[fl206]

Hi,

Just thought I'd introduce myself. Currently studying in London but hope to move closer to home (North East England) after graduating and maybe getting myself a relatively small patch of land, either rented or bought: not the brightest idea for someone of my age/financial resources but I've still got a few months to change my mind!

Out of interest, how many on this forum have a smallholding as a commercial venture rather than as a lifestyle/hobby? I'll probably be peppering the boards with more questions over the coming weeks.

[Tregwyr]

Hello London from soggy Swansea,
Good luck with your venture. We're just starting out, I'm afraid, so definitely hopeful hobbying!

[Bionic]

Hi from Carmarthenshire. Our smallholding is definitely lifestyle. There is no way we could make money 

[Sudanpan]

Hi from West Cornwall. We moved here from London 4 years ago - def a lifestyle situation but tht doesn't detract from the immense satisfaction of growing cooking and eating our own food. Good luck with the dreams

[plumseverywhere]

Hello from Worcestershire 

moved here from London where I was a nurse.

INitially it was a lifestyle/hobby choice but of late my soap business has taken off (phew!) and we are making money, yay! Still need hubby working full time but he could hopefully reduce his hours soon and enjoy more of the 'good life'. He makes fruit wine and we hope we can obtain the licenses and supply pubs locally

[MAK]

Hi and welcome.
In our case the key word was Accidental.
We were lucky enough to give up work and buy an old fermette and land in France. We have a cushion of funds BUT - in the 2-3 years here we have been able to produce enough to dramatically reduce our expenditure on living. So I guess we do generate an income from smallholding.
Key things for us are producing all our own meat and not paying abbatoirs or butchers but processing all ourselves. Veg and fruit is storred using various methods. We harvest wood too.

Also key is relationships with neighbours. For example a gift of a rabbit and duck resulted in a delievery of free straw and help killing our pigs.
Other neighbours we give produce to now let me harvest logs from their woods. based on our first winter's usage this has now saved us 1000 Euros on heating a year.

I guess I am saying it is possible to significantly reduce your expenditure on living  within a short period. Therafter you can invest in projects to be more sufficient in other ways and of course if you have a market sell produce.

Others will also tell you that it is very hard work - relentless - feeding stock twice a day every day regardless of the weather. I lost 2 stone in the first year and struggle to gain weight due to constant streneous activity ( we have no machines to help us).
it is worth reading old posts here to understand the challenges some have in generating and income from various produce or the more innovative farm schemes some have set up. Good luck but beware of just how hard it will be and the many challenges that others report on TAS.

[fl206]

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies. My "plan" is eventually to make a small living from a smallholding but this is probably not going to happen in the first year or so.

I've never had any experience of owning or working land and I'm probably jumping in at the deep end, but I'm doing this because I've spent long enough studying at uni to know that I don't want to work in industry.

MAK, how many acres do you work without machinery?

How many acres would people say one would need to be self-sufficient?

[MAK]

Hi - You won't need much land for chickens, ducks, rabbits and 2 pigs if you have some good outbuildings. Our chickens have a shed within a large barn with the pig stye at the end of it. Rabbits have their run half in and half out of another barn so that the young have good shelter but adults can run about a bit outside. We have about an acre for veg and various stock pens and a garden across the lane for pumpkins and root feed for the pigs. My neighbour has a very old tractor and her son ploughs us some long rows in their "garden" for spuds and carrots and swede ( pig food).

I have to dig over all the veg plots on our land though. I can cut wood from  3 different sites that I share with a neighbour who collects it with a tractor and trailer. Today I was cutting trees a good 1.5 km away so it would have been nice not to walk and carry the chainsaw,oil,fuel and a long axe across fields.
Others can tell you how much grazing land you need for other stock. Our pigs have plenty of land to root about but we do go collecting walnuts,chestnuts and apples with a wheelburrow - so a serious ammount of picking stuff off the floor !!