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Author Topic: Young Farming in the 21st Century and how it began  (Read 2643 times)

JarmFarm

  • Joined Nov 2010
Young Farming in the 21st Century and how it began
« on: November 09, 2011, 09:26:15 am »

It all started back in 2007 when I attended my first lecture at Berkshire College of Agriculture, studying Animal Management. I found myself in a classroom full of people from all walks of life, who had travelled to college to interact with and learn about animals. After a morning of meeting people and discovering that some had travelled for three hours that morning to attend the course, I was amazed.
I was lucky enough to have been brought up on a smallholding with a basic knowledge of most livestock - after my first day at college it became apparent that I had a big opportunity: to use my father’s twenty five acres and start my own farm.
I wrote a few thoughts down, but the idea that came top was to go into poultry (the reason being I could produce quite a lot of birds, with the start up cost being the lowest.)  I decided to begin with rare breed poultry, and sell direct to the public. Two weeks later I had bought two poultry houses, twelve Rhode Island reds and twelve Welsummers. By mid November I had slowly increased my small operation to six houses and bought six Silver Laced Wyandottes, six Marans, twelve Aylesbury ducks and six call ducks. Over the winter months I was only getting the odd egg here and there, but as soon as February came around I was egg bound - so it was time to buy an incubator. By March 1st I had my first hundred and eighty eggs in the incubator. The next three weeks soon passed with one hundred and thirty chicks hatched, which I thought was not too bad for my first hatch! I now had a huge mixture of breeds and had filled the incubator up once again. Before I knew it, August arrived and I had seventy hens at POL (point of lay), with just over two hundred behind them. Not only was I selling birds at point of lay, I was also selling them at day old, off heat and at twelve weeks old. Over that winter I had increased the poultry to around fifteen breeds and in 2009 I hatched just over two thousand chicks, selling around one thousand hens in that year alone.

It soon became clear that it was time to invest some money into the farm, and to increase in size. During January 2010 I bought two Pedigree Saddleback Gilts (in pig) and a small flock of eighty five Welsh Black Mountain ewes of mixed ages – all of which were in lamb. Now I had to find some more land, as the farm was not big enough to hold the ewes with their lambs. Luckily, I was able to move them onto an eighty acre plum orchard without any grazing fee - just two lambs for the owner’s freezer at Christmas!
I was finding grazing rent far too expensive - some landowners were asking £110 per acre, which for a young farmer with little money is just impossible. So, I went down the route of acquiring bits of grazing everywhere, from as little as five to as much as eighty acres. I had sheep scattered everywhere, but all the land was secured on the agreement that I supplied the owners with a half or whole lamb at Christmas, which suited me perfectly


I had around one hundred and twenty lambs born that spring, but commuting to and from college while lambing was taking its toll…I have to say I was not a very nice person to be around as the lack of sleep was really getting to me! However, I only had two weeks left at college, by which time all the lambs should have been born and I could get myself some much needed sleep.
In the last week of lambing I became aware of a little lamb tucked under a hedge, with little life left in him. I quickly picked him up and raced back to the farm, sticking the little champ under the heat lamp. Within two hours, he was trying to stand up and he looked very hungry. I defrosted some colostrum that I had collected from my local dairy (I had read this was a cheap way of getting colostrum – but it did cost me a dozen eggs!) I then heated it and held the bottle to the lamb, which sucked away and before I knew it, I was refilling the bottle for a second time. That night, I was woken about every four hours by him bleating for milk.
I had to name my first orphan lamb, and of course he was christened LARRY! When my sister and family came to stay one weekend, they couldn’t believe how this little lamb used to follow me around. He followed me everywhere. I would let him out first thing in the morning, and he would be with me all day!

I came across National Farm Open day in 2010, which I decided to give a go and open the farm up to the public - with all the animals on show, craft stalls, a petting corner and of course the big hit Larry the lamb! A staggering one thousand people attended, and we ended up raising £2000 for the Help for Heroes charity.

As time went on, I increased the size of my flock of sheep to three hundred and twenty five ewes; Welsh Black Mountain, Texel cross, Beltex cross, Speckled Face and Polled Dorset. I now also had eight Saddleback breeding sows, and six Aberdeen Angus store cattle.
In April 2011 I opened up a farm shop in the village, using a lovely old converted barn. I have opened this shop not to sell only my produce, but also that of other producers in the local area.

We are now in to October 2011 and I‘ve put the rams with the ewes; this is easier said than done! I first have to complete the usual jobs - trimming the feet, checking the teeth and worming - I have to say turning a hundred kilo ram on his back to work on him is extremely hard! Once this is done, it’s time to put the paste on (an oil based paint that we rub on the rams’ chests to indicate which ewes have been marked by which ram.) I put the rams into the ewes October 20th, and they will be lambing down during the second week of March. I will be opening the farm for a ‘lambing weekend’ on Easter weekend, so families in the area can come to see the lambs - and possibly see one of the ewes give birth. Last year’s lambing weekend was very successful with fifteen hundred people in attendance.




As the days start to shorten and the weather starts to get cold, it’s time to start thinking about getting the sows and cattle in for winter. I have four sows due to pig down at the beginning of December, which should average nine piglets each.
I will be bringing my sheep back to the farm during the first week of January 2012, so that they are closer to home for lambing, and I will have them scanned at this point to see how many lambs are due. This is always a frightening time, as it is determined how much money the sheep could possibly earn for me, but as all farmers say to me “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch”. Scanning is a very helpful tool, as once complete, you can sort the ewes into 3 batches; Singles, Twins and Triplets. The Triplet batch will be separated as these ewes will need to be fed more, the Twins will have a little bit of food and haylage, and the Singles will be left to graze and fed haylage if we have snow on the ground.

As Christmas draws closer, we are starting to receive orders for turkeys at the farm shop. I produce about twenty myself, and we then buy more in as required from a local farmer. We hope to sell in the region of sixty turkeys this year, and we’re also producing vegetable boxes to go with the turkeys – a complete Christmas Day lunch.

Next time you hear from me will probably be in the spring, with lambing well on the way - and all the news on how the shop did on our first Christmas.

James


Roxy

  • Joined May 2009
  • Peak District
    • festivalcarriages.co.uk
Re: Young Farming in the 21st Century and how it began
« Reply #1 on: November 09, 2011, 12:08:06 pm »
Well done, on building up what sounds to be a very successful business - I assume you have some help to manage it all?!!

With times being so hard for everyone, especially farming, its good to hear of someone starting up, and making a go of it.

Its especially hard for young people to get into farming nowadays, and there seem more and more farms closing - although round us, I have noticed a big increase in farm shops, so farmers are obviously trying to do what they can to keep going.

Wishing you all the best, and hope your lambing etc. goes well!!

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Young Farming in the 21st Century and how it began
« Reply #2 on: November 09, 2011, 01:52:47 pm »
It all sounds great, James.  It must be very hard work - but thoroughly enjoyable from the way you write about it!

The website is great - very easy to use, lovely bright style, just the right level of information.

I look forward to seeing how you evolve the online shop - though I'm too far away to be a customer.

Thanks for the update.

Sally
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

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Young Farming in the 21st Century and how it began
« Reply #3 on: November 09, 2011, 10:16:46 pm »
 :wave:  so what do you do in your spare time?   ;D  Sleep no doubt.  Congratulations on all your hard work.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: Young Farming in the 21st Century and how it began
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2011, 08:34:32 am »
Brilliant story - shows it can be done, although a 25 acre start must be a real help, especially with land / property prices being what they are.  :thumbsup:

 

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