The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: NewLifeOnTheFarm on January 05, 2019, 01:54:02 pm
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So, brief back story...
We left our very comfortable suburban lifestyle 3 years ago to start out new life in the country. We had no experience of land management, livestock etc. Our property was 3 lots, the house, 18 acres, and 38 acres, we could only afford the house and 18 acres. In the last 3 years we have spent time with our farming neighbours learning how to handle sheep, and this year got our first ewes. Current head count is 25 sheep, 2 ponies, and God only knows how many chickens. Our dream would be to run a small farm shop/meat box delivery service.
With that in mind, we are considering purchasing the extra 38 acres. The land is exactly like ours is, Less favoured grassland, well draining, and adjoining our property. Asking price is reasonable, cheap really. £80k. Access is attrotious for anyone else, but for us would be perfect through our own fields.
If I do this, I will also need to think about having a more commercial flock as well as my Shetlands, I would like to experiment with suffolk X Shetlands for the meat market, as in my limited experience they seem to make cracking lambs. We have a Shetland X Suffolk wether, our first lamb born here and he is a fab size. From my research the taste of Shetland crossed with the marbled fat of a Suffolk is popular.
I'm not looking to make vast fortunes obviously, just enough to make buying the land worth it, let's say a 15 year payback, combined with grants/rural payments. Everything is so up in the air right now, it's hard to make plans, I'm just convinced that somehow we could make this work.
I appreciate that this isn't much to go on. I suppose I'm looking for some blue sky thinking, ideas, reassurance, or maybe a reality check!
Thanks!
C
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Well done for following your dream :thumbsup: . You've got plans for where you're going and I'm sure you'll make it work.
I would definitely snap up the additional 38 acres. The price is amazing, even for LFA; but they don't make land any more and make even less adjoining what you already have. If you miss it now you will regret it forever!
I would just say - keep an open mind as you go along as nothing is written in tablets of stone and flexibility is essential to progress.
Good luck. :sunshine:
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I can only agree with what LRR says. If the land is affordable for you then buy it. You can always sell it later on and probably for a lot more then you bought it for. Or rent it out as well. Just think how much hay you could get off the 38 acres. Would help out with winter feeding
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Thank you for your replies! You are right, I would be gutted if someone else bought it. I am confident that we could make money off it in some way, even if it was just added value to our property. I still have so much to learn about sheep keeping, as well as potentially branching out into some cattle as well. We just need some time, and in the meantime we could always rent it out while we get ourselves into a position to use it to its potential.
C
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The land is worth what the land is worth.
But if it's right next door to your own land, and you have a plan for it, that probably makes it worth more to you than to anybody else.
Worst case you could always let it to somebody else, so I highly doubt you'd ever regret buying it, whereas like you say, you'd regret it if somebody else did.
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Well, we put an offer in and they have accepted it!! Very exciting times ahead. I will keep you all posted about our next adventure, and no doubt ask even more questions! Sometimes I wonder if we are a bit bonkers, going into sheep with a years experience, and knowing how hard it is to make any profit etc, but I have a good feeling about this, we just need to be flexible I think.
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and no doubt ask even more questions
The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.
Congrats on the acceptance of the offer. Wish i was in your position. Hope everything goes swimmingly for you
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Well, we put an offer in and they have accepted it!! Very exciting times ahead. I will keep you all posted about our next adventure, and no doubt ask even more questions! Sometimes I wonder if we are a bit bonkers, going into sheep with a years experience, and knowing how hard it is to make any profit etc, but I have a good feeling about this, we just need to be flexible I think.
Fantastic news! :excited:
Keep us posted - we love to see people getting started! :)
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Wow! This is exciting. :excited:
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Well, officially the land became ours today!!!! Our farm is officially 60 acres of beautiful Aberdeenshire land ????. I could not be happier. If you have seen my posts in sheep forum, we have now got an additional 14 cheviot gimmers to add to our flock of Shetlands, so I'm up to 42 now ????. Must be bonkers! Never been so happy!!
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Wonderful!!!!! :excited:
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well done , you wont be sorry, bonkers maybe but not sorry.
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Good for you. What's next?
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Next step is to survive lambing! Out of the blue yesterday, a farmer who used to rent the fields years ago popped up to ask who owned it now as he was wanting to rent it again?? What are the chances? So we have that as an option. There are a few fence repairs to do before I can move my sheep on. Think we will make hay off around 6 acres of it, and 6 off our original landmark So that will be 12 acres of hay making stress! And I will be applying for a small farm grant to try get a building up for either hay storage, or lambing shed, as our existing buildings are old and damp, and not really suitable.
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We moved exactly like you 3 years ago and the local farmer was round as quick as we moved in to ask to rent some of our fields, we did but regretted it, we couldn't get on with any of our plans because his sheep and then cows were in our fields, then he wasn't in any hurry to move them off at the end, then he argued the agreed rental (all verbal of course) so think very hard before renting it out, and get it all down in writing at the beginning.
But wow good luck, we have gone from strength to strength with our little 50 acres and are loving the life.
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We had exactly the same problem as #LouiseG with our farming neighbours about 20 years ago. They also persuaded us to part with 7 acres which was adjacent to their land and an inconvenient distance from ours. Then when John died and I decided to build a house and move into it to try to get over it they objected to eveything I did.
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Hi everyone!
Well, we are now heading for lambing again and I haven't updated this thread at all!
Lambing was an enormous success. We had 35 pure Shetlands lambs, 1 ryeland, and 4 surprise Cheviot lambs from empty hoggs I bought in. Amazingly we had no losses at all. And just last week I made my first actual money at this malarkey by selling lambs as stores. I'm keeping on 6 Shetlands, 1 ryeland, and 2 Cheviot, all ewes, and the rest were sold.
We made wonderful hay. Our area had limited success due to ongoing rain. But somehow we made it work and sold loads of it because the quality was great. We now still have a barn full as they have only just started eating it as the grass has continued to grow!
We thought we were going to lose a ewe, I posted about her on here, blind, deaf, terrible condition, I registered with the fallen stock company in preparation for putting the poor girl out of her misery, as I was booking the guy to come, I decided to go give her one more dose of alamycin, she had had multiple courses by this point and everyone was at a loss as to cause, probably cancer they said. Well blow me she bounced back and has thrived over winter!
We now have 40 ewes to lamb this year, and we bought in a beltex X bleu du Maine tup as well as our ryeland tup. We also have 2 zwartble ewes expecting pures too.
So we will see what the next year brings. Absolutely loving it
I have a page on Facebook and Instagram, newlifeonthefarm if anyone wants to follow my exploits.
X
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Hello everyone! What a bonkers year it has been. From a farming perspective, things have gone from strength to strength. So much so that I have done something bonkers and packed my day job in to focus on the sheep side of life. I will never be a millionaire, but I can make a small living doing what I love doing, and that is a wonderful feeling.
My flock has grown to 120 this year, and will be aiming for 250 total eventually. Hard to believe I only had 3 Shetlands 3 years ago!
Tomorrow my new present arrives, a new sheep race, so handling on my own will be so much easier. Yesterday I had to wrestle 80 beltex X lambs through gates on my own, and with how my back is feeling today, I said enough is enough, so new race with a lovely shedding gate was ordered!
Lots of targets for the next year, but first is fencing. Replacing old dilapidated fencing and adding new fence lines for easier rotation and management. Also got to get my QMS/Farm assurance application sorted.
Exciting times here, feel like it's all just starting to come together!
So grateful for this site and all the wonderful advice!
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Delighted to hear it's going so well for you. Keep us informed.
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Great to hear of your success!!
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It’s been a while in the making but I finally got a very small bit of land. We have 3 acres around the house that I have put sheep on, it’s been a bit of a learning curve. What I am trying to decide is what to do now. I know that I need more land but all of the adjoining ground is not likely to come up for sale. Does anyone have an insight into how practical it is to have an out farm as such (maybe two to eight miles from the house)? I am self employed so have flexibility but I’m also concerned I might be crazy to buy more land especially an out farm.
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Lots of people make it work but it would terrify me!
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It’s been a while in the making but I finally got a very small bit of land. We have 3 acres around the house that I have put sheep on, it’s been a bit of a learning curve. What I am trying to decide is what to do now. I know that I need more land but all of the adjoining ground is not likely to come up for sale. Does anyone have an insight into how practical it is to have an out farm as such (maybe two to eight miles from the house)? I am self employed so have flexibility but I’m also concerned I might be crazy to buy more land especially an out farm.
Of course, many sheep farmers have sheep away at some time or other during the year, it will be easier if you do lambing at home, and then take the ewes/lambs out for grazing. You will need to be able to check twice a day, and I do once-a-day checks over winter. If you are home during the day, it is not difficult. Getting a reasonable tenancy agreement is more difficult, as these are usually only for 364 day per year, but again not unsurmountable. Only issue is - can you make a reasonable profit from sheep while also paying rent for land?
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I’d be able to buy 10 to 20 acres without finance so would hope to make a small profit
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I’d be able to buy 10 to 20 acres without finance so would hope to make a small profit
Remember to build in the interest you would have had if it was invested as well as profit - not a lot just now so now is the time to do it and hope the interest rate remains low for as long as you need it to
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Many thanks, there is a lot to think about here, also the time invested in a venture that’s never going to be very profitable, sadly so
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Many thanks, there is a lot to think about here, also the time invested in a venture that’s never going to be very profitable, sadly so
Check my tagline ;) (Below the post)
Doing the numbers is important, but do take into account all the other factors - enjoying yourself, doing something that feels meaningful, healthy living, healthy eating, mental health...
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To be honest I think either doing it or not doing it will be difficult, if I don’t I will be thinking about it. If I do it’s going to be a lot of work