In last month’s Newsletter I mentioned that I was shortly to visit a client, where the farmer and his wife had asked me to conduct a brain storming session.  Well it wasn’t traditional brain-storming as I know it, where one allocates the first few minutes of a meeting to everyone throwing any ideas, however mad, into the pot.  They are then distilled, discussed further, with impractical ones discarded.

However we did discuss some off-the-wall solutions to their problem, which was (in effect) that their successful diversified farming and holiday business threatened to swamp them, and ruin their family life.  They have young children, and want to be able to spend time with them now, both at home and on holiday away from the farm.

The solution I suggested, and that they are very keen on, is for them to completely close their holiday business for 2 or 3 weeks per year.  This is seen as preferable to employing a manager.  They can afford this closure, and think their staff will like the idea too.  The idea would not have come out of them discussing it between themselves, but this change could be the one that conserves their sanity.

Thinking about dairy farms, it’s actually a similar solution to a dairy farmer block calving the herd. Everyone can have some down-time for a few weeks while the herd is dry.

Contact Chares at charlesholt@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office to discuss this further.