The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: greengumbo on January 27, 2016, 05:49:14 pm
-
We have recently purchased about 10 acres up in Aberdeenshire. Extremely exciting and more than a little daunting.
I have kept pigs previously and currently have quails, chooks and am an avid beekeeper with aspirations of taking that further. My wife runs a small food business in its infancy.
My plans at the moment are fairly rudimentary. I have looked at various grants etc available but its a bit of a maze to see where we fit into the Rural Payments and Services things for farmers. Have people on here been through the process for getting native hedgerows established, beetlebanks, meadows etc etc.
I am keen to establish some wild flower meadow, grow willow / hazel for our fuel (SCR or pollarding). Mainly I want to expand the honey production, rear quails for meat and egg sales in the first place.
Its a long term project but an exciting one. Thoughts and advice most welcome.
-
Sorry, can't help with the payments stuff as we are too small to qualify for any but wanted to say good luck. My OH is an aspiring beekeeper so I'm rather jealous.
-
Might be worth checking with local council if they have any environmental grants. When we moved in Cambridgeshire had noticed they had no hedges and the wind was blowing in across the fens so we got all our hedging plants supplied free. On Rural Payments we gave up. Similar acreage to yours they kept sending more and more tedious and intrusive paperwork which was aimed at bigger establishments so nearly impossible to answer many of the questions after the third or forth round we gave up replying.
-
I have 5 hectares here in Shropshire and get 950 £ per year from rural payments and £100 from Natural England.I have inherited these entitlements together with the land only 5 years ago and the money has steadily declined.Suspect the 5 hectare rule will be increased .The biggest benefactor in this counrty is the National Trust.There are a lot of hoops to jump through including the requirement for a weedkiller licence and a lot of technical paperwork.
-
The minimum land required to claim rural payments is now 5 hectares in England
-
And i think that has to be 'farmable' doesn't it?
We have 5.8 but 2ac of it are woodland
-
Hi All, its 3 hectares in Scotland. The land is a barley field at the moment.
Not necessarily looking for a small farm payment more to help with costs of putting in hedgerows, wildflowers, woodland (for fuel) and beetlebanks.
I think a fair few folk on here use willow in a SCR for fuel. Any hints and tips on that ?
I expect I'll be posting a lot on this forum in the years to come !
-
The Woodland Trust can be very helpful...they will provide free trees in England....but the area must be communal/ open to public access.
-
hi,
anyone any ideas for Wales?
-
I am not sure how much is available in grants/schemes for smallholdings in Wales. Would be worth looking into though
http://gov.wales/funding/grants/?lang=en (http://gov.wales/funding/grants/?lang=en)
-
Plenty of money available in Scotland for hedges,fencing and so on.some you can apply for simply others you will have to be in receipt of sfp. How old are you as there are entitlements available from the national land bank but age is a factor. Where abouts in Aberdeenshire out of interest.
-
Plenty of money available in Scotland for hedges,fencing and so on.some you can apply for simply others you will have to be in receipt of sfp. How old are you as there are entitlements available from the national land bank but age is a factor. Where abouts in Aberdeenshire out of interest.
I'm pushing 36 next month....feels old !
We are up near Tarves area. Currently trying to fill our a land management form to sort a new CPH (or transfer our old one across). Bit of a process !
-
Okay....now trying to sort out entitlement transfers.
Can anyone explain in simple terms what the difference is between the transfer of land under the Land Maintenance Form and the transfer of entitlements ?
Also the current owner has a "deal" in place with a local farmer who basically she contracts to carry our the farming on her behalf. She told me that he does drainage, cuts hedges, plants and harvests etc then buys all the barley from her - if its a good price that year he gives her the difference in a cheque. If its a bad price then she gives him a cheque. Seems pretty good deal for the farmer if you ask me ! He said to me he is happy to rent it or continue this arrangement. We are unlikely to do much our self with the field this year as lots to do on house. Someone said renting it can effect entitlements ?
I mentioned I was more interested in planting a willow SRC acre and some wildflower meadow....they almost choked.
-
As far as I can make out, the transfer of land is pretty straightforward - you're just telling RPID who now owns the various land parcels that make up your holding. Technically, it's the seller who is meant to do this and get your signature (I think).
Entitlements refers to the payments due from the Basic Payment scheme, which is the basic level of subsidy on farm land. It replaced the Single Farm Payment. Good luck with understanding that. Maybe someone on here can explain it. I'm not convinced the RPID people understand it.
-
I mentioned I was more interested in planting a willow SRC acre and some wildflower meadow....they almost choked.
Planting willow on agricultural land that is capable of growing barley will make most farming folk choke, yes.
-
Also be aware that planting trees on arable land will result in the roots eventually disrupting field drains.
If you don't already have one, it would be very worthwhile to get a map of the location of all field drains not only in your field but also the neighbouring ones if you can. I have maps for all my fields dating from the 50's and 60's - very useful if you have repairs to do, which happens on a regular basis.
If I had bought a field which was of good enough quality to be suitable for growing barley I would not want to engage in any management activity which would reduce its agricultural value and productivity.
-
I have a few maps of the drainage that I think are up to date....will have to check though.
Thing is whats the point in me keeping a field of barley really or managing the land as if its a large farm. If I am going to live on the property long term then why should I be fussed about its agricultural value and productivity ? Genuine questions !
This year barley will go in on about 8 acres and I'll hopefully plant up 1/2 acre with willow and take it from there. The other 1/2 will be my pigs and fruit bushes / canes :)
-
We grew barley in 2013 and it worked out quite well, we got quite a few bales from it; However we found the bales had a bit of moisture in ::)
-
Farmland (and if it's been growing barley that's what you've got) has to be kept in Good Environmental and Agricultural Condition to qualify for SFP. That is, capable of being productive and growing a crop or grazing. Are you going to use the willow for biomass heating? Or as a biodigester facility? Or for basket weaving? If none of the above then it's a waste of space. How about an orchard (apple blossom honey)? You could grow unusual fruit crops such as tayberries you can sell from the gate.
-
Okay so land maintenance forms now getting processed and entitlements being transferred with the land....phew much paperwork.