[Lynne South]

Hello, I've been registered on here for a while now but for one reason or another have never had time to come in and make use of it but I hope to change that going forward.

Just been to Crofting Spirit 18 event in Moray a few weeks ago and was amazed to see what some people are doing on their crofts.

Anyway, I am wondering....does anyone else have a tiny croft/smallholding? And if so, what do you do on it - I'm so interested to hear....

Mine is 4.75acres approx so not even 2ha (if Google calculator is working) and I feel like so many events/grants etc are aimed at folk with much bigger pieces of land that do a lot more on their croft.  Saw an event planned for Skye but seems to be for people who have a lot more animals and their croft is more like a business. Ours is really so far just for us to rear our own pigs/sheep for our own food although I have a dream of one day having a tiny business selling a bit.....just wondering what the possibilities are with just under five acres.

We have had two pigs for the last three years - two each year - and we have a tiny flock of 14 hebrideans, well, 12 pure hebs and 2 heb/suffolk crosses. Our souming is only 7 sheep and their followers as we have hardly any common grazings in our township (it's tiny township).

Would love to hear what other folk are doing who have small pieces of land.
Thanks for reading. :-)

[macgro7]

I have around 3/4 of an acre!
And keep chickens ducks, large veg garden, had dairy goats.

[Terry T]

We have 3 acres and it’s split into several areas. We have an orchard with hens from which we produce our own apple juice and sell eggs at the farm gate.
 I love growing veg and have a half acre veg patch with 48’ polytunnel. I have a little veg box business which pulls in a small income and covers all our smallholding costs. We eat our own veg and eggs all year round which is great.
We have lots if overgrown hedges which we are coppicing and we’ve planted trees on half an acre so we have all the wood for the stove that we need.
And finally we have 3 sheep, hebridians which keep the place tidy - probably won’t eat them. It’s all great fun, don’t feel we need any more space.

[sabrina]

I have 5 acres but only half off that is decent grazing. We rear 2 piglets every year for the freezer and 3 Heb lambs to hoggets again for the freezer. I have a small veg plot, pollytunnel, chickens, 2 Shetland ponies and a wee cob.

[alang]

Welcome to the forum. I only have a garden (under 1/5th acre) so i don't have much going on. But i will have meat rabbits, raised veg beds and chickens in the near future. If i could get some land i could do so much more.

Looking forward to hearing your experiences and future plans

[oor wullie]

Hope you enjoyed the crofting spirit event.  I was there too.

Don't be put off by your smaller area, a lot of the stuff (SCF training etc) is just as applicable to you as to anyone.  Are you a croft?  If so the grants are open to you just as much as anyone else.

[Alex_]

Like [member=174648]alang[/member] i only have a garden with dreams of having more space.

I have raised beds, fruit trees, muscovies for meat and i am working on a new aquaponics greenhouse because i recently got a 12ft by 8ft greenhouse.

Quails for meat and eggs will be my next venture.

but i don't sell anything apart from the occasional duck.

[DavidandCollette]

We have 3 acres with bees, 4 goats 2 in milk. Make our own cheese and yoghurt. Chickens keep us in eggs,we sell the excess which cover feed costs. 2 35ft polytunnels growing oour own veg. We buy all our seed at the beginning of the year, and sell excess plants. By May we have covered the cost of seeds and compost. Grow most of our own veg and sell the excess. Make jams and chutney from excess produce and sell that as well
 Growing flowers for sale this year.

[Q]

Like [member=174648]alang[/member] i only have a garden with dreams of having more space.

I have raised beds, fruit trees, muscovies for meat and i am working on a new aquaponics greenhouse because i recently got a 12ft by 8ft greenhouse.

Quails for meat and eggs will be my next venture.

but i don't sell anything apart from the occasional duck.

I tried quail a few years ago - what a complete pain that was. overall the biggest problem was the fighting - almost every day i was segragating and tending to wounded and bloodied birds - vicious little buggers.
Read all the stuff about ratios to male and female etc but just could not stop it.
I had about 20 spread over 2 rabbit hutches so more space would have helped I think.
I hatched a few & the chicks are like little fluffy bumble bees - amazing things.

[Alex_]

I tried quail a few years ago - what a complete pain that was. overall the biggest problem was the fighting - almost every day i was segragating and tending to wounded and bloodied birds - vicious little buggers.
Read all the stuff about ratios to male and female etc but just could not stop it.
I had about 20 spread over 2 rabbit hutches so more space would have helped I think.
I hatched a few & the chicks are like little fluffy bumble bees - amazing things.

I will start with just a small amount. I was planning on getting some egg layers and a few extra birds for the meat. Then once i have seen how they are to slaughter, i will expand from there and add some more breeding groups. The chicks look so amazing.

[Lynne South]

Hope you enjoyed the crofting spirit event.  I was there too.

Don't be put off by your smaller area, a lot of the stuff (SCF training etc) is just as applicable to you as to anyone.  Are you a croft?  If so the grants are open to you just as much as anyone else.

Hello oor wullie - i thought it was great and was really inspired by the people in the running for the awards - fantastic stuff. Loved the goat farm and now i want goats!

Yes, we are a registered croft although too small to claim subsidy at under 5 acres. I've had help with fencing a couple of years ago. Our croft has hardly any decent grazing but we had pigs on two areas adjacent to each other which we are wanting to plough and then grow grass. The sheep (Hebs) seem quite happy - we got them because they are smaller and seem to be able to cope with not the best of grazing.

Have got lots of ideas of what I want to do and had a brilliant time on the smallholder course at Rosemary and Dan's a couple of years ago - highly recommend it to anyone.

[Lynne South]

We have 3 acres with bees, 4 goats 2 in milk. Make our own cheese and yoghurt. Chickens keep us in eggs,we sell the excess which cover feed costs. 2 35ft polytunnels growing oour own veg. We buy all our seed at the beginning of the year, and sell excess plants. By May we have covered the cost of seeds and compost. Grow most of our own veg and sell the excess. Make jams and chutney from excess produce and sell that as well
 Growing flowers for sale this year.

You have the life I want DavidandCollette! I'm dying to get goats to milk and make cheese. We had some chickens - they have all passed on now/been taken by mink/otter/buzzard. In the spring we are going to get more and plan to rescue some ex-battery hens I think. Bees are in the plan. The croft hadn't been worked for over 100 years and needs SO MUCH done to it. Firstly a track to get up to it as currently it's a 500 metre quagmire most of the year. Then it needs a lot of drainage work. We'd love huge polytunnels but the strong ones are so pricey. At the moment I just have a very tiny tunnel in the garden of the house growing toms and grow some other veg for ourselves. Don't sell anything at the moment.

[Lynne South]

Like [member=174648]alang[/member] i only have a garden with dreams of having more space.

I have raised beds, fruit trees, muscovies for meat and i am working on a new aquaponics greenhouse because i recently got a 12ft by 8ft greenhouse.

Quails for meat and eggs will be my next venture.

but i don't sell anything apart from the occasional duck.

Sounds good Alex and my husband is very into hydro and aquaponics - I think he'd love to do something along those lines in the future.