Farmer Diaries

In 1990 I purchased a Rolex submarine watch for about £1,500.  At the time I thought it was a fair price for a nice practical "sports" watch.   I saw it on the wrist of a friend while scuba diving in Australia.  36 years later I still own the watch.   I mention this because last week as a surprise my wife had it cleaned and maintained professionally in London, as a surprise delayed birthday gift. Now, I treat the watch as any watch I own. It's for work and little else, I stopped wearing it about three years ago because it did not keep time very well. I owned a seiko perpetual (which I bought ten years later) that was also automatic and kept time perfectly. The gift was thoughtful and also included an electric autowinding case for three watches, nothing outrageous but still.  What surprised me was the value of the watch.   A 1990 (which is the year my watch was manufactured) watch is worth between £9,500 and £14,000, down from nearly £20,000 –...

Three quarter of the financial year have now been completed, and for the farm and its ancillary businesses the year so far has been on budget, that is despite fuel costs being through the roof.  The average has been 127 pence per liter, which is about twice what it was last year.  Not insignificant.  All other energy costs have been stable for the year since 100% of our energy is produced on the farm.   We have not had to use the generator once this year and we have "given away" the waste gases our biodigestors produce that we cannot use.  All our farm equipment, aside from tractors, are now electric.  The range, price and quality is more than sufficient for our needs.   We have actually used my car once to drive down to London, but we did this only once, the train is far more convenient. In terms of profits, we are on budget for the year.  Granted, that most of our "real profits" are generated in Q1 and Q4 when produce prices across the...