by the detail workings of the American legal system because for decades Trump has been using these same tools to defeat his enemies in court.  Many opponents had to sue for peace if they wanted to stay in business because Trump was brutal when it came to his opponents posting bonds. That this would now nearly kill his own business is the ultimate requital.  

 It seems that our farm is the exception, as such a high percentage of our labour force is women.  We examined many of the historical tasks, and I will say with a great deal of confidence that mechanization is at the root of this change.  An example is a classic hay bale weighing between 35 and 65 kg.  We never used such baling equipment, we use round balers that produce half-ton bales that are handled by tractors.   In the UK, most feed gains were delivered in 55kg bags, but we have it delivered in mini silos by the ton.  The difference is that commercial farming requires less physical strength.  The only part of the farm that requires brut strength is the meat processing plant. Granted, our initial labour pool was dominated by women, as picking is the most important activity on the farm,  but as the farm grew, almost all our new jobs were first offered to our current employees, the two idiots we recently fired proved that hiring outside our...

 Just so that I am clear, pigs need a good diet,  I got many comments that a forest does not provide pigs with a proper alimentation.   While this is true if you are seeking to create a sustainable pig farm, and it does lead to a lower growth rate, pigs on our farm do not principally breed for the rapidity at which they gain weight. However, we are fully aware that protein has to constitute about 25% of their diet, and that there are essential vitamins and other nutrients that they have to access.  Guess what, our ecologist and biologist goal is to ensure that they have access to these in the correct proportion.   In a nutshell, we watch our pigs, we provide certain supplements and our pigs are healthy.  The four bruisers we culled were removed because of their difficult disposition.  Forest-grown pigs have longer life cycles than pigs raised on grains.  It was always the compromise we were willing to make because their primary duty is c...

Obviously, most of what I write here is about the US conservative movement, embodied by the Republican party (aka GOP or RNC).   Here in the UK, Mr Sunak will make it to the next election, which the conservatives will lose and Mr Senak will probably resign and return to private life.  Being the ex-leader of the Conservatives where they may even be the second opposition may not be much fun.  But only time and the election outcome will tell.   In the US things are more public and far more interesting.  Obviously, the big news is that Trump is now the nominee for the GOP, and as well Biden is the nominee for the Democrats.  Robert Kennedy, of the Kennedy family, tried to mount a campaign against Biden, but first, it was financed by GOP donors and he's crazy, so that went nowhere. Plus many members of this family campaigned against him... In addition, the head of the Republican party resigned a few weeks ago and has been replaced by Trump's daughter-i...

Our farm shares many characteristics with vertical farms bar one produce variety.  We employ red and blue light, we add CO2 to our high tunnels and we heat them.  However, the biggest difference is in the type of vegetable we produce, we do everything from courgette to eggplants to some types of cabbages, what we do not produce are herbs and salads, the margins are too thin, and the competition too intense, and guess what that is 80% of what is produced in vertical farms.  There's a clue there.  90% of our vegetable and fruit production are heirlooms, more difficult to transport but far more flavour.  Our tomatoes are a perfect example, they taste as good in February as they do in July, but they are expensive (we don't produce tomatoes in the late summer). The conversation came about because my visitors Bernard and Peter who are here for the weekend, were visiting our high tunnels and telling me about all these vertical farms going bankrupt.    I only ...

As I wrote earlier friends are up for the weekend from London, and one of the conversations we had was about sailboats, neither my wife nor I are sailors, I can say with a great deal of certitude that the last time I was on a sailboat was 40 years ago, on an Optimist.   Peter is a big-time sailor, he has owned sailboats his whole life and one of his life goals is to retire soon and go sailing for a while!  Peter has no interest in going around the world, rather he wants to explore places that are not easily accessible.   Peter had this whole thing fully thought out, he has actually bought a 55-foot aluminum catamaran (delivery Q3/24).  As he says it's built for comfort first and speed second because he did his research, (actually some sailors did the research) and over the past 5 years he compared Atlantic crossing times by different catamarans, from the sedate Lagoon to the high-performance Gunboat.  The determinant factor for the duration of crossing...

Today was the first day that the new milk parlour was fully operational, the cows are now firmly established on the new farm.  Milking went well, and the cows were comfortable with the new system, milk production is still only about 90% of what it was two weeks ago, but we anticipated that stressed cows produce less milk.  Our foreman is confident that within a few days, everything will be back to normal.  The new space was purpose-built and therefore easier to manage.  Our herd is growing to meet our butter needs, as I indicated before, we easily sell out our butter production, and our objective is to meet between 90% and 95% of demand, as we expect that percentage to rise a bit this year as the economy slows down.  In addition, our subsidiaries can easily use more buttermilk in the pie crust. Our staff likes the new setup, the weekend crew, which operates today and tomorrow, got some training on Thursday, and they all said that it is far more efficient, and th...

This weekend we are having a few of my City friends over for three days.  I do this every three or four months just for the sheer pleasure of talking finance and investment again.  This weekend my broker and his wife, as well as Peter (aka China Peter) and his wife are staying with us.   Two stories first that a very influential American broker has been recommending that its client buy VIX calls, the second that 80% of bonds in the Shanghai bond market are in default. Now the VIX is a derived index, because it's an index on the volatility of the S&P500, now buying a call means you think the index is going to rise:   That stock prices are going to move more quickly and by greater margins.  Effectively, this is an instrument that allows investors to either seek protection or profit from a fall in the S&P500.  The broker is anticipating a general market correction.  The problem with that call is that the US market indicators are positive...

It's easy;  find a good broker and trust him.  The problem, obviously is finding a good broker.  That's tough because depending on the type of client you are you will have access to different types of brokerage services.   Now if you don't have a lot, then there are a few things you can do, if you know little about the market you can invest in ETF.  ETF can be great because the fees are minuscule.  If you have a regular brokerage account and they charge a 1% fee over 10 years it's 15% of your total return that has gone away, if you bought a ETF, where fees can be as low as 1 tenth of a percent, then it is worthwhile.  Now there are two types of ETF... You see where I am going with this.  Investing is hard work, finding a good broker is also hard because their interests are not aligned with yours.  Some brokers like to trade a lot, which will cost you as an investor.  You are not Warren Buffet, but WB would buy stock and hold it for ...

The title of this entry is a famous City saying, basically those too greedy end up losing it all.  Well, guess what, it is actually based on observed nature.  Yesterday, we moved a transport trailer to where the pigs are kept.  Our Forewoman said that getting the four brutes out of the forest and their enclosure would be easy.   For the past three days, she had been bringing a little feed to the forest enclosure with molasse, not enough for all the pigs, just a little bit.  Last night we parked the trailer at the edge of the enclosure, the pigs were curious but there was nothing inside.  This morning, our pig whisperer brought molasses-dipped corn and grain to the pigs and dumped the feed in the trailer.  In less than 30 seconds all four bruisers were in the trailer, they had kicked out all the other pigs from the feast.  I almost missed the whole show.  She dumped and in less than 2 minutes the trailer was away with the four pigs inside...

Two months ago it was a demonstration about oil consumption, right now it's boycotts of Starbucks because they sell coffee in Israel, every day it's pro-Palestinian rallies for peace, whatever that may mean.  There is always one single cause that makes people enraged and "go nuclear".  As for the killing of Palestinians yes it's terrible, but why just now, were their lives much better before.  How about other recent mass killings, why don't they get their demonstration, Pakistan, Yemen, Burma, Cha, Ethiopia, and Nigeria just to name the top of the hit parade.  Because we don't really care, at the end of the day we want to protest against "the Man" whatever he/she may be that week.   The reason the Americans are not charging into Gaza is twofold, (1) Israel is united on this war the attacks have to stop permanently, also Gaza started it! (2) What is the solution, a return to the Status Quo, that America stops supporting Israel?  Because the implic...

 It should be a surprise to no one that real estate prices in Florida are falling.  Despite the governor's effort to thwart any discussions about global warming and its impact on coastal development, the reality of Florida is that it has for years been a poor insurance risk.  The problems pre-date the current administration, and the federal government's disappearance of flood insurance coverage in the 2022 budget has really started to bite. Although it is an imperfect image of the state, it is famous for being a retirement community.  snowbirds have flocked to the Sunshine State for decades.  In addition, many had getaway condos easily accessible and in perfect weather.  Florida has long been popular from November to April when the weather is perfect.  The bulk of the world's re-insurance market is based in London, and in 2015 it was apparent that the Florida market was a loss maker, and had been for some time.  Reinsurance is a complicated market...

 Since Monday, the company that has sold us, and is installing the new machinery in the milk parlour has been hard at work.  We did not buy all the bells and whistles but we did go relatively high specs.  The reason is that at our level all the extra stuff can be added at a later date if we need it.  A quarter of your herd has been moved to the new enclosure, as usual, the poor cows took poorly to the move and we saw a 30% decrease in milk production, which is standard.  The new shed is far more efficient.  All chemical products (such as iodine) are delivered under pressure from a central distribution point, which means there is no more lugging heavy contains of iodine.   Instead of 4 people in the milking shed the work can be done by two (no no one is being fired...).  The work is physically slightly less demanding, but still requires a good deal of physical effort, the milking process timing is the same, mike is extracted at one speed only,...

is a farming lobby group that strives to keep European foodstuff out of the UK.  Their goal is to keep British food prices high to support British farmers.  They are being honest and I wish them the best of luck because if they think it's bad now, imagine when the flood of US imports finally arrives on our shores. The UK's largest trading partners are the US, Germany and the Netherlands (2nd and 3rd).  Europe will remain an important trading partner, but the reality is that when Europe has to choose between member states and Great Britain it will choose member states.  Great Britain needs a friend, and the only reasonable friend available is the United States of America.  Keir Starmer's most important job as the prime minister will be to get a trade deal negotiated with the Americans.  Nothing else matters, and he might as well get it done early in his new administration because we are going to hate it!   The UK is in desperate need of a friend, a...

First, Frank Hester is not the only racist in the United Kingdom, he's got a lot of company.  Second, although the Tories are a bunch of idiots right now, they don't hold a monopoly on racists.  That ground is fertile, and it's not because Mrs. Abbott is a tough pill to swallow (I don't know her, but she sounds like a Labour MP).  You don't have to look very far into the Labour Party to find racists.   Now, why Graham Stuart chose to defend Mr Hester is another thing entirely.  Frank is like your great aunt, the things she says are just appalling, and yet she still gets invited at Christmas.  You try to ignore the worst bits and enjoy the good bits, but you don't go around defending Frank, first Frank is a big guy able to defend himself, and if he "wants to hate all black women" because of a comment Mrs. Abott made, it's his right to be a....well you know it starts with an "a" and there's a hole in there somewhere.   The failure here ...

Over the past two years, the US government has been supplying the Ukrainians with arms, ammunition and vehicles for their fight with the Russians.  What is not generally known,  is that about 80% of the ammunition was from US stock that will expire within the next 36 months.  The vast majority of fighting vehicles that the US has supplied are vehicles that were used in the Gulf.   So the US has given about $ 30 billion in military aid, but about 80% of that was for equipment or ammunition that would have to be destroyed within the next three years.  US accounting is such that the value of the ammunition was the value it cost to the US government, when in fact if they had not sold/given it to the Ukrainians they would have to spend money to destroy it. I thought that was a fun fact.  BTW the reason it's so high, is that a lot of the more modern systems are too complicated for the Ukrainians to maintain, because the key is not only for the stuff to work ...

 Truthfully, I watched neither, mainly because this has little to do with me.  A 50-year-old ex-City worker who now owns a farm.  While I didn't watch Joe Biden's little show on Thursday, I did "see" the blowback of the entire event on Friday evening with my sons.  First, as an outsider, if you compare Biden's speech with that of Trump on the same evening, you have to ask yourself, who is losing his marble, Trump was incoherent, granted we don't speak "American" but still it was bad, he sounded like an old man who was lost in his own stories.  Biden on the other hand sounded like a zippy old guy with all the right comebacks.  You know it's bad for the GOP when Biden started making jokes about his own age in his political ads.  Adam insisted that I watch the Republican's rebuttal to Biden's State of the Union.  That was an unusual speech, why was she sitting in her kitchen?  The entire thing was off, her body language was unexplainable.  ...

There are always farms for sale.  Large estates are rare (2,500 acres), one of the larger ones in Northumberland is on the market for about £ 7,200 per acre which is just about the average land price in that region.  down in Norfolk, the price is nearer £ 8,500 per acre. While £18 million seems a fair amount of money, it also tells you everything you need to know about UK farming.  The UK average farm size is 85 acres, and the average US farm is 450 acres.  US farms are large because large-scale mechanisation makes farming more efficient.   I mentioned before not only field-specific use of fertilizer applicators but now, it is possible to be even more surgical and tailor application to almost every meter of the farm.   The capital cost for most farmers is prohibitive because the owner/farmer is only one accident away from bankruptcy.  Granted the UK is not the US, but food security in the UK (and Europe too) has created a system that supports...

Adam's movers arrived at the flat at precisely 8 am.  The crew of 12 came bearing gifts, more boxes, tape and wrapping paper.  They also brought large heavy-duty plastic bins for all the kitchen gear.  We three were dispatched to the new flat to start unboxing.  At 9:30 the first lorry arrived at the new flat, and less than 30 minutes later all the boxes were in the flat in that appropriate room.  I took care of the bedrooms and started unpacking.  Empty boxes were broken down and ready to be taken away.  The second load arrived at 11 am, and this was the kitchen stuff, that had been loaded into the mover-supplied bins.  The third load would arrive at 2 with the bedframes and other awkwardly shaped items.   The second load arrived at 11:00, it was mostly the big plastic bins full of kitchen equipment, plates, glasses etc etc.  Adam and his brother unpacked the kitchen there were more than 30 large bins.   By 11:30 I h...

This is an amazing story of quitting your job in the City.  This young woman, whom I mentored for several years, had enough of her current employer.  This very large city firm is poorly run, this young woman was earning a large salary, and she was probably the most productive in the M&A practice.   Over the past six months, we prepared for her exit from the company.  Yes, it takes that long.  The process was driven by her need for a three-month sabbatical to finish her PhD dissertation.  She is number two in a large UK institution M&A team and her boss hates her guts, mainly because she's a woman.  He was more than happy to see her take leave because he would be able to engineer her firing.   On November 30th of 2023, she began her sabbatical, what he boss didn't understand was that several clients had paused their projects until she returned.  So in November she finished her last project and left the firm, with all her thin...