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Author Topic: Future Cornish Farmer  (Read 3221 times)

BobTheFarmer

  • Joined Jul 2017
Future Cornish Farmer
« on: July 16, 2017, 10:19:17 pm »
Hello all  :)

I've been lurking here for a while, I'm based in West Cornwall and have dreamed of having a farm since I was a kid.  I grew up in the middle of the Somerset levels a few hundred meters from a poultry and sheep farm owned by a friends family so experienced a lot when I was young but very little since then.

My partner and I are still in the planning stages and looking for land, we're quite ambitious so looking for around 30 acres for a substantial smallholding capable of supporting our family for generations.

I've greatly enjoyed reading this forum so far and will weigh in with lots of stupid questions!

mapahutchins

  • Joined Jul 2017
  • Helston, Cornwall
  • Family starting out on a small holding adventure
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2017, 01:25:17 pm »
Hello neighbour.

Good luck with your quest for land.

 :farmer:

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2017, 02:56:53 pm »
Welcome to TAS and good luck with the venture  :wave:

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
    • Facebook
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2017, 03:26:43 pm »
Hi and welcome.  :wave:

Not sure what your plans entail but 30 acres is a substantial smallholding.(same size as ours) .. however  the extent to  which that would 'support' a family is limited unless you have very niche ideas.  (we both work elsewhere to pay the bills and support the smallholding currently!)
Linda

Don't wrestle with pigs, they will love it and you will just get all muddy.

Let go of who you are and become who you are meant to be.

http://nantygroes.blogspot.co.uk/
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SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2017, 03:40:24 pm »
Hi there from NE Cornwall :wave:

We run a 32-acre holding here for our community of 21 adults and 9 children.  It's a good lifestyle, but it's a *lot* of work, and whilst we produce a lot of our own food, we're nowhere near self-sufficient.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

BobTheFarmer

  • Joined Jul 2017
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #5 on: July 26, 2017, 09:37:23 pm »
Thanks for all the nice comments :)

I'm planning on using camping/glamping to generate substantial revenue and to retail produce wherever produce.  Both me and my fiancé have quite a lot of experience in this area.  We both have extensive customer service backgrounds and I ran a lot of market stalls and mobile bars in my last job.

I also happen to have a solid career in alcoholic beverages... there are many ways to grow ingredients that can be fermented and sold at healthy profit margins... especially if you happen to own a drinking establishment or two... the first 7000 litres of cider is tax free!

I have always seen smallholding as an opportunity to have lots of small money making schemes that support each other and are fun and not too time consuming individually.  I also see some opportunities for smallholders to team up and co-operate to provide a range of products/services with each smallholding specialising.

ForagersJen

  • Joined Aug 2017
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2017, 01:19:46 pm »
Hi - I'm new too - living in Gloucestershire!
We are at the planning stages too looking for something around the 2-3 acre mark to start our market garden - so like you I suspect we'll be on here a lot asking all sorts!

I am particularly interested in your ideas around teaming up with others - we are looking in to offering online sales and I work in marketing so might be some options to tag-team on some ideas?

ForagersJen :)

BobTheFarmer

  • Joined Jul 2017
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2017, 09:14:08 pm »
Hi Jen,

I've always been a fan of different businesses working together to mutual benefit but many small business owners are worryingly loath to cooperate with anyone.

On the smallholding front I think there could be quite a bit of scope for smallholders within a few miles of each other to team up and boost sales through offering unique packages.  Say SH1 produces fantastic organic vegetables and honey, SH2 produces great tasting beef and turkey, SH3 focusses on rare breed sheep, SH4 has a camping ground and finally SH5 makes a tasty cider.  If those 5 owners could see a way to form a co-op whereby they market all the produce as a single brand (or under an umbrella name) then it would almost definitely be more successful than the sum of its parts.  Not to mention they'd have enough between them for a large, attractive farm shop rather than 5 roadside stands.  If each owner individually spends 2hrs on social media a week and attends one market per week then with the 5 members the co-op could attend 5 markets per week and would be doing 10hrs of social media work every week WITHOUT ANY EXTRA INPUT FROM EACH MEMBER.

Sorry for the shouting but I feel that this is kind of obvious. 

macgro7

  • Joined Feb 2016
  • Leicester
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2017, 09:55:36 pm »
I really like the idea!
Even if there's several people doing similar thing it would help. E.g. two people keep sheep in the orchard. One of them makes sheep from both holdings into burgers and sausages the other ones makes apple juice or apple pies from both orchards. They sell it together as you suggested.

If you start you start something like that I would be interested in joining but from east midlands  :thinking:
Growing loads of fruits and vegetables! Raising dairy goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits on 1/2 acre in the middle of the city of Leicester, using permaculture methods.

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2017, 06:41:16 pm »
Remiss of me not to welcome (in particular) another Kernow member.  Belatedly welcome and may you find your bit soon. 

BobTheFarmer

  • Joined Jul 2017
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2017, 03:19:53 pm »
I really like the idea!
Even if there's several people doing similar thing it would help. E.g. two people keep sheep in the orchard. One of them makes sheep from both holdings into burgers and sausages the other ones makes apple juice or apple pies from both orchards. They sell it together as you suggested.

If you start you start something like that I would be interested in joining but from east midlands  :thinking:

Exactly this.  There must be hundreds of smallholdings just in the southwest that all have a handful of fruit trees (for example) that aren't worth anything individually.  However if they teamed up a cider maker could collect all the fruit, turn it into cider, sell it and everyone makes a little money out of a previously wasted resource.
Same goes for so many things, everyone says it is really hard to make money off a handful of sheep or a handful of cows etc but if they teamed up costs would be lower and profits equitable or possibly even higher.

One of my pet projects is trying to get brewers co-operating more, 3/4 of small scale brewers struggle to turn a profit yet they all rent their own buildings, own their own equipment which only gets used 1-3 times a week, run their own vans half empty etc.  None of them seem particularly aware of the huuuuge cost savings and potential extra sales if they shared a building and equipment etc.

BobTheFarmer

  • Joined Jul 2017
Re: Future Cornish Farmer
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2017, 03:20:21 pm »
Remiss of me not to welcome (in particular) another Kernow member.  Belatedly welcome and may you find your bit soon.

Thanks :)

 

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