“it’s easy to be a busy fool”

They say “it’s easy to be a busy fool” and this is a trap into which livestock farmers can easily fall because animals need looking after, especially in winter when routine tasks like feeding, mucking out and bedding down can take up much of the day.  

By the time all this daily work is finished many farmers simply do not have the energy to think how they could improve or alter their farming system for the better.

This was reflected in a study presented at the Oxford Farming Conference entitled “Entrepreneurship: A kiss of life for the UK farming sector?”  The paper was written by Graham Redman of the Andersons Centre and Muhammad Azam Roomi of the school of management at Cranfield University.

In the paper Redman explains that farming, unlike many other businesses, has evolved to be more than making the maximum profit, they are often about lifestyle and longevity. Consequently farming businesses generally last a long time but their return on investment is not as great as others.

Redman argues that this approach has stifled entrepreneurship in British farming.  He also explains that diversification is not the same as running an entrepreneurial business. 

Farmers who generate additional income from diversification may be running an efficient or profitable business but it doesn’t make them entrepreneurs. To be truly entrepreneurial, you need to be an original thinker.

“Entrepreneurship involves innovation,” he says. “It involves doing something new rather than just copying something that someone else has done.“

Not everyone can be an original thinker and I see no problem in copying someone else’s idea provided you do it well, but equally there must be original thinkers in the farming community who are stuck in the trap of time consuming routine tasks.  If those farmers could give themselves some strategic thinking time this might well benefit their business and perhaps also the wider farming community.

Redman goes on to say: “It is also important to exploit your skills to the maximum – and those of the people around you, as well as your other assets. 

“Evidence suggests that people do best at what they are good at, what they enjoy doing and what they understand. As a farmer, you are more likely to be successful doing something in the food supply chain than you are going off and building a factory that makes shoes.”

So, why not make some time for yourself to think? The results may be scary because change very often is. But you may find the changes you decide to implement are less risky than carrying on as you are.

James Stephen MRICS FAAV
Partner
Rural Practice Chartered Surveyor, Wells
T: 01749 683381
E: james.stephen@carterjonas.co.uk