The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: graemeatwellbank on June 30, 2016, 04:42:56 pm
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My name is Graeme and I have just become the owner of a smallholding in Perthshire.
My property extends to 11.5 acres which is currently all pasture but I have big plans for the place – don’t we all before the reality sets in. The house and non-green bits take up about an acre so still plenty left to keep me fully occupied.
We moved in to our new home on 6th June and moved out again on 25th June as I am committed to working in India until the end of the 2016/7 tax year when I will retire from industry, so big plans are all I will have for the time being.
9 months of planning must amount to something when I hit the ground running next April so look out for lots of ideas/questions/nonsense/etc.
I’m not completely raw. My experience is that I had an allotment some years ago so the veggie bit is covered - almost covered as my allotment was in warmer climes down south and about 170 sq m. But since I was in school, I have always wanted to be a farmer and now I have 11 acres which qualifies in my book as a proper non-commercial farm. In this space I can have a little bit of everything and I fully intend to stretch the limits and actually have a little bit of everything. I’ve never kept livestock before but they, of all different shapes and sizes, are going to arrive thick and fast hot on my heels next year.
We are right on the edge of town so we are not remote nor are we ‘hippies’, off-gridders or ‘preppers’ as the yanks would call them (plonkers to me), I’m more leaning towards Tom and Barbara and the comical Good Life and as a retiree with a youngster, I hope having my hands full, all day every day, will keep me young. “We” is myself along with my wife Sarah and son Iain who is currently 3.
I have not lived in Scotland for 35 years and during the last 25 years I have been working mostly in Asia. This means, I will need to get acclimatised to the weather and familiarized with what things cost along with where to find/buy everything, so look out for some specific questions in the coming months.
This concludes my long general introduction to the forum. If you see a posting from me from now on, you’ll be able to judge whether or not to open it – but why not, it should be good for a laugh at my expense.
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Hello and welcome Graeme, good to meet you.
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Welcome to the forum.
Can I suggest that you take it slowly with acquiring your "bit of everything" as there is a steep learning curve with livestock.
Good luck with getting used to the Scottish weather - I've been here 18 years and still haven't got used to the wet and cold ;D
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Hello and welcome from Carnoustie. If you are interested in Shetland cattle, you are welcome to come and see ours. We milk them and my OH has started making cheese.
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Hi Graeme and welcome to the forum from Mid Wales. I keep water buffalo, so if you want to know anything about them then please feel free to ask anything. My family and I keep and milk a large herd of mediterenean water buffalo, hoping to make mozzarella soon (used to make ice cream and cheddar hoping to go back into that once facilities are sorted for production on farm). We also keep a medium sized flock of pure Lleyn sheep, an ideal starter sheep and very easy to keep requiring little intervention, except for shearing dosing foottrimming and sometimes lambing. There is plenty of excellent advice on this forum, I myself have found it very valuable at times. I hopr all goes well and that we hear more of you in the future and please feel free to ask as many questions as you like and we will try and answer them as best we can. All the best with everything :thumbsup:
WBF
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Hi Graeme and welcome to your new life, when it starts :farmer:
You will have plenty of time to plough through plenty of older posts on TAS before you get started.
I would though listen to Clydesdaleclopper, above, with the advice to take it a bit slowly at first. You've never kept livestock before - you need to learn about the needs of each species, rather than jumping in feet first and getting everything at once. Were you to do that then animal welfare, and your own, could suffer and you would rapidly lose heart. Smallholdings are the perfect place to be when the sun is shining, but can be totally miserable when it's bucketing with rain but you still have to go outside. Let the initial excitement settle a bit first, and get used to how cold and wet the Scottish weather can be :gloomy: :cold: :raining:.
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Congratulations on the new smallholding and lifestyle that goes with it. I retired to Scotland in January after we bought our smallholding last May, the weather definitely takes some getting used to :-)
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Welcome to the forum from Carmarthenshire. Well it sounds as if you have something to look forward to in the coming year and plenty of time for planning.
good luck
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:wave: and welcome from Shropshire. Sounds like you have a big adventure ahead of you.
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Welcome, congratulations and good luck!
I do echo the advice to not get everything all at once. Most people seem to find it works well to get one new species each year. You'll soon have your some of everything, but will have time to get to know and understand each one before the next arrives.
Maybe start with chickens and sheep - ok, that's two, but it'll be plenty for your first year, and still be great fun and rewarding.
After the first year, you'll have realised how very much livestock don't read the books, and why it's sound advice to only get one new species each year! :D
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:wave:
Totally agree with the advice re one species a year max (exception first year ... sheep and poultry!).
11 acres seems a lot but (and I don't know the type of grazing or soil) will not feed masses of animals (in 2 years 6 sheep can become 30 plus!) (I know I bought 16 and now after 3 lambings and killing all males am trying to reduce female numbers down from 45!) (Llanwenog sheep for sale here if you want any :innocent:)
Don't underestimate the expense of small numbers of lots of types of livestock .... medicines are packaged for 25 plus and if you are binning lots of unused out of date meds for diff types of animals it costs a fortune!