Smallholders Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Long time lurker, first time poster!  (Read 1271 times)

Onawa

  • Joined Jun 2019
Long time lurker, first time poster!
« on: June 17, 2019, 05:20:19 pm »
Hi All  :wave:

Been lurking for a bit and felt i might start posting!! I inherited some 12 acres 10 or so years ago. It was rented out to a long term tenant until he was forced to downsize a few years ago. Since then we have had several tenants that just fail to pay the rent. So at the start of the year I decided I would take it on myself!

So much to learn and enjoying the process! I've kept horses all my life and they have been moved onto the land to save my livery bills. Just awaiting a CPH number and doing some bits of fencing before we can get sheep. Would like some poultry too, but i'm afraid Mr Fox will get them.

Would be great if I could create an income from the land. But lacking inspiration at the moment and enjoying it as an (expensive) hobby!

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Long time lurker, first time poster!
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2019, 10:04:41 am »
Welcome :wave:   And enjoy your foray into smallholding :)
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

PipKelpy

  • Joined Mar 2019
  • North Shropshire
  • Dreamer with Mary, (cow) and sheep.
Re: Long time lurker, first time poster!
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2019, 08:44:02 pm »
Ditto re expensive hobby!! Praying for Sun and heat so the grass will dry and can get my hay done! Was planning on just 3 acres this year but due to wonky weather grass is reaching for the sun and 3 acres is now around 6 acres looking beautifully green with heads!! Tup due in at the weekend for 5 sheep and cattle and sheep being strip grazed all over the place and I'm running out of fencers!! But take deep breath and remember how lucky we who have land are and the "pleasure" (at times through gritted teeth) we all feel when we see bales of hay stacked in shed, home grown produce looking just like it does in the catalogue (yeah right!) and the chirping of birds in the sky yadda yadda yadda! My spuds have gone demented, something has eaten my runner beans and my lettuces have bolted due to the weather! But other than that, it's just another day with a very expensive hobby, that i WOULDN'T give up for ANYTHING!!

Ps - for me income from the land is selling excess lambs at auction (we eat most of them) and selling finished pork after buying in weaners, customers are sister and cousin, the same with beef. Finding customers who will pay can be a problem as another smallholder in my area found out. He told me that people no longer wanted to buy half a pig, only wanted the choicest cuts or would pay only so much. As a business he couldn't afford that. That's why I only ever sell to family now. People passing comment about the cost of proper meat yet thinking nothing about buying the latest gadget, I can do without! Good luck with whatever you do!
Halter train the cattle to keep them quiet but watch your back when they come a'bulling! Give them all names even those you plan to eat. Always be calm. Most importantly, invest in wellies with steel toe caps and be prepared for the clever cow who knows where the toe caps end!!

Perris

  • Joined Mar 2017
  • Gower
Re: Long time lurker, first time poster!
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2019, 05:50:03 am »
hello Onawa  :wave: Good luck with your new venture!

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Long time lurker, first time poster!
« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2019, 09:29:45 am »
Hello and welcome to TAS  :wave: from  :sunshine: Carnoustie! Good luck with the new venture!

sabrina

  • Joined Nov 2008
Re: Long time lurker, first time poster!
« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2019, 10:31:22 am »
Years of fun ahead I am sure  :wave:

 

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