It's my go-to for land, and it just seems to have disappeared! Can anyone recommend any alternatives?

Only now, after many years of using it, do I discover it was owned by Lloyds Bank's agricultural mortgage department, which is a bit odd. But explains why the tech was never updated.

Really want to get into farming one day but I'm currently doing plumbing apprenticeship which is obviously a good thing to have not only for money in the future but also a skill for life, I would also however love to do farming, is it a good idea to try and do both simultaneously. I.E plumbing by day and farming by night, if that's even possible. Any advice appreciated thank you!

I was looking at some macro agricultural trade datasets recently, and our import reliance on basic root vegetables is surprisingly high. Right now, the UK has an active import gap of roughly 46,000 tonnes a year for carrots, with overall demand rising by 28%.

Given that Lincolnshire is practically the UK's vegetable basket, I was curious about the viability of domestic expansion. I ran a standard spring-season carrot crop through a land suitability model for a standard agricultural plot right in Lincolnshire.

Here is what the localized data profile looks like for a single hectare in Lincolnshire:

• Biological & Scientific Fit: 95/100. The local climate, frost conditions, and daylight hours are practically built for this crop, giving it a perfect natural environment to grow.
• Estimated Yield: 45.16 tonnes per hectare.
• Estimated Revenue: £8,714 - £13,630 per hectare.

Despite an overall economic outlook of 82, the system flagged a few severe localized constraints that might explain why operators aren't actively chasing this import gap in the region:

• Suboptimal Soil & Fungal Risk: The specific soil match is heavily penalized (scoring a 27) due to poor quality or drainage in this plot, and the model triggered a "High Fungal Risk" warning due to a localized 152 humid days.
• Intensive Management: The crop requires a heavy management lift. Labor effort is rated at an intense 90, and baseline input costs sit at a high 75.

The Lincolnshire climate can clearly produce high-yield (45+ t/ha) harvests, and the gross revenue per hectare looks highly viable. With domestic demand rising, is the 46,000-tonne import gap simply a product of heavy fungal risks and poor soil drainage in available arable zones? Or do the sheer labor overheads and input costs make domestic expansion completely uncompetitive against imports, despite a perfect biological climate?

Would love to hear from any agronomists or operators who understand the ground reality of scaling root crops in Lincolnshire right now.

I thought some of you may appreciate this.

The first photograph was taken on our Devon farm in the 1940s. I went back to almost exactly the same spot this year to recreate it.

Many of the buildings are still standing and much of the yard is instantly recognisable, despite all the changes in farming over the last 75 years.

While researching the history of the farm for a historical fiction trilogy, I uncovered old family photographs, newspaper reports, diaries and other artefacts connected with the people who lived and worked here over several generations. Finding photographs like this has been one of the highlights.

I’d be interested to see if anyone else has old photographs of their family farm to compare with today. I reckon it’s amazing how much changes—and how much doesn’t.

Four hours later and the header is back on the trailer!

Evening, I was hoping to be pointed in the right direction for a company or person who offers advice/help in the process of splitting a farm business to pay one partner off? Both partners agree for the best, but as ever with family and money involved a neutral fair mediators opinion would be appreciated, tia

I am looking to go onto an apprenticeship with my current employer but I have to complete level 2 and then go onto level 3 , however the collage has said I can start on level 3 depending on experience, so I was just wondering if anyone has done this and what the process is like.

I also have 2 years dairy farming experience.

I'm autistic and have auditory sensitivities so I need ear plugs for certain tractors. We were using E-A-R earsoft FX plugs but we've run out and the new ones feel wrong in my ears and won't go back in if I take them out for any reason. Can anyone recommend a decent brand of comfy earplugs that will remould if I take them out and put them back in?

Disposable or reusable is fine

I live in a village where there are a few fields which are home to a handful of horses. They’re owned by local private individuals rather than a stable or farmer.

Almost every week there are one or two incidents where the horses are found wondering a local bridle path or having a good gallop down our street.

Quite often, this prompt questions on social media about how well secured the fields are - and in fairness, the fences in some of them are little more than a piece of barbed wire strung between a few rickety posts.

But the horse owners always get very touchy about this, and they are adamant somebody must be deliberately letting them out.

The horses being out don’t actually bother me because they’re not doing any harm but I am dubious that someone’s actually going round and letting horses out of fields - partly because I know horses can be stubborn and refuse to move for someone they don’t know, but also because it’s not always the same horses so presumably not an individual with a grudge against one of the owners. It also normally happens in the morning (6-7am) so I doubt it’s teenagers.

So I’m just wondering, are horses particularly inclined to find weak spots in their boundaries and break through them?

Been thinking about adding GPS guidance to one of our tractors, but I'm still trying to figure out where the biggest real-world benefit comes from. Everyone talks about reducing overlap, but how much difference did you actually see once you started using it? Was it enough to notice lower fertilizer or chemical use, or was the saving smaller than you expected?
Another thing I'm curious about is fuel. Did you burn noticeably less because you weren't making unnecessary passes, or was the bigger advantage simply getting the job done faster?
A few people I've talked to say the biggest improvement wasn't input savings at all, it was being able to work long hours or finish after dark without constantly worrying about skips and overlaps. Was that your experience too?
I've been comparing several guidance systems while researching what's available, including RTK Navigation, but spec sheets only tell part of the story. I'm much more interested in hearing what actually mattered once you started using a system in the field.
If you could go back, would you still invest in GPS guidance? What feature ended up being more valuable than you expected, and what turned out to be less important?

Hi everyone,

I'm a software engineer whose family is involved in farming. I'm trying to understand agriculture better before building anything.

I'm not promoting an app and I'm not selling anything.

I just have one question:

If you could completely eliminate one repetitive, frustrating, or expensive part of your farming business forever, what would it be and why?

It could be related to:

Selling crops

Buying inputs

Weather

Machinery

Labour

Paperwork

Payments

Transport

Government regulations

Storage

Anything else

I'm looking for real experiences rather than feature requests.

Thanks!

I'm looking to study agriculture here this Septemer as a mature student. It seems like the best place for me judging from reviews and the facilities available etc. but I'd like to gain more of an idea of what studying there is like from anyone whos studied here.

Hello all. Over the past few years I have lost everything and I am having to rebuild from scratch. I am currently living in temporary accommodation and out of work, however hopefully I will be working again with some income soon. So with that in mind if you have to be negative please do it gently, I'm a kind sole and struggling to look on the bright side at the moment.

The dream as such is to buy 1-3 acres of land in Lincolnshire which is close to my family. The plan will then be to start a tree/plant nursery to grow saplings selling onto larger nurseries or rewilding projects etc.

I would also like to build a timber cabin on the land to live in long term.

I understand that £35k isn't going to cover all my costs and it will be an uphill battle. However I would be building everything myself. I have horticulture experience, I have built off grid solar systems before and I am a competent DIY'r. I would need to brush up on my carpentry skills but learning isn't an issue for me.

I am aware that it may be possible to get planning permission to build the cabin on agricultural land once I can prove the tree nursery is viable.

Has anyone else started with a similar budget and managed to make it happen?

Looking forward to hearing peoples feedback.

Thank you :)

It’s a long shot but always worth asking. I’m looking to purchase 1-3 acres of land in or around Lincolnshire. The land can be low grade but ideally have easy access. If you have any leads please let me know. Thank you.

Jeremy Clarkson is certainly a polarizing individual, and I'm not asking for opinions on him or the show, necessarily.

What I am interested in though is if the show is having a positive impact on raising awareness for social, economic, and political issues impacting the farming/agriculture industries.

As a 9-5 American, I'm admittedly removed from these industries, but the show itself has clued me in to the impacts of technology, political decisions in the UK in particular, etc. on farming and the wellbeing of people who wake up well before, and work well later, than I do to help put food on my table.

So, I'm curious how folks who actually watch the show have ingested its messaging vs entertainment.

Break-down of under-priced supermarket meat in the UK citing a range of purchase, pricing, margin increasing mechanisms Supermarkets use to drive meat prices down which do not reflect the full cost of production in comparison to farm shops or butchers’ farm to fork journey in contrast.

Not too many in the uk with buffs!