The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ScotsGirl on February 20, 2012, 09:46:43 pm
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Can anyone give me an idea what is an appropriate field rent for sheep? Up to now I have been lucky to find people who want their field grazed and are happy to have my small flock there for which I try and give a small quantity of lamb in return.
I now have a 5 acre field which I would like to rent officially and also be able to use for my ponies. I don't want to offend the owner but also don't want to pay over the odds by paying per pony.
Any advice appreciated.
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I used to rent 8.5 acres for a tenner a week, but I have no idea if that was a good deal or not.
Now I pay 50 a month for my little patch of just over an acre, but I can do as I wish with it. It has the river running through it and no public right of way over it. even if I didnt have stock I'd keep it as I love the solitude and the wildlife. my landlord is amazing and I have it for as long as I wish :thumbsup:
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Going rate here is £100 per acre per year
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£100 per acre per year sounds about right for a small (1-5 acres) field/paddock. It gets cheaper as you rent more, an eighty acre field near us rented for nearer £30 per acre per year.
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20p/ewe/week. Thats decent money - you could pay more for grazing turnips, say - can be up to 60p....works out at about £10/ewe/yr.
I wouldn't pay rent on 4 acres, not worth it, thats 'I'll bung you some lamb and fix the odd fence' territory.
Edited to add: thats sheep, of course...ponies probably considerably more cos one is a leisure thing and one is a business thing. Also, ponies tend to poach the ground - so Id ffer to re-seed and take them off a few months a year.
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I used to rent 8.5 acres for a tenner a week, but I have no idea if that was a good deal or not.
Now I pay 50 a month for my little patch of just over an acre, but I can do as I wish with it. It has the river running through it and no public right of way over it. even if I didnt have stock I'd keep it as I love the solitude and the wildlife. my landlord is amazing and I have it for as long as I wish :thumbsup:
You're paying 4 to 5 times what we do for small areas of grazing - but ours are commercial agricultural rates; I would expect to pay more for a one-off / smallholder let.
If I was renting land out, I would definitely want more for use by ponies and would also make some stipulation about how the land is to be cared for. (Poo-picking, harrowing, rest periods, not letting it get too poached, etc.)
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Thanks guys that is interesting and more reasonable than I expected. I would mainly want it for my sheep and maybe the opportunity to cut hay if it turned out decent. The ponies would only go on there for 2-3 months of the year to rest my own paddocks.
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If you want to cut it for hay, its harder to sell it that you are doing them a favour. My first grazing was 8 odd acres, split so they cut hay on 2/3 of it in summer and I grazed the aftermaths in winter. I didn't pay anything for that and I got 14 ewes on year round.
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We have sole use of 4 acres and pay £1200 a year! Horse grazing is much more expensive as they cause more damage.