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