[pigs in space]

Lillian....Is that fried or boiled?

[bazzais]

Make money off 25 acres in a year?

Remove and sell most the top soil and quarryable stone in the dead of night and make a motorcross or 4x4 course.  Charge garages to take away 10,000 tyres for crash barriers. I might not make any money but it would be the most fun!!

Baz

[Fleecewife]

I haven't much of a clue either, partly because most of your set-up costs come in the first year, so if you are taking those into account then you need a totally amazing business plan to make a living.  It is definitely a different world in Surrey where people seem to have a large disposable income, but living costs are correspondingly high too.  So, access to the London market it is  plus a farm shop. I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket, so several linked products along the herbs and herbal meds/toiletries line, plus fancy salads, quail and quail eggs, ostriches and ostrich eggs.  A few pigs to help with half the contents of quail and ostrich sausages, with fancy herbs added.  Things in jars made with home grown tomatoes, olive oil and herbs, sold at inflated prices.........

[Hilarysmum]

Heck they are going to need a huge staff to do all that.....  but wonderful ideas 

[Fleecewife]

Heck they are going to need a huge staff to do all that.....  but wonderful ideas 

Yes but miracles happen on TV don't they ? 

[bazzais]

I wouldn't ever in a million years think that both myself and my girlfriend could make money from 25 acres when we cant do it off 70 - If I didnt have a primary income that was unrelated to agriculture we could never afford to live here.

That saying perhaps the fact I have another income doesn't place me in a position where I would have to make ends meet or loose everything?

In the industry I work in (affiliate marketting) its all about finding a niche - perhaps it is possible too in farming,  its like an art in essence - if you can find people with massive disposable incomes and you come up with a niche product and can talk the shite they want - you possibly could make money from high value/profitable merchandise.

Ta

Baz

[Fleecewife]

Hi Baz - you've hit the nail on the head where you say you need to 'talk the shite they want'.  Being able to talk like that will at least double the price you can ask, awful though it seems.  If it wasn't true, how would expensive art ever sell?

[Hilarysmum]

I- if you can find people with massive disposable incomes and you come up with a niche product and can talk the shite they want - you possibly could make money from high value/profitable merchandise.

Well its been done, for instance look at Jimmy's farm  

Middle back bacon hand cured (as I imagine is the bacon we all make) £19.00 per kilo  and sausages £10.00 per kilo.

 (not a knock at Jimmy I understand he has worked very hard)

Fleecewife beat me to it I was sending this as her posting appeared.

[chriso]

Great advice for people starting out folks 

Too much negativity 

[Womble]

No, that's not really fair Chriso. The fact is, whilst you can make an income from 25 acres, it's incredibly hard to make a living, and probably the only way of getting it to pay enough is to supply a niche product to people who can afford to (over)pay for it.

Now, I'm not saying it can't be done, but If it was that easy, do you not think we'd all be doing it?

[doganjo]

I agree, David, but I can see what Chris means - there is a lot of negativity on here regarding the programme.  I don't think it was aimed at people who already have land and animals, but was more aimed at people who had no idea how farming or mini farming works.  In other words entertainment for Joe Bloggs.  But it just might encourage some people to have ago from the views of success that some of the contestants managed to produce.

[VSS]

Actually I thought the range of tasks they were asked to carry out was really testing and carefully thought out in order to assess the skills needed to make a go of things on a small acreage. You certainly do need to be practical, and have a bit of a head for business.

Bloody difficult too some of them. We have been making a thin living from smallholding/farming for 20 years, and I am not sure I could have done all the tasks - especially not in the time frame given and given the pressure they were under, especially in the later stages.

Being positive is very important. You CAN make a go of a small acreage and moake as much or more as on a larger holding. Our most profitable year to date was early on when we only had 22 acres. We make less now we have 150, but of course, have a MUCH bigger turnover.

[benkt]

Interesting question. I think possibly 25 acres is too much land to make much of a living from. There's next to no profit in animals right now at that scale and its too small to be viable on straight cash crops. So you've got to go for high value/niche fruit or vegetables and there's a limit to how much land one couple can productively manage for that - I'd say nearer five acres than twenty five.

The real problem with the posed question is trying to make a profit in one year. I think we all know how long a holding really takes to get established and its a lot longer than that. Particularly getting in place the longer term infrastructure that enables you to reduce your expenditure. As I see it, managing a successful small holding is usually more about reducing expenditure than increasing income and the successful ones I've seen all have a strong component of self-sufficiency to them. The national average household income I think is currently somewhere around £25,000 which would be very hard indeed to earn from 25 acres. If you can get by on half that by cropping all your own wood for heating, wind for electricity, grow your own food etc. then its a lot more manageable goal.

[doganjo]

I guess there's a lot of us on here who would LOVE to have the national average of £25K, not least of all me!