Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Smallhold Farming and Rural Living => Livestock and Growing on a larger scale => Topic started by: sion01 on June 12, 2011, 12:48
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I've been offered the lease of 35 acers for 10 years.
It really excites me but also really scares me.It's not really good land but reckon I could keep 15 cows and about 40 sheep (shed for winter houseing included) with space left over for potatoes and all my household veg needs.
I could maybe just about afford the lease and buying the stock but then I would need a tractor or I could hire a contractor to do the ploughing :unsure:
I would need to do quite a lot of internal fencing as well that would come to another £1500 or so.I've got experiance of working on farms so the husbandry side wouldn't be an issue but with kids and a mortgate its all about the financial side .
It's also worrying me that I could make a success of it and having to walk away in 10 years time when the lease might not be resumed which would break my heart.
I've got until October to make a decision.It might be the oppertunity to do something that I miss and would really enjoy doing but it could also break me but if I don't go for it I'll always be thinking what if :wacko:
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That's a great chance sion! At least you have a good length of time to weigh up all the options and I'm sure people on here will come up with plenty pros and cons for you to consider.
:)
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A lot of work though, if you are already working full time and the land needs preparation before you can grow anything or raise any animals.
:ohmy:
Don't mind me....I'm only jealous! :lol:
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It would be a lot work with working full time too and all my holidays would probably go towards the small holding too but then nothing comes easily.
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I would go for it, but start off with less stock and let the numbers build up.
Then you are not spending so much to start with and can build up as you know you have the time to look after them.
My aunt has 12 acres, which she keeps 15-20 sheep on, using the lambs to replace numbers as needed and the rest go into the freezer.
She tends to have a couple of South Devon bullocks, but she has not replaced the last couple as once they had gone to the freezer she decided they didn't actually give as much return as the sheep did, and caused much more damage to the land.
Is it worth trying to negotiate a longer lease, or even put in a first refusal clause so if the land comes up for sale you have first refusal?
Good luck!
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Thank you.It's a dilemma wheather to stock as much as I could in the beginning and so make as much money to pay for the venture which also has the added cost of buying more stock.
I could also start with say half the needed stock and build up the numbers which would be cheaper but would also mean it would take longer to pay for itself.It might come down to what stock is available when I'll be looking for them.
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That is a wonderful opportunity and one I wish we had had some years ago.
Far too good to pass up :D
You might be abl to borrow a tractor from time to time from a neighbour maybe :unsure:
I wish you every success, Sion.
Lucky lucky you 8)
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If you are planning on selling some of the animals when they are ready for slaughter could you not set up a pay as you grow scheme with some of your customers to be. That way they pay a bit as the animal is growing and will maybe be able to have a whole lamb for their freezer at the end and you dont have as much initial outlay. It's a great opportunity (and a lot of work) and if only you lived closer I would be willing to offer to be your partner on the venture. Best of luck with your decision.
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Good luck to you, but it`s a lot to take on. Are you prepared for all the red tape? You ought to seek plenty of advice beforehand.
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I'm prepared for the red tape in a way as I helped the lady who owns the land when her husband past away 8 years ago and helped out while he was ill.
As he had lost most of his sight due to his illness the cattle tags were mostly on the wrong cattle as the poor old man didn't want to admit to being so ill and as he was the one that handled all the paperwork too she didn't have a clue when he passed away so I had to deal with the red tape which understandably had taken a back seat for quite a while.
I did all the work ,manual and administrative for two years until she sold all the stock on all the 233 acers so I know in a way that 35 would be quite managable.The red tape has increased since then and some things have changed but I found that if you admitted complete ignorance the ministry of agricultue or whatever there called these days where quite helpful.
There is also the option of not claiming any grant so you could do what you wanted and when you wanted.
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Debz idea was a bit of a blast from the past for me. Years ago (more than I care to remember :ohmy: ) we used to buy lambs for rearing on my friend's smallholding.
We got them back jointed and frozen :lol:
We paid the cost of the lamb (£10 -- now that shows you it was a while back) and the local slaughterhouse fees, plus the cost of blast freezing, with a cost per pound of slaughtered weight which went back to my friend. Can't remember how much that was but it seemed cheap enough.
Everyone was happy :D :D
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That idea is certainly something to think about
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Go for it but if the land needs some work I would probably suggest starting off with just sheep or maybe a couple of pigs to begin with.
There are grants available for fences provided you can plant a hedgerow inbetween. I worked it out and the grant pretty much covers most of the cost.
If you have dry stone walls perhaps there may be a local agricultural college who would be happy to rebuild (parts of) it in order to teach the students.
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Hi It sounds great, hard work and you have looked into it alot but my question is
Have you the backing of your family? it would certainly help if there were a few
more hands to help out during the wind,rain and snow.Wishing you good luck
what ever you decide, Fiona ;)
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Yes my wife would be willing to help and the kids.I've also found out this morning that a bit that was fenced off with no access at the moment is also part of the land.That part is two acers with a pond of about three quarters of an acer with birches, alders,pines and willows planted around it.It's just a matter of putting a gate in and 6 weaners would be happy there all summer as the trees are large enough they wouldn't damage them.
I've also been checking out the river that forms part of the boundary on one side of the property and its teaming with trout.It's about a quarter of a mile of river in all.It just gets better and better
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Sounds better and better!
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I've sort of chickened out/gone for the middle ground on the idea I started with.The lady has a field of about an acre by the house and I have been offered this for free.
There is a large pen at the top of the field where her husband used to rear phesant chicks so I can put chickens in there and grow veg on the rest of it.Being realistic it will give me a good idea of what I can handle without shelling out a lot of money that I can't afford to play about with.
it does feel a lot more comfortable and much less daunting doing it like this and if I find that I do have the time there's an old pig stye in the corner beging for a few weaners.The beauty of the phesant pen is that it is completly enclosed so foxes or crows/magpies can't get in so if I cant go there one evening/morning there won't be an issue anyway as long as they've got enough feed.
The farmer who rents the land on the farm ploughed a bit for me this morning and i've carted a load of really old manure from a cow shed this evening He's going to rotovate it over the weekend when it's dried out a bit.I've started some spring cabbage and early summer/spring cauliflowers at home so the bed will be nice and settled when they are planted and I'm planning to sow some nanco chtistmas carrots(we'll see) and perpetual spinach as soon as it is rotovated and there'll be a patch left empty for the garlic in October.Ill leave the rest of it fallow until the autumn and just plough it and put a load of manure on it before starting on that in the spring.I don't see the point of ploughing it now as it will just just encourage weeds.
I've been helping the farmer in the evenings as well which I've really enjoyed.I miss working with the animals on a farm but I don't miss the tractor work.I find that really boring.He's likeing haveing me there when he want's a hand too and last night I spotted that one of his cows was on heat so the AI man was able to inseminate her today.If he'd missed her it would have thrown his calving pattern out a lot.So thinking on If I do ever need to borrow a ram etc etc for a larger piece of land I know a man I can ask ;) ;) ;)
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I will try not to be jealous! Have been waiting years for an allotment so I could at least grow a decent amount of fruit and veg (or even half as there is just the two of us) At this rate we'll be to old to bother!
Good luck with your venture...and I understand you wanting to be involved with animals still, and contacts are always useful. :)
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Thankyou Tosca.Its nice to have more land to plant then I know what to do with.As my garden at home isn't that big and me being a bit of a plantaholic it's been a struggle trying to fit in flowers ,herbs and veg.I can now dedicate my garden to herbs and flowers with just a few veg like lettuce/peas that don't store well and will be handy to have close at hand.I'm looking forward to planting a WHOLE pack of seeds and not just a small row.
I'll have to sit down and plan some sort of crop rotation but I'll have all winter to plan that so I'm going to plant what I can now so I'll have something from the field by Christmas with a bit of luck.
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Congratulations on making your decision and getting enough land for using for veg and chooks.
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Great Idea!!!!!!sounds just the thing to get you going but must admit
got a touch of the green eye really pleased for you all sure its going
to go really well be nice to see a few picks as you get going????
Good Luck Fiona
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Does it have to be a livestock option Sion?
How about an arable smallholding?
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Yes I can do anything I want with it.I think I could grow most of the veg I need on it and I'm thinking at the moment of sorting it out in to 4-8 plots so I could have some sort of rotation .I could put pigs and/or chickens on one or two plots for a year to build up the fertility(free manure) but thats just planning.
Asi mentioned before I have planted some stuff already but I don't know wheather to leave the rest of the land under grass until spring or to plough it now.But then there could be the problem of nutrients washing from the soil over winter.I've also though of spraying it to kill any perennial weeds but that would also leave the ground bare over winter ?There won't be a mad rush next spring I imagine :wub: as the land is at 600ft and prone to late frost I don't think I'll be planting any potatoes until very late in April possibly even May