The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: farmershort on November 17, 2010, 09:37:17 am
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Hi All,
Never sure what to write on these into things...
I'm 28, and living with my fiancée in leicestershire. I work in IT 8am - 5pm, but have also worked as assistant/trainee/livestock farm manager for a few months in my time (more of an experiment really).
since 2004 we have kept pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and highland cattle... mostly in small numbers, but we did have 100 breeding ewes at our high point in sheep, and rented about 50 acres of land.
At the moment we just fatten 4 weaners up to about 60-70kg, in batches, every 3 months. We've been doing this for a couple of year now, using a neighbours garden, which we rent. The land needs a bit of rest I think, so this may be our last batch of pigs for 12 months. We're thinking of using the land for spuds & chickens next year instead.
The eventual aim is to follow the field-to-farm plan, and buy about 15 acres in south west wales (within 15 miles of chepstow, ideally). Fingers crossed we're no more than 2 years away from this.
well, that's us.... nice to meet you all.
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Hi and welcome and sounds like you're well on track for your dream. Well done you guys. We moved from West Sussex to South West Wales in 2008 and STILL feel like we're on holiday.....even though its very hard work on a smallholding....but we love it. :wave:
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hi and welcome from windy wet moray :wave:
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Hi, I am from Leicestershire but now in Central Scotland and what a difference in traffic, don't miss those ques and lack of parking but miss my Family loads...otherwise, not budgging....we only have chickens for eggs a 4 for Christmas dinner!!! a pair of noisy DUcks and 4 Labradors and we run a B&B.....Your dream WILL become a reality, keep us posted!! Oh, where abouts in Leicester??? My last home was Woodhouse Eaves!
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Welcome from wet and cold north Wales - Good luck with everything. :wave:
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Hello again ;D ;D ;D And welcome from Sue in wet and windy Worcestershire :wave:
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Hello again ;D ;D ;D And welcome from Sue in wet and windy Worcestershire :wave:
Lol... hello again indeed... I had some free time this morning, but clearly not enough to come up with 2 original into posts ;)
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I think it is interesting to join in with various forums as each has its own idividual "flavour" and approach. Its amazing how much one can learn, and also its nice sometimes being able to offer the benefit of experience to someone else who is struggling.
All the best
Sue
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Hello and welcome from Leicestershire! I'm near Ashby de la Zouch where are you based?
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:wave: From Brittany, where the rain has finally arrived and we have mud, mud and more mud. :D
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Hello and welcome from Leicestershire! I'm near Ashby de la Zouch where are you based?
fantastic! I'm in bag'th (in the locals speak)... south of coalville.
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I think it is interesting to join in with various forums as each has its own idividual "flavour" and approach. Its amazing how much one can learn, and also its nice sometimes being able to offer the benefit of experience to someone else who is struggling.
All the best
Sue
Yeah I've been scooching around the net trying to find the 'right' smallholder-ish forums for a while.... I've got my fingers crossed that these 2 fit the bill :) Hopefully I'll have something useful to contribute occasionally too... ;)
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Hi and welcome from wet and windy Carnoustie :wave:
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Eh up farmershort your just up the road from me then. I've found this forum to be brilliant for help and advice. I started with chooks and got loads of tips from here, now moved onto breeding British saddlebacks and most of the help I've had with them has come from here. Look forward to reading about your smallholding. Helen
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Eh up farmershort your just up the road from me then. I've found this forum to be brilliant for help and advice. I started with chooks and got loads of tips from here, now moved onto breeding British saddlebacks and most of the help I've had with them has come from here. Look forward to reading about your smallholding. Helen
ah, fantastic!
We've got 4 berkshires at the mo, but they go for kill on the 29th... might be looking to get 4 more of 'something' next feb time... do you sell your weaners?
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Yes I will be. Only just started breeding so it's my first litters, they're due on 3rd and 5th January so will be ready late Feb. Fingers crossed all goes well that is.
What abbatoir are you using?
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Yes I will be. Only just started breeding so it's my first litters, they're due on 3rd and 5th January so will be ready late Feb. Fingers crossed all goes well that is.
What abbatoir are you using?
we use rowleys in old arley for kill & split, then Taylors butchers in balsall common collect the pigs from their and cut the joint and make the sausage... It works out to be £2 per pig cheaper than having rowleys do the kill & cut! Taylors do a fantastic job, and the sausages are amazing... we've even converted vegetarians with them!
If this forum has pm's, feel free to send me one, and I'll give you my number is you ever need any specific details.... you're far enough away that you're not competition ;) :D
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Hi and welcome from the Scottish Borders where it is cold and wet just now, thank goodness my pigs have gone.
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Have you started looking at potential properties/areas yet? Must be very exciting having something like that to look forward to. I'm way over the south-east side (Caerphilly), but used to work down that way a lot. If you're looking for a helpful book, I wrote one about two years ago - The Practical Guide to Buying and Running a Smallholding in Wales. Gives a lot of info on moving to Wales, getting used to the culture and language, etc, as well as listing most of the leading estate agents which specialise in smallholdings.
Good luck with your search.
Liz
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Now that's one for my Xmas list then Liz thanks! My plan is to move to west Wales in the next few years so that'll be a very useful book I'm sure. Cheers