The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: langdon on April 13, 2010, 09:09:05 pm
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we would ( well i would ) love to rent an acre or two for fattening lambs,
what i would like to know is how much would a farmer be looking for land this size on
a yearly basis?
langdon :sheep:
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You are more likely to find an acre or two from someone who has a horse field, around here most agricultural fields are at least 5 - 6 acres, and then often badly fenced. Lambs fit through quite small gaps (and get their horns/heads stuck in the process). Not sure about rent in terms of money, but a horse owner might consider one of your lambs quite a good price.
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Rates around here in NI run at about £100 per acre per annum. Not bad when you think that ground is still making £10-12k per acre at sale around the down/armagh area.
Declan
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We rented a 3 acre field in Perthshire for £500 per year - but the fencing was so bad it wouldn't have been good enough for sheep. Good luck with your search.
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I am paying £360 for 6 acres for 6 months. Fencing was good though so was grass until my horses and 6 ewes got on to it, now looks terrible not sure if I will get it again next year. Farmer was muttering this morning about harrowing rolling seeding and harrowing again, and how he is going to be short of grass this year so it does not look to hopefull.
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See if ou can come to some arrangment with local horse owners. Sheep are great for horse pasture, tidying up and reducing the worm burden as well as using excess grass, without making a mess of the ground (unlike the horses!). Horse owners should be glad to have you there for free! But a lamb might be a good offering. As previous, fencing might be a problem though.
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Over the years we have rented, had for free and even been paid :o :o to graze fields around our area and village.
Put up a card in the local post office saying something along the lines of 'wanted a small well fenced field to borrow/rent by responsible smallholder to keep some well behaved sheep. Daily attendance and care of sheep guarenteed. Will help keep grass in check and save you from mowing! Willing to pay ????? per month' and see what happens! You may be surprised how many people with very large gardens and small paddocks will contact you! At one point we had nearly 40 acres at our disposal belonging to 12 landowners as well as our own land!!!
Good luck!
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thats a fab idea ;) mmm
wil chat to my wife, tell how it goes ;D
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we lent our 3 acre field to a local sheep owner to fatten his lambs on - totally free. the way we saw it was he was helping us keep our grass down (so we could reach our orchard which is at the far end of the land) and in return he grazed for free.
shame you aren't near by, we've been looking for some woolly lawnmowers for months!
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The local church may let you graze the grave yard it is quite common practice and save mowing round all those fiddly stones. Only drawback is poo on the paths.
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I realise this is large scale but a friend rent 600 acres at £1200 a year. Theres little money in renting and its hard to come bye.
if you want it for grazing its always worth talking to local farmers and asking for grazing so much per head per acre etc, can help when grass is in short supply, definitely cheaper than feed.
I have been very fortunate and managed to have an agreement on an acre with buildings, we still have to weidel out the rent, let you know when it happens; soon i hope :-\.
Its very secure and includes buildings so real find. Good luck on your search.
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Cobra.....you are in Somerset....Do you want some grazing.....if near me there may be some going free......
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Hi,
I'm near to Highbridge & Bridgwater out on the levels. I'm ok for now as I'm not up and running till mid July. Thanks for the offer, its really appreciated, think you may be a bit of a distance regards me being able to check on them regular etc.
Oh bye the way I have just book marked your blog and site, looking forward to a good read later. As I said before Ive been away from farming for quite a while and slightly out of tune to new methods ;D I'm a bit old school, if I keep animals they either get eaten or produce stuff that can be eaten, Ehhmmm yummy :D So looking forward to it, told the farmer I was in no hurry, gives me plenty of time to get up to speed and get ready, truth is now, I'm itching to wander round and start sorting. :farmer:
I would however love to come over and pick your brains, maybe sign up for a lambing session next year. tell yeah what Mark why not just invite your self, cheeky sod arnt I. Ive read a lot of your stuff on here and like the way you see smallholding and animal husbandry.
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I'm just up the road from Val (Wooly shepherd) you are welcome to come and help me at lambing time if you want some experience - We will be lambing about 100 ewes in January and the same number again in March - we team up with Val and the Beech Hayes guys to provide sheep for the lambing courses. Last year we managed to get several new arrivals on each day of the course.
I rent most of my land (about 50 acres in the summer and 200 in the winter) and I pay between £0 - £70 - "bit of lamb for the freezer" - quality grass and good fencing are everything!
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Ditto what Freddie says ;D you ought to come and do a tour! Freddie has lovely sheep and works dogs, I have conservation grazing sheep and process wool and Beech Hays is .....well....just an amazing place and home of the Blackdown banger!!!! I have a few less sheep these days as I process tonnes and tonnes of wool(12 tonnes in 2009).....but have been offered some smashing newly fenced winter keep for free so will probably have a few more than i ought to soon :D I am hoping to do a make the most of your sheep type course dealing with everything but the baa.....and may find a use for that :D :D To cover landscape, conservation grazing, use of sheep in permaculture systems, wool, meat and skins.....putting it together at the moment ready for possibly autumn or next spring....
We are open for visits to the wool processing unit by arrangement so give us a shout!
Freddie I have not forgotten ur wool and will be up to collect it when the steering on the big van is sorted!
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Freddy and Wooly first off I am sorry I missed your replies, I had set up notification on the threads but they have gone a bit amiss.
I might and could well take you up on your offers of visit and lambing, been over twenty years since I did lambing, guess they still come out the same hole ;D Thing is joking apart until you revisit something you forget just how much you've forgot or realise how much you didn't know ::)
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Oh peeps I'm really quite in a spot here :(
I met up regards this acre of land I was going to rent and they suggested a rent of £100 a month :o
Now i could do with some advice, No way am I paying that for an acre. But I do realise that with it being small, private and secure and there being established buildings etc I would probably pay a premium, but how much?
No Mains water or electric, Buildings are, small barn 3 section, feed store, few other sheds and a pig sty. Only wood frame and metal sheet, not great buildings but all usable and very handy.
They obviously are happy to move on a price, but neither of us can say an amount, Ill be back to try and negotiate again, in the mean time I'm looking for alternatives.
Gutted and a bit low, sorry to moan :-[, bloody illness and I thought I had found something to get up for and get intrested in :(
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noooooo that is horse rates!
there is plenty of folks in Somerset that will let you graze sheep for nothing other than keeping the grass down!!!
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I agree with whoolyshepherd.
We moved to our smallholding last year and are taking things VERY slowly as it's all very new to us. We have five or six acres of well fenced grazing land that we're not doing anything with at the moment and I feel that our next door nieghbour is doing us a favour by putting his sheep on there.
After all - if they weren't there I would have to pay somebody to top the grass. There's no way I would charge him rent. In return he does our hedges for us and we get the odd bit of meat - some lovely well-hung beef last time.
We don't have a formal arrangement so I guess that's a vulnerability but he would have to have his sheep on there for ten years before he can claim the land for his own and he takes them off the land for a month a year.
I expect things in Cornwall are a bit different as it's so popular there.
Susanna
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Thanks Woolly & Susanna,
I said immediately that I wouldn't pay that figure. I'm just down the road from Woolly in Somerset Suzanna, but just that bit to far away to take up on the grazing there, would be to far to do regular check etc; not to far to visit for lambing though ;D :sheep:
I know that my mate rents 600 acres for £1'200 which is the same price as he wanted for the acre :D As I mentioned its almost like a small farm with the buildings all behind a rein and secure double gates. Its worth a rent for sure, pig sty means no arcs to buy, barn means lambing indoors, and dry stores on site for feed; just wondered what the rent should be? Remember I don't own a small holding and just looking for grazing; this gives me the whole package to base my self from, it even has its own number and not linked to his farm which means each other stops on movement wouldn't effect each other.
I just cant see negotiating from that offer to a realistic one, what ever that is :-\
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We used to rent our 21 acres to a local farmer in Aberdeenshire for £85 an acre for cattle - for the season - so we got about £1200 and short grass, with the occasional roast of lamb or beef. In the winter she put sheep on it for nothing to top the grass so it would keep it good for next year. No way should you pay anything like that for one acre - I might be willing to pay about £50 a month if it was right next to my house.