The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Olong82 on September 12, 2017, 03:47:36 pm
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Hi there I am trying to set up a smallholding in Derbyshire and was wondering if anyone nationally or regionally had managed to access any grants for field maintenance / setting up. I am only just setting up and have about 1/2 acre at home (needs fencing off ) and 1 acre field up the road, so nothing huge but I need fencing and sheds and was wondering if anyone knew anything.
Thanks for the help
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Sorry I don't agree with SD .....
If you are over 5ha the Basic Farm payment is not expensive or vastly difficult to apply for ..however there almost no schemes for the size of operation you are looking at.
. . I do agree though that if you want to research for your circumstances then small business start up is you way to go.
There are other treads on here about this so worth a search here too.
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I'm with SD - maybe its because we are in scotland. I've tried to make sense of the documentation online but I get bamboozled. The 'rules' change as much as the wind direction so I've stopped even considering it despite the financial rewards. The last time I tried to research this it would seem that despite having 46 acres of land I am not eligible. Apparently, forests/ woodlands are not included in your assessment and we have 35 acres of sitka spruce which was planted by a previous owner under a grant scheme... I've contacted SAC about 10 years ago - I'm still waiting for them to come. I've tried to contact a local firm but they tell memI'm too small for them to take us on. My neighbour who farms a few more acres than me gets in excess of 35k a year ( you can check on the defra website) I say farm but he keeps a handful of cattle in a shed, gets a contractor in to plant barley and rents a few parks to sheep keepers. My other neighbour farms considerably more acres than - he keeps cattle but every year he gets visited by sepa/ trading standards/animal health etc etc and each time they find 'something' wrong and threaten to reduce his payments. I guess I just can't be bothered with keeping up with the paperwork. Its bad enough keeping records just to keep our sheep/goats and cows right. I'll never be rich but when the farm payments stop or change I won't miss them!!
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Years ago I applied for setaside for some of the grassland, The postman didnt take the application so I missed the deadline, just as well , upon re reading the rules and conditions that idea fell by the way side , Trees , plant trees the forestry man said , you get money he said ,( use my mates firm to plant the trees he said ) looked in depth at that , taking into account trees , shelters, weeding ,fencing etc etc we would gain £75 approx a year ( 27 years ago ) but only if every thing was to the FC's satisfaction each year. In the end we went it alone, Mrs RTB planted over 3000 trees ,( I did some too ;) ), purchased trees and shelters our selves , had our own selection too.
Then it was wild life corridors between crofts, now that was well thought out, no . both neighbours each side went with the idea so they planted the correct vegetation used the approved fencing too , cost a lot and the grant didn't cover it. Funny thing is we have more wildlife on our land now , all the timber and fire wood for the rest of our days and I can do what the heck I like with my land ( withing the law ) as I'm not beholden to any funding agency.
Grants , Pah! no such thing as a free lunch.
And now I can look out over our Moss (SSSI) , forest, and grassland . Owe nothing to no one knowing Mrs RTB and my self did this by our own hand(s)
Sorry starting to rant :rant:
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It appears that grants should be read as 'rants' in Scotland :innocent:
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Thanks for all the answers guess you are all right there is no such thing as a free lunch. I was hoping that there might be some help out there for set up but is seems that it comes with so many restrictions that its not maybe worth it.
Looks like I am saving my pennies then to get this show on the road.
Ollie