Neighbouring.
Members visiting members. A hundred and ninety-four farms on the register have said somebody may come and look, which is the most useful thing this whole platform does and the one that needs the most care.
Why this exists at all.
The single most valuable thing on this platform is not the archive or the cameras. It is that a member in Lincolnshire who is thinking about direct-selling beef can spend an afternoon with a member in Herefordshire who has been doing it for six years.
Six hundred and twelve of those afternoons have been arranged in two years. They have produced two business partnerships, one shared machinery agreement, a great deal of borrowed kit and, according to the person concerned, one marriage.
None of it is transacted. No money changes hands, we take no fee, and the visit is not listed, rated or reviewed. The moment it becomes a product it becomes Only Farmers, which already exists and does it properly.
- 612
- visits arranged
- £0
- taken by us
- 194
- farms on the register
How a visit is arranged.
Somebody puts their farm on the register.
What they do, what they are happy to show, and when they are not available. Lambing and harvest are blocked out by almost everybody.
A member asks, through the parish.
Not by direct message. The ask goes through the parish page so the warden can see it, which matters more than it sounds.
They agree a date between themselves.
We are not in this conversation and we do not want to be.
Both confirm on the parish page afterwards.
One line each. It is the only record and it is the thing that makes the next person feel safe asking.
What this is not.
Neighbouring is not a booking system and carries no insurance. A farm is a workplace with machinery, livestock and slurry in it. The farm you visit is responsible for your safety on it, and both of you should be clear about that before a date is agreed.
The register, as it stands.
Farms
- On the register
- 194Across all twelve parishes.
- Largest parish share
- The Cotswolds, 38Which is roughly what its size predicts.
- Smallest
- The Broads, 4A parish of 741 people on a landscape with very few farms on it.
- Blocked periods
- Lambing and harvestSet by each farm, respected without exception.
Visits
- Arranged
- 612May 2024 to 30 August 2026.
- Median party size
- 2 people
- Fee taken by us
- NothingAnd there is no plan for that to change.
- Complaints
- 3All three about timekeeping. None about conduct.
What came out of it.
I drove four hours to look at somebody’s box scheme and came home having decided not to do it. That afternoon saved me about eleven thousand pounds.
We now share a drill. It took two visits and a solicitor and it works.
I was nervous about asking. Going through the parish rather than a private message made it feel normal.
Read the safeguarding page first.
It is short, it is specific, and it is the reason this works.
