The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: Fi on March 25, 2011, 12:05:05 pm
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Hi everyone,
New to the site and just beginning to think about what to do with my land now that we are getting to the end of our house build. We have plenty of land, but it's a mixture in quality and just don't know where or what to start with on a small enough scale that it won't blow us away! I have so many ideas and things I'd like to do I can't see the wood for the trees!
Living on the farm at the moment are two ponies, two dwarf rabbits, a veer happy black lab, two teenagers, one husband and two grandparents and me! Well these are the invited, there is a host of wildlife out there too!
:wave:
Any ideas.
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hi and a warm welcome from central scotland :wave: :wave: :wave:
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Hello from me in South Lanarkshire (formerly Fyvie ;)) :wave:
You'll find pigs a great way to rotivate all your land and clear it so you can do what you want with it (but then again, I would say that cos I'm pig daft ;D)
Look forward to hearing more from you
Karen x
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Hi and welcome from Carnoustie :wave:
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Hi Fi and welcome :wave: We need a bit more info to go on, such as acreage, soil type, elevation, sheltered/windy etc, plus the sorts of things you think you might be able to cope with but just need more details before you can make up your mind. Otherwise you could just consider everything which is discussed on the TAS pages. The first thing I would say is to do something which you like and keep animals which appeal to you in particular.
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Hi and welcome from North Yorkshire. :wave:
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Hiya & welcome from West Scotland :wave:
In total agreement with Fleecwife & sentiments the same as HappyHippy :love: :pig: :love:
Take your time, have a good look around the forums, try & get to visit other's holdings & see what they're doing. Hens are a good start - nothing like a fresh egg to start the day :yum: & nothing tastes as good as home grown :carrot: :brocolli: :rasp: :peas:
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Hi and welcome form East Aberdeenshire - have fun planning, nights are getting ligher and days longer - a great time to start
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Welcome from Clackmannan, formerly Aberdeen City, then Ellon, then old Rayne, now here and loving it.
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Hi from Clackmannan too!!! We breed Black Labs that are stunning dogs, we are so proud of them!! we also are a rest home for Ex Battery hens ;) and a pair of noisy Ducks!!! Nice to have newcommers to talk to, this site is part of my social life so, hope we can help!!
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Hi everyone, so lovely to have so many replies. To answer some questions the farm is about 50+ acres grazing, which hasn't been ploughed or worked for many years and is quite wet in areas, the other 50+ is rough heather/birch trees/grass hill ground. We have a cluster of three pond which is usually home to a pair of mallards. The tufted ducks have tried nesting there but something manages to pick the chicks off one by one and they didn't return last year.The farm is at about 1000ft, so we can get a lot of snow and the growing Season is noticeably shorter than lower altitudes or those closer to the coast. But is south facing and has quite a few trees for shelter in places, but can be stormy. The fencing is poor in places, okay for well behaved cattle.
I probably really need to start with something very small scale that won't involve any heavy work and not too much capital outlay. So I had thought about some hens and would love ducks. How big an area would they need? And what about foxes etc?
We have heard that native cows (highlands, Aberdeen angus, or short horn? I think) could graze the hill encouraging regeneration of the birch trees, but have no idea how much work this would be and I am not sure about having large animals. Perhaps though they would be no more bother than the horses?
Hope that gives you an idea of where we're at.
Fi :love:
last year we managed a reasonable harvest of hay to keep our horses going and sold the excess with the help of a neighbours and his baler.
Oh and we do try a wee veggie patch and thought about a poly tunnel.
I like all animals and would have them all but Will have toe realistic with what I can manage.
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Welcome from Brittany. Read all the threads associated with animals you might like, will give you loads of info and insight. :)
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Hi Fi - very sensible to be realistic about what you can manage. Start small and expand if and when you can is the sensible way. For grazing the birchy bit, animals will tend to eat out the birch. We keep Hebridean sheep which are specifically used in conservation grazing where the idea is to prevent the birch from taking over heather moor, plus they selectively eat molinia grass which is tussocky and not wanted - cattle hooves also tend to help get rid of that. So if you want to keep the birch, choose your livestock carefully, but if you want to keep just the heather, get Hebs (they taste great too and are less hard work to manage as well). Sheep will mostly mix well with horses, but I'm not so sure that cattle would - I don't keep them as they are too big for me ;D All animals will find the wetter areas a problem as their hooves need drier land. Black hoof is better than white in wet conditions but I would prefer them to be kept away from the wetter areas if possible. Wet ground also harbours liver fluke so you would be constantly dosing for that.
We too are at 1000' and windy but we don't have any heather and only a small acreage.
Hens (hardy breed/hybrid such as Black Rocks) and ducks are good to begin with but you will have to put up some fox proof fencing or you will have none left. See what bird predators (raptors) there are too as some of these may take grown hens and will certainly take chicks unless you have a net over their run while they are small. Other predators could be mink, stoats and weasels plus anything else interesting you have up there ::)
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hello
100 acres I have land envy now (currently looking for my first patch of land)
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hello and welcome :wave:
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hello
100 acres I have land envy now (currently looking for my first patch of land)
That's why I've been so quiet too ;) Gobsmacked! ::) I can hardly even imagine what 100 acres looks like :'( :'(
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i can imagine it
then i go all green and whistful!!!
i can see 50 acres of low density sheep, also several acres of piggy rotation, then poly tunnels and veg garden and a couple of house cows and still have land over for hay production!!!
setting it all up would be a mammoth task if its not ready for it but in 10 years it would be awesome!!!
and willow planted on the boggy areas for cutting forage and timber supply in a few years!!!
ok i need land now please!!!
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Hi guys, honestly the land is nothing to be jealous about it is actually a real financial and labour burden. Bloomer is right we could do so much but it is mammoth. I think we could maybe go for low density sheep for the hill. I have fencing to sort out. How many sheep are low density and what breeds would be best?
:o ???
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can you claim farm subsidy etc to support your running costs?
how did you aquire such a plot?
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I've been looking at single farm payments etc but it all looks so complicated and onerous, I think you'd need an agricultural degree just to understand it, be very well organized and a full time farmer to keep up with it all.
I kinda inherited the farm. It was my Grandfathers who farmed it. He died 25 years ago and over those yeArs the family did less and less with it. We took it on in part 10 years ago and spent alot of time effort and money into getting the farmhouse habitable into which my Mum and Dad have retired. We have then converted one of the outbuildings into a home for ourselves. It all sounds very idillic but it has been a real struggle and we have just about completely burnt ourselves out.
It would be nice to have some animals and see the land doing something though ;D :-\
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what about renting some of the land out to provide an income to help you work on the rest of it?
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i can imagine it
then i go all green and whistful!!!
i can see 50 acres of low density sheep, also several acres of piggy rotation, then poly tunnels and veg garden and a couple of house cows and still have land over for hay production!!!
setting it all up would be a mammoth task if its not ready for it but in 10 years it would be awesome!!!
and willow planted on the boggy areas for cutting forage and timber supply in a few years!!!
ok i need land now please!!!
Plus an orchard & veg plot, with bees to pollinate everything. Don't forget the chucks & ducks for pest control (eggs & meat). Only another 94 acres to go for us :D
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Hi there from Sue in Worcestershire :wave: