One thing that stood out in the Ballymoney Agricultural Show was the engagement of young people - there were a lot of teenage boys and girls wanting to show off their farm animals.
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| Young fellow with Belted Galloway bull. I assume the bull is young but I don't think these boys grow as big as other breeds. I like this shot, not just for the subjects centre stage but for what's going on in the background. M6/Canon 50mm ltm lens, HP5+ on Foma 133. |
Life on a farm is pretty busy and while the young 'uns at the Show were clearly enjoying the day I wonder how many will end up in the business. Our neighbour DC has recently sold off his dairy herd, which was a bit of a shock. Understandable, though, since he's not getting any younger and neither of his children were going to carry on the business. It's sad as this looks like the end of the road for full-time farming in that particular family - DC took over the farm from his father, who is now in his late 80s and not in good health. But DC senior still rolls out of bed at 4am most days and heads down to the farm to help, in whatever way he can - milking was at 5am and on a clear still morning we could hear the faint hum of the milking machines. Same again at 5pm. Some evenings DC is out until midnight on his tractor, maybe cutting silage or turning it. My mother would be complaining to me the next morning she couldn't get to sleep for the noise. I'm guessing DC has no trouble sleeping, when his head finally hits the pillow.
Most farming in Korea is done by old people. Young people don't want to run a farm (and they are mostly all small plots of land here) when they can make much more money for much less work at an office in Seoul. I suspect farm land will get bought up by big companies who will then hire cheap foreign labour to do the work. Last year I saw a lot of Southeast Asian women taking in the harvest.
ReplyDeleteMost farms here are around the 40-50 acre size, from what I can glean but a lot of these are let out to farmers who need larger areas to make a profit. I have no idea how that works - the cost of machinery alone must be substantial, going from the sheer size of the tractors these days. Labour costs where you are (or SE Asia) must be a lot lower than here - our neighbour for example, farmed his herd with help from one other guy. So just two people to run a diary herd of around 100 milking cows.
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