* Published quarterly since 1992 *
No advertising or sponsors
* Innovations out of farm workshops, financial management
* Subscribers with large or small farms, livestock or cropping, from every farm type
Take out a subscription, search for specific topics in the Indexes, buy a back issue
Read our history, aims and objectives, ambitions
Every day a farmer new to Practical Farm Ideas says "I wish I had joined years ago"
A few comments from readers
"Mike, I hope you and the team are doing well. Thank you for your fantastic work in getting out this essential publication.
Karl Broderick
"Looking forward to another issue. Great magazine thanks for all the effort in putting it together.
Mark McCaughtley
"I really do believe that reading your editorials and financial pages has hugely contributed to our success. Best of luck — you can always call in if you are about anytime.
Adrian Marsh, Craven Arms
"Mike and team - congrats and thanks for all the useful and interesting reading through the years - a good job well done... many, many thanks' says
Greg McGovern from Co Cavan
"Keep up the good work. PFI is the only farm mag out of about six we get that I read every word, cover to cover. Excellent" wrote
Mr Knight of Minehead, Som.
"I find your magazine excellent with some terrific ideas, many of which I have used and/or adapted over these past few years. Keep up the good work. Best regards
John Gilgunn
Hello all! Practical Farm Ideas will continue to publish material that helps all readers. Which means we welcome new contributors who are happy to share what they have made and adapted in the workshop.
PFI News
Groundswell Festival 2025
The next is on 2 - 3 July 2025
Groundswell is the UK’s only two-day on-farm regenerative agriculture conference. This year the event was a sell-out. With over 100 sessions involving 200 speakers it provided a powerful stage for all to share their expertise.
To ensure the event was inclusive for everyone, sessions included “First Principles” for those at the start of their No-till journey, through to advanced sessions looking at integrated pest and disease management and enhancing underground communications.
Practical Farm Ideas has been a supporter from year one, seeing attendance grow from around 400 to this year's 6,000. We suggest booking as early as you can.
Event Director, Alex Cherry www.groundswellag.com
Lannock Manor Farm, Hertfordshire, SG4 7EE
Please mention Practical Farm Ideas when contacting Groundswell. Thanks.
The current issue of Practical Farm Ideas
Vol 33 issue 3 #131 December 2024 to March 2025
The lead story focuses on FARM SAFETY: farming is now the least safe occupation of all. It need not be. Our report includes key insights from Charlotte Dawson, a legal expert who says the time has come for farmers to have a change of attitude. A 'must read' for all.
On a lighter note 'Made it Myself' shows how 2nd hand crowd barriers help handling and loading sheep, calves and stirks. Cheap way to save time and effort.
The Financial Focus covers the appalling Reeves' Budget and ways farmers can reduce its sting.
There's much about large scale Danish farming in this issue including a home designed 12-row potato planter. Large scale can be done organically and in accordance with regenerative principles, using successful business methods. The Soil+ Cover Cropping section sees how the U.S. is moving towards farming with fewer chemicals.
What is your major farming interest?
Click to get the Index with article titles of greatest interest to you. Many back issues are still available in paper, and more as digital. Other Indexes such as Workshop, Grass, Muck and Slurry, Farm Workshop made Toys, and General Farming ideas
Practical Farm Ideas provides a means for farmers to share time and money-saving tips, workshop innovations; management ideas, and a whole lot more. From simple tips to complex projects, all are published in a 48 page paper magazine which is also in digital format. Each issue is 100 per cent editorial, which means no adverts or sponsored articles. Digital issues are inexpensive and available for many back copies.
There are many ideas and methods you won't have seen before, all from cost conscious farmers.. Much of this material comes from personal visits. We look to the future rather than the past and over the 30 years we have been publishing have been in front of many trends. A one year subscription (4 issues) is £18.50 + £3.00 p&p. = £21.50
I invite you to join one of the most effective farm ideas clubs going. We currently have subscribers in Ireland, Netherlands, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Falklands, France, Finland.
Soil+ Cover Cropping International
We started this section in 2013 - Vol 22-2 after readers called for more on soil management. We were already fascinated by No-Till and the U.S. advisor Ray Archuleta, in just the same way as we applauded Temple Grandin's approach to livestock. Our stories are often years ahead of other magazines because farmers innovate and machinery manufacturers follow. Also, and editoral decisions involve very few people. Mostly one! Which makes our articles wide ranging and not repetitive or highly technical. "If I can't understand it, it doesn't go in"
NB Mike has been guest editor of Direct Driller magazine since it's inception in 2018
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Subscription management
Subscriptions are managed by SimpleCirc.com Your order is confidentially processed by SimpleCirc who also send reminders and other emails from ourselves in Ross-on-Wye.
Payment system - how it works
Click subscribe and the system moves you from www.farmideas.co.uk to www.simplecirc.com Your account is on their site. We use the on-line banking portal Stripe.com
Practical Farm Ideas -farming skills cut farm work and farming costs
Today, Practical Farm Ideas is helping thousands of farmers through difficult times, as it has done for the past 32 years. Low cost farm workshop projects to reduce the time and effort taken for routine farm work; ways to manage farm crops and farm livestock better; comments (bad as well as good) from machinery users; taking a hard look at farming futures and diversification ideas. Farming skills , farming costs , farming methods , farm income , farm profit , farm commodities , farming forecasts , farm futures are all benefitted by a subscription.The magazine is unique in carrying no advertising which provides the editorial with the single purpose of helping readers cut their farming costs in a wide variety of ways. The farming futures for today are confused and a source of concern for many. Farmers are encouraged to modernise and upgrade equipment, but this is often in the shadow of reducing value of many farm commodities. The farming forecasts for gross returns provide little surplus after the forecast farming costs are incorporated. Improving farming skills is just one way to improve farm income and farm profit. Farm workshop projects should never be seen as tinkering and a waste of time. Very many we see and report on have a huge return on capital - a grain cleaner with building costs £1,000 reduced the stoppages for poor quality by £3,000. A home designed and built log processor is the centre of a new business. Farm income is improved each time costs are reduced. Many consultants, advisors and bankers encourage their clients to read through Practical Farm Ideas for ideas which will cut their future farming costs. To conclude: this is a farming magazine designed to provide useful help to farmers on every page. The no advertising policy might reduce the publisher's returns but with every page focussed on helping to cut farming costs the project has been well worth while. Subscribers find they can commnicate positively with the editor and others, can contribute and become part of a loosely formed family of farmers who see their way forward by raising farm income through cutting farming costs.
